NYC Pol's $177 Bagel Part of Money Probe
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clipped from www.cbsnews.com

NYC Pol's $177 Bagel Part of Money Probe

City Councilman Larry Seabrook Charged with Bilking City out of $2.5M, Channeling Funds to Girlfriend, Family

(AP)  A city councilman on Tuesday surrendered to face federal charges that he tried to cheat the city of at least $2.5 million in council discretionary funds, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to his girlfriend and relatives and charging the city $177 for a bagel sandwich.
The charges were contained in a Manhattan indictment against Councilman Larry Seabrook, a Democrat who has represented a Bronx council district since 2002 and who was once a state senator.
Seabrook is charged with receiving corrupt payments, extortion, money laundering and conspiracy. His lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.
  • Larry Seabrook.

    Larry Seabrook.  (New York City Council)


  • U.S. soldier Joshua Taber waterboards his daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet: police
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    [info]bomani
    clipped from www.nydailynews.com

    U.S. soldier Joshua Taber waterboards his daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet: police

    A GI waterboarded his 4-year-old daughter in their suburban Tacoma, Wash., home because she couldn't recite the alphabet, police reported.

    Joshua Tabor, 27, allegedly admitted to police he used the torture technique because his daughter was terrified of water and he was furious she didn't know her ABCs.

    Tabor was arrested Sunday and charged with assault of a child.

    Tabor, a soldier at the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Wash., told police he held the little girl's head backward in a sink of water, Yelm Police Chief Todd Stancil told the the local newspaper, the Nisqually Valley News.

    Stancil said Tabor had admitted to using this means of punishment three to four times.


    The Melody and Lyrics of Black History
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    clipped from www.nytimes.com

    The Melody and Lyrics of Black History

    LAST spring Paul Hefner, a bandleader and composer from Floral Park, had the idea of spotlighting Tara Nova, a longtime vocalist with his group, in a concert with a local twist: It would feature music by his colleagues in the Long Island Composers’ Alliance, which has more than 50 members.

    That exchange was the seed for “A Long Island Composers’ Alliance Salute to Black History Month,” a concert of nearly 20 works to be held on Feb. 21 at the South Nassau Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Freeport. (Its debut will be on Feb. 14, at the Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Manhattan.) The concert is being produced by the composers’ group and Park Avenue Presenters, a nonprofit organization founded by Mr. Hefner.

    Long Island Composers’ Alliance Salute to Black History Month,” Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, 106 East 86th Street, Manhattan; (212) 427-5421. Suggested donation of $10.

    Haiti-aid workers stuck in Fla.
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    clipped from www.nypost.com

    Haiti-aid workers stuck in Fla.


    A team of about 20 aid workers was stranded at a Florida Air Force base last night -- after the military refused to fly them and their medical supplies to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, one of their members said.

    "The Air Force has withdrawn their promise to transport us," said Bill Dienstag, a doctor at Beth Israel Hospital, who had been waiting at Homestead Air Force Base in Miami for about 15 hours when he got the news.


    Imari Obadele, Who Fought for Reparations, Dies at 79
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    clipped from www.nytimes.com

    Imari Obadele, Who Fought for Reparations, Dies at 79

    Imari Obadele, a teacher and writer whose commitment to black empowerment fired a militant, sometimes violent effort to win reparations for descendants of slaves and to carve out, however quixotically, an African-American republic in the Deep South, died on Jan. 18 in Atlanta. He was 79.

    The cause was a stroke, said Johnita Scott, his former wife.

    Mr. Obadele (pronounced oh-ba-DEL-ee) was president of what he called the Republic of New Afrika, a country that existed as an idea. His provocative proposal was to have Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — the heart of the old Confederacy — removed from the union and given over to black Americans.

    The demand drew the national news media’s attention. The New York Times called it “bizarre.”


    New York City Plans to Topple Public Housing Towers
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    clipped from www.nytimes.com

    New York City Plans to Topple Public Housing Towers

    Philadelphia tore down 21. Chicago leveled 79. Baltimore took down 21 as well, and when 6 of them came down in one day in 1995, it threw a parade.

    Since the 1990s, public housing high-rise buildings have come tumbling down by the dozens across the country as cities replace them with smaller suburban-style homes that do not carry the stigma of looming urban despair and poverty.

