Two human rights experts for the United Nations on Thursday criticized a plan by New Orleans authorities to raze public housing projects, saying it will force the predominantly black residents into homelessness.
They charged that demolition would harm thousands of people by denying them a place to live in a city where housing already is scarce since Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005.
The joint statement was not a U.N. finding, but only the individual views of Miloon Kothari, a special investigator on housing matters for the U.N. Human Rights Council, and Gay McDougall, a lawyer who is an expert on minority and rights issues.
They commented a day before a U.N. racism panel planned to discuss Katrina recovery efforts and public housing in New Orleans and also was expected to comment on allegations of racial discrimination in the United States. Neither expert was involved with that committee's hearings.
The high-density housing complexes for the poor were not heavily damaged by Katrina. But city officials argue the decades-old projects were a failure, becoming warrens of crime and entrenched poverty, and say they do not fit with the vision for a rebuilt New Orleans.
"The authorities claim that the demolition of public housing is not intentionally discriminatory," Kothari and McDougall said, but the "predominantly African-American residents" will be denied their "internationally recognized human rights" to a home.
Noting that officials promise to replace the demolished housing, the experts complained that "only a portion of the new housing units will be for residents in need of subsidized housing and the remainder will be offered at the market rate."
Many more homes will be demolished than new ones built, they said.
The U.S. mission in Geneva said much work remains to be done to help Katrina's victims and some criticism of the recovery effort is reasonable. But "problems in such efforts cannot be fairly described as racial discrimination or other violations of human rights," it said.
The mission said it was confident any destruction of public housing "would be based on sound public policy and would certainly not be directed at denying people housing."
reported by BRADLEY S. KLAPPER from teh AP
Friday, February 29, 2008
Mississippi Voters Threatened by Illegal Purge
A new bill working its way through the Mississippi State Legislature threatens the hard-won voting rights of elderly, minority, and disabled voters throughout the state. Senate Bill 2910 was proposed as an election reform cure-all, but one of its provisions would likely result in thousands of voters being purged from the voting rolls in violation of federal law.
Filed by State Senator Terry C. Burton and supported by Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, SB 2910 would cancel the registration of any voter if he or she did not "appear to vote" in a single election between Nov. 3, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009. Purged voters would then have to re-register before they could vote in subsequent elections. If signed into law, the bill would take effect in January 2009.
In a letter to Senator Burton and copied to Secretary of State Hosemann, the national voting rights organization Project Vote notified Burton that the bill violates the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The NVRA explicitly prohibits states from removing any voter from the rolls as a consequence of failing to vote.
"This is the most obviously impermissible idea I have seen in terms of an attempt to clean up the voter rolls," said attorney Estelle Rogers, a voting rights expert and consultant to Project Vote. "While maintaining accurate rolls is a necessary goal, this ill-conceived plan is a cure that is more danger to the electorate than the disease," Rogers said.
The National Voter Registration Act was enacted in 1993 to increase participation in federal elections by making registration easier and more accessible. It is commonly known as the "motor voter" law for its requirement that states offer voter registration at motor vehicle departments. An equally important but less well-known provision, Section 8, establishes safeguards against improper or discriminatory purges. Section 8 was meant to curb practices such as annual registration that had been used in the past to keep African Americans and low-income Whites off of the voter rolls in many Southern states.
Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes voting in low-income and minority communities. With offices in Washington, DC, and Little Rock, AR, Project Vote's staff are experts in the fields of voting rights, election law and large-scale voter contact programs.
From the Black Report
Filed by State Senator Terry C. Burton and supported by Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, SB 2910 would cancel the registration of any voter if he or she did not "appear to vote" in a single election between Nov. 3, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009. Purged voters would then have to re-register before they could vote in subsequent elections. If signed into law, the bill would take effect in January 2009.
In a letter to Senator Burton and copied to Secretary of State Hosemann, the national voting rights organization Project Vote notified Burton that the bill violates the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The NVRA explicitly prohibits states from removing any voter from the rolls as a consequence of failing to vote.
"This is the most obviously impermissible idea I have seen in terms of an attempt to clean up the voter rolls," said attorney Estelle Rogers, a voting rights expert and consultant to Project Vote. "While maintaining accurate rolls is a necessary goal, this ill-conceived plan is a cure that is more danger to the electorate than the disease," Rogers said.
The National Voter Registration Act was enacted in 1993 to increase participation in federal elections by making registration easier and more accessible. It is commonly known as the "motor voter" law for its requirement that states offer voter registration at motor vehicle departments. An equally important but less well-known provision, Section 8, establishes safeguards against improper or discriminatory purges. Section 8 was meant to curb practices such as annual registration that had been used in the past to keep African Americans and low-income Whites off of the voter rolls in many Southern states.
Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes voting in low-income and minority communities. With offices in Washington, DC, and Little Rock, AR, Project Vote's staff are experts in the fields of voting rights, election law and large-scale voter contact programs.
From the Black Report
Optimism and Caution as Kenya Deal Moves Forward
Kenya's rival political factions turned to trying to solve the long-term problems laid bare by two months of turmoil on Friday after a power-sharing deal to end the immediate post-election crisis.
President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed the deal setting up a coalition government on Thursday after a month of heated negotiations punctuated by riots and ethnic violence around the east African nation.
The two men had come under huge pressure from world powers and Kenya's 36 million people to find a solution to forestall more bloodshed and help repair the country's reputation as the east Africa's business, tourism and transport centre.
Kenya's shilling currency hit a 45-day high against the dollar buoyed by positive sentiment on the deal, traders said.
Brokers said stock market activity picked up greatly, a sign of new life for one of Africa's strongest economies, badly hit by the crisis.
Many Kenyans greeted each other with "Happy New Year", a reference to the fact that those celebrations were delayed by spasms of violence after Kibaki was sworn in on December 30.
The optimism was tempered with recognition across Kenya that the signing was only a first step and that the proof would come in the implementation of the deal, due to start when Kenya's often unruly parliament opens with a mission to ratify the deal.
Some Kenyans were less sanguine about the future, and the chances of healing deep ethnic rifts left by the killings of more than 1,000 people and displacement of 300,000 more.
"Kibaki and Raila have never slept in the cold hungry and this agreement means nothing to us," said Alice Wangui, a woman from the Kikuyu tribe forced to leave her ethnic Luo husband and stay in a refugee camp in the Rift Valley town of Naivasha.
Much remains to be negotiated, and Kenya's parliament is split right down the middle between Kibaki and Odinga's allies.
Odinga told BBC radio he was confident "that everyone is going to try and ensure that this coalition will work and succeed".
Asked what would happen if it fell through, Odinga said: "In my view that would lead to disintegration of the country."
Under the deal, Odinga becomes executive prime minister -- a job he claims Kibaki promised but failed to give him in exchange for support at the 2002 election -- and the cabinet will be split based on parliamentary representation.
The agreement will enshrine in law those long-sought constitutional changes, the first part of a complete overhaul of the document that has ruled Kenya for 45 years.
Mediator Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general, has said the talks will produce lasting solutions to those issues within 12 months. A spokesman for Annan said the two sides resumed discussions on Friday.
The African Union's Peace and Security Council applauded the deal, urging Kenya's leaders to "carry on with the urgent task of addressing the long-term issues and creating conditions for lasting peace and stability." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited Kenya two weeks ago to press for a deal, said Thursday's agreement was "an important step to sustain Kenya on its democratic path."
By Daniel Wallis and C. Bryson Hull from Reuters
President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed the deal setting up a coalition government on Thursday after a month of heated negotiations punctuated by riots and ethnic violence around the east African nation.
The two men had come under huge pressure from world powers and Kenya's 36 million people to find a solution to forestall more bloodshed and help repair the country's reputation as the east Africa's business, tourism and transport centre.
Kenya's shilling currency hit a 45-day high against the dollar buoyed by positive sentiment on the deal, traders said.
Brokers said stock market activity picked up greatly, a sign of new life for one of Africa's strongest economies, badly hit by the crisis.
Many Kenyans greeted each other with "Happy New Year", a reference to the fact that those celebrations were delayed by spasms of violence after Kibaki was sworn in on December 30.
The optimism was tempered with recognition across Kenya that the signing was only a first step and that the proof would come in the implementation of the deal, due to start when Kenya's often unruly parliament opens with a mission to ratify the deal.
Some Kenyans were less sanguine about the future, and the chances of healing deep ethnic rifts left by the killings of more than 1,000 people and displacement of 300,000 more.
"Kibaki and Raila have never slept in the cold hungry and this agreement means nothing to us," said Alice Wangui, a woman from the Kikuyu tribe forced to leave her ethnic Luo husband and stay in a refugee camp in the Rift Valley town of Naivasha.
Much remains to be negotiated, and Kenya's parliament is split right down the middle between Kibaki and Odinga's allies.
Odinga told BBC radio he was confident "that everyone is going to try and ensure that this coalition will work and succeed".
Asked what would happen if it fell through, Odinga said: "In my view that would lead to disintegration of the country."
Under the deal, Odinga becomes executive prime minister -- a job he claims Kibaki promised but failed to give him in exchange for support at the 2002 election -- and the cabinet will be split based on parliamentary representation.
The agreement will enshrine in law those long-sought constitutional changes, the first part of a complete overhaul of the document that has ruled Kenya for 45 years.
Mediator Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general, has said the talks will produce lasting solutions to those issues within 12 months. A spokesman for Annan said the two sides resumed discussions on Friday.
The African Union's Peace and Security Council applauded the deal, urging Kenya's leaders to "carry on with the urgent task of addressing the long-term issues and creating conditions for lasting peace and stability." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited Kenya two weeks ago to press for a deal, said Thursday's agreement was "an important step to sustain Kenya on its democratic path."
By Daniel Wallis and C. Bryson Hull from Reuters
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Lawmakers to Push for U.S. Apology for Slavery
Five states did something over the past 12 months that no state had done before: expressed regret or apologized for slavery.
This year, Congress, which meets in a Capitol built partly by slaves, will consider issuing its own apology.
"We've seen states step forward on this," says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, citing the resolutions of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey. "I'm really shocked, just shocked" that the federal government hasn't apologized. "It's time to do so."
Harkin says he and Sen. Sam Brownback R-Kan., will propose as early as March an apology not only for slavery but for subsequent "Jim Crow" laws that furthered racial segregation. So far, they have 14 Senate backers, including Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. A similar House measure introduced last year has 120 co-sponsors.
"I think 2008 will be the year," says Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. He says an apology could begin a dialogue about race that Obama could continue as the nation's first black president.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | Congress | New Jersey | North Carolina | Democratic | Alabama | Senate | Maryland | Missouri | Virginia | World War II | Barack Obama | Hillary Rodham Clinton | Capitol | House of Representatives | African-Americans | Vanderbilt University | D-Iowa | Sen. Tom Harkin | D-Tenn | Japanese-Americans | Rep. John Conyers | Hawaiians | Ohio Democrat | Ronald Walters | Hilary Shelton | Center for Equal Opportunity | Rep. Steve Cohen | Tony Hall | Carol Swain | Rep. Talibdin El-Amin
"The success of the Obama candidacy underscores the irrelevance of an apology" because it shows "enormous progress" in race relations, says Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative group that describes itself as opposed to racial preferences. "Haven't we already moved beyond it?"
Congress has apologized before, but not for slavery.
It apologized to Japanese-Americans in 1988 for holding them in camps during World War II and gave each survivor $20,000. In 1993, Congress apologized to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of their kingdom a century earlier. In 2005, the Senate apologized for not enacting anti-lynching legislation.
The Senate has no record of any prior effort to apologize for slavery. In the House of Representatives, Tony Hall, an Ohio Democrat, proposed one in 1997 and Rep. John Conyers, D- Mich., has tried since 1989 to pass a bill that would create a commission to study slavery's impact and possible remedies, including reparations and cash payments.
Apologies are controversial because they could lead to reparations.
They "carry weight" as a step toward racial healing and don't have to "open the door" to reparations, says Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University.
Other proponents say an apology should lead to remedies.
"A mere apology doesn't do anything for me," says state Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, a Democrat who is lobbying for such a resolution in Missouri.
An apology is a necessary first step because it recognizes a wrongdoing, says Hilary Shelton of the NAACP.
He says it's "hollow," though, unless it leads to a remedy for African-Americans, who still suffer economically and educationally from the aftereffects of slavery and segregation.
Remedies don't have to be monetary payments but could be government programs to help the disadvantaged, Cohen says.
An apology is counterproductive, Clegg says. "It taps into white guilt and helps perpetuate social programs the civil rights establishment likes, such as racial preferences and ultimately reparations," he says.
Clegg says that an apology serves "no legitimate purpose since the villains and victims are long since deceased" and that such an action could instead be divisive and "keep racial wounds alive."
The state apologies have not given a boost to the reparations movement, says Ronald Walters, author of a new book titled The Price of Racial Reconciliation.
Last February, Virginia became the first state to issue a form of apology, expressing "profound regret," as did Maryland lawmakers a month later. The three states that followed expressed regret and apologized.
Alabama and New Jersey added language saying the apology cannot be used to sue the state.
The House proposal does not include such a disclaimer, but the Senate one does, saying its apology cannot be the basis for claims against the United States.
Harkin says his proposal does not address reparations.
"We're just apologizing," he says. "You can't undo the past, but you can recognize a wrong was done."
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
This year, Congress, which meets in a Capitol built partly by slaves, will consider issuing its own apology.
"We've seen states step forward on this," says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, citing the resolutions of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey. "I'm really shocked, just shocked" that the federal government hasn't apologized. "It's time to do so."
Harkin says he and Sen. Sam Brownback R-Kan., will propose as early as March an apology not only for slavery but for subsequent "Jim Crow" laws that furthered racial segregation. So far, they have 14 Senate backers, including Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. A similar House measure introduced last year has 120 co-sponsors.
"I think 2008 will be the year," says Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. He says an apology could begin a dialogue about race that Obama could continue as the nation's first black president.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | Congress | New Jersey | North Carolina | Democratic | Alabama | Senate | Maryland | Missouri | Virginia | World War II | Barack Obama | Hillary Rodham Clinton | Capitol | House of Representatives | African-Americans | Vanderbilt University | D-Iowa | Sen. Tom Harkin | D-Tenn | Japanese-Americans | Rep. John Conyers | Hawaiians | Ohio Democrat | Ronald Walters | Hilary Shelton | Center for Equal Opportunity | Rep. Steve Cohen | Tony Hall | Carol Swain | Rep. Talibdin El-Amin
"The success of the Obama candidacy underscores the irrelevance of an apology" because it shows "enormous progress" in race relations, says Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative group that describes itself as opposed to racial preferences. "Haven't we already moved beyond it?"
Congress has apologized before, but not for slavery.
It apologized to Japanese-Americans in 1988 for holding them in camps during World War II and gave each survivor $20,000. In 1993, Congress apologized to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of their kingdom a century earlier. In 2005, the Senate apologized for not enacting anti-lynching legislation.
The Senate has no record of any prior effort to apologize for slavery. In the House of Representatives, Tony Hall, an Ohio Democrat, proposed one in 1997 and Rep. John Conyers, D- Mich., has tried since 1989 to pass a bill that would create a commission to study slavery's impact and possible remedies, including reparations and cash payments.
Apologies are controversial because they could lead to reparations.
They "carry weight" as a step toward racial healing and don't have to "open the door" to reparations, says Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University.
Other proponents say an apology should lead to remedies.
"A mere apology doesn't do anything for me," says state Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, a Democrat who is lobbying for such a resolution in Missouri.
An apology is a necessary first step because it recognizes a wrongdoing, says Hilary Shelton of the NAACP.
He says it's "hollow," though, unless it leads to a remedy for African-Americans, who still suffer economically and educationally from the aftereffects of slavery and segregation.
Remedies don't have to be monetary payments but could be government programs to help the disadvantaged, Cohen says.
An apology is counterproductive, Clegg says. "It taps into white guilt and helps perpetuate social programs the civil rights establishment likes, such as racial preferences and ultimately reparations," he says.
Clegg says that an apology serves "no legitimate purpose since the villains and victims are long since deceased" and that such an action could instead be divisive and "keep racial wounds alive."
The state apologies have not given a boost to the reparations movement, says Ronald Walters, author of a new book titled The Price of Racial Reconciliation.
Last February, Virginia became the first state to issue a form of apology, expressing "profound regret," as did Maryland lawmakers a month later. The three states that followed expressed regret and apologized.
Alabama and New Jersey added language saying the apology cannot be used to sue the state.
The House proposal does not include such a disclaimer, but the Senate one does, saying its apology cannot be the basis for claims against the United States.
Harkin says his proposal does not address reparations.
"We're just apologizing," he says. "You can't undo the past, but you can recognize a wrong was done."
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
Nation’s Economic Woes Hit Black Workers Hardest
All workers have suffered in the seven years that President Bush has been in office. But black workers, even those in unions, have been hit hardest.
African American incomes are dropping at the same time fewer African Americans belong to unions. The percentage of African Americans who either are members of or represented by unions fell by half from 31.7 percent of all black workers in 1983 to 15.7 percent last year, according to a new report by the Center for Economic Policy and Research. Still, several studies have shown African Americans are more likely to join unions than other workers.
The report, The Decline in African-American Representation in Unions and Manufacturing, 1979–2007, shows much of the decline is due to the loss of manufacturing jobs. Between 1979 and 2006, the share of all African American workers who worked in manufacturing declined from 23.9 percent to 9.8 percent, a drop of nearly 60 percent. Manufacturing jobs, especially good-paying union jobs in the auto industry, played a big role in creating the black middle class.
This double whammy of fewer manufacturing jobs and lower union membership is threatening to erase the economic gains blacks made in the 1990s. The Economic Policy Institute reports African American income relative to whites has dropped in the past eight years. For example, in 1995, the median black family earned 60.9 percent of the median white family. By 2000, the ratio had climbed to a record high of 63.5 percent. But by 2005, it had dropped to 60.2 percent of the median white household.
That shift in income may be in large part to the huge number of black workers who have lost union jobs. According to a recent study, a whopping 55 percent of union jobs lost in 2004 were held by black workers. More stunningly, African American women accounted for 70 percent of the union jobs lost by women in 2004.
But median family income and union jobs do not tell the entire story. The 2001 recession and weak recovery hurt the poorest African Americans the most. In 1995, the poorest fifth of black families only earned, on average, 43 percent of what the poorest fifth of white families earned. The ratio increased to 49.9 percent in 2000. By 2005, it had fallen back to 43 percent.
Speaking last year at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) convention, CBTU President William Lucy said improving the situation for black workers requires a change in economic policies:
We must not only challenge policies that hurt workers, we also have a responsibility to break out of the box of status quo economics that traps workers in a cycle of playing catch-up, but never rising above a certain standard of living.
He said the nation should adopt four core principles regarding work:
Anyone who wants to work should have a job.
Anyone who does work should be able to live in dignity with health care and retirement security for their family.
Every worker should have the opportunity to form a union and bargain collectively.
All workers should share equitably in the prosperity of a strong American economy.
A significant cause of the loss of manufacturing jobs is the record $256 billion trade deficit with China. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has called for:
immediate and effective actions to ensure that the Chinese government plays by the rules—with respect to currency, illegal subsidies, tax policies and workers’ rights. We know the Bush administration won’t act, so Congress must step in
Click here to read President Sweeney’s entire statement.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of members of Congress earlier this month renewed their call for passage of the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (H.R. 2942). The bill, co-authored by Reps. Tim Ryan (D- Ohio) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), declares currency manipulation an illegal trade subsidy and provides American manufacturers the opportunity to seek relief against countries that artificially regulate their currency, including China.
The AFL-CIO, U.S. manufacturers and many economic experts maintain that China deliberately undervalues its currency, the yuan, to keep the value artificially low so it can boost exports and discourage imports—running up the U.S. trade deficit and costing good American jobs. An AFL-CIO report shows China’s fixed currency rate artificially lowers the price of its goods by 40 percent, effectively subsidizing China’s exports and putting U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage.
The trade deficit with China, which represents more than 50 percent of the deficit in manufactured goods, also is directly linked to the loss of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs since 2001.
AFL-CIO weblog
African American incomes are dropping at the same time fewer African Americans belong to unions. The percentage of African Americans who either are members of or represented by unions fell by half from 31.7 percent of all black workers in 1983 to 15.7 percent last year, according to a new report by the Center for Economic Policy and Research. Still, several studies have shown African Americans are more likely to join unions than other workers.
The report, The Decline in African-American Representation in Unions and Manufacturing, 1979–2007, shows much of the decline is due to the loss of manufacturing jobs. Between 1979 and 2006, the share of all African American workers who worked in manufacturing declined from 23.9 percent to 9.8 percent, a drop of nearly 60 percent. Manufacturing jobs, especially good-paying union jobs in the auto industry, played a big role in creating the black middle class.
This double whammy of fewer manufacturing jobs and lower union membership is threatening to erase the economic gains blacks made in the 1990s. The Economic Policy Institute reports African American income relative to whites has dropped in the past eight years. For example, in 1995, the median black family earned 60.9 percent of the median white family. By 2000, the ratio had climbed to a record high of 63.5 percent. But by 2005, it had dropped to 60.2 percent of the median white household.
That shift in income may be in large part to the huge number of black workers who have lost union jobs. According to a recent study, a whopping 55 percent of union jobs lost in 2004 were held by black workers. More stunningly, African American women accounted for 70 percent of the union jobs lost by women in 2004.
But median family income and union jobs do not tell the entire story. The 2001 recession and weak recovery hurt the poorest African Americans the most. In 1995, the poorest fifth of black families only earned, on average, 43 percent of what the poorest fifth of white families earned. The ratio increased to 49.9 percent in 2000. By 2005, it had fallen back to 43 percent.
Speaking last year at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) convention, CBTU President William Lucy said improving the situation for black workers requires a change in economic policies:
We must not only challenge policies that hurt workers, we also have a responsibility to break out of the box of status quo economics that traps workers in a cycle of playing catch-up, but never rising above a certain standard of living.
He said the nation should adopt four core principles regarding work:
Anyone who wants to work should have a job.
Anyone who does work should be able to live in dignity with health care and retirement security for their family.
Every worker should have the opportunity to form a union and bargain collectively.
All workers should share equitably in the prosperity of a strong American economy.
A significant cause of the loss of manufacturing jobs is the record $256 billion trade deficit with China. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has called for:
immediate and effective actions to ensure that the Chinese government plays by the rules—with respect to currency, illegal subsidies, tax policies and workers’ rights. We know the Bush administration won’t act, so Congress must step in
Click here to read President Sweeney’s entire statement.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of members of Congress earlier this month renewed their call for passage of the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (H.R. 2942). The bill, co-authored by Reps. Tim Ryan (D- Ohio) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), declares currency manipulation an illegal trade subsidy and provides American manufacturers the opportunity to seek relief against countries that artificially regulate their currency, including China.
The AFL-CIO, U.S. manufacturers and many economic experts maintain that China deliberately undervalues its currency, the yuan, to keep the value artificially low so it can boost exports and discourage imports—running up the U.S. trade deficit and costing good American jobs. An AFL-CIO report shows China’s fixed currency rate artificially lowers the price of its goods by 40 percent, effectively subsidizing China’s exports and putting U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage.
The trade deficit with China, which represents more than 50 percent of the deficit in manufactured goods, also is directly linked to the loss of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs since 2001.
AFL-CIO weblog
Top Civil Rights Leaves Clinton and now Supports Obama
Civil rights icon and Democratic Party elder John Lewis Wednesday defected from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama, in a hugely symbolic blow to the former first lady's White House campaign.
The 68-year-old Democratic "superdelegate" made his decision after a period of public agonizing, but said he wanted to be on the side of history.
"John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the civil rights movement, and I am deeply honored to have his support," Obama said in a statement.
The veteran Georgia congressman is one of the 795 party luminaries and lawmakers who can vote how they like at the party convention and may have a vital say in sealing the presidential nomination.
Buoyed by his wins in 11 nominating contests in a row, Obama has eroded Clinton's lead in the superdelegate count heading into pivotal nominating contests on Tuesday in Texas and Ohio.
"Something is happening in America," Lewis said.
"There is a movement, there is a spirit, there is an enthusiasm in the hearts and minds of the American people that I have not seen in a long time, since the (1968) candidacy of Robert Kennedy," he said.
"The people are pressing for a new day in American politics, and I think they see Senator Barack Obama as a symbol of that change."
Lewis said he had a "deep and abiding love" for Clinton and her husband, ex-president Bill Clinton, and said the New York senator was a "brilliant and capable candidate."
He said he had tried and so far failed to talk to Clinton about his decision to defect, which he said was partly motivated by Obama's landslide in his district in the Georgia primary on February 5.
"I want to be on the side of the people, on the side of the spirit of history," he said.
Speaking on a Houston television station, Clinton said Lewis had been under "tremendous pressure" over his choice, "but he's been my friend and he will always be my friend."
She said the ultimate outcome depended not on endorsements but "what our positions are, what our experience and qualifications are, and I think that's what voters are going to decide."
Lewis was a follower of Martin Luther King Jr., and organized one of the first lunch-counter sit-ins in Tennessee. He was later badly beaten during a 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.
In mid-January, Lewis alleged "a deliberate, systematic attempt on the part of some people in the Obama camp to really fan the flame of race" after remarks by Clinton were interpreted as a slight on King's legacy.
From AFP
The 68-year-old Democratic "superdelegate" made his decision after a period of public agonizing, but said he wanted to be on the side of history.
"John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the civil rights movement, and I am deeply honored to have his support," Obama said in a statement.
The veteran Georgia congressman is one of the 795 party luminaries and lawmakers who can vote how they like at the party convention and may have a vital say in sealing the presidential nomination.
Buoyed by his wins in 11 nominating contests in a row, Obama has eroded Clinton's lead in the superdelegate count heading into pivotal nominating contests on Tuesday in Texas and Ohio.
"Something is happening in America," Lewis said.
"There is a movement, there is a spirit, there is an enthusiasm in the hearts and minds of the American people that I have not seen in a long time, since the (1968) candidacy of Robert Kennedy," he said.
"The people are pressing for a new day in American politics, and I think they see Senator Barack Obama as a symbol of that change."
Lewis said he had a "deep and abiding love" for Clinton and her husband, ex-president Bill Clinton, and said the New York senator was a "brilliant and capable candidate."
He said he had tried and so far failed to talk to Clinton about his decision to defect, which he said was partly motivated by Obama's landslide in his district in the Georgia primary on February 5.
"I want to be on the side of the people, on the side of the spirit of history," he said.
Speaking on a Houston television station, Clinton said Lewis had been under "tremendous pressure" over his choice, "but he's been my friend and he will always be my friend."
She said the ultimate outcome depended not on endorsements but "what our positions are, what our experience and qualifications are, and I think that's what voters are going to decide."
Lewis was a follower of Martin Luther King Jr., and organized one of the first lunch-counter sit-ins in Tennessee. He was later badly beaten during a 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.
In mid-January, Lewis alleged "a deliberate, systematic attempt on the part of some people in the Obama camp to really fan the flame of race" after remarks by Clinton were interpreted as a slight on King's legacy.
From AFP
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Black Voters Crucial to Texas' Primary Battle
Hispanic voters may be a swing factor in next week's Democratic presidential primary, but an energized black electorate could decide this cliffhanger race.
In state after state, exit polls show the Sen. Barack Obama wave has wiped out Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from getting even close to the black electorate: 87 percent of the black vote in Georgia, for example.
Here in Houston, the city with the nation's fifth-largest black population, there likely will be no exception. In fact, the only question political analysts now are asking is how big of a boost he will get from this potent voter bloc on March 4.
"People should pay attention to the black vote because that's where all the action is," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein. "But everyone is fixated on the Hispanic vote because that is where Hillary Clinton may be able to hold the line — but the black vote means a whole lot more."
Although blacks accounted for 19 percent of the state's registered voters in the 2006 general election, compared with 25 percent for Hispanics, Stein said, Hispanics haven't been able to capitalize on that advantage in the Democratic primary. Stein predicts blacks will represent 30 percent of the vote Tuesday, while Hispanics may account for 25 percent.
How much of an advantage Obama will have depends on how motivated black voters will be, says David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that specializes in black issues.
"I haven't been to Texas recently, but my guess is one out of every three voters in the Democratic primary in Texas will be black," Bositis said. "And they will be motivated, that is, unless (Obama) comes out and says something nice about George Bush."
Black voters exercise a disproportionate influence on the Democratic primaries in Texas. Party rules benefit districts that had high turnout in the last presidential and gubernatorial races. The senatorial districts of Rodney Ellis, of Houston, and Royce West, of Dallas — mainly black bases — had high turnout in those two elections.
In the two districts alone, Obama could gain 13 delegates. In two South Texas senate districts that had low voter turnout, seven delegates are at stake.
And it all wasn't supposed to happen this way. Last year, many blacks were not even hot on Obama, initially viewing Clinton — namely her husband — as a hands-down favorite. Some even questioned whether the freshman senator was "black" enough.
After the Iowa caucus showed that the Illinois senator had mainstream appeal, people started changing their minds, a validation that he can get elected, said Christine LeVeaux-Haley, a professor of American government and black politics at the University of Houston.
"They now got it," she said. "They woke up from their slumber and realized that now is the time they can have an impact."
But blacks say they are not supporting Obama because of his race, which has not been raised as an issue in his campaign.
"I think Clinton's platform is too narrow, and I think that Obama has a more broad platform that speaks to everyone," said Cherrelle Stokes, 23, a business major at Texas Southern University. "He's going for bigger changes than just relying on the (female) and the Latino vote."
Councilwoman's switch
Obama's solid support among blacks in this city has also created a conundrum for some black elected officials who initially endorsed Clinton. Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, who had endorsed Clinton, announced she was changing sides last week.
"I had a lot of constituents asking me to re-evaluate," said Jones, who said she was convinced after she read Obama's strategic plans. "I don't believe that anybody — including Jesus Christ — can deliver the black vote to Hillary."
Deirdre Murphy, a spokeswoman for Clinton's Houston campaign operations, based in the heart of the Hispanic community on the East End, points to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee as their savior. Jackson Lee, an influential black member of Congress, serves as campaign co-chair for Clinton.
"She is one of our top supporters in Houston," Murphy said. "She has been with us from the beginning."
Robert Muhammad, southwest regional minister for the Nation of Islam, said Jackson Lee may have a problem on her hands.
"My hope is that Ms. Clinton will concede and spare our congresswoman the potential backlash regarding her long-held seat," Muhammad said. "There is strong sentiment that the people in her district would want her to vote according to their will."
Jackson Lee, who held a news conference last week after arriving from Pakistan as an elections observer, did not respond to the Houston Chronicle's repeated requests for comment on the black vote. At the press conference, she would only say "this is about Pakistan."
Jackson Lee, however, is not completely alone. There are a few black voters out there supporting Clinton. Sheila Enard was the only patron at The Spot Bar & Lounge last week to declare that she is voting for the New York senator.
"When Clinton was president, I bought a house, I bought a new car," said Enard, 51, a loan officer who lives in Acres Homes. "I got in on that and I'm still in that home."
Some minds made up
On the night of the Democratic presidential debate last week, none of the patrons at the Spot, located in the Third Ward, even bothered to look at the TV screen. What for, asked David Tonsall, an engineer. He said he'd already made up his mind.
"The black people will vote for Mr. Obama," said Tonsall, 44, of South Houston. "I can tell you that much — at least 89 percent of them will."
Even though Enard knows she is in the minority, she still is excited about how energized blacks are about the Texas primary. From clergy to community groups, people are getting organized to make sure black voters come out in droves.
Nikki Johnson, a Greenway Plaza resident, formed Vote NOW Houston to transport black voters to the polls.
"This is a very important election — everybody is ready for a change," said Johnson, who has been raising money among corporate donors for the rides. "I want to make sure they have the opportunity to do so."
If national trends hold, Houston is about to see a huge voter turnout among black voters. In the Georgia Democratic primary, blacks accounted for 51 percent of the electorate.
"I've never ever participated or volunteered in anything political, but I am now," said Kevin Davis, 37, a computer network technician, and another bar patron at the Spot who signed up recently to become an active organizer in his voting precinct. "I truly believe that I will get something in return."
Writen by LESLIE CASIMIR from Houston Chronicle
In state after state, exit polls show the Sen. Barack Obama wave has wiped out Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from getting even close to the black electorate: 87 percent of the black vote in Georgia, for example.
Here in Houston, the city with the nation's fifth-largest black population, there likely will be no exception. In fact, the only question political analysts now are asking is how big of a boost he will get from this potent voter bloc on March 4.
"People should pay attention to the black vote because that's where all the action is," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein. "But everyone is fixated on the Hispanic vote because that is where Hillary Clinton may be able to hold the line — but the black vote means a whole lot more."
Although blacks accounted for 19 percent of the state's registered voters in the 2006 general election, compared with 25 percent for Hispanics, Stein said, Hispanics haven't been able to capitalize on that advantage in the Democratic primary. Stein predicts blacks will represent 30 percent of the vote Tuesday, while Hispanics may account for 25 percent.
How much of an advantage Obama will have depends on how motivated black voters will be, says David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that specializes in black issues.
"I haven't been to Texas recently, but my guess is one out of every three voters in the Democratic primary in Texas will be black," Bositis said. "And they will be motivated, that is, unless (Obama) comes out and says something nice about George Bush."
Black voters exercise a disproportionate influence on the Democratic primaries in Texas. Party rules benefit districts that had high turnout in the last presidential and gubernatorial races. The senatorial districts of Rodney Ellis, of Houston, and Royce West, of Dallas — mainly black bases — had high turnout in those two elections.
In the two districts alone, Obama could gain 13 delegates. In two South Texas senate districts that had low voter turnout, seven delegates are at stake.
And it all wasn't supposed to happen this way. Last year, many blacks were not even hot on Obama, initially viewing Clinton — namely her husband — as a hands-down favorite. Some even questioned whether the freshman senator was "black" enough.
After the Iowa caucus showed that the Illinois senator had mainstream appeal, people started changing their minds, a validation that he can get elected, said Christine LeVeaux-Haley, a professor of American government and black politics at the University of Houston.
"They now got it," she said. "They woke up from their slumber and realized that now is the time they can have an impact."
But blacks say they are not supporting Obama because of his race, which has not been raised as an issue in his campaign.
"I think Clinton's platform is too narrow, and I think that Obama has a more broad platform that speaks to everyone," said Cherrelle Stokes, 23, a business major at Texas Southern University. "He's going for bigger changes than just relying on the (female) and the Latino vote."
Councilwoman's switch
Obama's solid support among blacks in this city has also created a conundrum for some black elected officials who initially endorsed Clinton. Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, who had endorsed Clinton, announced she was changing sides last week.
"I had a lot of constituents asking me to re-evaluate," said Jones, who said she was convinced after she read Obama's strategic plans. "I don't believe that anybody — including Jesus Christ — can deliver the black vote to Hillary."
Deirdre Murphy, a spokeswoman for Clinton's Houston campaign operations, based in the heart of the Hispanic community on the East End, points to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee as their savior. Jackson Lee, an influential black member of Congress, serves as campaign co-chair for Clinton.
"She is one of our top supporters in Houston," Murphy said. "She has been with us from the beginning."
Robert Muhammad, southwest regional minister for the Nation of Islam, said Jackson Lee may have a problem on her hands.
"My hope is that Ms. Clinton will concede and spare our congresswoman the potential backlash regarding her long-held seat," Muhammad said. "There is strong sentiment that the people in her district would want her to vote according to their will."
Jackson Lee, who held a news conference last week after arriving from Pakistan as an elections observer, did not respond to the Houston Chronicle's repeated requests for comment on the black vote. At the press conference, she would only say "this is about Pakistan."
Jackson Lee, however, is not completely alone. There are a few black voters out there supporting Clinton. Sheila Enard was the only patron at The Spot Bar & Lounge last week to declare that she is voting for the New York senator.
"When Clinton was president, I bought a house, I bought a new car," said Enard, 51, a loan officer who lives in Acres Homes. "I got in on that and I'm still in that home."
Some minds made up
On the night of the Democratic presidential debate last week, none of the patrons at the Spot, located in the Third Ward, even bothered to look at the TV screen. What for, asked David Tonsall, an engineer. He said he'd already made up his mind.
"The black people will vote for Mr. Obama," said Tonsall, 44, of South Houston. "I can tell you that much — at least 89 percent of them will."
Even though Enard knows she is in the minority, she still is excited about how energized blacks are about the Texas primary. From clergy to community groups, people are getting organized to make sure black voters come out in droves.
Nikki Johnson, a Greenway Plaza resident, formed Vote NOW Houston to transport black voters to the polls.
"This is a very important election — everybody is ready for a change," said Johnson, who has been raising money among corporate donors for the rides. "I want to make sure they have the opportunity to do so."
If national trends hold, Houston is about to see a huge voter turnout among black voters. In the Georgia Democratic primary, blacks accounted for 51 percent of the electorate.
"I've never ever participated or volunteered in anything political, but I am now," said Kevin Davis, 37, a computer network technician, and another bar patron at the Spot who signed up recently to become an active organizer in his voting precinct. "I truly believe that I will get something in return."
Writen by LESLIE CASIMIR from Houston Chronicle
Global Slowdown Threatens Africa Growth
Rapid economic growth rates in Africa are at risk from a global downturn, the head of the International Monetary Fund told West African leaders on Monday.
On his second visit to Africa since taking office in November, Dominique Strauss-Kahn met leaders from the eight-nation Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou to discuss how the Fund could help the poor region weather the impact of the slowdown in the United States and other major economies.
Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its strongest growth for decades in recent years, but Strauss-Kahn warned leaders that a downturn in rich nations sparked by the collapse of the U.S. subprime lending market would also affect emerging economies.
The Fund has cut its 2008 global growth projection to 4.1 percent, down from 4.9 percent last year, blaming the weak outlook in the United States and Europe.
"It is not an easy time when economic crises in the world have some consequences everywhere, including in Africa," Stauss-Kahn told reporters. "That could knock growth rates, which in recent years have been remarkable."
He was due to hold bilateral talks with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, currently UEMOA chairman, and leaders from Benin, Ivory Coast, Mali and Togo. The leaders were also to hold a round table discussion with Strauss-Kahn on IMF's role.
"I wanted to come here to discuss with the heads of state the measures to take, the continued reforms which are necessary, the cooperation which is possible, and how the Fund is a factor for development in Africa," Strauss-Kahn said.
"It is at the regional level that policy should be decided."
The former French finance minister has pushed on with an IMF overhaul begun by his predecessor Rodrigo Rato to increase the influence of fast-growing emerging economies and adapt to falling demand for its traditional role as emergency lender.
Burkina Faso is the first leg of an Africa tour which will also take him to Niger and Tanzania. Strauss-Kahn was forced to abandon a visit to Senegal on Sunday due to flight delays.
CHINESE ERODE INFLUENCE
Many ordinary Africans see the Fund as a Western-controlled organisation which has enforced inappropriate and often harmful austerity measures on the world's poorest continent.
New lenders from cash-rich Arab oil exporters or booming developing nations like China and India, offering cheap loans often in return for access to raw materials, have eroded the influence of the IMF and World Bank in Africa.
In response, the Fund launched a Policy Support Instrument (PSI) to promote its role as an independent economic advisor to emerging economies. Six African nations have already signed such an agreement, which does not involve loans.
Unlike Asian economies, sub-Saharan Africa has seen its share of the world economy steadily diminish over recent decades, raising concerns that reform of the Fund to reflect economic realities could actually weaken Africa's sway.
"Africa is a major investment for the Fund and there's a lot at stake," Strauss-Khan said.
IMF officials said African leaders were keen to learn how changes at the Fund would affect them and how the reformed lender would approach issues like international trade.
One of the world's poorest countries, Burkina Faso is the region's leading exporter of cotton and a bitter critic of U.S. subsidies, which it says harm 13 million people in Africa and benefit only a small group of American farmers.
Like many countries in West Africa, Burkina has also been hard hit by worldwide inflation for staple foods, like rice, which sparked rioting earlier this month.
Reported by Daniel Flynn from Reuters
On his second visit to Africa since taking office in November, Dominique Strauss-Kahn met leaders from the eight-nation Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou to discuss how the Fund could help the poor region weather the impact of the slowdown in the United States and other major economies.
Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its strongest growth for decades in recent years, but Strauss-Kahn warned leaders that a downturn in rich nations sparked by the collapse of the U.S. subprime lending market would also affect emerging economies.
The Fund has cut its 2008 global growth projection to 4.1 percent, down from 4.9 percent last year, blaming the weak outlook in the United States and Europe.
"It is not an easy time when economic crises in the world have some consequences everywhere, including in Africa," Stauss-Kahn told reporters. "That could knock growth rates, which in recent years have been remarkable."
He was due to hold bilateral talks with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, currently UEMOA chairman, and leaders from Benin, Ivory Coast, Mali and Togo. The leaders were also to hold a round table discussion with Strauss-Kahn on IMF's role.
"I wanted to come here to discuss with the heads of state the measures to take, the continued reforms which are necessary, the cooperation which is possible, and how the Fund is a factor for development in Africa," Strauss-Kahn said.
"It is at the regional level that policy should be decided."
The former French finance minister has pushed on with an IMF overhaul begun by his predecessor Rodrigo Rato to increase the influence of fast-growing emerging economies and adapt to falling demand for its traditional role as emergency lender.
Burkina Faso is the first leg of an Africa tour which will also take him to Niger and Tanzania. Strauss-Kahn was forced to abandon a visit to Senegal on Sunday due to flight delays.
CHINESE ERODE INFLUENCE
Many ordinary Africans see the Fund as a Western-controlled organisation which has enforced inappropriate and often harmful austerity measures on the world's poorest continent.
New lenders from cash-rich Arab oil exporters or booming developing nations like China and India, offering cheap loans often in return for access to raw materials, have eroded the influence of the IMF and World Bank in Africa.
In response, the Fund launched a Policy Support Instrument (PSI) to promote its role as an independent economic advisor to emerging economies. Six African nations have already signed such an agreement, which does not involve loans.
Unlike Asian economies, sub-Saharan Africa has seen its share of the world economy steadily diminish over recent decades, raising concerns that reform of the Fund to reflect economic realities could actually weaken Africa's sway.
"Africa is a major investment for the Fund and there's a lot at stake," Strauss-Khan said.
IMF officials said African leaders were keen to learn how changes at the Fund would affect them and how the reformed lender would approach issues like international trade.
One of the world's poorest countries, Burkina Faso is the region's leading exporter of cotton and a bitter critic of U.S. subsidies, which it says harm 13 million people in Africa and benefit only a small group of American farmers.
Like many countries in West Africa, Burkina has also been hard hit by worldwide inflation for staple foods, like rice, which sparked rioting earlier this month.
Reported by Daniel Flynn from Reuters
Day In Court Reduces Paultre-Bell To Tears
Three police officers went on trial Monday in the death of an unarmed man killed in a barrage of 50 bullets on his wedding day, with prosecutors recreating the chaos of that fateful night as they sought to portray him as the victim of reckless, trigger-happy detectives.
Lawyers for the officers didn't dispute the degree of firepower in the now-infamous killing of 23-year-old Sean Bell. But they argued that the shooting was not excessive and that it was justified because their clients had ample reason to believe Bell and his friends were armed and dangerous as they left a Queens strip club in the early hours of Nov. 25.
The trial occurred in a packed courtroom that lacked the theatrics of most high-profile trials, largely because the case is being heard by a judge and not a jury.
But it did become emotional at times. The woman Bell was to marry, Nicole Paultre-Bell, wept as she testified about being summoned that night to the hospital where she learned Bell was dead. Clutching a tissue, she needed about a minute to compose herself as she relived the night.
Detectives Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver are charged with manslaughter while Detective Marc Cooper is on trial for reckless endangerment. Oliver fired 31 shots -- including the one that killed Bell. Isnora squeezed off 11 shots, and Cooper fired four times.
Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa told the judge that once the evidence is heard, "It will be clear that what happened cannot be explained away as a mere accident or mistake. It can only be characterized as criminal."
Isnora's attorney, Anthony Ricco, said there was evidence that Bell was drunk and "out of control" as he left the strip club after his bachelor party. Witnesses overheard Bell exchange curses with another patron, and heard Bell's friend Joseph Guzman say to someone, "Go get my gat," slang for gun, Ricco said.
The lawyer said Bell, at Guzman's urging, "tried to run over" Isnora with his car after the officers confronted the members of the bachelor party and identified themselves as police. The lawyer described the car as a "deadly weapon" and "human battering ram."
"When there is a confluence of alcohol and ignorance, there's always a tragedy," Ricco said.
But Testagrossa said that Oliver would have found there was no threat if he had "paused to reassess" while firing 31 of the shots. He emptied his clip, reloaded, and shot again.
Defense lawyer James Culleton estimated that it took as little as nine seconds for Oliver to fire the 31 rounds from his semiautomatic pistol -- even with reloading -- leaving him no time to reassess.
Culleton said Oliver saw Bell's car trying to flee, then heard Isnora yell, "He's got a gun! He's got a gun!"
The defense lawyer said Oliver will testify that during the chaos, he saw Guzman starting to lift his arms. Culleton said Oliver was convinced that if he hesitated, "He'd be looking down the barrel of a gun and he'd be a dead man."
Investigators found no gun at the scene.
Outside the courthouse, a handful of noisy protesters chanted and banged on drums to show their support for the shooting victims and Bell's family.
Before going inside, Nicole Paultre-Bell, who legally took her fiance's name after his death, stopped to pray with Guzman, who was also shot that night, and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
In a soft voice, she mentioned their daughters, ages 5 and 1, and recounted how she met Bell in high school. He had a tattoo on his chest bearing her nickname -- "Coli."
She was not cross-examined.
While comparisons to other police-involved shootings are inevitable, this trial wasn't expected to arouse the kind of outrage that occurred after the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant hit by 19 of the 41 shots fired by police in the Bronx. The officers were acquitted of criminal charges in a 2000 trial.
In the current case, the officers involved are Hispanic, black and white. Bell was black, as are the other victims.
Isnora's attorney dismissed the notion that race played a role in the shooting. The undercover team was "a diverse group. Nobody had an ax to grind."
Oliver and Isnora face up to 25 years in prison if convicted; Cooper faces up to one year on the lesser endangerment count. The case is being heard by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, 74.
From AP
Lawyers for the officers didn't dispute the degree of firepower in the now-infamous killing of 23-year-old Sean Bell. But they argued that the shooting was not excessive and that it was justified because their clients had ample reason to believe Bell and his friends were armed and dangerous as they left a Queens strip club in the early hours of Nov. 25.
The trial occurred in a packed courtroom that lacked the theatrics of most high-profile trials, largely because the case is being heard by a judge and not a jury.
But it did become emotional at times. The woman Bell was to marry, Nicole Paultre-Bell, wept as she testified about being summoned that night to the hospital where she learned Bell was dead. Clutching a tissue, she needed about a minute to compose herself as she relived the night.
Detectives Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver are charged with manslaughter while Detective Marc Cooper is on trial for reckless endangerment. Oliver fired 31 shots -- including the one that killed Bell. Isnora squeezed off 11 shots, and Cooper fired four times.
Assistant District Attorney Charles Testagrossa told the judge that once the evidence is heard, "It will be clear that what happened cannot be explained away as a mere accident or mistake. It can only be characterized as criminal."
Isnora's attorney, Anthony Ricco, said there was evidence that Bell was drunk and "out of control" as he left the strip club after his bachelor party. Witnesses overheard Bell exchange curses with another patron, and heard Bell's friend Joseph Guzman say to someone, "Go get my gat," slang for gun, Ricco said.
The lawyer said Bell, at Guzman's urging, "tried to run over" Isnora with his car after the officers confronted the members of the bachelor party and identified themselves as police. The lawyer described the car as a "deadly weapon" and "human battering ram."
"When there is a confluence of alcohol and ignorance, there's always a tragedy," Ricco said.
But Testagrossa said that Oliver would have found there was no threat if he had "paused to reassess" while firing 31 of the shots. He emptied his clip, reloaded, and shot again.
Defense lawyer James Culleton estimated that it took as little as nine seconds for Oliver to fire the 31 rounds from his semiautomatic pistol -- even with reloading -- leaving him no time to reassess.
Culleton said Oliver saw Bell's car trying to flee, then heard Isnora yell, "He's got a gun! He's got a gun!"
The defense lawyer said Oliver will testify that during the chaos, he saw Guzman starting to lift his arms. Culleton said Oliver was convinced that if he hesitated, "He'd be looking down the barrel of a gun and he'd be a dead man."
Investigators found no gun at the scene.
Outside the courthouse, a handful of noisy protesters chanted and banged on drums to show their support for the shooting victims and Bell's family.
Before going inside, Nicole Paultre-Bell, who legally took her fiance's name after his death, stopped to pray with Guzman, who was also shot that night, and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
In a soft voice, she mentioned their daughters, ages 5 and 1, and recounted how she met Bell in high school. He had a tattoo on his chest bearing her nickname -- "Coli."
She was not cross-examined.
While comparisons to other police-involved shootings are inevitable, this trial wasn't expected to arouse the kind of outrage that occurred after the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant hit by 19 of the 41 shots fired by police in the Bronx. The officers were acquitted of criminal charges in a 2000 trial.
In the current case, the officers involved are Hispanic, black and white. Bell was black, as are the other victims.
Isnora's attorney dismissed the notion that race played a role in the shooting. The undercover team was "a diverse group. Nobody had an ax to grind."
Oliver and Isnora face up to 25 years in prison if convicted; Cooper faces up to one year on the lesser endangerment count. The case is being heard by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, 74.
From AP
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Katrina Insurance Cases to Be Heard
Joseph Sher blamed much of the damage to his New Orleans apartment complex on water that inundated the city when levees failed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
He sued Lafayette Insurance Co. after the insurer denied most of his claims by saying they were caused by "flood" and therefore not covered by his hazard policy.
Sher won a jury verdict in state Civil District Court that put the firm on the hook for the cost of repairs. The state's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal also sided with Sher in November.
Now Sher's case is one of two scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the state's highest court that have high-stakes implications for Louisiana's insurance market.
Both cases going before the Louisiana Supreme Court involve disputes over policy language between insurance companies and property owners after 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Lafayette and other insurers say their homeowner policies don't cover damage from any type of flooding, including water from a levee breach. "A flood is a flood, without regard to cause," said Jim Whittle, assistant general counsel for the American Insurance Association.
In a separate but similar case last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that insurers aren't obligated to cover water damage from a levee failure.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals in that case from Xavier University and dozens of other Louisiana policyholders.
James Garner, one of Sher's lawyers, said the federal courts shouldn't have the last word in the dispute over damage from a levee breach. "One thing is certain: the Louisiana Supreme Court makes Louisiana law, not the 5th Circuit," Garner said.
The state Supreme Court also was scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in a case centered on Louisiana's Valued Policy Law, which applies when a home is destroyed.
Mark and Barbara Landry, whose Vermilion Parish home was demolished during Hurricane Rita, sued Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. after the company denied their claim. The Landrys argued that the Valued Policy Law requires Citizens to cover all of the damage to their home, even if only part of the damage was caused by wind — a covered peril — while the rest was caused by flood water — a non-covered peril.
Citizens and other insurers say their policies cover damage from wind but not rising water, including wind-driven storm surge, and deny that the Valued Policy Law obligates them to pay for flood damage.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN from AP
He sued Lafayette Insurance Co. after the insurer denied most of his claims by saying they were caused by "flood" and therefore not covered by his hazard policy.
Sher won a jury verdict in state Civil District Court that put the firm on the hook for the cost of repairs. The state's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal also sided with Sher in November.
Now Sher's case is one of two scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the state's highest court that have high-stakes implications for Louisiana's insurance market.
Both cases going before the Louisiana Supreme Court involve disputes over policy language between insurance companies and property owners after 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Lafayette and other insurers say their homeowner policies don't cover damage from any type of flooding, including water from a levee breach. "A flood is a flood, without regard to cause," said Jim Whittle, assistant general counsel for the American Insurance Association.
In a separate but similar case last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that insurers aren't obligated to cover water damage from a levee failure.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals in that case from Xavier University and dozens of other Louisiana policyholders.
James Garner, one of Sher's lawyers, said the federal courts shouldn't have the last word in the dispute over damage from a levee breach. "One thing is certain: the Louisiana Supreme Court makes Louisiana law, not the 5th Circuit," Garner said.
The state Supreme Court also was scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in a case centered on Louisiana's Valued Policy Law, which applies when a home is destroyed.
Mark and Barbara Landry, whose Vermilion Parish home was demolished during Hurricane Rita, sued Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. after the company denied their claim. The Landrys argued that the Valued Policy Law requires Citizens to cover all of the damage to their home, even if only part of the damage was caused by wind — a covered peril — while the rest was caused by flood water — a non-covered peril.
Citizens and other insurers say their policies cover damage from wind but not rising water, including wind-driven storm surge, and deny that the Valued Policy Law obligates them to pay for flood damage.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN from AP
Tom Joyner, NAACP Launch Voter Empowerment Hotline
The Tom Joyner Morning Show and the NAACP National Voter Fund have partnered to launch 1-866-MYVOTE1 as part of a year-long voter registration, education and empowerment campaign.
''This is truly one of the most exciting and important presidential election years we've ever had,'' said Joyner, the nationally syndicated radio personality whose radio show is aired in 115 markets reaching nearly eight million listeners. ''This partnership with the NAACP National Voter Fund is our way to make sure we register as many voters as possible, and give our community the tools to become active players in this year's election.''
Julian Bond, chairman of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, said that ''the stakes in this year's elections are extremely high and for the first time in US History the African-American vote will be decisive in both the Primary and General Elections.''
Bond added, ''The NAACP and NAACP National Voter Fund's Partnership with the Tom Joyner Morning Show could not come at a better time. The Tom Joyner Morning Show's national promotion will play a major role in our efforts to register and empower hundreds of thousands of African Americans and especially young voters throughout the United States.''
The toll-free number can be used by callers around the country and will operate through the November 2008 election. After callers dial the 866-MYVOTE1 (866-698-6831), they can enter their zip code and select from one of several options:
1) Request a voter registration application, which they can sign and return to their local county elections board;
2) Find the closest polling place to their home;
3) Record up to a: 60 second complaint if they have encountered any problems, or
4) Transfer to a person at their local county elections office.
Throughout the primary season and Election Day, Joyner and the NAACP will be encouraging tens of thousands to register to vote and be able to monitor any problems voters might have at their polling places.