    New York City has long been the great exception, and red-brick towers still dominate the skyline from the Lower East Side to East Harlem, from Mott Haven, in the Bronx, to Bushwick, Brooklyn. But now, for the first time in its 75-year history, the New York City Housing Authority wants to knock down an entire high-rise complex, Prospect Plaza in Brooklyn — a move that has surprised and angered a number of former tenants and advocates for low-income housing.


    Ex-NY1 anchor Dominic Carter released from jail early on domestic violence sentence
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    clipped from www.nydailynews.com

    Ex-NY1 anchor Dominic Carter released from jail early on domestic violence sentence

    Marilyn Carter stands by her husband Dominic Carter during a break in a legal hearing in his domestic violence case last November,

    Schwartz, Michael

    Marilyn Carter stands by her husband Dominic Carter during a break in a legal hearing in his domestic violence case last November,

    Former NY1 political anchor Dominic Carter has been released from jail early, after serving two-thirds of his 30-day sentence in a domestic violence case.

    The TV newsman, who was tossed into the clink in Rockland County on Jan. 14, was allowed to walk free Tuesday on good behavior.

    It was 11 days before the official end of his sentence.

    Carter was convicted of attempting to assault his wife, Marilyn Carter, in October 2008 and is barred from seeing her for two years or until a psychiatrist can prove interaction between the couple would be safe.

    He is also on one year probation.

    "He's doing well. He's working hard at a comeback," said his lawyer, Julia Kuan.


    NBC cook defends fried chicken choice for Black History Month
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    clipped from www.thegrio.com

    NBC cook defends fried chicken choice for Black History Month

    NBC cook defends fried chicken choice for Black History Month
    Questlove's twitpic of the NBC cafeteria menu

    It may have seemed like an innocent tweet. But when you have more than a million followers, it's never that simple.

    Questlove, the drummer for the Roots - now the house band for The Jimmy Fallon Show - was grabbing a bite at the NBC commissary Thursday, when a certain lunch special caught his eye. He snapped a photo of the sign, and tweeted it.

    Underneath the picture he included the caption "Hmm HR?" - signaling that he may have been offended by the idea that Black History Month should be honored with fried chicken and collard greens. Some of his 1.3 million followers agreed, posting comments like "They wrong...Somebody get Al Sharpton on the phone" - while others didn't see the big deal, writing "It is a representation of Black food historically."
    Within minutes the sign was gone from the commissary - though the meal continued to be served

    N.Y. Haitians See Chance for Clout
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    clipped from www.nytimes.com

    N.Y. Haitians See Chance for Clout

    After a week of watching news coverage of the Haiti earthquake, Nadege Fleurimond, a Haitian-American event planner in New York, fired off an e-mail message to about three dozen friends and associates. Though she was moved by the outpouring of help from local Haitians, she was frustrated that the effort had not coalesced into something larger and more visible.

    “No major press conferences, no major vigils, no major anything with a statement,” she wrote. “Nothing being written about us besides the fact that we were sad and shocked.”






    Ángel Franco/The New York Times


    Goby's Barber Shop on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. The region's Haitians are scattered in Brooklyn, Queens and the suburbs.

    The problem, she suggested, was that Haitians, for all their history and achievements in New York, had not emerged as a discernible entity, with prominent leaders, a united presence, a public face.


    Black Voices Must be heard re Haiti
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    [info]bomani
    Black Voices Must be heard re Haiti
    By Alton H. Maddox, Jr