The voter hotline is a part of Joyner's and the NAACP broader initiatives to educate and inform residents to get involved in what is one of the most racially diverse presidential campaigns ever. Joyner's BlackAmericWeb.com (http://blackamericaweb.com ) will feature a special 'Moving America' section that will exclusively be devoted to covering the presidential race as well as other critical issues affecting African-Americans.
''Since the start of this new partnership in late November, 2007, over 10,000 listeners have already responded,''according to Greg Moore, executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund. ''Our overall goal is to register 100,000 new voters who will play a decisive role in the 2008 primary and general elections.''
REACH Media Inc., founded by radio and television personality, philanthropist and entrepreneur Tom Joyner, is a multimedia company formed in January 2003. As the parent company of The Tom Joyner Morning Show, The Tom Joyner Show in television syndication, BlackAmericaWeb.com, The Tom Joyner Foundation and Tom Joyner signature events, REACH Media targets African Americans through radio, television, signature events and the internet.
The Tom Joyner Morning Show is aired in more than 115 markets throughout the United States, reaching more than 8 million listeners every week. BlackAmericaWeb.com, which has more than 1.3 million registered members, is a virtual town square for visitors to get daily news, learn about issues affecting the Black community and listen to the Morning Show online.
The NAACP National Voter Fund (NVF) was established by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as a free-standing 501C (4) corporation in June 2000 to engage in civic participation and community-based mobilization efforts through education and awareness campaigns surrounding key issues in communities of color. NVF's expertise lies in increasing voter turnout in the African-American communities through non-partisan voter registration, voter education, and get-out-the vote efforts. Their Web site is www.naacpnvf.net.
From Atlanta Daily Word
''This is truly one of the most exciting and important presidential election years we've ever had,'' said Joyner, the nationally syndicated radio personality whose radio show is aired in 115 markets reaching nearly eight million listeners. ''This partnership with the NAACP National Voter Fund is our way to make sure we register as many voters as possible, and give our community the tools to become active players in this year's election.''
Julian Bond, chairman of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, said that ''the stakes in this year's elections are extremely high and for the first time in US History the African-American vote will be decisive in both the Primary and General Elections.''
Bond added, ''The NAACP and NAACP National Voter Fund's Partnership with the Tom Joyner Morning Show could not come at a better time. The Tom Joyner Morning Show's national promotion will play a major role in our efforts to register and empower hundreds of thousands of African Americans and especially young voters throughout the United States.''
The toll-free number can be used by callers around the country and will operate through the November 2008 election. After callers dial the 866-MYVOTE1 (866-698-6831), they can enter their zip code and select from one of several options:
1) Request a voter registration application, which they can sign and return to their local county elections board;
2) Find the closest polling place to their home;
3) Record up to a: 60 second complaint if they have encountered any problems, or
4) Transfer to a person at their local county elections office.
Throughout the primary season and Election Day, Joyner and the NAACP will be encouraging tens of thousands to register to vote and be able to monitor any problems voters might have at their polling places.
The voter hotline is a part of Joyner's and the NAACP broader initiatives to educate and inform residents to get involved in what is one of the most racially diverse presidential campaigns ever. Joyner's BlackAmericWeb.com (http://blackamericaweb.com ) will feature a special 'Moving America' section that will exclusively be devoted to covering the presidential race as well as other critical issues affecting African-Americans.
''Since the start of this new partnership in late November, 2007, over 10,000 listeners have already responded,''according to Greg Moore, executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund. ''Our overall goal is to register 100,000 new voters who will play a decisive role in the 2008 primary and general elections.''
REACH Media Inc., founded by radio and television personality, philanthropist and entrepreneur Tom Joyner, is a multimedia company formed in January 2003. As the parent company of The Tom Joyner Morning Show, The Tom Joyner Show in television syndication, BlackAmericaWeb.com, The Tom Joyner Foundation and Tom Joyner signature events, REACH Media targets African Americans through radio, television, signature events and the internet.
The Tom Joyner Morning Show is aired in more than 115 markets throughout the United States, reaching more than 8 million listeners every week. BlackAmericaWeb.com, which has more than 1.3 million registered members, is a virtual town square for visitors to get daily news, learn about issues affecting the Black community and listen to the Morning Show online.
The NAACP National Voter Fund (NVF) was established by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as a free-standing 501C (4) corporation in June 2000 to engage in civic participation and community-based mobilization efforts through education and awareness campaigns surrounding key issues in communities of color. NVF's expertise lies in increasing voter turnout in the African-American communities through non-partisan voter registration, voter education, and get-out-the vote efforts. Their Web site is www.naacpnvf.net.
From Atlanta Daily Word
Deadly Conflict in Darfur Enters 6th Year
The deadly conflict in Darfur entered its sixth year on Tuesday with no solution in sight, as Khartoum continued to resist the full deployment of a peacekeeping force amid a fresh wave of bombings.
The anniversary coincides with visits to the country by Washington's special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, and China's pointman for Darfur, Liu Giujin, for top-level talks aimed at nailing down an elusive peace.
US President George W. Bush has said that genocide is taking place in Darfur, while Beijing has been accused of supplying many of the arms being used to crush the insurgency and of turning a diplomatic blind eye to the violence.
The United Nations said earlier this week that new bombings were endangering thousands of lives in Darfur, seeking reassurances that more civilians would be allowed to flee to join the estimated 2.2 million already displaced by the conflict.
The UN refugee agency has said that two days of heavy bombardments and attacks by the Sudanese army and Janjaweed militia earlier this month in western Darfur prompted about 12,000 more refugees to flee into eastern Chad.
Ravaging one of the most remote and deprived places on earth, the conflict pits ethnic minorities fighting for resources and power against state-backed Arab militias.
International organisations estimate that 200,000 people have died since 2003 with more than a third of the six-million Darfuri population displaced, although the Khartoum government puts the death toll at 9,000.
Around 4.2 million people in the area live on aid handouts.
Most experts say the war started on February 26, 2003 when rebels attacked a garrison in North Darfur state, complaining of economic and political marginalisation, although simmering ethnic violence had occurred earlier.
The Sudanese government recruited and armed militia called Janjaweed, which in Arabic literally means "devils on horseback," to back the fierce scorched-earth campaign meted out by its own armed forces.
Chinese envoy Liu was in Darfur for the anniversary, handing over aid in a bid to show Beijing's support for the beleaguered population.
"For the Chinese government side, we're ready to extend our helping hand," Liu said in Khartoum.
Bush and US officials have expressed increasing impatience at the slow deployment of a new UN-mandated peacekeeping mission, which merged with a poorly equipped African Union force on January 1.
The new mission, the UN's largest, will eventually consist of 26,600 troops and police but only 9,200 such personnel are currently deployed.
Khartoum however lashed out at Western criticism of the slow deployment, criticising UN chief Ban Ki-moon's expression of alarm over renewed violence in Darfur as "unfortunate."
Instead, presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie pointed the finger at Britain, France and the United States for the peacekeepers' slow deployment.
"Lack of funding is the reason behind the delay in the deployment of the hybrid operation," Nafie said on Sunday
From AP
The anniversary coincides with visits to the country by Washington's special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, and China's pointman for Darfur, Liu Giujin, for top-level talks aimed at nailing down an elusive peace.
US President George W. Bush has said that genocide is taking place in Darfur, while Beijing has been accused of supplying many of the arms being used to crush the insurgency and of turning a diplomatic blind eye to the violence.
The United Nations said earlier this week that new bombings were endangering thousands of lives in Darfur, seeking reassurances that more civilians would be allowed to flee to join the estimated 2.2 million already displaced by the conflict.
The UN refugee agency has said that two days of heavy bombardments and attacks by the Sudanese army and Janjaweed militia earlier this month in western Darfur prompted about 12,000 more refugees to flee into eastern Chad.
Ravaging one of the most remote and deprived places on earth, the conflict pits ethnic minorities fighting for resources and power against state-backed Arab militias.
International organisations estimate that 200,000 people have died since 2003 with more than a third of the six-million Darfuri population displaced, although the Khartoum government puts the death toll at 9,000.
Around 4.2 million people in the area live on aid handouts.
Most experts say the war started on February 26, 2003 when rebels attacked a garrison in North Darfur state, complaining of economic and political marginalisation, although simmering ethnic violence had occurred earlier.
The Sudanese government recruited and armed militia called Janjaweed, which in Arabic literally means "devils on horseback," to back the fierce scorched-earth campaign meted out by its own armed forces.
Chinese envoy Liu was in Darfur for the anniversary, handing over aid in a bid to show Beijing's support for the beleaguered population.
"For the Chinese government side, we're ready to extend our helping hand," Liu said in Khartoum.
Bush and US officials have expressed increasing impatience at the slow deployment of a new UN-mandated peacekeeping mission, which merged with a poorly equipped African Union force on January 1.
The new mission, the UN's largest, will eventually consist of 26,600 troops and police but only 9,200 such personnel are currently deployed.
Khartoum however lashed out at Western criticism of the slow deployment, criticising UN chief Ban Ki-moon's expression of alarm over renewed violence in Darfur as "unfortunate."
Instead, presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie pointed the finger at Britain, France and the United States for the peacekeepers' slow deployment.
"Lack of funding is the reason behind the delay in the deployment of the hybrid operation," Nafie said on Sunday
From AP
Monday, February 25, 2008
MLK's Driver Remembers 'Chasing the Dream'
When people think of the 1960s civil rights movement, they think of the leaders and lieutenants ... Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Abernathy, Hosea Williams.
They and many more are remembered for challenging segregation, organizing voter registration drives, pushing for equal pay, fighting for union rights, speaking in church and at rallies.
But there were many unsung foot soldiers in the movement -- witnesses to American history.
One was Tom Houck, now 60 years old.
Back then, he says, he was a "long-haired, bearded, hippie-looking dude" from Massachusetts. And he was proud to be Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal driver and assistant. "I was a young white boy finding his own dream through Dr. King."
Today, Houck is condensing his memories of those dramatic times into a memoir, which he plans to call "Driving Dr. King: Chasing the Dream."
In it, he recalls his earliest memories of the civil rights movement. When he was just 12, he picketed a Woolworth's store in Boston in support of the sit-ins in the South.
"I liked carrying that sign," he says. Watch and listen to Houk recount his experiences »
After his mother died, his father made what would be a fateful decision, sending him to live with an aunt. She moved South, to Jacksonville, Florida, and Houck was soon involved in civil rights demonstrations. He was first arrested in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
A high-school dropout, Houck moved to Atlanta the following year to begin work in the mailroom at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was led by King. He was just 18.
A few months later, Houck was dumbstruck when King invited him to the house for a family lunch after church one Sunday.
"I was in awe," shocked that he was with the King family "in their house!"
The kids -- Martin the third, Yolanda, Bernice and Dexter -- especially liked him.
Houck says he was kind of stocky, and the boys naturally assumed he could play football. When they coaxed Houck into a game of catch outside, tumbling playfully on the ground, Houck won their hearts. The King kids were soon affectionately calling him "Uncle Tom."
A lot happened that Sunday. Houck made new friends and hit it off with Mrs. Coretta Scott King, who had studied in Massachusetts.
Mrs. King offered Houck a job: to drive the kids to school -- for $25 a week. He accepted and reported for work the next day. He soon became a trusted family friend.
Houck later became an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was in Knoxville, Tennessee, the day that Martin Luther King was assassinated, and hurried back to Atlanta to help with the funeral arrangements.
Four decades after King's death, Tom Houck still has vivid memories of a momentous time. He hopes his memoir will be on bookstands next year -- providing a new perspective on the "human side" of Martin Luther King and his family.
From cnn.com
They and many more are remembered for challenging segregation, organizing voter registration drives, pushing for equal pay, fighting for union rights, speaking in church and at rallies.
But there were many unsung foot soldiers in the movement -- witnesses to American history.
One was Tom Houck, now 60 years old.
Back then, he says, he was a "long-haired, bearded, hippie-looking dude" from Massachusetts. And he was proud to be Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal driver and assistant. "I was a young white boy finding his own dream through Dr. King."
Today, Houck is condensing his memories of those dramatic times into a memoir, which he plans to call "Driving Dr. King: Chasing the Dream."
In it, he recalls his earliest memories of the civil rights movement. When he was just 12, he picketed a Woolworth's store in Boston in support of the sit-ins in the South.
"I liked carrying that sign," he says. Watch and listen to Houk recount his experiences »
After his mother died, his father made what would be a fateful decision, sending him to live with an aunt. She moved South, to Jacksonville, Florida, and Houck was soon involved in civil rights demonstrations. He was first arrested in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
A high-school dropout, Houck moved to Atlanta the following year to begin work in the mailroom at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was led by King. He was just 18.
A few months later, Houck was dumbstruck when King invited him to the house for a family lunch after church one Sunday.
"I was in awe," shocked that he was with the King family "in their house!"
The kids -- Martin the third, Yolanda, Bernice and Dexter -- especially liked him.
Houck says he was kind of stocky, and the boys naturally assumed he could play football. When they coaxed Houck into a game of catch outside, tumbling playfully on the ground, Houck won their hearts. The King kids were soon affectionately calling him "Uncle Tom."
A lot happened that Sunday. Houck made new friends and hit it off with Mrs. Coretta Scott King, who had studied in Massachusetts.
Mrs. King offered Houck a job: to drive the kids to school -- for $25 a week. He accepted and reported for work the next day. He soon became a trusted family friend.
Houck later became an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was in Knoxville, Tennessee, the day that Martin Luther King was assassinated, and hurried back to Atlanta to help with the funeral arrangements.
Four decades after King's death, Tom Houck still has vivid memories of a momentous time. He hopes his memoir will be on bookstands next year -- providing a new perspective on the "human side" of Martin Luther King and his family.
From cnn.com
Sudan 'Renews Darfur Air Strikes'
The Sudanese military is said to have renewed its aerial bombing campaign in the west of the Darfur region.
The joint United Nations African Union mission in Sudan, Unamid, said it had received reports of aerial bombings in the Jebel Moun area of the region.
A Unamid spokesman said there was grave concern for the safety of thousands of civilians in the area.
The reports came as China's envoy for Darfur, Liu Guijin, began a five-day visit to the country to push for peace.
China has come under increasing pressure to use its influence with Sudan to end the fighting.
Mr Liu will travel to Darfur on Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict which has left 200,000 people dead and 2.5m homeless.
'Ready to help'
In a joint news conference with the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Deng Alor, Mr Liu stressed the importance of Darfur to Beijing.
"My message to the media and to the world is that the Chinese government and people are ready to help Sudan and to help the international community to find the solution of the Darfur issue", he said.
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says Beijing is keen to show it is playing a positive role in the region - this week it will provide $11m (£5.6m) of humanitarian assistance.
China has long had strong trade and military links with Khartoum, which is accused of backing militias that have raped and murdered civilians in Darfur.
Activists have accused China of helping to arm pro-Khartoum militia against Darfur's rebel groups, but Mr Liu told the BBC on Friday that only 8% of weapons imported by Sudan came from China in 2006 and insisted it was not fuelling the conflict.
"There are seven countries selling arms to Sudan. So even if China stopped its sale, it still won't solve the problem of arms in Sudan," he said.
Mr Liu is also expected to push Sudan to co-operate on the deployment of more UN-African Union peacekeepers.
The force began deploying in January but it still lacks most of the 26,000 personnel planned for the mission.
The Chinese envoy's visit was announced just days after film director Steven Spielberg pulled out as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics, saying China was not doing enough to end the humanitarian crisis in the troubled Sudanese region.
Mr Spielberg said his conscience would not allow him to continue in the role.
From BBC News
The joint United Nations African Union mission in Sudan, Unamid, said it had received reports of aerial bombings in the Jebel Moun area of the region.
A Unamid spokesman said there was grave concern for the safety of thousands of civilians in the area.
The reports came as China's envoy for Darfur, Liu Guijin, began a five-day visit to the country to push for peace.
China has come under increasing pressure to use its influence with Sudan to end the fighting.
Mr Liu will travel to Darfur on Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict which has left 200,000 people dead and 2.5m homeless.
'Ready to help'
In a joint news conference with the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Deng Alor, Mr Liu stressed the importance of Darfur to Beijing.
"My message to the media and to the world is that the Chinese government and people are ready to help Sudan and to help the international community to find the solution of the Darfur issue", he said.
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Khartoum says Beijing is keen to show it is playing a positive role in the region - this week it will provide $11m (£5.6m) of humanitarian assistance.
China has long had strong trade and military links with Khartoum, which is accused of backing militias that have raped and murdered civilians in Darfur.
Activists have accused China of helping to arm pro-Khartoum militia against Darfur's rebel groups, but Mr Liu told the BBC on Friday that only 8% of weapons imported by Sudan came from China in 2006 and insisted it was not fuelling the conflict.
"There are seven countries selling arms to Sudan. So even if China stopped its sale, it still won't solve the problem of arms in Sudan," he said.
Mr Liu is also expected to push Sudan to co-operate on the deployment of more UN-African Union peacekeepers.
The force began deploying in January but it still lacks most of the 26,000 personnel planned for the mission.
The Chinese envoy's visit was announced just days after film director Steven Spielberg pulled out as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics, saying China was not doing enough to end the humanitarian crisis in the troubled Sudanese region.
Mr Spielberg said his conscience would not allow him to continue in the role.
From BBC News
Bethune Cookman Students Boycott Store's '1 Customer' Rule
Students at one Central Florida University said a nearby gas station and convenience store discriminates.
The students at Bethune Cookman University in Daytona found some unwelcoming signs on the front door and windows of a Citgo Gas station and they said it's offensive.
Some think they're being singled out because of race.
"Every student from Bethune Cookman University does not steal," one student said.
BCU senior Superior Jones is outraged and offended because she said it is a sign of old times, and she won't put up with it.
On the store window and door, it clearly states one Bethune Cookman University student at time allowed in.
"It's very ignorant of him to single us out. There’s other universities and colleges in Daytona Beach, Florida. Bethune Cookman University is not the only college in this town," Jones said.
The Citgo sits in the shadow of Bethune Cookman and it is convenient and popular with students. A university coach said the students are probably the biggest patrons here.
"The sign never said that the kids can't come in. I said one at a time, that's it," the store operator said.
The store operator did not want to be identified, but showed us trespass warnings against BCU students that he thinks prove that more than one in the store is a problem.
"I just want one kid at a time. That's all. That's the story policy. That's it," the store operator said.
And that, some said, is a nasty policy.
"It makes me feel like a criminal," one student said.
"He don't know who's a student and who's not a student when they come in the store, you know, people have friends. I got friends," one student said.
Though not everyone is offended, those students that are say they want to create a moratorium against doing business here at the store and they've contacted the NAACP to see what if any action that organization could take.
An NAACP spokesman said they are investigating why BCU students are being singled out.
BCU Security said the store has complained about thefts, but has never offered any proof that the problem is Bethune Cookman students.
From WESH.com
The students at Bethune Cookman University in Daytona found some unwelcoming signs on the front door and windows of a Citgo Gas station and they said it's offensive.
Some think they're being singled out because of race.
"Every student from Bethune Cookman University does not steal," one student said.
BCU senior Superior Jones is outraged and offended because she said it is a sign of old times, and she won't put up with it.
On the store window and door, it clearly states one Bethune Cookman University student at time allowed in.
"It's very ignorant of him to single us out. There’s other universities and colleges in Daytona Beach, Florida. Bethune Cookman University is not the only college in this town," Jones said.
The Citgo sits in the shadow of Bethune Cookman and it is convenient and popular with students. A university coach said the students are probably the biggest patrons here.
"The sign never said that the kids can't come in. I said one at a time, that's it," the store operator said.
The store operator did not want to be identified, but showed us trespass warnings against BCU students that he thinks prove that more than one in the store is a problem.
"I just want one kid at a time. That's all. That's the story policy. That's it," the store operator said.
And that, some said, is a nasty policy.
"It makes me feel like a criminal," one student said.
"He don't know who's a student and who's not a student when they come in the store, you know, people have friends. I got friends," one student said.
Though not everyone is offended, those students that are say they want to create a moratorium against doing business here at the store and they've contacted the NAACP to see what if any action that organization could take.
An NAACP spokesman said they are investigating why BCU students are being singled out.
BCU Security said the store has complained about thefts, but has never offered any proof that the problem is Bethune Cookman students.
From WESH.com
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Black Farms Fade as a Generation Passes
Foreclosure, lost records and sparring heirs hasten loss of lands
If a man's life could be summed up in numbers, then Roland Hardy's amounted to this: 294 acres. This land where he was born, and where he died, was to be his legacy -- a guarantee that his heirs would never know the poverty that his enslaved ancestors did. Instead, less than a year after his death, the Halifax County property is in foreclosure, and his widow is fighting to remain in their home.
The Hardy family has joined the ranks of thousands of black land owners across North Carolina and the nation watching the land they worked to amass slip away.
Small farms such as Hardy's, both black- and white-owned, are going out of business statewide as agriculture shifts toward industrialized operations and younger generations abandon farming. But blacks are losing their land faster than whites, researchers say, often because of foreclosure, lost deeds or disputes among heirs.
The loss of land is keenly felt by some blacks returning to the South to find that their family land is mired in debt or split among so many heirs that it is all but useless.
"We're losing a way of life, farming," said Lloyd Wright, a land loss activist and former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Civil Rights. "But we're also talking about a loss of wealth for the entire African-American community."
The national Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey shows that the amount of farmland owned by blacks has declined by half, to about 7 million acres, since 1920, while white ownership has remained about constant.
The USDA's Census of Agriculture also shows that, nationally and in North Carolina, black farmers have disappeared at rates far greater than whites.
State Sen. Charlie Albertson, a Duplin County Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said that in a time when all farms are threatened by development, black farmers face even greater challenges than their white neighbors. Their farms were often smaller and less profitable, and their heirs have become more scattered as many blacks migrated north.
"Farmers are being squeezed from all sides," Albertson said. "And it's probably worse for them."
Land granted power
Land ownership has a special significance for black families, many of whom are only a few generations removed from slavery. Even after emancipation in 1863, many blacks remained sharecroppers with little hope of escaping poverty.
Only after blacks began to amass their own land in the early 1900s, thanks in part to government programs, were they able to form communities, build schools and churches. And when the civil rights movement began in the 1950s, it was land ownership that afforded blacks the independence to speak out.
"My grandfather taught us early on that if you didn't have any land, you didn't have any power in this country," said John Boyd, 42, a Virginia farmer who founded the National Black Farmers Association. "He taught us that his raggedy farm was better than a good job because nobody could fire him."
Many in Boyd's generation did not take that advice. They fled farms for city jobs. Now, as some try to return to their family farms, they are finding that land ownership is no guarantee.
Elsie Herring, 59, of Duplin County in rural eastern North Carolina, grew up on land that her grandfather bought in the late 1800s.
Her father worked from sunup to sundown with few tools but a mule, a plow and the hands of his children. Many mornings, she rose at dawn to work the fields before she left for school.
She was one of 15 children, most of whom abandoned the hardscrabble farm life and moved north. Herring, who returned to Duplin County from New York in 1993, said she always assumed that her family land would be there for her retirement.
She didn't know that the land had never been transferred out of her long-dead grandfather's name.
Herring said her mother tried to deed the property to her children before her death in 2001, but a string of disputes and missing property records have left them with no clear claim.
Another farmer's hog barns now sit on land that Herring believes belongs to her family.
"It's a terrible thing," Herring said, "knowing that your grandparents were here, your parents were here, and you're just being erased."
Racism was rampant
Experts say that poor estate planning plays a role in many cases of black land loss. But they also say the loss is inextricably linked to discrimination.
In a 1999 lawsuit settlement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture admitted to decades of discriminatory lending practices, which crippled black farmers and propped up white ones.
Wright, who lives in Maryland, said he found hundreds of cases of discrimination when he ran the civil rights office in 1996 and 1997.
"Blacks would have been better off if we hadn't had farm programs at all, because it wouldn't have put the white farmers at an advantage," Wright said.
Wright said he once investigated a farmer's claim that he was being unfairly denied the chance to restructure a loan and avoid foreclosure. He looked at 10 requests for loan restructuring in that same county. The five from white farmers had all been granted. The five black farmers had all been forced into foreclosure.
Advocates say that even those who managed to hold onto their land were left financially vulnerable.
And they say racism in the USDA is only one hurdle that black land owners have faced: from government programs that sold them flood-prone land to poor outreach for minority farmers, which left them ignorant of programs that could have helped, to a segregated education system that left them unprepared to manage their businesses and plan their estates.
Life's work unravels
Virginia Dade thought her family had cleared all those hurdles. Her father, Roland Hardy, had managed not just to subsist, but to prosper.
He farmed as many as 2,500 acres some years in this community about 75 miles northeast of Raleigh. He was the man that other blacks in the community came to when they needed jobs or, sometimes, loans.
And though she is an accountant in Maryland, Dade, 58, always planned to retire to the farm where she was born.
"This is the land that gave me my life and my spirit," Dade says. "My father worked all his life for this."
But shortly before his death last year, things started to unravel.
The bank cut off the money that allowed him to plant his crop, saying he owed more than $300,000. Dade says her father swore that he had paid faithfully on all his loans, and that his records bear that out.
On the day before he died in his sleep, he talked to his daughter for hours on the phone. "He told me, 'Please don't let them take my land,' " Dade said.
But in December, the farm, including the house where her mother still lives, went into foreclosure. They saved it only by bidding on the land when it went up for auction -- and then declaring bankruptcy.
Gary Grant, a long-time activist for black farmers in Halifax County, said Dade's family is one of three in the area that are fighting foreclosure right now. One of those three is Grant's own family.
Dade now faces years of legal struggle to keep the land.
And less than a year after her father's death, the traces of him are already starting to disappear. The barns he built now stand empty and leaning, their tin siding flapping in the wind.
By News Observer Staff Writer Kristin Collins.
If a man's life could be summed up in numbers, then Roland Hardy's amounted to this: 294 acres. This land where he was born, and where he died, was to be his legacy -- a guarantee that his heirs would never know the poverty that his enslaved ancestors did. Instead, less than a year after his death, the Halifax County property is in foreclosure, and his widow is fighting to remain in their home.
The Hardy family has joined the ranks of thousands of black land owners across North Carolina and the nation watching the land they worked to amass slip away.
Small farms such as Hardy's, both black- and white-owned, are going out of business statewide as agriculture shifts toward industrialized operations and younger generations abandon farming. But blacks are losing their land faster than whites, researchers say, often because of foreclosure, lost deeds or disputes among heirs.
The loss of land is keenly felt by some blacks returning to the South to find that their family land is mired in debt or split among so many heirs that it is all but useless.
"We're losing a way of life, farming," said Lloyd Wright, a land loss activist and former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Civil Rights. "But we're also talking about a loss of wealth for the entire African-American community."
The national Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey shows that the amount of farmland owned by blacks has declined by half, to about 7 million acres, since 1920, while white ownership has remained about constant.
The USDA's Census of Agriculture also shows that, nationally and in North Carolina, black farmers have disappeared at rates far greater than whites.
State Sen. Charlie Albertson, a Duplin County Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said that in a time when all farms are threatened by development, black farmers face even greater challenges than their white neighbors. Their farms were often smaller and less profitable, and their heirs have become more scattered as many blacks migrated north.
"Farmers are being squeezed from all sides," Albertson said. "And it's probably worse for them."
Land granted power
Land ownership has a special significance for black families, many of whom are only a few generations removed from slavery. Even after emancipation in 1863, many blacks remained sharecroppers with little hope of escaping poverty.
Only after blacks began to amass their own land in the early 1900s, thanks in part to government programs, were they able to form communities, build schools and churches. And when the civil rights movement began in the 1950s, it was land ownership that afforded blacks the independence to speak out.
"My grandfather taught us early on that if you didn't have any land, you didn't have any power in this country," said John Boyd, 42, a Virginia farmer who founded the National Black Farmers Association. "He taught us that his raggedy farm was better than a good job because nobody could fire him."
Many in Boyd's generation did not take that advice. They fled farms for city jobs. Now, as some try to return to their family farms, they are finding that land ownership is no guarantee.
Elsie Herring, 59, of Duplin County in rural eastern North Carolina, grew up on land that her grandfather bought in the late 1800s.
Her father worked from sunup to sundown with few tools but a mule, a plow and the hands of his children. Many mornings, she rose at dawn to work the fields before she left for school.
She was one of 15 children, most of whom abandoned the hardscrabble farm life and moved north. Herring, who returned to Duplin County from New York in 1993, said she always assumed that her family land would be there for her retirement.
She didn't know that the land had never been transferred out of her long-dead grandfather's name.
Herring said her mother tried to deed the property to her children before her death in 2001, but a string of disputes and missing property records have left them with no clear claim.
Another farmer's hog barns now sit on land that Herring believes belongs to her family.
"It's a terrible thing," Herring said, "knowing that your grandparents were here, your parents were here, and you're just being erased."
Racism was rampant
Experts say that poor estate planning plays a role in many cases of black land loss. But they also say the loss is inextricably linked to discrimination.
In a 1999 lawsuit settlement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture admitted to decades of discriminatory lending practices, which crippled black farmers and propped up white ones.
Wright, who lives in Maryland, said he found hundreds of cases of discrimination when he ran the civil rights office in 1996 and 1997.
"Blacks would have been better off if we hadn't had farm programs at all, because it wouldn't have put the white farmers at an advantage," Wright said.
Wright said he once investigated a farmer's claim that he was being unfairly denied the chance to restructure a loan and avoid foreclosure. He looked at 10 requests for loan restructuring in that same county. The five from white farmers had all been granted. The five black farmers had all been forced into foreclosure.
Advocates say that even those who managed to hold onto their land were left financially vulnerable.
And they say racism in the USDA is only one hurdle that black land owners have faced: from government programs that sold them flood-prone land to poor outreach for minority farmers, which left them ignorant of programs that could have helped, to a segregated education system that left them unprepared to manage their businesses and plan their estates.
Life's work unravels
Virginia Dade thought her family had cleared all those hurdles. Her father, Roland Hardy, had managed not just to subsist, but to prosper.
He farmed as many as 2,500 acres some years in this community about 75 miles northeast of Raleigh. He was the man that other blacks in the community came to when they needed jobs or, sometimes, loans.
And though she is an accountant in Maryland, Dade, 58, always planned to retire to the farm where she was born.
"This is the land that gave me my life and my spirit," Dade says. "My father worked all his life for this."
But shortly before his death last year, things started to unravel.
The bank cut off the money that allowed him to plant his crop, saying he owed more than $300,000. Dade says her father swore that he had paid faithfully on all his loans, and that his records bear that out.
On the day before he died in his sleep, he talked to his daughter for hours on the phone. "He told me, 'Please don't let them take my land,' " Dade said.
But in December, the farm, including the house where her mother still lives, went into foreclosure. They saved it only by bidding on the land when it went up for auction -- and then declaring bankruptcy.
Gary Grant, a long-time activist for black farmers in Halifax County, said Dade's family is one of three in the area that are fighting foreclosure right now. One of those three is Grant's own family.
Dade now faces years of legal struggle to keep the land.
And less than a year after her father's death, the traces of him are already starting to disappear. The barns he built now stand empty and leaning, their tin siding flapping in the wind.
By News Observer Staff Writer Kristin Collins.
Zimbabwe Hospital Stops Surgery as Drugs Dry Up
Zimbabwe's biggest state hospital has stopped surgical operations because of a breakdown of equipment and shortages of drugs, a rights group said Sunday.
"There is a critical shortage of items ranging from anaesthetics to surgical equipment at Parirenyatwa hospital," Douglas Gwatidzo, chairman of Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights told AFP.
"Surgeons can carry out operations but they are saying they cannot risk their profession and increase the risk on the lives of the patient.
"They are not prepared to be blamed for an operation which goes wrong because it was done without the necessary equipment, and operating on a patient when there are no painkillers to relieve their pain amounts to subjecting that patient to torture."
The state-owned Herald newspaper said Parirenyatwa Hospital was referring patients requiring emergency operations to Harare central hospital which is battling with its own shortages.
Those who can afford it are referred to expensive private hospitals.
Deputy health minister Edwin Muguti blamed the shortages on western-imposed targeted sanctions.
"Government is aware of the serious anaesthetic drugs shortages that have hit our central hospitals," Muguti was quoted by the Sunday Mail as saying.
"These are results of western-imposed sanctions that we are always talking about. We can't promise when the situation will return to normal but we want to assure the nation that we are treating this as an urgent matter."
The deputy minister said the last stocks of the widely-used ketamine and propofol drugs were donated and have since run out.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis with annual inflation officially at over 100,000 percent. There is a chronic shortage of basic goods and the majority of the population live below the poverty threshold.
"There is a critical shortage of items ranging from anaesthetics to surgical equipment at Parirenyatwa hospital," Douglas Gwatidzo, chairman of Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights told AFP.
"Surgeons can carry out operations but they are saying they cannot risk their profession and increase the risk on the lives of the patient.
"They are not prepared to be blamed for an operation which goes wrong because it was done without the necessary equipment, and operating on a patient when there are no painkillers to relieve their pain amounts to subjecting that patient to torture."
The state-owned Herald newspaper said Parirenyatwa Hospital was referring patients requiring emergency operations to Harare central hospital which is battling with its own shortages.
Those who can afford it are referred to expensive private hospitals.
Deputy health minister Edwin Muguti blamed the shortages on western-imposed targeted sanctions.
"Government is aware of the serious anaesthetic drugs shortages that have hit our central hospitals," Muguti was quoted by the Sunday Mail as saying.
"These are results of western-imposed sanctions that we are always talking about. We can't promise when the situation will return to normal but we want to assure the nation that we are treating this as an urgent matter."
The deputy minister said the last stocks of the widely-used ketamine and propofol drugs were donated and have since run out.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis with annual inflation officially at over 100,000 percent. There is a chronic shortage of basic goods and the majority of the population live below the poverty threshold.
Trial for Cops in Sean Bell Shooting to Start
His killer was a cop.
That much, at least, is clear from the way 23-year-old Sean Bell was shot dead in a confrontation with police early on Nov. 25, 2006, outside a notorious strip club in Jamaica. He died just hours before his wedding.
Monday in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens, three of the detectives who were among five plainclothes officers who fired their weapons a total of 50 times will go on trial in connection with Bell's death. Bell's fiance, Nicole Paultre Bell, is expected to be the leadoff witness.
Bell, of Far Rockaway, who like his two wounded friends was unarmed, was struck four times and suffered two fatal wounds, prosecutors said. Two friends, Trent Benefield, 24, and Joseph Guzman, 32, also were shot but have recovered.
The officers, detectives Michael Oliver, 36, Gescard Isnora, 29, and Marc Cooper, 40, will, through their attorneys, argue self-defense. The cops believed someone in the car was armed and that Bell's accelerating Nissan Altima, which crashed into a police van, put the cops at a serious risk of death or injury, according to police officials and sources close to the defense. All three detectives have decided to have Queens State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Cooperman hear the case without a jury.
"We are looking for the judge to do justice," said attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who along with Michael Hardy is representing Bell's family and the other two victims.
Two of the detectives, Oliver and Isnora, are accused of the most serious charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter and face 25 years in prison. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown contends they fired the rounds from their department-issued 9-mm handguns, which contributed to Bell's death. Isnora, who was working undercover during an investigation to ferret out suspected prostitution, discharged 11 rounds. Oliver, who had been stationed outside the club, fired 31 times.
Cooper, who had been in the club for a period of time, is believed to have shot his weapon four times, but only faces a misdemeanor second-degree reckless endangerment charge. One of his bullets blew out the window of a nearby AirTrain station, investigators said.
Bell's death and the numerous shots fired by several cops outside Kalua Cabaret on 94th Avenue sparked a firestorm of criticism over police tactics. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly later announced enhanced training and screening of undercover officers.
Although two of the cops, Isnora and Cooper, are black, the Rev. Al Sharpton jumped in to criticize police for shooting three unarmed black men and to demand justice for the victims. Sharpton couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
Attorneys for the three detectives either declined to comment or couldn't be reached on Friday.
Conventional courthouse wisdom and statistics hold that defendants have a better chance of acquittal during a so-called bench trial. But the three cops are still taking a gamble. In the past, some cops who elected to go nonjury were convicted of less serious offenses.
Defense attorneys and legal experts not involved in the case believe the best defense for the cops is to show they fired their guns under the mistaken belief that someone outside the club was armed and about to use deadly force.
"It is getting hot on Liverpool , for real. I think there's a gun," Isnora said in one phone call to a supervisor moments before the shooting, according to a police report.
To best defend themselves, the cops will take the stand, said the experts.
"They have to. That is why you do a bench trial," said former federal prosecutor and now defense attorney Steven K. Frankel of Manhattan.
The fact that a veteran judge like Cooperman will hear the evidence means that the court will have a more dispassionate view of the testimony, Frankel said.
Crucial to the cops' defense will be their state of mind when they began firing, Frankel said. Evidence about police radio reports that someone in the club may have been armed, although Bell and his friends weren't, is going to be important.
"When you hear someone is armed, you have to assume they are armed," Frankel said.
But more than just the threat of a gun was on the cops' minds. A police report of the shooting stated that witnesses said that Bell's four-door sedan struck Isnora while it was accelerating away from the club. The Nissan then crashed into the police van. The motion of the vehicle, some lawyers said, could have been construed as a deadly threat against Isnora, whose leg was injured. Isnora then fired in self-defense, perhaps triggering the shooting by the other cops.
Murray Richman, a well-known defense attorney from the Bronx who has defended a number of police officers, said that the best defense tactic might be to have only Oliver, the detective who faces the least serious charge, take the stand.
"Put the one defendant on the stand, the one with the misdemeanor, with the least to lose," Richman said.
Oliver, who faces only a year in prison if convicted, would then give a version of events that the court would consider from the viewpoint of the police. However, Richman thinks it would be unwise for the defense teams to put all three officers on the stand because it will be impossible to have them testify consistently because of the chaos of the scene and the different vantage points of the officers.
Richman said the detectives can take the legally defensible position that they had wrong information about someone having a gun. "Even if it is a mistaken belief, it is a valid defense," Richman said.
If the cops are found to have fired in self-defense, Richman doesn't think they will be found guilty of the first-degree manslaughter charge.
But the real battle, Richman said, will come over whether Oliver and Isnora were reckless in firing so many times at a car with three passengers. If the judge determines the firing was reckless, that could support a finding of second-degree manslaughter, which is defined as recklessly causing someone's death, Richman said.
"That is the issue," he said.
From Newsday.com, written by ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
That much, at least, is clear from the way 23-year-old Sean Bell was shot dead in a confrontation with police early on Nov. 25, 2006, outside a notorious strip club in Jamaica. He died just hours before his wedding.
Monday in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens, three of the detectives who were among five plainclothes officers who fired their weapons a total of 50 times will go on trial in connection with Bell's death. Bell's fiance, Nicole Paultre Bell, is expected to be the leadoff witness.
Bell, of Far Rockaway, who like his two wounded friends was unarmed, was struck four times and suffered two fatal wounds, prosecutors said. Two friends, Trent Benefield, 24, and Joseph Guzman, 32, also were shot but have recovered.
The officers, detectives Michael Oliver, 36, Gescard Isnora, 29, and Marc Cooper, 40, will, through their attorneys, argue self-defense. The cops believed someone in the car was armed and that Bell's accelerating Nissan Altima, which crashed into a police van, put the cops at a serious risk of death or injury, according to police officials and sources close to the defense. All three detectives have decided to have Queens State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Cooperman hear the case without a jury.
"We are looking for the judge to do justice," said attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who along with Michael Hardy is representing Bell's family and the other two victims.
Two of the detectives, Oliver and Isnora, are accused of the most serious charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter and face 25 years in prison. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown contends they fired the rounds from their department-issued 9-mm handguns, which contributed to Bell's death. Isnora, who was working undercover during an investigation to ferret out suspected prostitution, discharged 11 rounds. Oliver, who had been stationed outside the club, fired 31 times.
Cooper, who had been in the club for a period of time, is believed to have shot his weapon four times, but only faces a misdemeanor second-degree reckless endangerment charge. One of his bullets blew out the window of a nearby AirTrain station, investigators said.
Bell's death and the numerous shots fired by several cops outside Kalua Cabaret on 94th Avenue sparked a firestorm of criticism over police tactics. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly later announced enhanced training and screening of undercover officers.
Although two of the cops, Isnora and Cooper, are black, the Rev. Al Sharpton jumped in to criticize police for shooting three unarmed black men and to demand justice for the victims. Sharpton couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
Attorneys for the three detectives either declined to comment or couldn't be reached on Friday.
Conventional courthouse wisdom and statistics hold that defendants have a better chance of acquittal during a so-called bench trial. But the three cops are still taking a gamble. In the past, some cops who elected to go nonjury were convicted of less serious offenses.
Defense attorneys and legal experts not involved in the case believe the best defense for the cops is to show they fired their guns under the mistaken belief that someone outside the club was armed and about to use deadly force.
"It is getting hot on Liverpool , for real. I think there's a gun," Isnora said in one phone call to a supervisor moments before the shooting, according to a police report.
To best defend themselves, the cops will take the stand, said the experts.
"They have to. That is why you do a bench trial," said former federal prosecutor and now defense attorney Steven K. Frankel of Manhattan.
The fact that a veteran judge like Cooperman will hear the evidence means that the court will have a more dispassionate view of the testimony, Frankel said.
Crucial to the cops' defense will be their state of mind when they began firing, Frankel said. Evidence about police radio reports that someone in the club may have been armed, although Bell and his friends weren't, is going to be important.
"When you hear someone is armed, you have to assume they are armed," Frankel said.
But more than just the threat of a gun was on the cops' minds. A police report of the shooting stated that witnesses said that Bell's four-door sedan struck Isnora while it was accelerating away from the club. The Nissan then crashed into the police van. The motion of the vehicle, some lawyers said, could have been construed as a deadly threat against Isnora, whose leg was injured. Isnora then fired in self-defense, perhaps triggering the shooting by the other cops.
Murray Richman, a well-known defense attorney from the Bronx who has defended a number of police officers, said that the best defense tactic might be to have only Oliver, the detective who faces the least serious charge, take the stand.
"Put the one defendant on the stand, the one with the misdemeanor, with the least to lose," Richman said.
Oliver, who faces only a year in prison if convicted, would then give a version of events that the court would consider from the viewpoint of the police. However, Richman thinks it would be unwise for the defense teams to put all three officers on the stand because it will be impossible to have them testify consistently because of the chaos of the scene and the different vantage points of the officers.
Richman said the detectives can take the legally defensible position that they had wrong information about someone having a gun. "Even if it is a mistaken belief, it is a valid defense," Richman said.
If the cops are found to have fired in self-defense, Richman doesn't think they will be found guilty of the first-degree manslaughter charge.
But the real battle, Richman said, will come over whether Oliver and Isnora were reckless in firing so many times at a car with three passengers. If the judge determines the firing was reckless, that could support a finding of second-degree manslaughter, which is defined as recklessly causing someone's death, Richman said.
"That is the issue," he said.
From Newsday.com, written by ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Man Amasses Black History Treasure Trove
As a child growing up in the 1940s, Charles Blockson was once told by a white teacher that black people had made no contributions to history.
Even as a fourth-grader, Blockson, who is black, knew better. So he began collecting proof.
Today, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University contains more than 30,000 historical items, some dating to the 16th century. It includes Paul Robeson's sheet music, African Bibles, rare letters and manuscripts, slave narratives, correspondence of Haitian revolutionaries and a first-edition book by W.E.B DuBois.
"It's really invaluable," curator Diane Turner said. "The materials are just so wonderful and unique."
The collection has grown so much since Temple acquired it 25 years ago that it moved into a larger space on campus this month.
Blockson, 74, is a historian, lecturer and author who began amassing his collection as a boy living in the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown. His quest began after he asked a substitute teacher about famous black people in history. She replied that there weren't any.
"I set out to prove her wrong," Blockson said.
Among his first purchases were the books "Up from Slavery" by Booker T. Washington, "God's Trombones" by James Weldon Johnson and a biography of George Washington Carver.
As he grew older, Blockson's hunts for books at the Salvation Army and Goodwill led to searches at more rarefied shops. He recalled a bookstore where he would hide volumes he couldn't afford in hopes they would still be there when he saved up the money.
At Penn State University, where his starring roles on the football and track teams earned him the nickname "Blockbuster," his friends did not understand his passion.
"People used to say, `What are you collecting those old books for?'" Blockson recalled.
After graduating in 1956, he turned down an offer to play football with the New York Giants and briefly entered the military. His continual collecting and research helped him become an expert on the Underground Railroad; he wrote several books, lectured around the world and met historical figures including Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes and Malcolm X.
Blockson worked as a teacher beginning in 1970. About 13 years later, he gave his collection to Temple and began serving as its curator.
The fact that it's at a mainstream university makes it unique among large black historical collections, said Michele Gates Moresi, curator of collections at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Many prominent collections are at historically black colleges, such as Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center in Washington, D.C., she said.
"With the heart of the black community in North Philly, it was a perfect place for it," he said of his decision to house the collection at Temple.
Blockson also recently donated thousands of items to the Penn State library, which plans to open the Charles L. Blockson Room in April.
There is some overlap with the Temple collection, which emphasizes black history in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, but the Penn State items more broadly document the African Diaspora, said Nancy Eaton, dean of Penn State libraries.
Scholars are lucky that Blockson began collecting when he did, said F. Keith Bingham, archivist at historically black Cheyney University near Philadelphia. Many items in the collection might not be available now or would be prohibitively expensive, he said.
Last fall, the University of South Carolina paid $35,000 for a first-edition book by black poet Phillis Wheatley, a slave who once read her work in the presence of George Washington. Blockson said he paid a sliver of that when he acquired his copy 40 years ago.
Today, his collection includes valuable books, pamphlets, posters, taped interviews, artwork and more than 500,000 photographs.
Among the rare acquisitions: a copy of Dale Carnegie's "Lincoln the Unknown." The book's jacket has a patch of tanned skin from a black man, which is embossed with the title.
Before retiring at the end of 2006, Blockson lobbied for more room for the collection because it had outgrown its space in Sullivan Hall. Turner, who took over as curator in September, oversaw the move to a larger space in the building.
Visitors are greeted by "The Lantern Holder," a type of statue Blockson said indicated safe homes on the Underground Railroad.
"It serves as the sentinel to the collection ... to guide people in," he said.
Those who follow it can ask to read a copy of Blockson's own autobiography: "Damn Rare: Memoirs of an African-American Bibliophile."
Even as a fourth-grader, Blockson, who is black, knew better. So he began collecting proof.
Today, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University contains more than 30,000 historical items, some dating to the 16th century. It includes Paul Robeson's sheet music, African Bibles, rare letters and manuscripts, slave narratives, correspondence of Haitian revolutionaries and a first-edition book by W.E.B DuBois.
"It's really invaluable," curator Diane Turner said. "The materials are just so wonderful and unique."
The collection has grown so much since Temple acquired it 25 years ago that it moved into a larger space on campus this month.
Blockson, 74, is a historian, lecturer and author who began amassing his collection as a boy living in the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown. His quest began after he asked a substitute teacher about famous black people in history. She replied that there weren't any.
"I set out to prove her wrong," Blockson said.
Among his first purchases were the books "Up from Slavery" by Booker T. Washington, "God's Trombones" by James Weldon Johnson and a biography of George Washington Carver.
As he grew older, Blockson's hunts for books at the Salvation Army and Goodwill led to searches at more rarefied shops. He recalled a bookstore where he would hide volumes he couldn't afford in hopes they would still be there when he saved up the money.
At Penn State University, where his starring roles on the football and track teams earned him the nickname "Blockbuster," his friends did not understand his passion.
"People used to say, `What are you collecting those old books for?'" Blockson recalled.
After graduating in 1956, he turned down an offer to play football with the New York Giants and briefly entered the military. His continual collecting and research helped him become an expert on the Underground Railroad; he wrote several books, lectured around the world and met historical figures including Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes and Malcolm X.
Blockson worked as a teacher beginning in 1970. About 13 years later, he gave his collection to Temple and began serving as its curator.
The fact that it's at a mainstream university makes it unique among large black historical collections, said Michele Gates Moresi, curator of collections at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Many prominent collections are at historically black colleges, such as Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center in Washington, D.C., she said.
"With the heart of the black community in North Philly, it was a perfect place for it," he said of his decision to house the collection at Temple.
Blockson also recently donated thousands of items to the Penn State library, which plans to open the Charles L. Blockson Room in April.
There is some overlap with the Temple collection, which emphasizes black history in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, but the Penn State items more broadly document the African Diaspora, said Nancy Eaton, dean of Penn State libraries.
Scholars are lucky that Blockson began collecting when he did, said F. Keith Bingham, archivist at historically black Cheyney University near Philadelphia. Many items in the collection might not be available now or would be prohibitively expensive, he said.
Last fall, the University of South Carolina paid $35,000 for a first-edition book by black poet Phillis Wheatley, a slave who once read her work in the presence of George Washington. Blockson said he paid a sliver of that when he acquired his copy 40 years ago.
Today, his collection includes valuable books, pamphlets, posters, taped interviews, artwork and more than 500,000 photographs.
Among the rare acquisitions: a copy of Dale Carnegie's "Lincoln the Unknown." The book's jacket has a patch of tanned skin from a black man, which is embossed with the title.
Before retiring at the end of 2006, Blockson lobbied for more room for the collection because it had outgrown its space in Sullivan Hall. Turner, who took over as curator in September, oversaw the move to a larger space in the building.
Visitors are greeted by "The Lantern Holder," a type of statue Blockson said indicated safe homes on the Underground Railroad.
"It serves as the sentinel to the collection ... to guide people in," he said.
Those who follow it can ask to read a copy of Blockson's own autobiography: "Damn Rare: Memoirs of an African-American Bibliophile."
Robert Johnson Sells $900 million Stake of Hotel Portfolio
BET founder Robert L. Johnson’s real estate investment company, RLJ Development L.L.C. (No. 8 on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 list with $460 million in sales), recently sold 22 full- and select-service hotels to the Inland American Lodging Corp. for approximately $900 million.
The 4,061-room portfolio consists of high-end full- and select-service hotels primarily located in major urban markets including Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. These assets, which are expected to net RLJ a profit of more than $100 million, are currently operated by industry leading brands, including Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt.
"[RLJ] demonstrated very good skill in identifying properties that would appreciate rapidly," says Paul Adornato, senior REIT (real estate investment trust) analyst for BMO Capital Markets. "There is more of an interest in urban real estate these days. If you are able to buy in a built-up city then you are protected from new competition to some extent."
"As a part of our investment strategy we renovated a number of the hotels, changed management companies, and instilled a number of value-added strategies to drive the incremental value of this portfolio," says Thomas J. Baltimore Jr., president of RLJ. "Inland approached us about buying the entire portfolio and made a very compelling offer that was too attractive to pass on."
Although they had planned to hold those assets for five to seven years, the company was able to launch the RLJ Urban Fund, deploy their capital, implement their strategies, and sell the assets in less than four years, according to Baltimore.
"Four years is a relatively quick time frame, but not unheard of. The hotel market has held up pretty well, up until now," says Adornato. "If the economy does poorly, then hotels generally do very poorly." Hotels are sensitive to the economy, considering that the majority of their business comes from business travelers, notes Adornato.
"We were able to sign the contract in August before the credit crunch, and closed this transaction in February," says Baltimore, explaining why the closing was profitable under present financial conditions. "We were able to take advantage of a very favorable environment last summer and keep that pricing despite the fact that credit turmoil and other financial challenges emerged."
According to RLJ Development’s Website, the portfolio has outperformed its peers, returning a cash-on-cash yield of more than 20% to its investors. "To see a large portfolio [like this] change hands is noteworthy in this environment. These days the real estate market is slow in terms of the number of transactions," Adornato says.
"In one sense, Inland may be betting that the economy won’t dip into a deep recession, and perhaps [RLJ Development] may have a more pessimistic view or just want to monetize some of the profits that they have built up in their portfolio while going into this uncertain economic outlook," Adornato theorizes.
For full article follow this link.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/cms/exclusivesopen.aspx?id=4196
The 4,061-room portfolio consists of high-end full- and select-service hotels primarily located in major urban markets including Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. These assets, which are expected to net RLJ a profit of more than $100 million, are currently operated by industry leading brands, including Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt.
"[RLJ] demonstrated very good skill in identifying properties that would appreciate rapidly," says Paul Adornato, senior REIT (real estate investment trust) analyst for BMO Capital Markets. "There is more of an interest in urban real estate these days. If you are able to buy in a built-up city then you are protected from new competition to some extent."
"As a part of our investment strategy we renovated a number of the hotels, changed management companies, and instilled a number of value-added strategies to drive the incremental value of this portfolio," says Thomas J. Baltimore Jr., president of RLJ. "Inland approached us about buying the entire portfolio and made a very compelling offer that was too attractive to pass on."
Although they had planned to hold those assets for five to seven years, the company was able to launch the RLJ Urban Fund, deploy their capital, implement their strategies, and sell the assets in less than four years, according to Baltimore.
"Four years is a relatively quick time frame, but not unheard of. The hotel market has held up pretty well, up until now," says Adornato. "If the economy does poorly, then hotels generally do very poorly." Hotels are sensitive to the economy, considering that the majority of their business comes from business travelers, notes Adornato.
"We were able to sign the contract in August before the credit crunch, and closed this transaction in February," says Baltimore, explaining why the closing was profitable under present financial conditions. "We were able to take advantage of a very favorable environment last summer and keep that pricing despite the fact that credit turmoil and other financial challenges emerged."
According to RLJ Development’s Website, the portfolio has outperformed its peers, returning a cash-on-cash yield of more than 20% to its investors. "To see a large portfolio [like this] change hands is noteworthy in this environment. These days the real estate market is slow in terms of the number of transactions," Adornato says.
"In one sense, Inland may be betting that the economy won’t dip into a deep recession, and perhaps [RLJ Development] may have a more pessimistic view or just want to monetize some of the profits that they have built up in their portfolio while going into this uncertain economic outlook," Adornato theorizes.
For full article follow this link.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/cms/exclusivesopen.aspx?id=4196
'A Raisin in the Sun' Rises on ABC-TV
When "A Raisin in the Sun" premiered on Broadway in 2004, the excitement surrounding the revival was largely generated by the stage debut of its star, the multi-hyphenated entertainment mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
Two years later, Combs is back in the mix, reuniting with Tony winners Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald and Tony nominee Sanaa Lathan for the ABC film version, which premieres Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. ET.
Combs received mixed reviews for his theater performance, but he believes he nailed it this time.