     If Blacks enjoyed political representation and not just political presence in the United States , it would be unnecessary for me to ask you to make a clarion call to get medical treatment for Haitians in dire need of medical treatment. 
    Former Sen. John Edwards and actor, John Travolta, can freely travel to Haiti while the passports of our leaders have been lifted.  Moreover, these leaders have refused to initiate a class action lawsuit against the U.S. State Department.
     The U.S. military is now refusing to evacuate Haitians in dire need of critical medical care to the United States .  Florida has filed a complaint for having to help Haitians while Gov. David Paterson can only be found in suspect locations.  Hospitals in New York are not open to Haitians.  This is a shame.
     In a racist response to the flawed immigration policy towards Haiti , this country has fashioned a policy of "humanitarian parole" towards severely-injured, Haitian children.  The name of the policy itself is sinister and racially-defamatory.  Black faces are associated with crime even when they are children.
     When it comes to all persons of African ancestry, including Haitians, this country is invariably engaged in racism and it is of no moment that the United States is indebted to Africans for building this country and fighting off its enemies.
    If the United States is not going to grant reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans, it should, at least, be susceptible to granting humanitarian aid to afflicted Africans.  Instead, through threats, intimidation and buy-outs, Blacks have no right to legal or political representation.  In other words, it is illegal for Blacks to use their tongues for their own benefit.
     This country got bogged down in a war in Vietnam .  Afterwards, it airlifted Vietnamese refugees out of Vietnam .  It also airlifted Albanians from Kosovo.  Black people must rise up and speak out.  We have no leadership.  Preachers and politicians are in Uncle Sam's back pocket.  Are they in Haiti today?
     Spread the word today.  Power rises up from the bottom.  The cream goes to the top.  Call members of Congress at 202-224-3121.  Call Gov. David Paterson at 212-681-4580.  Remind him that politics is a two-way street.  "If you scratch my back, I will scratch yours."
     The following are the specific telephone numbers and websites of  designated members of the House of Representatives:
    Yvette Clarke
    202-225-6231
    202-226-0112 (fax)
    www.clarke.house.gov.

    Gregory Meeks
    202-225-3461
    202-226-4169 (fax)
    718-725-6000
    www.house.gov/meeks

    Donald Payne
    202-225-3436
    202-225-4160 (fax)
    973-645-3213
    www.house.gov/payne

    Charles Rangel
    202-225-4365
    202-225-0816 (fax)
    212-663-3900
    www.house.gov/rangel

    Jose Serrano
    202-225-4361
    202-225-6001 (fax)
    718-620-0084
    www.house.gov/serrano

    Edolphus Towns
    202-225-5936
    202-225-1018(fax)
    718-855-8018
    www.house.gov/towns

    Nydia Velazquez
    202-225-2361
    202-226-0327 (fax)
    718-599-3658
    www.house.gov/velazquez

     "Those who fail to learn from the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them."  "History is repeating itself."  Nearly a century ago, the Marines invaded Haiti and illegally occupied it for nearly three decades.  Under the pretext of helping afflicted Haitians from the January 12 earthquake, the military has reoccupied Haiti .

     The situation in  Haiti today resembles Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq .  There is no functioning state apparatus in Haiti .  The entire infrastructure of Haiti has been gutted.  Looting is running amuck in Haiti and it should not be attributable to the Black masses.  Haiti will be rebuilt in the image of the United States for the benefit of the United States .
     White missionaries are up to it again.  This time it is happening in Haiti .  Thankfully, the kidnapping scheme of the body snatchers from Idaho was foiled.  Obviously, the United States is in cahoots with this illegal activity since these white body snatchers would have had to re-enter the United States with scores of kidnapped children of African ancestry.  The Congressional Black Caucus is, once again, asleep at the switch.

    From TheBlackList
    Contributed by "RodJuan"


    Temps only, but thousands will be hired for census
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    [info]bomani
    Temps only, but
    thousands will be hired
    for census

    BY Meredith Mazzilli
    DAILY NEWS WRITER

    Monday, February 1st 2010, 9:05 AM


    Thousands of temporary workers will
    be hired citywide by the U.S. Census Bureau.

    With the 2010 census underway, a job helping to
    collect personal information from your neighbors
    might seem like an easy way to make money.

    But while mass hiring for the temporary jobs will
    take place citywide, competition is tough and job
    availability varies widely by neighborhood.

    As many as 100,000 people are likely to be

    interviewed for jobs at 32 local offices in the five
    boroughs and some surrounding counties, said
    Tony Farthing, regional director of recruitment for
    the U.S. Census Bureau.

    Between 500 and 1,000 people will be hired for
    each of the offices. The pay is from $14.50 to $20
    an hour, depending on the position. Visit census.
    gov and enter your zip code to find the next hiring
    event. Info also is available at (866) 861-2010.