"It was more about experience and an understanding of how to completely engulf yourself and become a character and really give yourself up to the to the role," says Combs, an executive producer with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the Oscar-winning producers of "Chicago."
Working with an acting coach, Combs, who has had small roles in "Monster's Ball" and "Made," knew he had to stand on his own with his Tony-winning co-stars.
"It was almost like what was going on in the house, that struggle to be heard," Combs said. "I wanted to make sure my character was heard."
Set in 1950s Chicago, the drama centers on the Younger family, who anxiously await a $10,000 insurance check — and the ensuing squabbles over how to spend it. Combs plays Walter Lee, a role made famous by Sidney Poitier.
Looking to assert his manhood and to use the money to finance his dreams of owning a business, Walter Lee finds himself at odds with his widowed mother, Lena (Rashad), his ambitious sister, Beneatha (Lathan) and long-suffering wife, Ruth (McDonald).
Director Kenny Leon said he cast Combs because "all the raw instincts were there."
"This guy grew up poor," Leon said. "His dad was killed when he was three. He lived in the house with all women. He's also one of the wealthiest individuals that I know, so he's seen the other side of the dream ... What better actor to really understand Walter Lee?"
Rashad could see growth in her glamorous co-star.
"What I saw was a natural progression that comes with the doing of it, with the working of it. He is a very disciplined professional," says "The Cosby Show" star, who was the first black woman to win a Tony as a leading actress.
"It was news to me," she says of the historic win for her "Raisin" role. "My question was, Well, what happened? Nobody was ever nominated before? I wondered why the reporters all had such strange looks on their faces when I entered the press room, and that question let me know."
The 1959 play was historic in its own right. "Raisin" was the first drama by a black woman produced on Broadway.
"Lorraine Hansberry is one of those playwrights that sits in the company of August Wilson or Tennessee Williams," says Leon. "'Raisin in the Sun' is a specific story about this African American family but has a universal appeal for all Americans."
The original Broadway cast featured Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands and Louis Gossett, Jr. — all reprised their roles in the film two years later.
Besides the 1961 version, "Raisin" was adapted as a 1989 telefilm starring Danny Glover and Ester Rolle as Lena. All involved with the current production hope a new generation will embrace "Raisin" and its message: family is fundamental.
"Despite all the things they were going through, everybody still had a strong relationship with each other," says Justin Martin, 13, who plays Walter's son, Travis, in the film. "Any kind of family can relate to this because everybody has family problems. What's really important is sticking together."
It is the family love story, not just the race and class dynamic, that was always at the heart of the story, says Dee.
"Lorraine was trying to write a play for a man struggling for his freedom, his dignity, his self-respect ... his pride, and he felt it was in buying his wife diamonds and moving into a white neighborhood," says the "American Gangster" Academy Award nominee. "He missed what pride and what being a human being is about and the loving impulses that dictate all of that."
Dee, and her husband, the late Ossie Davis, supported the "Raisin" revival.
"She came to the play like three times," says Lathan. "She came backstage and was so encouraging. But we had several people who had seen the original production and they were just amazed at how the play still works ... but in a different way."
Emmy winner Paris Qualles ("Tuskeegee Airmen") adapted the television script from Hansberry's unpublished screenplay "Raisin" — which was ultimately not used for the 1961 film. (Hansberry died four years later at 34 from cancer.)
Bridging the past and present was important to Leon, who consulted the late Lloyd Richards, the play's original Broadway director.
"We all realized that we wanted to be a part of history and wanted to be part of carrying the baton," says Leon.
Combs even invited Poitier to lunch to "get his permission," he says. "It's like if somebody came and did 'Scarface.' They should at least put in a courtesy call (to Al Pacino). So I called him up and he was honored and he told me to do it my way."
From AP, By JANICE RHOSHALLE LITTLEJOHN
Two years later, Combs is back in the mix, reuniting with Tony winners Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald and Tony nominee Sanaa Lathan for the ABC film version, which premieres Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. ET.
Combs received mixed reviews for his theater performance, but he believes he nailed it this time.
"It was more about experience and an understanding of how to completely engulf yourself and become a character and really give yourself up to the to the role," says Combs, an executive producer with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the Oscar-winning producers of "Chicago."
Working with an acting coach, Combs, who has had small roles in "Monster's Ball" and "Made," knew he had to stand on his own with his Tony-winning co-stars.
"It was almost like what was going on in the house, that struggle to be heard," Combs said. "I wanted to make sure my character was heard."
Set in 1950s Chicago, the drama centers on the Younger family, who anxiously await a $10,000 insurance check — and the ensuing squabbles over how to spend it. Combs plays Walter Lee, a role made famous by Sidney Poitier.
Looking to assert his manhood and to use the money to finance his dreams of owning a business, Walter Lee finds himself at odds with his widowed mother, Lena (Rashad), his ambitious sister, Beneatha (Lathan) and long-suffering wife, Ruth (McDonald).
Director Kenny Leon said he cast Combs because "all the raw instincts were there."
"This guy grew up poor," Leon said. "His dad was killed when he was three. He lived in the house with all women. He's also one of the wealthiest individuals that I know, so he's seen the other side of the dream ... What better actor to really understand Walter Lee?"
Rashad could see growth in her glamorous co-star.
"What I saw was a natural progression that comes with the doing of it, with the working of it. He is a very disciplined professional," says "The Cosby Show" star, who was the first black woman to win a Tony as a leading actress.
"It was news to me," she says of the historic win for her "Raisin" role. "My question was, Well, what happened? Nobody was ever nominated before? I wondered why the reporters all had such strange looks on their faces when I entered the press room, and that question let me know."
The 1959 play was historic in its own right. "Raisin" was the first drama by a black woman produced on Broadway.
"Lorraine Hansberry is one of those playwrights that sits in the company of August Wilson or Tennessee Williams," says Leon. "'Raisin in the Sun' is a specific story about this African American family but has a universal appeal for all Americans."
The original Broadway cast featured Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands and Louis Gossett, Jr. — all reprised their roles in the film two years later.
Besides the 1961 version, "Raisin" was adapted as a 1989 telefilm starring Danny Glover and Ester Rolle as Lena. All involved with the current production hope a new generation will embrace "Raisin" and its message: family is fundamental.
"Despite all the things they were going through, everybody still had a strong relationship with each other," says Justin Martin, 13, who plays Walter's son, Travis, in the film. "Any kind of family can relate to this because everybody has family problems. What's really important is sticking together."
It is the family love story, not just the race and class dynamic, that was always at the heart of the story, says Dee.
"Lorraine was trying to write a play for a man struggling for his freedom, his dignity, his self-respect ... his pride, and he felt it was in buying his wife diamonds and moving into a white neighborhood," says the "American Gangster" Academy Award nominee. "He missed what pride and what being a human being is about and the loving impulses that dictate all of that."
Dee, and her husband, the late Ossie Davis, supported the "Raisin" revival.
"She came to the play like three times," says Lathan. "She came backstage and was so encouraging. But we had several people who had seen the original production and they were just amazed at how the play still works ... but in a different way."
Emmy winner Paris Qualles ("Tuskeegee Airmen") adapted the television script from Hansberry's unpublished screenplay "Raisin" — which was ultimately not used for the 1961 film. (Hansberry died four years later at 34 from cancer.)
Bridging the past and present was important to Leon, who consulted the late Lloyd Richards, the play's original Broadway director.
"We all realized that we wanted to be a part of history and wanted to be part of carrying the baton," says Leon.
Combs even invited Poitier to lunch to "get his permission," he says. "It's like if somebody came and did 'Scarface.' They should at least put in a courtesy call (to Al Pacino). So I called him up and he was honored and he told me to do it my way."
From AP, By JANICE RHOSHALLE LITTLEJOHN
Friday, February 22, 2008
NY Mayor Accuses City Board Of Elections of Voting "Fraud"
Mayor Michael Bloomberg renewed his attacks Tuesday on the city Board of Elections, calling the apparent under-counting of votes for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in this month's presidential primary a "euphemism for fraud."
"What they do is they hire on the basis of politics, and obviously the people that they have aren't as competent as you would like, because the results that they reported just defies credibility," said Bloomberg. "The probability of Obama in some of those districts getting zero votes is zero. Let's get serious here."
The New York Times reported Saturday that in about 80 of the city's 6,100 election districts, Obama did not receive even one vote.
City election officials responded that the primary's official results won't be certified until Feburary 26th, adding that they're launching an internal probe because of media reports, including the Times story.
The Citizens Union, a good government group, is also asking the governor's office to investigate discrepancies in the reporting of February 5th primary results.
"What they do is they hire on the basis of politics, and obviously the people that they have aren't as competent as you would like, because the results that they reported just defies credibility," said Bloomberg. "The probability of Obama in some of those districts getting zero votes is zero. Let's get serious here."
The New York Times reported Saturday that in about 80 of the city's 6,100 election districts, Obama did not receive even one vote.
City election officials responded that the primary's official results won't be certified until Feburary 26th, adding that they're launching an internal probe because of media reports, including the Times story.
The Citizens Union, a good government group, is also asking the governor's office to investigate discrepancies in the reporting of February 5th primary results.
UN to US: Do More Against Racism
U.N. human rights experts told the United States on Thursday to step up efforts to combat racial discrimination in the detention of African-Americans and Hispanics and questioned the treatment of illegal immigrants.
U.S. Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor said United States had made great strides toward equality but he conceded that "we still have significant work to do."
The United States was making its first appearance since 2001 before the experts of the U.N. panel on the elimination of racial discrimination. The 18 independent experts, who are unpaid, periodically review the performance of countries that have signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, who led the questioning, said there was overwhelming evidence of police brutality against African-Americans, Arabs and Muslims, Hispanics and other minority groups.
"You need to intensify your efforts at all levels to combat this very alarming phenomenon," Sicilianos, a Greek lawyer on the panel, told the U.S. delegation.
Grace Chung Becker, a U.S. assistant attorney general, told the committee that U.S. law prohibits the use of excessive force by any law enforcement officer against any individual in the United States. The offenders can be punished under criminal law or the victims can bring a civil lawsuit, she said.
Sicilianos said he was pleased that the United States was committed to protect the rights of foreigners regardless of their immigration status, but he said there were numerous failures in living up to its commitments.
"Especially since 9/11, immigrants and refugee communities in the United States have been subjected ... to a range of systematic human rights violations directed by the federal government, local county and state governments, law enforcement agents, employers and private actors," he said.
Sicilianos said he based the accusation on evidence submitted by a large coalition of American human rights groups.
Several other experts on the panel said people of color suffer from racial profiling — being stopped, searched and arrested by police much more than whites are.
"Especially Muslims are suffering from this, and measures are necessary to prevent this from continuing," said Kokou Mawuena Ika Kana Ewomsan, a human rights expert from Togo.
Becker noted that President Bush has said racial profiling "is wrong and we will end it in America."
"The current administration was the first to issue racial profiling guidelines for federal law enforcement officers," she added.
As one of the 173 countries which have ratified the treaty, the United States was taking its turn before the committee this week. A second session is planned for Friday. The United States has submitted a 119-page report to the panel.
U.S. Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor said United States had made great strides toward equality but he conceded that "we still have significant work to do."
The United States was making its first appearance since 2001 before the experts of the U.N. panel on the elimination of racial discrimination. The 18 independent experts, who are unpaid, periodically review the performance of countries that have signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, who led the questioning, said there was overwhelming evidence of police brutality against African-Americans, Arabs and Muslims, Hispanics and other minority groups.
"You need to intensify your efforts at all levels to combat this very alarming phenomenon," Sicilianos, a Greek lawyer on the panel, told the U.S. delegation.
Grace Chung Becker, a U.S. assistant attorney general, told the committee that U.S. law prohibits the use of excessive force by any law enforcement officer against any individual in the United States. The offenders can be punished under criminal law or the victims can bring a civil lawsuit, she said.
Sicilianos said he was pleased that the United States was committed to protect the rights of foreigners regardless of their immigration status, but he said there were numerous failures in living up to its commitments.
"Especially since 9/11, immigrants and refugee communities in the United States have been subjected ... to a range of systematic human rights violations directed by the federal government, local county and state governments, law enforcement agents, employers and private actors," he said.
Sicilianos said he based the accusation on evidence submitted by a large coalition of American human rights groups.
Several other experts on the panel said people of color suffer from racial profiling — being stopped, searched and arrested by police much more than whites are.
"Especially Muslims are suffering from this, and measures are necessary to prevent this from continuing," said Kokou Mawuena Ika Kana Ewomsan, a human rights expert from Togo.
Becker noted that President Bush has said racial profiling "is wrong and we will end it in America."
"The current administration was the first to issue racial profiling guidelines for federal law enforcement officers," she added.
As one of the 173 countries which have ratified the treaty, the United States was taking its turn before the committee this week. A second session is planned for Friday. The United States has submitted a 119-page report to the panel.
Rocawear Campaign features Widow of Sean Bell
Jay-Z’s clothing line, Rocawear has sparked a legal storm over adverts featuring the family of a man shot dead by police just hours before his wedding.
The ads show the distraught-looking family of Sean Bell - and were released just one day before a trial started for three offices accused of killing him in a hail of 50 bullets.
Yesterday Rocawear was accused of playing a direct part in efforts to prejudice the trial. “This was a planned publicity stunt timed to influence the jury,” said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.
In the ads, Sean’s widow Nicole Paultre-Bell - who wed him posthumously - is seen holding the couple’s two daughters Jada, 5, and Jordan, 1, with her wedding ring clearly on show.
Above the photo are her words: “We are going to be here to the end, ’til justice is served.”
It is signed Nicole Bell and is a clear reference to her demand that the undercover cops involved in the controversial shooting get the toughest penalty possible.
Paultre-Bell’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, insisted the ads were nothing more than “uplifting”.
He refused to say how much she’s being paid for the ads and denied it was disrespectful to use her dead husband’s case to sell jeans and shirts. “You can easily go negative with anything. She sees it as something uplifting,” Rubenstein insisted.
Jameel Spencer, chief marketing officer for Rocawear, justified the ad, insisting the goal is to tell stories of people who overcome adversity. “It embodies the spirit of how Rocawear was born - how hip-hop was born,” said Spencer. “We’re trying to highlight different stories.
“Nicole, she really embodies the overall spirit of that. She’s someone who’s suffered a great loss.
“When that happens, you want to curl up in a ball and die. That’s a tough thing. The day you’re supposed to get married and something horrible happens.”
Bell was shot to death by undercover NYPD detectives in November 2006 outside the New York club where his bachelor party had just been held. The wedding was scheduled for a few hours later.
The case sparked outrage when it emerged at least 50 bullets were fired and three officers are on trial for unjustified actions.
Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora are charged with manslaughter and could face up to 25 years in prison. Detective Marc Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment and could avoid jail time.
By Lee Brown of showbizspy.com
The ads show the distraught-looking family of Sean Bell - and were released just one day before a trial started for three offices accused of killing him in a hail of 50 bullets.
Yesterday Rocawear was accused of playing a direct part in efforts to prejudice the trial. “This was a planned publicity stunt timed to influence the jury,” said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.
In the ads, Sean’s widow Nicole Paultre-Bell - who wed him posthumously - is seen holding the couple’s two daughters Jada, 5, and Jordan, 1, with her wedding ring clearly on show.
Above the photo are her words: “We are going to be here to the end, ’til justice is served.”
It is signed Nicole Bell and is a clear reference to her demand that the undercover cops involved in the controversial shooting get the toughest penalty possible.
Paultre-Bell’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, insisted the ads were nothing more than “uplifting”.
He refused to say how much she’s being paid for the ads and denied it was disrespectful to use her dead husband’s case to sell jeans and shirts. “You can easily go negative with anything. She sees it as something uplifting,” Rubenstein insisted.
Jameel Spencer, chief marketing officer for Rocawear, justified the ad, insisting the goal is to tell stories of people who overcome adversity. “It embodies the spirit of how Rocawear was born - how hip-hop was born,” said Spencer. “We’re trying to highlight different stories.
“Nicole, she really embodies the overall spirit of that. She’s someone who’s suffered a great loss.
“When that happens, you want to curl up in a ball and die. That’s a tough thing. The day you’re supposed to get married and something horrible happens.”
Bell was shot to death by undercover NYPD detectives in November 2006 outside the New York club where his bachelor party had just been held. The wedding was scheduled for a few hours later.
The case sparked outrage when it emerged at least 50 bullets were fired and three officers are on trial for unjustified actions.
Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora are charged with manslaughter and could face up to 25 years in prison. Detective Marc Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment and could avoid jail time.
By Lee Brown of showbizspy.com
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Bush Winding Up Tour of Africa
US President George W Bush has arrived in Liberia, one of the US' staunchest allies in Africa, and the final stop on his five-nation tour of the continent.
He was greeted by Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, whom he has praised for leading Liberia's recovery from civil war.
The president will be received warmly in a state with close historical links to the US, correspondents say.
On Wednesday he denied he was planning a US military expansion in Africa.
The US intends to create a unified military command for the continent, but Mr Bush said the idea that he was currently visiting Africa looking for sites for US bases was "baloney".
He was speaking in Ghana, having already visited Benin, Tanzania and Rwanda on his second presidential tour of Africa.
He said the new command, Africom, would provide African states with military training and assistance so they could handle Africa's problems better.
Unique friendship
Liberia is the only country that has actually offered to host Africom.
Many African nations are wary of hosting a US military presence, which some critics claim is intended only to tighten America's grip on a vital future source of oil.
BBC correspondent Mark Doyle says Washington could do worse than opt for Liberia if it wants an African base.
Although its significance in strategic terms is negligible, its international airport has a runway capable of taking big transport planes and the main seaport, although in dire need of refurbishment, is also large by the standards of the region.
The countries also have a good relationship - Liberians like to think it is a unique one, our correspondent says.
Freed slaves from the American south began colonising the country in 1848 and they brought the habits and symbols of America with them.
Liberians still speak English with an American accent; they trade in Liberian dollars; and their national flag is a copy of the stars and stripes - although the Liberian version has just one star instead of 50.
But Mr Bush's visit will be the first by an American president in 30 years, and some Liberians resent the fact that the US made no military intervention to end the country's 14-year civil war, which finally died out in 2003.
On Wednesday in Ghana, Mr Bush announced a grant of $17m (£8.8m) to help the Ghanaian government in the fight against malaria, and a $350m (£180m) five-year plan to fight what he described as "neglected tropical diseases" such as hookworm or river blindness.
But he did not respond to a direct appeal by President John Kufuor to stop subsidising US cotton farmers - a policy which leaves cotton-producing West Africa unable to compete.
From BBC News
He was greeted by Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, whom he has praised for leading Liberia's recovery from civil war.
The president will be received warmly in a state with close historical links to the US, correspondents say.
On Wednesday he denied he was planning a US military expansion in Africa.
The US intends to create a unified military command for the continent, but Mr Bush said the idea that he was currently visiting Africa looking for sites for US bases was "baloney".
He was speaking in Ghana, having already visited Benin, Tanzania and Rwanda on his second presidential tour of Africa.
He said the new command, Africom, would provide African states with military training and assistance so they could handle Africa's problems better.
Unique friendship
Liberia is the only country that has actually offered to host Africom.
Many African nations are wary of hosting a US military presence, which some critics claim is intended only to tighten America's grip on a vital future source of oil.
BBC correspondent Mark Doyle says Washington could do worse than opt for Liberia if it wants an African base.
Although its significance in strategic terms is negligible, its international airport has a runway capable of taking big transport planes and the main seaport, although in dire need of refurbishment, is also large by the standards of the region.
The countries also have a good relationship - Liberians like to think it is a unique one, our correspondent says.
Freed slaves from the American south began colonising the country in 1848 and they brought the habits and symbols of America with them.
Liberians still speak English with an American accent; they trade in Liberian dollars; and their national flag is a copy of the stars and stripes - although the Liberian version has just one star instead of 50.
But Mr Bush's visit will be the first by an American president in 30 years, and some Liberians resent the fact that the US made no military intervention to end the country's 14-year civil war, which finally died out in 2003.
On Wednesday in Ghana, Mr Bush announced a grant of $17m (£8.8m) to help the Ghanaian government in the fight against malaria, and a $350m (£180m) five-year plan to fight what he described as "neglected tropical diseases" such as hookworm or river blindness.
But he did not respond to a direct appeal by President John Kufuor to stop subsidising US cotton farmers - a policy which leaves cotton-producing West Africa unable to compete.
From BBC News
BET Launching in UK
Viacom's BET Networks will launch in the UK next week as the Black entertainment network expands its global reach.
BET will make its debut in Britain on February 28 to more than 8.8 million digital satellite homes on BSkyB, with a roster of U.S. shows.
Founded in 1979 by businessman Robert Johnson, BET is the most prominent network covering African-American entertainment and culture. U.S. cable company Comcast Corp and Radio One Inc. launched rival TV One in 2004.
In Britain, where executives said no direct rival of BET's size exists, the network will offer shows including "106 & Park," a music and variety show, "College Hill," a reality show about students, and "American Gangster," a documentary series about notorious criminals.
Over time, the channel is expected to court British programmers to develop shows, executives said.
The black adult audience in Britain is estimated to be about 2 million viewers, BET International General Manager Michael Armstrong said in an interview, adding, "Our goal is to reach all consumers of black culture. that will expand out to different races within the adult set."
"For the U.K. version of BET, we will be giving BET's U.S. content a regionalized look and feel that reflects the U.K. marketplace, and as we grow and develop the channel, we look forward to partnering with the U.K. creative industry to give BET an even stronger British accent," Armstrong said in a statement.
BET will also launch a broadband Web site for its U.K. channel at a later date.
BET said it currently reaches more than 87 million households, citing Nielsen Media in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
From Reuters (Reporting by Kenneth Li, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
BET will make its debut in Britain on February 28 to more than 8.8 million digital satellite homes on BSkyB, with a roster of U.S. shows.
Founded in 1979 by businessman Robert Johnson, BET is the most prominent network covering African-American entertainment and culture. U.S. cable company Comcast Corp and Radio One Inc. launched rival TV One in 2004.
In Britain, where executives said no direct rival of BET's size exists, the network will offer shows including "106 & Park," a music and variety show, "College Hill," a reality show about students, and "American Gangster," a documentary series about notorious criminals.
Over time, the channel is expected to court British programmers to develop shows, executives said.
The black adult audience in Britain is estimated to be about 2 million viewers, BET International General Manager Michael Armstrong said in an interview, adding, "Our goal is to reach all consumers of black culture. that will expand out to different races within the adult set."
"For the U.K. version of BET, we will be giving BET's U.S. content a regionalized look and feel that reflects the U.K. marketplace, and as we grow and develop the channel, we look forward to partnering with the U.K. creative industry to give BET an even stronger British accent," Armstrong said in a statement.
BET will also launch a broadband Web site for its U.K. channel at a later date.
BET said it currently reaches more than 87 million households, citing Nielsen Media in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
From Reuters (Reporting by Kenneth Li, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
Study: Dispariies in the War on Drugs
As one who has written extensively on disparities in the criminal justice system, I am familiar with assorted statistics associated with selective prosecution. The Justice Policy Institute recently released a comprehensive study on the issues of race, poverty, unemployment and selective prosecution within the context of the so-called war on drugs.
The report’s conclusion was blunt: "The drug war is primarily being waged against African American citizens of our local jurisdictions, despite solid evidence that they are no more likely than their white counterparts to be engaged in drug use or drug delivery behaviors."
The study is titled, "The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties." It examined detailed data from 198 large counties (with a population of more than 250,000) that contains 51.2 percent of the U.S. population.
"In 2002, African Americans were admitted to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites in the 198 largest population counties in the country," the study found. "Ninety-seven percent (193 out of 198) of the large-population counties have racial disparities in drug admission rates."
If African-Americans used and sold drugs at higher rates than Whites, that might be understandable. But, as this and other studies have also found, that’s not the case.
Citing one federal survey, the report noted, "In 2002, there were approximately 14 million white Americans who had used drugs in the previous month, compared to about 2.6 million African Americans who had done so. In other words, there were five times as many whites using drugs as African Americans.
However, our analyses indicate African Americans were admitted to prison for drug offenses at nearly 10 times the rate of whites."
Black youth are also selectively prosecuted.
"According to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, African American adolescents have slightly lower illicit drug use than their white counterparts – whether for illicit drug use generally or for use of a wide variety of specific drugs, including crack cocaine…However, in 2003, African Americans youth were arrested for drug abuse violations at nearly twice the rate of whites."
All of these factors contribute to the fact that the U.S. imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in the world.
For the first 70 years of the 20th century, the U.S. incarceration rate remained stable at roughly 100 per 100,000 persons. Since 1970, the rate has risen to 491 per 100,000, almost five times the previous level.
Fueled by mandatory sentencing and get-tough drug laws, the rate at which people have been incarcerated has also soared. Between 1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons on drugs offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337,872. However, from 1996 to 2002, the number of those imprioned for drug increases jumped by 47 percent, from 111,545 to 164,372.
A report from the Justice Policy Institute in 2000 showed that Whites admitted to prison for drug offenses increased by 115 percent between 1986 and 1996. Over that same period, the rate for Blacks increased by 465 percent.
Increased imprisonment has been accompanied by increased prison expenditures. According to the American Association of Correctional Association, the cost of housing drug offenders in state and federal prisons totals $8 billion a year.
Counties with the highest drug admission rates were, in order: Kern, Calif.; Atlantic, N.J.; Orleans, La.; St. Louis City, Mo.; Camden, N.J.; Cuyahoga, Ohio; Jefferson, La.; San Bernardino, Calif.; Cook, Illinois and Alameda, Calif.
Counties with the lowest rates were: Washington, Ore.; Cumberland, Maine; Fairfax, Va.; Wake, N.C.; Rockingham, N.H.; Bucks, Pa.; Howard, Md.; Montgomery, Md.; Guilford, N.C. and Mecklenburg, N.C.
"On average, counties with higher unemployment rates, higher poverty rate, and larger percentages of African American citizens tend to have higher rates of admission to prison for drug offenses," the report stated.
Phillip Beatty, coauthor of the study, said, "Laws – like drug laws – that are violated by a large percentage of the population are particularly prone to selective enforcement. The reason African Americans are so disproportionately impacted may, in part, be related to social policy, the amount spent on law enforcement and judiciary systems, and local drug enforcement practices."
To reduce the drug incarceration rate, emphasis needs to be placed on other factors that contribute to the likelihood of one becoming involved in drugs and going to prison, experts say.
Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, observed: "Rather than focus law enforcement efforts on drug-involved people who bear little threat to public safety, we should free up local resources to fund treatment, job training, supportive housing, and other effective public safety strategies."
Written buy George Curry of Hudson Valley Press
The report’s conclusion was blunt: "The drug war is primarily being waged against African American citizens of our local jurisdictions, despite solid evidence that they are no more likely than their white counterparts to be engaged in drug use or drug delivery behaviors."
The study is titled, "The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties." It examined detailed data from 198 large counties (with a population of more than 250,000) that contains 51.2 percent of the U.S. population.
"In 2002, African Americans were admitted to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites in the 198 largest population counties in the country," the study found. "Ninety-seven percent (193 out of 198) of the large-population counties have racial disparities in drug admission rates."
If African-Americans used and sold drugs at higher rates than Whites, that might be understandable. But, as this and other studies have also found, that’s not the case.
Citing one federal survey, the report noted, "In 2002, there were approximately 14 million white Americans who had used drugs in the previous month, compared to about 2.6 million African Americans who had done so. In other words, there were five times as many whites using drugs as African Americans.
However, our analyses indicate African Americans were admitted to prison for drug offenses at nearly 10 times the rate of whites."
Black youth are also selectively prosecuted.
"According to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, African American adolescents have slightly lower illicit drug use than their white counterparts – whether for illicit drug use generally or for use of a wide variety of specific drugs, including crack cocaine…However, in 2003, African Americans youth were arrested for drug abuse violations at nearly twice the rate of whites."
All of these factors contribute to the fact that the U.S. imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in the world.
For the first 70 years of the 20th century, the U.S. incarceration rate remained stable at roughly 100 per 100,000 persons. Since 1970, the rate has risen to 491 per 100,000, almost five times the previous level.
Fueled by mandatory sentencing and get-tough drug laws, the rate at which people have been incarcerated has also soared. Between 1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons on drugs offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337,872. However, from 1996 to 2002, the number of those imprioned for drug increases jumped by 47 percent, from 111,545 to 164,372.
A report from the Justice Policy Institute in 2000 showed that Whites admitted to prison for drug offenses increased by 115 percent between 1986 and 1996. Over that same period, the rate for Blacks increased by 465 percent.
Increased imprisonment has been accompanied by increased prison expenditures. According to the American Association of Correctional Association, the cost of housing drug offenders in state and federal prisons totals $8 billion a year.
Counties with the highest drug admission rates were, in order: Kern, Calif.; Atlantic, N.J.; Orleans, La.; St. Louis City, Mo.; Camden, N.J.; Cuyahoga, Ohio; Jefferson, La.; San Bernardino, Calif.; Cook, Illinois and Alameda, Calif.
Counties with the lowest rates were: Washington, Ore.; Cumberland, Maine; Fairfax, Va.; Wake, N.C.; Rockingham, N.H.; Bucks, Pa.; Howard, Md.; Montgomery, Md.; Guilford, N.C. and Mecklenburg, N.C.
"On average, counties with higher unemployment rates, higher poverty rate, and larger percentages of African American citizens tend to have higher rates of admission to prison for drug offenses," the report stated.
Phillip Beatty, coauthor of the study, said, "Laws – like drug laws – that are violated by a large percentage of the population are particularly prone to selective enforcement. The reason African Americans are so disproportionately impacted may, in part, be related to social policy, the amount spent on law enforcement and judiciary systems, and local drug enforcement practices."
To reduce the drug incarceration rate, emphasis needs to be placed on other factors that contribute to the likelihood of one becoming involved in drugs and going to prison, experts say.
Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, observed: "Rather than focus law enforcement efforts on drug-involved people who bear little threat to public safety, we should free up local resources to fund treatment, job training, supportive housing, and other effective public safety strategies."
Written buy George Curry of Hudson Valley Press
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
China Urges West to Do More on Darfur
China's special envoy on Darfur has urged the West to do more to promote a peaceful settlement to the conflict in the African region, state media reported Wednesday.
Liu Guijin, who will begin a six-day tour of Britain and Sudan on Thursday, made the remark in an interview with the China Daily, following growing criticism of China's alleged failure to pull its weight on the Darfur issue.
"Major rebel groups still refuse negotiations and are offering no conditions. That's the major reason why political progress lags behind the African Union-UN peacekeeping mission," Liu told the paper.
"Western powers can exert more positive influence on those rebel leaders because many of them live in Western capitals."
For example, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, whose Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) spearheaded a 2003 uprising at the start of the current spiral of violence, lives in exile in Paris, the China Daily said.
China is Sudan's main overseas supporter and arms supplier and has come under growing pressure to use its influence on the East African regime to end the bloodshed in Darfur, in the west of the country.
This has put China on the defensive, apparently prompting it to step up efforts to show the world that it is part of the Darfur solution, not the problem, with Liu's upcoming trip to Sudan part of that effort.
Activists have sought to pile the pressure on Chinese authorities this year as the world's spotlight has increasingly turned on China ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
Hollywood film-maker Steven Spielberg said last week that his conscience would no longer allow him to work on the Olympics as an artistic consultant while Sudan's government carried out genocide in its Darfur province.
On the same day, a group of Nobel Prize winners and Olympic athletes wrote an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, asking him to push Sudan to end the atrocities in Darfur.
According to the UN, about 200,000 people have died in Darfur from the combined effects of war, famine and disease since 2003, when a civil conflict erupted pitting government-backed Arab militias against non-Arab ethnic groups.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday expressed alarm over renewed violence in Darfur
From AFP
Liu Guijin, who will begin a six-day tour of Britain and Sudan on Thursday, made the remark in an interview with the China Daily, following growing criticism of China's alleged failure to pull its weight on the Darfur issue.
"Major rebel groups still refuse negotiations and are offering no conditions. That's the major reason why political progress lags behind the African Union-UN peacekeeping mission," Liu told the paper.
"Western powers can exert more positive influence on those rebel leaders because many of them live in Western capitals."
For example, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, whose Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) spearheaded a 2003 uprising at the start of the current spiral of violence, lives in exile in Paris, the China Daily said.
China is Sudan's main overseas supporter and arms supplier and has come under growing pressure to use its influence on the East African regime to end the bloodshed in Darfur, in the west of the country.
This has put China on the defensive, apparently prompting it to step up efforts to show the world that it is part of the Darfur solution, not the problem, with Liu's upcoming trip to Sudan part of that effort.
Activists have sought to pile the pressure on Chinese authorities this year as the world's spotlight has increasingly turned on China ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
Hollywood film-maker Steven Spielberg said last week that his conscience would no longer allow him to work on the Olympics as an artistic consultant while Sudan's government carried out genocide in its Darfur province.
On the same day, a group of Nobel Prize winners and Olympic athletes wrote an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, asking him to push Sudan to end the atrocities in Darfur.
According to the UN, about 200,000 people have died in Darfur from the combined effects of war, famine and disease since 2003, when a civil conflict erupted pitting government-backed Arab militias against non-Arab ethnic groups.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday expressed alarm over renewed violence in Darfur
From AFP
Clark Atlanta University President Announces Retirement
At the winter Board of Trustees meeting, Dr. Walter D. Broadnax, president of Clark Atlanta University, announced his retirement effective July 31, 2008.
Beginning immediately, Dr. Broadnax and Dr. Carlton E. Brown will work together to effectuate a smooth transition, and on August 1, 2008, Dr. Brown will become Interim President.
“Dr. Broadnax came to CAU at a critical time in our history when we had grave financial challenges,” said Juanita P. Baranco, Chair of the CAU Board of Trustees. “We congratulate President Broadnax for his many accomplishments and thank him for his faithful service to Clark Atlanta.”
The CAU Board of Trustees thanked Dr. Broadnax for his leadership with a standing ovation during the meeting. Several trustees commented about Dr. Broadnax’s commitment to the university and his work over the years.
“These past six years have been very rewarding for my wife Angel and me, and we will miss the students and the special contact we have had with the many extraordinary people in the CAU family,” said President Broadnax. “While it is difficult to leave this wonderful job at CAU, I am ready for the new and exciting opportunities that come with retirement.”
Dr. Broadnax’s tenure, which began in 2002, will be noted by marked advances in the University’s national academic standing and strengthened financial condition. Under President Broadnax’s leadership the institution realized several major milestones including:
Taking the university from a deficit to a surplus financial position; Increasing enrollment with one of the largest freshman classes in the school’s history;
Gaining reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for another decade--the maximum number of years that SACS allows;
Arranging with the Atlanta Development Authority for the financing, construction and management of new, state-of-the-art student housing facilities--a $30 million project at no cost to the university;
Securing financing for the renovation of three existing residence halls;
Completing a full upgrade of the university’s quadrangle; Upgrading the central utility plant; Dedicating the new, three-story, 65,000 square foot Carl and Mary Ware Academic Center; and
Forming the Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development, the only center of its kind in American higher education, led by Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, Dr. Shafiq A. Khan.
Beginning immediately, Dr. Broadnax and Dr. Carlton E. Brown will work together to effectuate a smooth transition, and on August 1, 2008, Dr. Brown will become Interim President.
“Dr. Broadnax came to CAU at a critical time in our history when we had grave financial challenges,” said Juanita P. Baranco, Chair of the CAU Board of Trustees. “We congratulate President Broadnax for his many accomplishments and thank him for his faithful service to Clark Atlanta.”
The CAU Board of Trustees thanked Dr. Broadnax for his leadership with a standing ovation during the meeting. Several trustees commented about Dr. Broadnax’s commitment to the university and his work over the years.
“These past six years have been very rewarding for my wife Angel and me, and we will miss the students and the special contact we have had with the many extraordinary people in the CAU family,” said President Broadnax. “While it is difficult to leave this wonderful job at CAU, I am ready for the new and exciting opportunities that come with retirement.”
Dr. Broadnax’s tenure, which began in 2002, will be noted by marked advances in the University’s national academic standing and strengthened financial condition. Under President Broadnax’s leadership the institution realized several major milestones including:
Taking the university from a deficit to a surplus financial position; Increasing enrollment with one of the largest freshman classes in the school’s history;
Gaining reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for another decade--the maximum number of years that SACS allows;
Arranging with the Atlanta Development Authority for the financing, construction and management of new, state-of-the-art student housing facilities--a $30 million project at no cost to the university;
Securing financing for the renovation of three existing residence halls;
Completing a full upgrade of the university’s quadrangle; Upgrading the central utility plant; Dedicating the new, three-story, 65,000 square foot Carl and Mary Ware Academic Center; and
Forming the Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development, the only center of its kind in American higher education, led by Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, Dr. Shafiq A. Khan.
More Black Families Opting for Home Schooling
For the most part, the reasons that led Alicia Huff to home-school her four children mirror those of her peers in the Columbia area.She and her husband wanted to teach their children, ages 10 to 18, a certain set of values; customize a curriculum to address their children's unique needs; and create a close family environment.
But the Huffs have one more motivating factor: the achievement gap in public schools between black and white students.
Minority students and children living in poverty tend to have difficulty with standardized tests.
Educators commonly refer to those test performance differences as the achievement gap.
"I understand that it's not across the board," Alicia Huff said. "(But) I think statistically black children are being left behind."
The Huffs, whose children would attend Richland 2 schools, are part of an increasing movement among black parents toward home schooling their children.
Although black families remain a small percentage of home educators, state and local groups said they have seen a steady increase.
"There has been an increase," said Kathy Carper, president of the South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools. Her group represents about 1,200 families, about 5 percent of whom are black.
While black families are changing the face and chipping away at the stereotypes of home schooling, they face a unique backlash among some members of their community. Parents are being asked to explain why they home-school their children when their ancestors fought for equality.
Huff said her family's decision shouldn't be considered an affront to the civil rights movement.
"I don't feel like it's an abandonment of what blacks have done in the school arena," she said.
"But I have a vested interest in my children."
The gap between white and black students has gotten smaller since 2004, according to an S.C. Education Oversight Committee 2007 report. But the gap between black and white students remains larger than gaps between white and Hispanic students and between pay and free- or reduced-price lunch students.
Article from heraldonline.com
But the Huffs have one more motivating factor: the achievement gap in public schools between black and white students.
Minority students and children living in poverty tend to have difficulty with standardized tests.
Educators commonly refer to those test performance differences as the achievement gap.
"I understand that it's not across the board," Alicia Huff said. "(But) I think statistically black children are being left behind."
The Huffs, whose children would attend Richland 2 schools, are part of an increasing movement among black parents toward home schooling their children.
Although black families remain a small percentage of home educators, state and local groups said they have seen a steady increase.
"There has been an increase," said Kathy Carper, president of the South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools. Her group represents about 1,200 families, about 5 percent of whom are black.
While black families are changing the face and chipping away at the stereotypes of home schooling, they face a unique backlash among some members of their community. Parents are being asked to explain why they home-school their children when their ancestors fought for equality.
Huff said her family's decision shouldn't be considered an affront to the civil rights movement.
"I don't feel like it's an abandonment of what blacks have done in the school arena," she said.
"But I have a vested interest in my children."
The gap between white and black students has gotten smaller since 2004, according to an S.C. Education Oversight Committee 2007 report. But the gap between black and white students remains larger than gaps between white and Hispanic students and between pay and free- or reduced-price lunch students.
Article from heraldonline.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
US Drops Africa Military Headquarters Plan
The US military has decided to keep the base of its new Africa Command in Germany for now, after only one African nation, Liberia, offered to host it.
Most African countries have been wary of plans to base the command, Africom, on the continent.
Africom's commander, Gen William Ward, said there were no plans to create large US garrisons on the continent.
The military command was created last year to unite responsibilities shared by three other US regional commands.
The US plan had been misunderstood by some African countries, Gen Ward told the BBC.
The key aim of Africom was to build the capacity of African countries for security and peacekeeping, he said, adding there were no plans to move the headquarters for at least a year.
African doubts
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua announced in November that he would not allow his country to host an Africom base and that he was also opposed to any such bases in West Africa.
South Africa and Libya have also voiced strong reservations.
Only Liberia, which has historic links to the US, has offered to host it.
There has been concern that Africom is really an attempt to protect US oil and mineral interests in Africa, amid growing competition for resources from Asian economies, says the BBC's Alex Last in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Then there are fears about the continent being drawn into the US war on terror, our correspondent adds.
Gen Ward said Africom was not about militarisation but consolidating existing operations under one single command, while helping Africans with military training and supporting peacekeeping and aid operations.
From BBC news
Most African countries have been wary of plans to base the command, Africom, on the continent.
Africom's commander, Gen William Ward, said there were no plans to create large US garrisons on the continent.
The military command was created last year to unite responsibilities shared by three other US regional commands.
The US plan had been misunderstood by some African countries, Gen Ward told the BBC.
The key aim of Africom was to build the capacity of African countries for security and peacekeeping, he said, adding there were no plans to move the headquarters for at least a year.
African doubts
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua announced in November that he would not allow his country to host an Africom base and that he was also opposed to any such bases in West Africa.
South Africa and Libya have also voiced strong reservations.
Only Liberia, which has historic links to the US, has offered to host it.
There has been concern that Africom is really an attempt to protect US oil and mineral interests in Africa, amid growing competition for resources from Asian economies, says the BBC's Alex Last in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Then there are fears about the continent being drawn into the US war on terror, our correspondent adds.
Gen Ward said Africom was not about militarisation but consolidating existing operations under one single command, while helping Africans with military training and supporting peacekeeping and aid operations.
From BBC news
Bush's Plan Cuts Black College Fund
President Bush's 2009 education budget proposal cuts $85 million in funds designated for historically black colleges and universities — money that local leaders say is crucial to improving the traditionally underfunded schools.
Should this funding program for historically black colleges and universities be cut? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.
Bush's budget proposal essentially deletes an increase for those schools provided by the 2007 College Cost Reduction Act in September. That was the first increase in funding the Department of Education's Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities program has received since 2005.
Higher education leaders said they will wait out the legislative process to see how the schools fare once the budget moves through the Democrat-controlled Congress. They wonder what the cut could mean for the grant program's future.
"The HBCU community, it's safe to say, they would be disappointed but not necessarily surprised," said Edith Bartley, director of government affairs at the United Negro College Fund.
North Carolina's 10 HBCUs received a combined $27.7 million from the program last year. The program brought about $6.5 million of that to Greensboro colleges.
The $238 million grant program provides funding to 96 federally recognized schools that have historically served black students. Ten institutions across the state qualify for the program.
The money is allocated based on how many recent graduates a school has, the number of low-income students and how many students go on to graduate programs.
The federal funds may be used to for campus facilities, improve academics or enhance a school's endowment.
"We are still in catch-up mode in terms of serving these areas," said Perry Herrington, president of the National Association of Title III Administrators.
Locally, N.C. A&T used the money to help build a new education building, said Kenneth Murray associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
A&T used this year's $4.9 million allocation to hire counselors to help improve student retention and graduation rates.
"That is our highest priority this year," Murray said.
Winston-Salem State University, which received about $4.2 million this year, used the money to support its honors program, faculty development and better technology, said Everette Witherspoon, Title III director for the university.
"It is the largest government grant that we get here at Winston-Salem State," Witherspoon said. "Any cut will impact us very negatively."
The grant program has perhaps an even greater impact on private institutions, which rely heavily on the money to support their bottom line, Herrington said.
Bennett College for Women President Julianne Malveaux said if the budget for the program is cut, "It won't pinch; It will hurt."
The $1.6 million Bennett received through the grant program this school year accounts for nearly 6 percent of its budget.
"We are a smaller institution. We need this program," Malveaux said.
Bennett uses the funds to operate the academic support center, which provides tutoring and other services to students. The money also helps run a precollege program for incoming freshmen who want to get an early start on their higher-education careers.
Malveaux said the college will be pushing the congressional delegation to ensure funding for the program stays intact.
College and university leaders said they aren't sounding alarm bells just yet but will wait to see what the election year brings.
Written by News-record.com staff writer Amanda Lehmert.
Should this funding program for historically black colleges and universities be cut? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.
Bush's budget proposal essentially deletes an increase for those schools provided by the 2007 College Cost Reduction Act in September. That was the first increase in funding the Department of Education's Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities program has received since 2005.
Higher education leaders said they will wait out the legislative process to see how the schools fare once the budget moves through the Democrat-controlled Congress. They wonder what the cut could mean for the grant program's future.
"The HBCU community, it's safe to say, they would be disappointed but not necessarily surprised," said Edith Bartley, director of government affairs at the United Negro College Fund.
North Carolina's 10 HBCUs received a combined $27.7 million from the program last year. The program brought about $6.5 million of that to Greensboro colleges.
The $238 million grant program provides funding to 96 federally recognized schools that have historically served black students. Ten institutions across the state qualify for the program.
The money is allocated based on how many recent graduates a school has, the number of low-income students and how many students go on to graduate programs.
The federal funds may be used to for campus facilities, improve academics or enhance a school's endowment.
"We are still in catch-up mode in terms of serving these areas," said Perry Herrington, president of the National Association of Title III Administrators.
Locally, N.C. A&T used the money to help build a new education building, said Kenneth Murray associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
A&T used this year's $4.9 million allocation to hire counselors to help improve student retention and graduation rates.
"That is our highest priority this year," Murray said.
Winston-Salem State University, which received about $4.2 million this year, used the money to support its honors program, faculty development and better technology, said Everette Witherspoon, Title III director for the university.
"It is the largest government grant that we get here at Winston-Salem State," Witherspoon said. "Any cut will impact us very negatively."
The grant program has perhaps an even greater impact on private institutions, which rely heavily on the money to support their bottom line, Herrington said.
Bennett College for Women President Julianne Malveaux said if the budget for the program is cut, "It won't pinch; It will hurt."
The $1.6 million Bennett received through the grant program this school year accounts for nearly 6 percent of its budget.
"We are a smaller institution. We need this program," Malveaux said.
Bennett uses the funds to operate the academic support center, which provides tutoring and other services to students. The money also helps run a precollege program for incoming freshmen who want to get an early start on their higher-education careers.
Malveaux said the college will be pushing the congressional delegation to ensure funding for the program stays intact.
College and university leaders said they aren't sounding alarm bells just yet but will wait to see what the election year brings.
Written by News-record.com staff writer Amanda Lehmert.
Southern Africa Flood Crisis Not Over
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says the Southern Africa flood crisis is not over. It says more than 334,000 people in eight countries are still affected by the heavy rains that began in December and have caused rivers to overflow. Affected countries include Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and parts of Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana. Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva.
Heavy rains began falling in early December, causing the worst floods seen in Southern Africa for a decade. About 100,000 people in Mozambique, the worst hit country, have been moved to higher ground and are living in difficult conditions.
Spokesman for the International Red Cross Federation, Jean-Luc Martinage, tells VOA many of these people have lost everything - their homes, their cattle, and their livlihoods. He says helping them is a huge task.
"We believe that the crisis is not over because heavy rains since December are sometimes going on," said Martinage. "Water levels continue to rise above normal levels especially along the Zambezi River. This is of particular concern for Mozambique. So, we can expect further flooding and there is a need to evacuate more people. Also, what happens is that Mozambique is now threatened by a cyclone, Cyclone Ivan."
Cyclone Ivan hit the northeastern coast of Madagascar Sunday with winds blowing at 200 kilometers per hour. Early reports indicate about 500 people are affected, homes have been lost, trees uprooted and roads cut off.
Martinage says the number of victims and the extent of the losses is likely to rise. He says Red Cross volunteers in Madagascar are assessing the damage and administering emergency relief to the victims.
He says Cyclone Ivan is strengthening and may be headed toward Mozambique. He notes Mozambique's national meteorological Institute has issued a warning.
"We will closely monitor the situation in the coming hours to see whether Cyclone Ivan is definitely heading to Mozambique," said Martinage. "We know that sometimes it can change. The situation can change. But, we need to take a very close look at the situation in Mozambique within the next 24, 48 hours."
Martinage says the Red Cross has to bring in more supplies - such as tarpaulins, tents, mosquito nets and water purification tablets - for the possibility of another emergency triggered by Cyclone Ivan.
The Red Cross recently launched a revised emergency appeal for more than $10 million for flood victims in Southern Africa.
Reported by By Lisa Schlein of Voice of America
Heavy rains began falling in early December, causing the worst floods seen in Southern Africa for a decade. About 100,000 people in Mozambique, the worst hit country, have been moved to higher ground and are living in difficult conditions.
Spokesman for the International Red Cross Federation, Jean-Luc Martinage, tells VOA many of these people have lost everything - their homes, their cattle, and their livlihoods. He says helping them is a huge task.
"We believe that the crisis is not over because heavy rains since December are sometimes going on," said Martinage. "Water levels continue to rise above normal levels especially along the Zambezi River. This is of particular concern for Mozambique. So, we can expect further flooding and there is a need to evacuate more people. Also, what happens is that Mozambique is now threatened by a cyclone, Cyclone Ivan."
Cyclone Ivan hit the northeastern coast of Madagascar Sunday with winds blowing at 200 kilometers per hour. Early reports indicate about 500 people are affected, homes have been lost, trees uprooted and roads cut off.
Martinage says the number of victims and the extent of the losses is likely to rise. He says Red Cross volunteers in Madagascar are assessing the damage and administering emergency relief to the victims.
He says Cyclone Ivan is strengthening and may be headed toward Mozambique. He notes Mozambique's national meteorological Institute has issued a warning.
"We will closely monitor the situation in the coming hours to see whether Cyclone Ivan is definitely heading to Mozambique," said Martinage. "We know that sometimes it can change. The situation can change. But, we need to take a very close look at the situation in Mozambique within the next 24, 48 hours."
Martinage says the Red Cross has to bring in more supplies - such as tarpaulins, tents, mosquito nets and water purification tablets - for the possibility of another emergency triggered by Cyclone Ivan.
The Red Cross recently launched a revised emergency appeal for more than $10 million for flood victims in Southern Africa.
Reported by By Lisa Schlein of Voice of America
Monday, February 18, 2008
South Africa Battles National Identity Crisis
A draft loyalty pledge has plunged South Africa into a new identity crisis as it mulls its common values 14 years after discarding apartheid to forge a united society under a single flag.
As the motley "Rainbow Nation" quibbles over a government proposal to introduce a pledge of allegiance in schools, some ideological battle lines are being redrawn.
The oath has been described alternatively as an attempt at fostering social cohesion and as ideological abuse.
One newspaper columnist said it would do little but remind children that "the little white ones among them are evil seed".
"This oath is nothing more than an attempt by the (ruling) ANC to indoctrinate vulnerable school children with a permanent guilt complex," said Jaco Mulder, a provincial parliamentarian of the white minority Freedom Front Plus opposition party.
Some object to the fact that besides the expected commitment to such values as human dignity and justice, nearly half the pledge has to do with injustices perpetrated under the erstwhile white minority apartheid state.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor defended the move on Friday, telling the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper it was a bid to promote "national unity where ideals are not expressed only by those who participated in the struggle".
"We hope that young people ... do come to have an appreciation of the struggle that was centred on certain principles of humanity."
The proposal has been welcomed by the youth league of the governing African National Congress.
"We are of the opinion that the pledge will go a long way to imbue the youth with a sense of pride, patriotism, nation building and a caring society," it said in a statement.
South Africans of different hues and political backgrounds have been trying to forge a common national identity since the decline of the apartheid state and the ascension of the former liberation movement ANC to the helm of government in 1994.
The nation adopted a symbolically multi-coloured flag that same year, a widely negotiated constitution two years later, and a hybrid national anthem in 1997 that contains the ANC's freedom song Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (isiXhosa for God bless Africa) as well as a portion of the apartheid era anthem Die Stem (Afrikaans for The Voice).
A new coat of arms was introduced in 2000 with the motto: "!ke e: /xarra //ke", translated as "diverse people unite" from the Khoisan language of South Africa's indigenous Bushmen.
But the nation is intermittently faced with issues that challenge the notion of a diverse nation unified in purpose.
Contentious issues include the ANC-led government's drive to change place names to which Afrikaners claim an historic allegiance, and the racial make-up of the nation's rugby and cricket teams that fall far short of reflecting the 80 percent black majority demographic.
Newspaper editorials, too, were divided on the idea of a pledge.
"Just as no farmer would plant a young sapling in the eye of the storm, no nation as young as ours can be expected to overcome its growing pains without some help," said the daily Star, welcoming the initiative.
But the Business Day said it was a good idea badly executed.
"The text ... contains much about the injustices of the past but little about what's important now," it said.
"This is a troubled and fragmented society and we could do with some unifying values and rituals. But this pledge doesn't quite make the grade."
President Thabo Mbeki told lawmakers Thursday it was important to keep in mind that both black and white citizens had contributed to today's South Africa.
Yet recent national debate, he said, had illustrated a clear division "between those who believe South Africa is experiencing the worst of times and those who assert that this is the best of times".
He quoted a recent newspaper editorial by columnist William Saunderson-Meyer stating: "The darkies mutter self-indulgently about past injustices. The whities opt loudly for the ... theory of the universe (that) the sky is about to fall down, at least over the southern part of Africa."
Added Mbeki: "... surely all of us have a duty to encourage all our 'citizens to be politically and emotionally engaged in their country', precisely to create the possibility for us to unite in action and act in unity."
Analyst Sipho Seepe, president of the SA Institute for Race Relations, said while the pledge was flawed, the debate should be welcomed.
"This is an opportunity for the nation to be in conversation. That is very important."
As the motley "Rainbow Nation" quibbles over a government proposal to introduce a pledge of allegiance in schools, some ideological battle lines are being redrawn.
The oath has been described alternatively as an attempt at fostering social cohesion and as ideological abuse.
One newspaper columnist said it would do little but remind children that "the little white ones among them are evil seed".
"This oath is nothing more than an attempt by the (ruling) ANC to indoctrinate vulnerable school children with a permanent guilt complex," said Jaco Mulder, a provincial parliamentarian of the white minority Freedom Front Plus opposition party.
Some object to the fact that besides the expected commitment to such values as human dignity and justice, nearly half the pledge has to do with injustices perpetrated under the erstwhile white minority apartheid state.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor defended the move on Friday, telling the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper it was a bid to promote "national unity where ideals are not expressed only by those who participated in the struggle".
"We hope that young people ... do come to have an appreciation of the struggle that was centred on certain principles of humanity."
The proposal has been welcomed by the youth league of the governing African National Congress.
"We are of the opinion that the pledge will go a long way to imbue the youth with a sense of pride, patriotism, nation building and a caring society," it said in a statement.