    "These are temporary positions, one to three weeks
    mostly - don't quit your day job," Farthing said.

    Preference is given to applicants who live in the
    same neighborhood as the census office.
    Candidates need to take a written test; applicants
    can take it multiple times to try to improve their
    score.

    "We're testing every day, seven days a week," said
    Vanessa Molina, a manager of census recruiting.

    Most positions won't be filled until mid-April.
    Hiring at census offices will vary based on the rate
    of citizen response - the fewer census forms mailed
    in, the more workers needed to follow up to ensure
    as complete a count as possible. Data from the
    census are used to help decide how billions in
    government spending are allocated.

    The door to door workers who try to make sure
    every person in every household is counted, known
    as enumerators, make up most of the hires and work
    May through June.

    "We're looking for enumerators, clerks, recruiting
    assistants, crew leaders and crew leader assistants,"
    Molina said. "There is one test for all the positions.
    We're going to need thousands."

    Get Morning Home Delivery of the Daily News for up to 70% off.
    Call (888) 393-3760
    Advertisement
    172464409389477152592

    Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods such
    as Park Slope and Cobble Hill have proven among
    the most difficult to staff, so job-seeking residents
    in those areas may have more luck.

    Bilingual candidates also have an edge. The agency
    particularly needs workers who can speak Korean,
    Portuguese or French.

    Farthing noted that applicants who take the test are
    scoring better than in past years, perhaps a
    reflection of the high unemployment rate, which has
    left many skilled workers jobless.

    "We used to hire people who were getting scores of
    70% to 75%," he said. "If we got someone with a s
    core of 80%, we were happy. The way the economy
    is, I have more people like you wouldn't believe
    getting 100%."

    Jason Anno, a 21-year-old student at the Borough
    of Manhattan Community College who lives on the
    Upper West Side, attended a hiring event on
    Thursday.

    "I heard about the census hiring from a flyer posted
    at school - it seemed like a good way to make
    money," he said.

    Anno was more interested in administrative work
    than canvassing in apartment buildings. "I would
    rather not knock on peoples' doors," he said.

    Lilia Chelala of Tribeca, who's working as a census
    recruiting agent, said, "I'm very happy - I love
    giving jobs to people."


    http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/02/01/2010-02-01_temps_only_but_thousands_will_be_hired_for_consensus_.html.


    The Counter Revolution
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    clipped from www.nytimes.com
    Op-Ed Contributor


    The Counter Revolution







    Henryville, Pa.

    IN the pre-digital America of 1960, “viral” was still a medical term. So it was written in countless news articles that the student sit-in movement had “spread like wildfire” on black campuses across the South. On the morning of Feb. 1, 50 years ago today, four black freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University seated themselves at the all-white lunch counter in a Woolworth’s dime store in Greensboro. Within hours, news of this bold act by the Greensboro Four, as they would come to be called, had grapevined its way from A&T to the campuses of historically black colleges in Atlanta and Nashville.

    All Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond and Joe McNeil did was ask for coffee and doughnuts and politely decline to move until they were served

    Internship: Emma Bowen Foundation
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    [info]bomani

    Internship: Emma Bowen Foundation | Paid Internships in Media

    Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com
    Internship: Emma Bowen Foundation

    Information:
    The Emma Bowen Foundation is recruiting minority RISING college freshmen to work in PAID internships at media companies throughout the United States. These are multi-summer internships that will last throughout their undergraduate college years. 
    • Looking for great candidates in the New York City area....students who will be college freshmen in Fall 2010.
    • Selected recipients are PAID and receive a matching scholarship each summer to help pay for college expenses. 
    • For a more detailed description of our program and the application please visit,
    • www.emmabowenfoundation.com
    Application Deadline: Monday February 15, 2010


    The Passage - Stories from the Maafa
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    [info]bomani
    The Passage - Stories from the Maafa



    Presented By:

    The Afrikan Luv Company  &  Euphonixs, Inc.

    Time: 7:00 PM (ET)
    Day & Date: Saturday, February 06, 2010

    Location:
    Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial Educational and Cultural Center
    3940 Broadway
    New York, NY 10032

    Tickets:
    $30 in Advance
    $40 at the Door

    To Attend: Respond Here     

    Background:
    The Passage: Stories from the Maafa, a play written by Jawanza Bakari and directed by Charles Murray will be shown this coming Friday, Feb. 6th at 7:00pm at the Audubon Ballroom/The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial & Educational Center (3940 B'way bet. 164th & 165th Sts.)