South Africans of different hues and political backgrounds have been trying to forge a common national identity since the decline of the apartheid state and the ascension of the former liberation movement ANC to the helm of government in 1994.
The nation adopted a symbolically multi-coloured flag that same year, a widely negotiated constitution two years later, and a hybrid national anthem in 1997 that contains the ANC's freedom song Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (isiXhosa for God bless Africa) as well as a portion of the apartheid era anthem Die Stem (Afrikaans for The Voice).
A new coat of arms was introduced in 2000 with the motto: "!ke e: /xarra //ke", translated as "diverse people unite" from the Khoisan language of South Africa's indigenous Bushmen.
But the nation is intermittently faced with issues that challenge the notion of a diverse nation unified in purpose.
Contentious issues include the ANC-led government's drive to change place names to which Afrikaners claim an historic allegiance, and the racial make-up of the nation's rugby and cricket teams that fall far short of reflecting the 80 percent black majority demographic.
Newspaper editorials, too, were divided on the idea of a pledge.
"Just as no farmer would plant a young sapling in the eye of the storm, no nation as young as ours can be expected to overcome its growing pains without some help," said the daily Star, welcoming the initiative.
But the Business Day said it was a good idea badly executed.
"The text ... contains much about the injustices of the past but little about what's important now," it said.
"This is a troubled and fragmented society and we could do with some unifying values and rituals. But this pledge doesn't quite make the grade."
President Thabo Mbeki told lawmakers Thursday it was important to keep in mind that both black and white citizens had contributed to today's South Africa.
Yet recent national debate, he said, had illustrated a clear division "between those who believe South Africa is experiencing the worst of times and those who assert that this is the best of times".
He quoted a recent newspaper editorial by columnist William Saunderson-Meyer stating: "The darkies mutter self-indulgently about past injustices. The whities opt loudly for the ... theory of the universe (that) the sky is about to fall down, at least over the southern part of Africa."
Added Mbeki: "... surely all of us have a duty to encourage all our 'citizens to be politically and emotionally engaged in their country', precisely to create the possibility for us to unite in action and act in unity."
Analyst Sipho Seepe, president of the SA Institute for Race Relations, said while the pledge was flawed, the debate should be welcomed.
"This is an opportunity for the nation to be in conversation. That is very important."
4th Person Pleads in West Virginia Torture Case
A fourth defendant has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the suspected torture of a young black woman who authorities say was held captive last summer for days.
Frankie Brewster, 49, faces 10 to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to second-degree sexual assault, prosecutor Brian Abraham said Thursday. In exchange for her plea, charges of assault during the commission of a felony, kidnapping and conspiracy were dropped, Abraham said.
Brewster was accused of forcing 20-year-old Megan Williams to perform oral sex on her.
Authorities say Williams was held captive for days at Brewster's trailer in Big Creek, where she was forced to eat animal feces, sexually assaulted and stabbed. She was rescued Sept. 8 after an anonymous caller alerted authorities.
Abraham said Brewster's age was a factor in the plea agreement.
"A 10- to 25-year sentence may result in life for her," he said. "It's certainly a very lengthy sentence."
Authorities allege that Brewster's son, 24-year-old Bobby Brewster, threatened Williams if she did not perform oral sex on his mother.
Bobby Brewster is charged with second-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, malicious assault, assault during the commission of a felony and conspiracy. He and his mother were among seven defendants charged in the case. Three pleaded guilty this month; the others have denied wrongdoing.
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother, Carmen, agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams has said she wanted people to know what her daughter endured.
Frankie Brewster, 49, faces 10 to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to second-degree sexual assault, prosecutor Brian Abraham said Thursday. In exchange for her plea, charges of assault during the commission of a felony, kidnapping and conspiracy were dropped, Abraham said.
Brewster was accused of forcing 20-year-old Megan Williams to perform oral sex on her.
Authorities say Williams was held captive for days at Brewster's trailer in Big Creek, where she was forced to eat animal feces, sexually assaulted and stabbed. She was rescued Sept. 8 after an anonymous caller alerted authorities.
Abraham said Brewster's age was a factor in the plea agreement.
"A 10- to 25-year sentence may result in life for her," he said. "It's certainly a very lengthy sentence."
Authorities allege that Brewster's son, 24-year-old Bobby Brewster, threatened Williams if she did not perform oral sex on his mother.
Bobby Brewster is charged with second-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, malicious assault, assault during the commission of a felony and conspiracy. He and his mother were among seven defendants charged in the case. Three pleaded guilty this month; the others have denied wrongdoing.
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother, Carmen, agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams has said she wanted people to know what her daughter endured.
Urban League Striving for Black Economic Gains
The Chicago Urban League is stepping up efforts to improve economic advancement of black residents.
Beyond a troubled economy, Chicago blacks are challenged by an unemployment rate that is 17 percent on average and more than 30 percent in some communities, Chicago Urban League President Cheryle R. Jackson said during the organization's annual report luncheon Friday at the Hilton Chicago.
The organization last year shifted focus from social services to economic development.
The Urban League has created a section on its revamped Internet site (thechicagourbanleague.org) to connect potential workers with employers (nextMOVE.jobs), and will conduct workshops to assist people entering the job force, and provide development training for those seeking management opportunities.
The moves, including a college internship program, a June job fair, and a monthly networking reception for businesses and black professionals, are part of an effort to increase diversity levels in corporate Chicago. The number of African Americans in executive positions is at 6 percent and falling, Jackson said.
The Urban League is recruiting trainees for $40,000 process-technician jobs at BP America's Whiting, Ind., plant, and has 200 spots open for a commercial driver's license permit program.
Jackson has recruited business and religious leaders to address social and economic issues that deter black males from achievement.
About 30 percent of black men ages 18 to 40 are unemployed.
"Together, we have to believe in the possibilities, and not just in today's statistics," Jackson said.
The initiative is among the latest to combat what has been called a "black male crisis" for about two decades.
"By taking a more holistic and comprehensive approach, we can create pathways that connect the dots between work force, education, family and advocacy," Jackson said.
Article written by Cheryl Jackson of the Chicago Sun Times
Beyond a troubled economy, Chicago blacks are challenged by an unemployment rate that is 17 percent on average and more than 30 percent in some communities, Chicago Urban League President Cheryle R. Jackson said during the organization's annual report luncheon Friday at the Hilton Chicago.
The organization last year shifted focus from social services to economic development.
The Urban League has created a section on its revamped Internet site (thechicagourbanleague.org) to connect potential workers with employers (nextMOVE.jobs), and will conduct workshops to assist people entering the job force, and provide development training for those seeking management opportunities.
The moves, including a college internship program, a June job fair, and a monthly networking reception for businesses and black professionals, are part of an effort to increase diversity levels in corporate Chicago. The number of African Americans in executive positions is at 6 percent and falling, Jackson said.
The Urban League is recruiting trainees for $40,000 process-technician jobs at BP America's Whiting, Ind., plant, and has 200 spots open for a commercial driver's license permit program.
Jackson has recruited business and religious leaders to address social and economic issues that deter black males from achievement.
About 30 percent of black men ages 18 to 40 are unemployed.
"Together, we have to believe in the possibilities, and not just in today's statistics," Jackson said.
The initiative is among the latest to combat what has been called a "black male crisis" for about two decades.
"By taking a more holistic and comprehensive approach, we can create pathways that connect the dots between work force, education, family and advocacy," Jackson said.
Article written by Cheryl Jackson of the Chicago Sun Times
Thursday, February 14, 2008
NAACP and Rev. Sharpton Disagree Over Delagates
Interesting development in the Democratic delegate fight -- one that pits civil rights leader against civil rights leader.
As you know, the DNC stripped the Michigan and Florida Democratic parties of its delegates as punishment for moving up their primaries to earlier in the process than the national party wanted them to.
With no candidate campaigning having taken place in those states, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, cruised to early victories in Michigan on January 15 -- where hers was the only name on the ballot -- and in Florida on January 29, and is now claiming those delegates. Needless to say, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, disputes this.
The DNC has said both states can holds caucuses to comply with party rules and have recognized delegates.
Yesterday, Clinton's side of the argument got a boost when NAACP chairman Julian Bond wrote to DNC chair Howard Dean to express "great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted." Not seating the Michigan and Florida delegations would remind Americans of the "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries," Bond said.
This morning, Rev. Al Sharpton sided with Obama, writing to Dean to express the opposite sentiment.
"I firmly believe that changing the rules now, and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic party's rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice," Sharpton wrote. "Changing the rules in the middle of a presidential contest is patently unfair both to the candidates (including Senator Edwards) and to Democratic voters everywhere."
Sharpton said that Bond's argument of disenfranchisement "should have been made many months ago before the decision was made to strip these states of their delegates, and, once the decision was made, it should have been vigorously objected to and contested by those who felt it disenfranchised voters. To raise that claim now smacks of politics in its form most raw and undercuts the moral authority behind such an argument."
From ABC News
As you know, the DNC stripped the Michigan and Florida Democratic parties of its delegates as punishment for moving up their primaries to earlier in the process than the national party wanted them to.
With no candidate campaigning having taken place in those states, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, cruised to early victories in Michigan on January 15 -- where hers was the only name on the ballot -- and in Florida on January 29, and is now claiming those delegates. Needless to say, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, disputes this.
The DNC has said both states can holds caucuses to comply with party rules and have recognized delegates.
Yesterday, Clinton's side of the argument got a boost when NAACP chairman Julian Bond wrote to DNC chair Howard Dean to express "great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted." Not seating the Michigan and Florida delegations would remind Americans of the "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries," Bond said.
This morning, Rev. Al Sharpton sided with Obama, writing to Dean to express the opposite sentiment.
"I firmly believe that changing the rules now, and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic party's rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice," Sharpton wrote. "Changing the rules in the middle of a presidential contest is patently unfair both to the candidates (including Senator Edwards) and to Democratic voters everywhere."
Sharpton said that Bond's argument of disenfranchisement "should have been made many months ago before the decision was made to strip these states of their delegates, and, once the decision was made, it should have been vigorously objected to and contested by those who felt it disenfranchised voters. To raise that claim now smacks of politics in its form most raw and undercuts the moral authority behind such an argument."
From ABC News
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Bad Lenders Still Targeting People of Color
Growing scrutiny into subprime mortgages has failed to stop unscrupulous lending practices to blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said on Monday.
Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, warned lenders that regulators would crack down on groups shuttling minorities into subprime loans designed for people with weak credit histories or low incomes.
"We are still seeing more blacks and Hispanics being pushed into subprime mortgages than they should be and that's where you'll see more regulation," the Massachusetts Democrat said in response to a question after a speech at Boston University.
More than 2 million subprime borrowers face higher mortgage costs and the possible loss of their homes if they cannot meet the payments. Studies have found that blacks and Hispanics were likely to be charged higher interest rates on subprime loans than whites with similar credit ratings.
Frank helped craft legislation to curb predatory practices aimed at minorities seeking home financing and has pushed for more oversight of lenders in the wake of losses tied to mortgage securities.
Calling the current U.S. economic downturn the worst in a decade, Frank said there was clear evidence that too little regulation can be damaging.
Innovation in products and practices must be fostered, but regulation is needed to stem potential abuses, he added.
"We've got to enhance the ability of regulatory entities to do their job and to pay them well," said the trained lawyer who has represented Massachusetts in Washington since 1981.
Frank also said it was wrong to turn owning a home into one of Americas' biggest dreams.
"I wish everyone in America earned enough money and had enough sense to own a home," Frank said, adding however that many people are pushed into improperly buying one instead of renting.
"Home ownership is a good thing but Americans also made a great mistake where home was equated to home ownership," Frank said.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, editing by Richard Chang (reuters)
Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, warned lenders that regulators would crack down on groups shuttling minorities into subprime loans designed for people with weak credit histories or low incomes.
"We are still seeing more blacks and Hispanics being pushed into subprime mortgages than they should be and that's where you'll see more regulation," the Massachusetts Democrat said in response to a question after a speech at Boston University.
More than 2 million subprime borrowers face higher mortgage costs and the possible loss of their homes if they cannot meet the payments. Studies have found that blacks and Hispanics were likely to be charged higher interest rates on subprime loans than whites with similar credit ratings.
Frank helped craft legislation to curb predatory practices aimed at minorities seeking home financing and has pushed for more oversight of lenders in the wake of losses tied to mortgage securities.
Calling the current U.S. economic downturn the worst in a decade, Frank said there was clear evidence that too little regulation can be damaging.
Innovation in products and practices must be fostered, but regulation is needed to stem potential abuses, he added.
"We've got to enhance the ability of regulatory entities to do their job and to pay them well," said the trained lawyer who has represented Massachusetts in Washington since 1981.
Frank also said it was wrong to turn owning a home into one of Americas' biggest dreams.
"I wish everyone in America earned enough money and had enough sense to own a home," Frank said, adding however that many people are pushed into improperly buying one instead of renting.
"Home ownership is a good thing but Americans also made a great mistake where home was equated to home ownership," Frank said.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, editing by Richard Chang (reuters)
Debate Intensifies Over Role of Superdelegates
With victories Tuesday in three more elections, Barack Obama has now won 23 of the 35 sanctioned Democratic primaries and caucuses so far. But he has not yet solved his problem with Mannie Rodriguez.Rodriguez supports Hillary Rodham Clinton -- and his vote matters more than most.
He is a "super delegate," one of the 796 Democratic Party insiders who will break the tie if neither Obama nor Clinton emerges from the primary balloting with a clear victory, a strong possibility even after Obama's wins Tuesday.
Obama's task Tuesday was not only to carry Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. -- which he did in dominating fashion -- but to win the argument now emerging among the super delegates over whether and how to use their strength.And that contest is far from producing a winner.
Rodriguez, a party official from Colorado, reserves the right to back Clinton, no matter that Colorado and a majority of other states have so far chosen Obama."I do not go with the candidate who is always winning. I go with the candidate I believe in," he wrote recently to a voter who asked how he could side against the Democratic voters in his own state.
Dan Parker, chairman of the state party in Indiana and a super delegate, feels just as strongly -- even though his state will not vote until May."I have made my decision, and I am supporting Sen. Clinton, and that is not going to change," Parker said.
Even as the primary schedule rolls on -- Wisconsin and Hawaii vote next Tuesday -- the campaigns are devoting a huge amount of energy to gaining the upper hand in the private conversation among the super delegates, most of whom are members of Congress or party officials.
Clinton has won pledges from just over 200 super delegates so far, and Obama from about 150, according to unscientific media tallies. The super delegates can change their allegiance at any time.
Continue reading this Los Angeles Times article here.
He is a "super delegate," one of the 796 Democratic Party insiders who will break the tie if neither Obama nor Clinton emerges from the primary balloting with a clear victory, a strong possibility even after Obama's wins Tuesday.
Obama's task Tuesday was not only to carry Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. -- which he did in dominating fashion -- but to win the argument now emerging among the super delegates over whether and how to use their strength.And that contest is far from producing a winner.
Rodriguez, a party official from Colorado, reserves the right to back Clinton, no matter that Colorado and a majority of other states have so far chosen Obama."I do not go with the candidate who is always winning. I go with the candidate I believe in," he wrote recently to a voter who asked how he could side against the Democratic voters in his own state.
Dan Parker, chairman of the state party in Indiana and a super delegate, feels just as strongly -- even though his state will not vote until May."I have made my decision, and I am supporting Sen. Clinton, and that is not going to change," Parker said.
Even as the primary schedule rolls on -- Wisconsin and Hawaii vote next Tuesday -- the campaigns are devoting a huge amount of energy to gaining the upper hand in the private conversation among the super delegates, most of whom are members of Congress or party officials.
Clinton has won pledges from just over 200 super delegates so far, and Obama from about 150, according to unscientific media tallies. The super delegates can change their allegiance at any time.
Continue reading this Los Angeles Times article here.
Obama Wins 3 Primaries, Leads Delegates
Barack Obama, already claiming a "new American majority," is focusing more and more on the likely Republican candidate in the November presidential election as he continues to rack up big victories over Hillary Rodham Clinton in their race for the Democratic nomination.
Obama surged to the fore in the delegate race for the party prize with resounding primary victories Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. On the GOP side, John McCain took another step in shoring up his credentials as the runaway Republican front-runner despite lukewarm support from the party's conservative base.
Clinton, considered the overwhelming Democratic favorite just a few weeks, was left to turn her attention to Texas and Ohio in an attempt to pump new life into her suddenly stumbling campaign.
"There's a great saying in Texas, all hat and no cattle," she told a boisterous crowd of about 12,000 at a college basketball arena in El Paso Tuesday evening as the shape of the latest Obama ballot victories were unfolding. "Well, after seven years of George Bush, we need a lot less hat and lot more cattle."
Before flying into Texas, she told a Cincinnati television station that "Ohio is really going to count in determining who our Democratic nominee is going to be." She also declared herself the "underdog candidate" in the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday, the same day Obama's birthplace Hawaii holds its primary.
Continue reading AP article here.
Obama surged to the fore in the delegate race for the party prize with resounding primary victories Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. On the GOP side, John McCain took another step in shoring up his credentials as the runaway Republican front-runner despite lukewarm support from the party's conservative base.
In was at the University of Wisconsin where Obama characterized his surging campaign to a crowd of 17,000. "This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up," he said. "This is the new American majority."
"There's a great saying in Texas, all hat and no cattle," she told a boisterous crowd of about 12,000 at a college basketball arena in El Paso Tuesday evening as the shape of the latest Obama ballot victories were unfolding. "Well, after seven years of George Bush, we need a lot less hat and lot more cattle."
Before flying into Texas, she told a Cincinnati television station that "Ohio is really going to count in determining who our Democratic nominee is going to be." She also declared herself the "underdog candidate" in the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday, the same day Obama's birthplace Hawaii holds its primary.
Continue reading AP article here.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Displaced Kenyans Find More Problems
Since their home was torched six weeks ago, Peter Monderu's six children sleep tangled like puppies on the cold ground. His 9-year-old girl bears the scars of a horrific arson attack on a church, and his fearful wife startles awake at the least sound.
The Monderus are among 600,000 people driven from their homes by clashes sparked by a dispute over who won Kenya's Dec. 27 presidential election, according to a United Nations report Monday.
About half have taken refuge with family or friends. The rest are camping out — at prisons, churches, police stations and fairgrounds, like the one where the Monderus found a haven in the western town of Eldoret.
Aid agencies fear the makeshift camps are creating new problems for a once stable East African country struggling to pull itself back from the brink of violence that has left burned homes scarring the green hills of the Rift Valley and other parts of western Kenya.
The camps are breeding grounds for disease, violence and crime. And they sometimes fan the already heated ethnic tensions that forced Kenyans to flee in the first place, as the poorest of the poor in one group see the displaced of another group getting international aid.
Observers don't see the camps emptying soon, after more than 1,000 people died in the fighting. Even if a political solution is found for the election dispute, some fear the settlements may be the beginning of a permanent shift in Kenya's ethnic makeup.
Much of the postelection violence has pitted an array of ethnic groups against President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu people. In western Kenya, some areas have been emptied of Kikuyus, while violence also has been aimed at other groups thought to have supported Kibaki. Kikuyus, in turn, have inflicted reprisals on opposition supporters.
Read full AP article here.
The Monderus are among 600,000 people driven from their homes by clashes sparked by a dispute over who won Kenya's Dec. 27 presidential election, according to a United Nations report Monday.
About half have taken refuge with family or friends. The rest are camping out — at prisons, churches, police stations and fairgrounds, like the one where the Monderus found a haven in the western town of Eldoret.
Aid agencies fear the makeshift camps are creating new problems for a once stable East African country struggling to pull itself back from the brink of violence that has left burned homes scarring the green hills of the Rift Valley and other parts of western Kenya.
The camps are breeding grounds for disease, violence and crime. And they sometimes fan the already heated ethnic tensions that forced Kenyans to flee in the first place, as the poorest of the poor in one group see the displaced of another group getting international aid.
Observers don't see the camps emptying soon, after more than 1,000 people died in the fighting. Even if a political solution is found for the election dispute, some fear the settlements may be the beginning of a permanent shift in Kenya's ethnic makeup.
Much of the postelection violence has pitted an array of ethnic groups against President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu people. In western Kenya, some areas have been emptied of Kikuyus, while violence also has been aimed at other groups thought to have supported Kibaki. Kikuyus, in turn, have inflicted reprisals on opposition supporters.
Read full AP article here.
Free Black History Multimedia Resources Available Online
Connections Academy a leading national operator of high quality, highly accountable virtual public schools, is offering parents and teachers a wealth of free multimedia educational resources to celebrate Black History Month.
The curricular resources, developed for Connections Academy's recent celebration of the 19th Annual African American Read-In, will be available free of charge to parents and educators for the entire month of February, Black History Month.
These multimedia materials will engage, entertain and educate students and parents alike, and include selections appropriate for students in all grades. Parents and educators are encouraged to visit http://www.connectionsacademy.com/community/ncteReadIn.asp for the free educational resources.
Highlights of the free multimedia resources include:
-- African American children's book authors, including Monalisa DeGross,
LaTonya Richardson, and award-winner Evelyn Coleman reading their work
(audio and video clips)
-- Poet Jason Moffitt performing five of his powerful poems -- including
one about the pros and cons of today's technology -- on the virtual
spoken word stage
-- Charles Anthony Burks, actor, director, producer, professional DJ, and
gospel rap artist performing "I Gotta Love," a story in rap verse
-- Randy Archibold, national correspondent for The New York Times sharing
his favorite articles and an interview about becoming a journalist
-- Mississippi State Senator John Horhn (who is also a professional story
teller and actor) reading from the work of Mississippi native Richard
Wright
Resources available at www.connectionsacademy.com
The curricular resources, developed for Connections Academy's recent celebration of the 19th Annual African American Read-In, will be available free of charge to parents and educators for the entire month of February, Black History Month.
These multimedia materials will engage, entertain and educate students and parents alike, and include selections appropriate for students in all grades. Parents and educators are encouraged to visit http://www.connectionsacademy.com/community/ncteReadIn.asp for the free educational resources.
Highlights of the free multimedia resources include:
-- African American children's book authors, including Monalisa DeGross,
LaTonya Richardson, and award-winner Evelyn Coleman reading their work
(audio and video clips)
-- Poet Jason Moffitt performing five of his powerful poems -- including
one about the pros and cons of today's technology -- on the virtual
spoken word stage
-- Charles Anthony Burks, actor, director, producer, professional DJ, and
gospel rap artist performing "I Gotta Love," a story in rap verse
-- Randy Archibold, national correspondent for The New York Times sharing
his favorite articles and an interview about becoming a journalist
-- Mississippi State Senator John Horhn (who is also a professional story
teller and actor) reading from the work of Mississippi native Richard
Wright
Resources available at www.connectionsacademy.com
Top Demoracts Concerned About Superdelegates Deciding Party Nominee
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile — who managed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and is herself a superdelegate — says she will quit her position within the Democratic Party if her superdelegate colleagues decide the party's nomination.
"Let's wait for some of these other states to help sort this out," Brazile, a News & Notes contributor, told Farai Chideya.
As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to run neck-and-neck in amassing the total delegates needed to win the nomination, some have suggested that the party's superdelegates — comprising party activists and high-ranking officials — could make the deciding vote.
But Brazile says the superdelegate vote "should reflect the will of the people."
Brazile is a nationally syndicated columnist who also teaches at Georgetown University. She is the author of Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18882087
"Let's wait for some of these other states to help sort this out," Brazile, a News & Notes contributor, told Farai Chideya.
As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to run neck-and-neck in amassing the total delegates needed to win the nomination, some have suggested that the party's superdelegates — comprising party activists and high-ranking officials — could make the deciding vote.
But Brazile says the superdelegate vote "should reflect the will of the people."
Brazile is a nationally syndicated columnist who also teaches at Georgetown University. She is the author of Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18882087
Friday, February 8, 2008
Guilty Plea in WV Torture Case
A white woman pleaded guilty to a hate crime and other charges Thursday in the kidnapping and torture of a black woman who authorities say was held captive for days last summer.
Authorities say Karen Burton's crimes include stabbing Megan Williams in the ankle while saying, "This is what we do to n------ down here." She is the third in a group of seven people charged to plead guilty in the case, and the only one charged with a hate crime.
Burton does not remember much of the abuses against Williams, but she does not deny them, her lawyer Betty Gregory said.
Burton, 46, of Chapmanville, pleaded guilty in Logan County Circuit Court to malicious wounding, assault and violating Williams' civil rights, Gregory said.
Burton faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing, set for March 3. Logan County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Abraham said he agreed to dismiss a kidnapping count that carries a maximum life sentence.
Prosecutors say Williams, 20, was held captive at a trailer in the Big Creek area of Logan County, about 35 miles southwest of Charleston. Williams says she was forced to eat animal feces, sexually assaulted and stabbed. She was rescued Sept. 8 after an anonymous caller alerted deputies.
Gregory said Burton's childhood was marred by physical and sexual abuse. As a 7-year-old, the lawyer said, Burton was abused and left in an open grave.
"It does not excuse" the attack on Williams, Gregory said. "And it's not that she didn't do the acts, but at some point she has been victimized so many times in her life, and she felt helpless and gave up and joined in."
Authorities made several arrests but angered many of Williams' supporters by initially refraining from charging any defendants with a hate crime. The hate-crime charge against Burton came when grand jury indictments in the case were handed up Tuesday.
Abraham has said that although other defendants used the same racial slur Burton used, her use of the word while stabbing Williams made her act more clearly a hate crime.
Karen Burton's daughter, 23-year-old Alisha Burton, and 27-year-old George A. Messer pleaded guilty last week to kidnapping and assault and received 10-year prison sentences.
Felony charges including kidnapping, sexual assault and conspiracy are pending against Bobby Brewster, 24; his mother, Frankie Brewster, 49, of Big Creek; and Danny Combs, 20, of Harts. All have denied wrongdoing. A seventh defendant was indicted this week on a misdemeanor battery charge.
Article from AP, written by Shaya Tayefe Mohajer
Authorities say Karen Burton's crimes include stabbing Megan Williams in the ankle while saying, "This is what we do to n------ down here." She is the third in a group of seven people charged to plead guilty in the case, and the only one charged with a hate crime.
Burton does not remember much of the abuses against Williams, but she does not deny them, her lawyer Betty Gregory said.
Burton, 46, of Chapmanville, pleaded guilty in Logan County Circuit Court to malicious wounding, assault and violating Williams' civil rights, Gregory said.
Burton faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing, set for March 3. Logan County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Abraham said he agreed to dismiss a kidnapping count that carries a maximum life sentence.
Prosecutors say Williams, 20, was held captive at a trailer in the Big Creek area of Logan County, about 35 miles southwest of Charleston. Williams says she was forced to eat animal feces, sexually assaulted and stabbed. She was rescued Sept. 8 after an anonymous caller alerted deputies.
Gregory said Burton's childhood was marred by physical and sexual abuse. As a 7-year-old, the lawyer said, Burton was abused and left in an open grave.
"It does not excuse" the attack on Williams, Gregory said. "And it's not that she didn't do the acts, but at some point she has been victimized so many times in her life, and she felt helpless and gave up and joined in."
Authorities made several arrests but angered many of Williams' supporters by initially refraining from charging any defendants with a hate crime. The hate-crime charge against Burton came when grand jury indictments in the case were handed up Tuesday.