    We have been performing this production a little over a year. We have made significant changes and added some images. We are excited and invite you to come and join in our efforts to "right the wrongs", created by the Middle Passage Holocaust and Slavery and "heal" as a global community.

    The Passage: Stories from the Maafa provides a view into our past that traditional history has sought to exclude. If you have not seen the play. You will not be disappointed. All of our productions have resulted with standing ovations. For those who have supported us, we thank you and encourage you to come and see the wonderful changes we have made (let me know and I will see if we can offer you a discount).

    If you belong to an organization or church and would like to see the play to possibly use as a fundraiser, please let me know and I will put you on my guest list.

    PS...I am the Spiritual Warrior and Percussionist. I hope you will be able to join us as we bring this production to you and celebrate Bob Marley's Birthday and Black History Month.

    In Spirit and Struggle,

    Ndigo

    More Information:
    Euphonixs.com
    ThePassageMaffa.com
    YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU82-5c6ePo

    New York City events featuring Safiya Bukhari’s “The War Before”
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    [info]bomani


    PLEASE SUPPORT THIS FANTASTIC PROJECT!
    -----------------


    From: Laura Whitehorn <lwhitehorn@earthlink.net>
    Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 12:28 PM


    New York City events featuring Safiya Bukhari’s “The War Before”

    Monday, February 1st, 7:00 pm —Barnes & Noble, Broadway at 82nd St., Manhattan (1 train to 86th Street; B/C to 86th)
    ‘Black Women, Black Freedom’ – Celebrating “The War Before” and “Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle,” with a panel including Wonda Jones, Laura Whitehorn, Dayo Gore, and Komozi Woodard. Free.

    Wednesday, February 3, 6:00-9:00 pm —Medgar Evers College Center for Women’s Development, 1650 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, Rm. B-1008 (2/3/4/5 to Franklin Avenue; B/Q to Prospect Park; S to Prospect Park or Botanic Garden)
    Launch party for “The War Before” and celebration of Safiya Bukhari—with Wonda Jones, Pam Africa, Safiya Bandele, Cleo Silvers, Robyn Spencer, and Laura Whitehorn. Free.

    Friday, February 5, 7:00 pm —Bluestockings Radical Books, 172 Allen St, btwn Stanton and Rivington, Manhattan (F/V to 2nd Avenue; J/M to Bowery)
    Reading and discussion with Joan Gibbs, Laura Whitehorn, Bullwhip (Cyril Innis), Paulette D’Auteuil, and others. Free.

    Saturday, February 13, 7:00 pm —The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street, between Bethune and Bank Streets, Manhattan (1/2/3 or A/C to 14th Street)
    Book party with Wonda Jones, Michael Tarif Warren, Cleo Silvers, Bullwhip, Dequi Kioni-Sadiki, Laura Whitehorn, and others. Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15; free for Brecht subscribers

    To buy the book online:feministpress.org


    Where the Women Wait, an Unwritten Code Is Revised
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    [info]bomani

    Where the Women Wait, an Unwritten Code Is Revised

    Waiting for workMarcin Zurawicz Women, many of them Hispanic or Polish, waiting for work cleaning houses in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

    For years, every morning, the sight has been the same at Marcy and Division Avenues in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: a crowd of women gathered on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway overpass amid the din of traffic. They are day laborers looking not for construction work, but for work cleaning houses of Hasidic residents.

    There were originally maybe 40 or 50. And like many traditions that grow up out of necessity around New York City, this cleaning woman shape-up had certain unwritten codes, accepted patterns that all the women acknowledged, and abided by. Read more…


    He Looked Something Like This
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    [info]bomani
     January 29, 2010, 1:58 pm

    He Looked Something Like This

    SketchNew York Police Department The gunman, as he appeared.

    This is not to diminish the seriousness of the fact that a man was recently murdered in a jewelry store holdup, but the sketch that the police released Wednesday got us wondering: how is this going to help anyone catch the killer?

    The drawing, at right, shows a face almost completely obscured by a hat, sunglasses and a scarf pulled all the way up to the bridge of the nose.

    Even combined with the surveillance video the police released, which shows, basically, a male adult of average build, dressed in black and carrying a duffel bag, walking down Madison Avenue, the sketch would seem to reduce the pool of possible suspects only to about a quarter of the population.

    City Room asked a retired detective to review the evidence. Read more…


    Ace Tuskegee Airman Dies At 90
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    Ace Tuskegee Airman Dies At 90

    By Associated Press January 29, 2010 11:24 am

    photo_Lee_Archer

    NEW YORK – Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Lee A. Archer, a Tuskegee Airman considered to be the only black ace pilot who also broke racial barriers as an executive at a major U.S. company and founder of a venture capital firm, died Wednesday in New York City. He was 90.

    His son, Roy Archer, said his father died at Cornell University Medical Center in Manhattan. A cause of death was not immediately determined.
    The Tuskegee Airmen were America’s first black fighter pilot group in World War II.

    “It is generally conceded that Lee Archer was the first and only black ace pilot,” credited with shooting down five enemy planes, Dr. Roscoe Brown Jr., a fellow Tuskegee Airman and friend, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

    Archer was acknowledged to have shot down four planes, and he and another pilot both claimed victory for shooting down a fifth plane. An investigation revealed Archer had inflicted the damage that destroyed the plane, said Brown, and the Air Force eventually proclaimed him an ace pilot.
    Archer, a resident of New Rochelle, N.Y., “lived a full life,” said his son. “His last two or three years were amazing for him.”

    Archer was among the group of Tuskegee Airmen invited to attend President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. The airmen, who escorted bomber planes during the war fought with distinction, only to face bigotry and segregation when they returned home, were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their service in 2007 by President George W. Bush.

    Archer was “extremely competent, aggressive about asserting his position and sometimes stubborn,” Brown said.

    “He had a heart of gold and treated people with respect. He demanded respect by the way he carried himself.”

    Brown estimated that about 50 or 60 of the 994 Tuskegee Airmen pilots are still alive.

    Born on Sept. 6, 1919, in Yonkers and raised in Harlem, Archer left New York University to enlist in the Army Air Corps in 1941 but was rejected for pilot training because the military didn’t allow blacks to serve as pilots.

    “A War Department study in 1925 expressly stated that Negroes didn’t have the intelligence, or the character, or the leadership to be in combat units, and particularly, they didn’t have the ability to be Air Force pilots,” said Brown.

    Archer instead joined a segregated Army Air Corps unit at the Tuskegee, Ala., air base, graduating from pilot training in July 1943.

    After he retired from the military in 1970, Archer joined General Foods Corp., becoming one of the era’s few black corporate vice presidents of a major American company.

    He ran one of the company’s small-business investment arms, North Street Capital Corp., which funded companies that included Essence Communications and Black Enterprise Magazine, according to his son and Brown.

    Archer was an adviser to the late Reginald Lewis in the deal that created the conglomerate TLC Beatrice in 1987, then the largest black-owned and -managed business in the U.S.

    After retiring from General Foods in 1987, Archer founded the venture capital firm Archer Asset Management.

    Archer is survived by three sons and a daughter. His wife, Ina Archer, died in 1996. Services have yet to be announced.

    RELATED STORIES

    Tuskegee Air Man And Judge Dies At 88

    Tuskegee Airmen Watch Air Force Give Black Woman Historic Promotion


    Inmates’ Stock Is Rising in Albany District Fight
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    [info]bomani

    Inmates’ Stock Is Rising in Albany District Fight
    By JEREMY W. PETERS

    ALBANY — As state lawmakers prepare to redraw the boundaries of Congressional and state legislative districts, one segment of the population is quickly becoming a coveted constituency: prisoners.

    They do not carry any endorsement influence, promise big-dollar political contributions or even vote (they are barred by law from doing so). But with the balance of power in the State Senate tipping on a single vote, Republicans and Democrats are already squabbling over the home addresses of New York’s 58,378 inmates as they anticipate how the 2010 census will reshape the electoral map.