Abraham has said that although other defendants used the same racial slur Burton used, her use of the word while stabbing Williams made her act more clearly a hate crime.
Karen Burton's daughter, 23-year-old Alisha Burton, and 27-year-old George A. Messer pleaded guilty last week to kidnapping and assault and received 10-year prison sentences.
Felony charges including kidnapping, sexual assault and conspiracy are pending against Bobby Brewster, 24; his mother, Frankie Brewster, 49, of Big Creek; and Danny Combs, 20, of Harts. All have denied wrongdoing. A seventh defendant was indicted this week on a misdemeanor battery charge.
Article from AP, written by Shaya Tayefe Mohajer
US Voices' Concerns' about Zimbabwe Election
The United States expressed "serious concerns" Thursday about the March 29 general elections in Zimbabwe, a country it finds under constant repression from President Robert Mugabe's regime.
"In terms of Zimbabwe, we have very serious concerns about the upcoming elections," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
"Certainly, the record of the Mugabe government and its continued repression of political opposition in that country doesn't leave us with a lot of hope that these upcoming elections are going to be free and fair," he added.
Mugabe, 83, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, is hoping to secure a sixth term in office at joint parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29.
Casey strongly suggested the Zimbabwe polls could benefit from the presence of international observers.
"Certainly, we would want to see international observers there not only just a matter of general principle, but because there have been so many problems and concerns with the political system in Zimbabwe and with the actions of President Mugabe," the spokesman said.
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party cut former finance minister Simba Makoni adrift Wednesday over his electoral bid to topple Mugabe, saying he had "expelled himself" by taking on the veteran president.
Makoni, 57, announced his candidacy on Tuesday after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was unable to get its two factions to agree on a candidate to take on the soon-to-be 84 Mugabe.
The upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe will be held against a backdrop of economic disarray with an annual inflation rate of more than 26,000 percent, the highest in the world, and unemployment of around 80 percent.
Article from AFP.
"In terms of Zimbabwe, we have very serious concerns about the upcoming elections," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
"Certainly, the record of the Mugabe government and its continued repression of political opposition in that country doesn't leave us with a lot of hope that these upcoming elections are going to be free and fair," he added.
Mugabe, 83, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, is hoping to secure a sixth term in office at joint parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29.
Casey strongly suggested the Zimbabwe polls could benefit from the presence of international observers.
"Certainly, we would want to see international observers there not only just a matter of general principle, but because there have been so many problems and concerns with the political system in Zimbabwe and with the actions of President Mugabe," the spokesman said.
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party cut former finance minister Simba Makoni adrift Wednesday over his electoral bid to topple Mugabe, saying he had "expelled himself" by taking on the veteran president.
Makoni, 57, announced his candidacy on Tuesday after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was unable to get its two factions to agree on a candidate to take on the soon-to-be 84 Mugabe.
The upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe will be held against a backdrop of economic disarray with an annual inflation rate of more than 26,000 percent, the highest in the world, and unemployment of around 80 percent.
Article from AFP.
Buying Power of African American’s to Reach $1.1 trillion by 2012
The attitudes and behavior of African- American consumers can differ significantly from consumers in other groups, therefore segmentation in marketing strategies can be critical to increase organizational growth and revenue. Why would you want to specifically target this population group? A new report from Packaged Facts titled "The African-American Market in the U.S." forecasts that the buying power of 39 million African Americans will hit $1.1 trillion by 2012.
What is notable is that in the U.S. there are 2.4 million affluent African-American households with household incomes of $75,000 or more. They account for 17% of all African-American households but 45% of total African- American buying power. This buying power offers opportunities to marketers of a wide range of products and services.
vData shows that companies offering luxury items and financial services are at a particular advantage, because affluent African Americans are even more likely than other affluent cohorts to spend money on luxury items such as cruise-ship vacations, new cars, designer clothes, as well as investing in life insurance.
"The African-American cohort continues to be a significant consumer segment that in some ways exercises more economic clout than the ever popular Hispanic one," comments Tatjana Meerman, Publisher of Packaged Facts. "African Americans' purchasing behaviors can differ in many ways, ranging from what is bought at the grocery store to clothing style and magazine preferences. Marketers should pay attention to these differences to execute marketing campaigns that target the many segments of this important demographic cohort.
"The African-American Market in the U.S. provides a demographic analysis of the African-American population and an assessment of social and economic trends affecting African Americans today and in the future. A full assessment of African-American buying power presents their behaviors across a variety of areas. This data-rich report also analyzes how African Americans spend their leisure time and money offering solid support to marketers targeting African- American consumers.
Article from emergingminds.org
View the full report at http://www.PackagedFacts.com
What is notable is that in the U.S. there are 2.4 million affluent African-American households with household incomes of $75,000 or more. They account for 17% of all African-American households but 45% of total African- American buying power. This buying power offers opportunities to marketers of a wide range of products and services.
vData shows that companies offering luxury items and financial services are at a particular advantage, because affluent African Americans are even more likely than other affluent cohorts to spend money on luxury items such as cruise-ship vacations, new cars, designer clothes, as well as investing in life insurance.
"The African-American cohort continues to be a significant consumer segment that in some ways exercises more economic clout than the ever popular Hispanic one," comments Tatjana Meerman, Publisher of Packaged Facts. "African Americans' purchasing behaviors can differ in many ways, ranging from what is bought at the grocery store to clothing style and magazine preferences. Marketers should pay attention to these differences to execute marketing campaigns that target the many segments of this important demographic cohort.
"The African-American Market in the U.S. provides a demographic analysis of the African-American population and an assessment of social and economic trends affecting African Americans today and in the future. A full assessment of African-American buying power presents their behaviors across a variety of areas. This data-rich report also analyzes how African Americans spend their leisure time and money offering solid support to marketers targeting African- American consumers.
Article from emergingminds.org
View the full report at http://www.PackagedFacts.com
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Crime Wave Has Grip on New Orleans
The crime wave that hit New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina shows little sign of abating, more than two years after city officials said taming the outbreak was among their top priorities.
The rates of killings and most types of property crime have kept pace with the city's population increase, according to police records. Sporadic violence also marred the city's famed Mardi Gras celebration since Saturday, with at least nine people wounded by gunshots, including some that were fired near a parade route Tuesday.
Recent crime figures show that the number of thefts reported in the first 10 months of 2007 was 51% higher than the same period in 2006; the number of robberies increased 54%, according to police records.
Such crimes are increasing despite an aggressive federal, state and city campaign that includes patrols by the National Guard and state police. For instance, more than 1,000 officers, state troopers and National Guardsmen were positioned along Mardi Gras parade routes this year.
Continue reading this USA Today story Here.
The rates of killings and most types of property crime have kept pace with the city's population increase, according to police records. Sporadic violence also marred the city's famed Mardi Gras celebration since Saturday, with at least nine people wounded by gunshots, including some that were fired near a parade route Tuesday.
Recent crime figures show that the number of thefts reported in the first 10 months of 2007 was 51% higher than the same period in 2006; the number of robberies increased 54%, according to police records.
Such crimes are increasing despite an aggressive federal, state and city campaign that includes patrols by the National Guard and state police. For instance, more than 1,000 officers, state troopers and National Guardsmen were positioned along Mardi Gras parade routes this year.
Continue reading this USA Today story Here.
UN fears new Horn of Africa war
A new conflict could break out between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the UN says, as it prepares to withdraw its troops. The UN gave a Wednesday deadline for Eritrea to restore fuel supplies to the peacekeepers on its side of the border, or it said they would have to withdraw.
"Clearly the signs point towards a resumption of the conflict," UN spokesman Yves Sorokobi told the BBC.
Tens of thousands of people died in the two countries' 1998-2000 border war.
"We know that troops are being amassed in the Temporary Security Zone between Eritrea and Ethiopia," said Mr Sorokobi, UN chief Ban Ki-moon's spokesman.
"We know the rhetoric has been warlike and increasingly so. All this bodes ill for peace in the region," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
But the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in the Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa, says that senior UN officials there are convinced that neither side really wants war.
Some 1,400 UN troops and 200 military observers are in the region to monitor a peace deal signed in 2000.
To read this BBC article in full follow the link.
"Clearly the signs point towards a resumption of the conflict," UN spokesman Yves Sorokobi told the BBC.
Tens of thousands of people died in the two countries' 1998-2000 border war.
"We know that troops are being amassed in the Temporary Security Zone between Eritrea and Ethiopia," said Mr Sorokobi, UN chief Ban Ki-moon's spokesman.
"We know the rhetoric has been warlike and increasingly so. All this bodes ill for peace in the region," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
But the BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in the Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa, says that senior UN officials there are convinced that neither side really wants war.
Some 1,400 UN troops and 200 military observers are in the region to monitor a peace deal signed in 2000.
To read this BBC article in full follow the link.
Haiti’s Wealthy prosper while the Poor Decline
Cite Soleil, a seaside shantytown of more than 300.000 people residing in homes made of cinder blocks with tin roofs, has been described as poorer than India's infamous slums of Calcutta. On any given day it teems with the life's blood of Haiti's poorest citizens.
Despite the twists and turns of what residents describe as several foreign interventions, members of the community still recount with pride how they served as a launching site for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first election campaign in 1990.
Yannick Jean, a frail 70-year-old woman whose longevity itself is a testament to hope, spoke in hushed tones as she washed her clothes in a ditch of dirty water, "We were the ones who presented Aristide to Haiti when he ran for president. He was our greatest hope. I am waiting for him again."
A controversial figure, Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a former Catholic priest who was overthrown twice in Haiti's turbulent political history. His first ouster was at the hands of Haiti's former brutal military with the support of the traditional economic elite who live fabulously wealthy lives as compared to Haiti's average citizens.
Where Yannick Jean washes her clothes probably speaks more to Haiti's current reality and the contradictions of the current United Nations mission than any expert on development possibly could. Rising above her and creating shadows over her dirty laundry is a huge edifice of new construction that bears the mark GB. It is a new building that covers several acres and is home to the business of Haiti's wealthiest man, Gilbert Bigio.
While the surrounding residents of Cite Soleil are forced to literally eat dirt to stave off hunger, Bigio is a billionaire whose family supported the first coup against Aristide and reportedly helped to back the movement that forced his second ouster in 2004. One need not look very far to see where Gilbert Bigio's interests lie in relation to Cite Soleil. According to his own company's website, www.gbgroup.net, his family maintains controlling interests in 16 of Haiti's largest companies. They are also the largest Haitian partner in the wireless communications giant Digicel, a mammoth company based in Ireland that has nearly cornered the cellular market in the Caribbean.
Continur reading this article produced by the Hatian Information Project here.
Despite the twists and turns of what residents describe as several foreign interventions, members of the community still recount with pride how they served as a launching site for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first election campaign in 1990.
Yannick Jean, a frail 70-year-old woman whose longevity itself is a testament to hope, spoke in hushed tones as she washed her clothes in a ditch of dirty water, "We were the ones who presented Aristide to Haiti when he ran for president. He was our greatest hope. I am waiting for him again."
A controversial figure, Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a former Catholic priest who was overthrown twice in Haiti's turbulent political history. His first ouster was at the hands of Haiti's former brutal military with the support of the traditional economic elite who live fabulously wealthy lives as compared to Haiti's average citizens.
Where Yannick Jean washes her clothes probably speaks more to Haiti's current reality and the contradictions of the current United Nations mission than any expert on development possibly could. Rising above her and creating shadows over her dirty laundry is a huge edifice of new construction that bears the mark GB. It is a new building that covers several acres and is home to the business of Haiti's wealthiest man, Gilbert Bigio.
While the surrounding residents of Cite Soleil are forced to literally eat dirt to stave off hunger, Bigio is a billionaire whose family supported the first coup against Aristide and reportedly helped to back the movement that forced his second ouster in 2004. One need not look very far to see where Gilbert Bigio's interests lie in relation to Cite Soleil. According to his own company's website, www.gbgroup.net, his family maintains controlling interests in 16 of Haiti's largest companies. They are also the largest Haitian partner in the wireless communications giant Digicel, a mammoth company based in Ireland that has nearly cornered the cellular market in the Caribbean.
Continur reading this article produced by the Hatian Information Project here.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Bush: Darfur, Zimbabwe on List of African Challenges
US President George W. Bush congratulated the African Union's new leaders Tuesday but warned they faced "difficult challenges" on ending violence in Darfur and Kenya and promoting democracy in Zimbabwe.
In a statement released by the White House, Bush hailed the elections of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete to the rotating presidency of the 53-state union and Gabonese Foreign Minister Jean Ping to head the AU commission.
"I am confident that the African Union -- and the people of Africa -- will be well-served by the leadership and vision President Kikwete and Minister Ping will bring to these important posts," said Bush.
Bush, who sets off February 15 on a week-long trip to Africa, cited "important progress" there on economic growth, democratic reforms, and efforts to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other illnesses.
"Difficult challenges remain, including ending genocide in Darfur, restoring peace and stability to Kenya, and bringing freedom to the Zimbabwean people," said Bush, who will stop in Tanzania on his five-country trip.
"The United States looks forward to working closely with President Kikwete, Minister Ping, and the African Union to address these challenges and to build on recent achievements to secure a better future for all Africans," said Bush.
The US president and First Lady Laura Bush will travel to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia on the February 15-21 trip -- likely his last visit to Africa before leaving office in January 2009.
In a statement released by the White House, Bush hailed the elections of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete to the rotating presidency of the 53-state union and Gabonese Foreign Minister Jean Ping to head the AU commission.
"I am confident that the African Union -- and the people of Africa -- will be well-served by the leadership and vision President Kikwete and Minister Ping will bring to these important posts," said Bush.
Bush, who sets off February 15 on a week-long trip to Africa, cited "important progress" there on economic growth, democratic reforms, and efforts to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other illnesses.
"Difficult challenges remain, including ending genocide in Darfur, restoring peace and stability to Kenya, and bringing freedom to the Zimbabwean people," said Bush, who will stop in Tanzania on his five-country trip.
"The United States looks forward to working closely with President Kikwete, Minister Ping, and the African Union to address these challenges and to build on recent achievements to secure a better future for all Africans," said Bush.
The US president and First Lady Laura Bush will travel to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia on the February 15-21 trip -- likely his last visit to Africa before leaving office in January 2009.
Hunger Strike Ignites Discussions of Racism at MIT
In 2007, MIT garnered attention in an unexpected light — through allegations of racism in its tenure process. An African American associate professor in the Biological Engineering Department charged that racism influenced his tenure denial, prompting his hunger strike, the resignation of an executive director, the withdrawal of an alumnus, and the initiation of an Institute-wide study on underrepresented minority issues.
James L. Sherley alleged that racism tarnished his tenure case and ultimately influenced his tenure denial. Denied tenure in December 2004, Sherley urged administrators to reexamine his case on the basis that BE’s decision was affected by racism and conflicts of interest. After two grievance reviews ruled his case fair, Provost L. Rafael Reif concluded that he would not overturn the denial.
In December 2006, after the grievance reviews and Reif’s decision, Sherley sent an e-mail to MIT faculty members calling for support. The letter, titled “A plea for help to end racism at MIT,” detailed Sherley’s version of the events leading to his situation at the time.
In the letter, Sherley claimed to have received inadequate laboratory space because Robert A. Brown, School of Engineering dean at the time, said “he was not going to give lab space to a Black man.” Yet after the BE department gained significant laboratory space Douglas A. Lauffenburger, head of BE, did “nothing to rectify the situation,” giving “it all to White faculty members” despite his requests, Sherley said.
COntinue reading article Here.
James L. Sherley alleged that racism tarnished his tenure case and ultimately influenced his tenure denial. Denied tenure in December 2004, Sherley urged administrators to reexamine his case on the basis that BE’s decision was affected by racism and conflicts of interest. After two grievance reviews ruled his case fair, Provost L. Rafael Reif concluded that he would not overturn the denial.
In December 2006, after the grievance reviews and Reif’s decision, Sherley sent an e-mail to MIT faculty members calling for support. The letter, titled “A plea for help to end racism at MIT,” detailed Sherley’s version of the events leading to his situation at the time.
In the letter, Sherley claimed to have received inadequate laboratory space because Robert A. Brown, School of Engineering dean at the time, said “he was not going to give lab space to a Black man.” Yet after the BE department gained significant laboratory space Douglas A. Lauffenburger, head of BE, did “nothing to rectify the situation,” giving “it all to White faculty members” despite his requests, Sherley said.
COntinue reading article Here.
Effort to Stop Black-Focused School in Canada Fails
A last-ditch effort to schedule an emergency school board meeting to try to reverse approval of an Africentric school for Toronto failed yesterday, but opponents say the battle is not over.
Josh Matlow, one of two trustees who voted against the school proposal, proposed the emergency meeting Monday.
But Toronto District School Board chair John Campbell, who gave trustees until 4:30 p.m. yesterday to signal their willingness to reopen the issue, said Matlow is "out there on a limb.
"No other trustee has indicated a willingness to proceed with an emergency meeting at this time."
Opponents of the plan see a report to the board due in May as another opportunity to derail the project.
Continue reading the article by Linda Diebel Here.
Josh Matlow, one of two trustees who voted against the school proposal, proposed the emergency meeting Monday.
But Toronto District School Board chair John Campbell, who gave trustees until 4:30 p.m. yesterday to signal their willingness to reopen the issue, said Matlow is "out there on a limb.
"No other trustee has indicated a willingness to proceed with an emergency meeting at this time."
Opponents of the plan see a report to the board due in May as another opportunity to derail the project.
Continue reading the article by Linda Diebel Here.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Your Time Is Up, Mr. President -- the National Guard Is Coming Home
By Karen Dolan and Ben Manski
Guess what, Mr. President? Your authority to keep state National Guard troops in Iraq has expired. So says a new bill introduced this week to the Vermont Legislature by Rep. Michael Fisher and Sen. Peter Shumlin. It is supported by 30 of their colleagues.
"It is clear that the mission that Congress authorized no longer exists," said Fisher. "Unless Congress grants a new authorization, the Vermont Guard should revert back to state control." The Vermont bill states:
The Guard are the mainstay of America's national defense, and as with other American institutions, the Guard's duties are distributed between the states and the federal government. Unless called into national service, each unit and each individual member of the Guard remains in the service of their respective states.
Five years ago, George Bush called the Guard into national service pursuant to the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq. The AUMF, passed by Congress in its rush to war, established a limited mission: First, the removal of Saddam Hussein from power; second, enforcement of preceding United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding the elimination of alleged Iraqi WMDs and ballistic missiles. The Vermont bill recognizes that those two mission objectives are complete and that the national service of the Vermont Guard is over; the bill recalls the Guard to state control.
Read the rest of this article here: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/75916/
Guess what, Mr. President? Your authority to keep state National Guard troops in Iraq has expired. So says a new bill introduced this week to the Vermont Legislature by Rep. Michael Fisher and Sen. Peter Shumlin. It is supported by 30 of their colleagues.
"It is clear that the mission that Congress authorized no longer exists," said Fisher. "Unless Congress grants a new authorization, the Vermont Guard should revert back to state control." The Vermont bill states:
The Authorization for the Use of Military Force of October 16th, 2002, having
expired, the General Assembly declares that all members of the Vermont National
Guard should be promptly and expeditiously withdrawn from Iraq, subject only to
the conditions of time and manner specifically required to assure their safety
and well-being during removal operations … The General Assembly calls on the
Governor of Vermont to take prompt steps as the Commander-in-Chief of the
Vermont National Guard to effectuate these purposes.
The Guard are the mainstay of America's national defense, and as with other American institutions, the Guard's duties are distributed between the states and the federal government. Unless called into national service, each unit and each individual member of the Guard remains in the service of their respective states.
Five years ago, George Bush called the Guard into national service pursuant to the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq. The AUMF, passed by Congress in its rush to war, established a limited mission: First, the removal of Saddam Hussein from power; second, enforcement of preceding United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding the elimination of alleged Iraqi WMDs and ballistic missiles. The Vermont bill recognizes that those two mission objectives are complete and that the national service of the Vermont Guard is over; the bill recalls the Guard to state control.
Read the rest of this article here: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/75916/
Diddy Pushes Youth Vote Again
Four years ago, Sean "Diddy" Combs took his hip-hop swagger across the nation in an effort to get young people to vote, with the bold slogan "Vote or Die." Now, on the eve of Super Tuesday's primary contests, the entertainer has just a simple message: Go vote.
"If we want to stop the war, if we want to get the economy better, I think that young people need to understand they have to take matters into their own hands," Combs, 38, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Monday. "It is really like waking up a sleeping giant."
Some political analysts believe the youth vote could be a key factor in this year's presidential election
"The seeds that we planted in '04 are now coming to fruition," he told the AP. "A lot of young people have decided that this is their future. This president is going to decide their future."
Back then, Combs refused to endorse a candidate and is keeping to that policy this time around, for now, at least.
Follow link to read full article by Nekisha Mumbi Moody.
"If we want to stop the war, if we want to get the economy better, I think that young people need to understand they have to take matters into their own hands," Combs, 38, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Monday. "It is really like waking up a sleeping giant."
Some political analysts believe the youth vote could be a key factor in this year's presidential election
"The seeds that we planted in '04 are now coming to fruition," he told the AP. "A lot of young people have decided that this is their future. This president is going to decide their future."
Back then, Combs refused to endorse a candidate and is keeping to that policy this time around, for now, at least.
Follow link to read full article by Nekisha Mumbi Moody.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Rebels Threaten Offensive in Chad
Thousands fled the Chadian capital Ndjamena on Monday, the UN refugee agency said, as rebels threatened a fresh offensive after two days of heavy fighting saw them pull out of the city.
Dead bodies littered the streets of Ndjamena, where buildings were pockmarked with bullet holes after a weekend of fighting, as Sudan denied claims by President Idriss Deby that it was backing the rebellion.
General Mahamat Ali Abdallah, operational commander of government forces, told AFP the rebels had been "completely routed ... Time is going to show that they have been defeated."
But rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah, contacted Monday by satellite telephone, said the insurgency -- the most serious that Deby has faced since coming to power in 1990 in this central African state -- was far from over.
"We have pulled out of the city and we are waiting for the civilian population to be evacuated," Koulamallah told AFP, adding that the rebels were surrounding the capital that is home to an estimated 700,000 people.
"We opted to leave the city, but we certainly will go back on the offensive," he said. "We're asking the civilian population of Ndjamena to leave immediately because their safety cannot be assured."
In Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had been told by local officials in the Chadian border town of Kousseri that people were fleeing "by the thousands" into neighbouring Cameroon.
"We're expecting a lot more people coming" to the Cameroon side of the Chari River that marks the border, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said, adding that the virtual siege conditions around Ndjamena also threatened supplies to refugees from neighbouring Darfur in camps in eastern Chad.
"We're extremely concerned" about some 240,000 Sudanese refugees in these camps if the siege continues, Redmond said.
Continue reading story Here.
Dead bodies littered the streets of Ndjamena, where buildings were pockmarked with bullet holes after a weekend of fighting, as Sudan denied claims by President Idriss Deby that it was backing the rebellion.
General Mahamat Ali Abdallah, operational commander of government forces, told AFP the rebels had been "completely routed ... Time is going to show that they have been defeated."
But rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah, contacted Monday by satellite telephone, said the insurgency -- the most serious that Deby has faced since coming to power in 1990 in this central African state -- was far from over.
"We have pulled out of the city and we are waiting for the civilian population to be evacuated," Koulamallah told AFP, adding that the rebels were surrounding the capital that is home to an estimated 700,000 people.
"We opted to leave the city, but we certainly will go back on the offensive," he said. "We're asking the civilian population of Ndjamena to leave immediately because their safety cannot be assured."
In Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had been told by local officials in the Chadian border town of Kousseri that people were fleeing "by the thousands" into neighbouring Cameroon.
"We're expecting a lot more people coming" to the Cameroon side of the Chari River that marks the border, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said, adding that the virtual siege conditions around Ndjamena also threatened supplies to refugees from neighbouring Darfur in camps in eastern Chad.
"We're extremely concerned" about some 240,000 Sudanese refugees in these camps if the siege continues, Redmond said.
Continue reading story Here.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Harlem Rezoning Plan Faces Opposition
A plan to rezone 125th St. that would bring thousands of new apartments to Harlem's business and entertainment hub faced detailed opposition at a public hearing Wednesday.
Hundreds of people filled a City College auditorium for the City Planning Commission hearing, many voicing criticism that the plan would change the character of an iconic African-American locale with chain stores, luxury housing and out-of-scale high-rises.
"We feel that the change will have a negative impact on central Harlem and on all of those who revere 125th St.," said Frank Perry, chairman of Community Board 10, which opposes the plan.
"The majority of any 125th St. residential development will not be within the financial reach of the average Harlemite."
The city Planning Department has spent four years organizing a mix of uses, heights and incentives along 125th St. between Broadway and Second Ave.
It includes incentives for "arts and entertainment uses" such as galleries, theaters and museums; discourages big bank lobbies, pawn shops and roll-down metal gates, and will impose a 290-foot height limit - the first ever along the street.
Follow link to read full article.
Hundreds of people filled a City College auditorium for the City Planning Commission hearing, many voicing criticism that the plan would change the character of an iconic African-American locale with chain stores, luxury housing and out-of-scale high-rises.
"We feel that the change will have a negative impact on central Harlem and on all of those who revere 125th St.," said Frank Perry, chairman of Community Board 10, which opposes the plan.
"The majority of any 125th St. residential development will not be within the financial reach of the average Harlemite."
The city Planning Department has spent four years organizing a mix of uses, heights and incentives along 125th St. between Broadway and Second Ave.
It includes incentives for "arts and entertainment uses" such as galleries, theaters and museums; discourages big bank lobbies, pawn shops and roll-down metal gates, and will impose a 290-foot height limit - the first ever along the street.
Follow link to read full article.
Missouri Claims Sad Title: Homicide Capital
Missouri posted the highest 2005 homicide rate for African-Americans of any state, according to a report issued Tuesday.
The report, based on FBI crime data, set the state’s black homicide rate at 32.79 per 100,000 people — six times the nation’s overall homicide rate and more than 10 times the rate for whites.
Kansas ranked 12th nationally, with a rate of 20.73 per 100,000.
“The devastation homicide inflicts on black teens and adults is a national crisis, yet it is all too often ignored outside of affected communities,” according to the study by the Violence Policy
Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates greater gun control.
Of the 229 Missouri victims, 189 died from gunshot wounds. According to the FBI data, 118 were killed in St. Louis, 83 in Kansas City and 28 elsewhere.
A Gladstone lawyer for pro-gun groups said guns were not to blame for an increase in gang violence. Attacking guns is a false solution, he said.
To continue reading article by Joe Lambe follow this link.
The report, based on FBI crime data, set the state’s black homicide rate at 32.79 per 100,000 people — six times the nation’s overall homicide rate and more than 10 times the rate for whites.
Kansas ranked 12th nationally, with a rate of 20.73 per 100,000.
“The devastation homicide inflicts on black teens and adults is a national crisis, yet it is all too often ignored outside of affected communities,” according to the study by the Violence Policy
Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates greater gun control.
Of the 229 Missouri victims, 189 died from gunshot wounds. According to the FBI data, 118 were killed in St. Louis, 83 in Kansas City and 28 elsewhere.
A Gladstone lawyer for pro-gun groups said guns were not to blame for an increase in gang violence. Attacking guns is a false solution, he said.
To continue reading article by Joe Lambe follow this link.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