    With New York expected to lose at least one seat in Congress because of population shifts nationwide, and Republicans facing the prospect of being further relegated to the minority if they do not pick up seats in the Senate, the fight promises to be especially fierce.

    On Thursday, Democrats announced plans to seek a change that would help them lay claim to a large slice of the prison population, a move that would help them add to their ranks.

    Under their proposal, the state would have to count prisoners as residents of their last known address rather than counting them where they are held, a practice that has increased the population of upstate districts, where Republican voters predominate.

    Supporters of the change have framed the issue as a way to prevent the disenfranchisement of poor, mostly minority communities.

    “The present rule takes people who come from and return to poor or black and Latino communities and transfers their value for reapportionment purposes to rural upstate districts that really have nothing to do with them,” said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat from the Upper West Side of Manhattan who is leading the effort to change the way prisoners are counted.

    But Republicans say that aside from depriving upstate districts of representation in the Legislature, the plan would unfairly change the way one group is counted without changing how other transient groups, like university students and military families, are counted.

    “This isn’t purely black and white; you need consistency,” said Senator Joseph A. Griffo, a Republican whose North Country district includes four prisons. “To me, until you change everything, you don’t change one specific component.”

    If the proposal becomes law, New York would become the first state where prisoners are not considered residents of the district where they are incarcerated for purposes of determining the size of legislative districts. Similar proposals have been introduced recently in Illinois, Wisconsin and at the federal level, but none have become law.

    The average time served for an inmate in New York is about 3.6 years. “That’s less time than most college students spend away from home,” said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from Brooklyn who is sponsoring the prisoner-counting legislation in the Assembly.

    An analysis conducted by the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit group that studies incarceration patterns, found that seven upstate Senate districts would not have met the minimum population requirements if prisoners had been excluded when district lines were last redrawn in 2002. All seven of those districts were held by Republicans; five of them still are.

    In all, 44,326 New York City residents were counted as residents of other parts of the state when district lines were last redrawn. Subtracting the 586 prisoners in New York City who were not city residents, the city’s net population loss was 43,740.

    The result, the study said, has been an overpopulation of Senate districts in New York City and an underpopulation of districts upstate. The population of districts are supposed to be relatively constant, but the law allows for slight variations. As a result, some Senate districts upstate barely meet the population requirement, while some districts downstate nearly exceed the requirement. Currently, a district’s population must be no more than 5 percent higher or lower than 306,072.

    The district represented by Senator Elizabeth O’C. Little, a Republican, is the example most often cited by advocates for changing the law. When the boundaries of her district were drawn in 2002, the Senate included nearly 13,000 prisoners as residents, or about 4 percent of its total population.

    Department of Correctional Services data from this month showed that Ms. Little’s district had about 11,000 prisoners, reflecting a statewide trend toward a shrinking prison population.

    Ms. Little said in an interview that changing the way prisoners were counted would distort census data. “The purpose of the census is to record who is living where at a given period of time,” she said. “So if you’re in a nursing home at a certain time, you’re going to be counted there even if you’re just there for rehab. If you’re living in a college town while you’re away at a university, you’re going to be counted there. And if you’re in prison you’re going to be counted there.”

    Ms. Little added that she viewed the prisoners in her district as her constituents, regardless of how temporary their stays might be. And she noted that they behave like other concerned constituents in one major way: they write. “I have gotten letters from inmates.” [NYT]



    City Panel Approves Closing of 19 Schools
    R U SERIOUS
    [info]bomani
    clipped from www.nytimes.com

    City Panel Approves Closing of 19 Schools

    In a contentious meeting that drew more than eight hours of public testimony, a city board voted early Wednesday morning to close 19 schools for poor performance, despite the protests from hundreds of observers who repeatedly drowned out the meeting with cheers, shouts and boos.

    The New York Times

    More than 300 speakers addressed the board, the Panel for Educational Policy, beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene. By the time the panel began voting at 2:40 a.m. they had heard a litany of complaints from hundreds of parents, students, teachers and administrators and just a handful of speakers who said they supported closing the schools.

    But as expected, the panel overwhelmingly approved the closures recommended by the Education Department. The votes to close the schools fell along political lines,
    Why are most if not all of the schools are Minority Schools?

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