Sunday, February 28, 2010

Race in the South in the Age of Obama

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Race in the South in the Age of Obama


Gillian Laub for The New York Times


State representatives for Cullman County, Alabama: The Democrat James Fields (center) and the Republican Jeremy Oden (right), with Oden's nephew Jeff.
More Photos >


SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK, a tall, broad-shouldered African-American Methodist preacher named James Fields drives his black pickup truck toward the quiet Alabama city of Cullman. An hour into the red-dirt hills above Birmingham, Cullman is the seat of a farming county where the strongest legal drink you can buy at the pool hall is Pepsi; the kegs at the annual Oktoberfest hold only root beer. “Welcome to Mayberry!” strangers are greeted. And then, “We all do have bathrooms and wear shoes!” With its steeples, grain elevators, striped barber poles, fireflies and wisteria, Cullman has the faraway feel of a small Southern town untroubled by time. “Sweet Cullman!” Fields sometimes says when he’s on his way in. “It’s home!”

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Woes of governor, Rangel mark end of Harlem 4 era


Woes of governor, Rangel mark end of Harlem 4 era

They ran the city, represented Malcolm X and were black pioneers who put Harlem on the political map. The "Gang of Four" were kingmakers who built Harlem's political dynasty into an empire. But with high-profile body blows this week to one member and the son of another, the group's legacy is in disarray.

It seems unlikely that Gov. David Paterson could have become the state's first black governor without the groundwork laid by the group — and the connections that came with being the son of Basil Paterson, one of the quartet along with Rep. Charles Rangel, political power broker Percy Sutton and former New York City Mayor David Dinkins.

But with the younger Paterson ending his election bid following a scandal over an abuse complaint against his aide, Rangel facing accusations of breaking House rules,
"In a sense, their day has passed," Baruch College politics professor Doug Muzzio said of the elite group who led Harlem's political heyday.

CRACK MOTHERS

To Court Blacks, Foes of Abortion Make Racial Case

clipped from www.nytimes.com

To Court Blacks, Foes of Abortion Make Racial Case


ATLANTA — For years the largely white staff of Georgia Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, tried to tackle the disproportionately high number of black women who undergo abortions. But, staff members said, they found it difficult to make inroads with black audiences.


So in 2009, the group took money that it normally used for advertising a pregnancy hot line and hired a black woman, Catherine Davis, to be its minority outreach coordinator.


Ms. Davis traveled to black churches and colleges around the state, delivering the message that abortion is the primary tool in a decades-old conspiracy to kill off blacks.


The idea resonated, said Nancy Smith, the executive director.


This month, the group expanded its reach, making national news with 80 billboards around Atlanta that proclaim, “Black children are an endangered species,” and a Web site, www.toomanyaborted.com.

Friday, February 26, 2010

A Hospital in Harlem Is Studying Its Future

clipped from www.nytimes.com
A Hospital in Harlem Is Studying Its Future


Thirty years ago, it was the great hope for the future of health care in Harlem, a new private hospital, opened at a time when public hospitals were seen as failing.


Harlem’s civic, political and religious leaders fought, often successfully, to get more money and more state subsidies to keep it going. But in a time of economic malaise, the hospital, North General, at Madison Avenue and 122nd Street, may finally be on its deathbed, industry officials say.


Its closing could be a boon for Mount Sinai, St. Luke’s and New York-Presbyterian, other hospitals on the borders of Harlem. Although North General serves a large number of poor and uninsured patients, it is also perceived as a destination for middle-class Harlem residents.

Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.

A Burial Ground and Its Dead Are Given Life

clipped from www.nytimes.com
Museum Review | African Burial Ground Visitor Center

A Burial Ground and Its Dead Are Given Life
Jessica Ebelhar for The New York Times


The African Burial National Monument in Lower Manhattan includes a memorial sculpted by Rodney Leon.

Cemeteries are at least as much for the living as the dead. They are the locus of tribute and memory; they affirm connections to a place and its past.

That is a reason why Saturday’s opening of the African Burial Ground Visitor Center, near where these remains were reinterred, is so important. Among the scars left by the heritage of slavery, one of the greatest is an absence: where are the memorials, cemeteries, architectural structures or sturdy sanctuaries that typically provide the ground for a people’s memory?






Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times


The centerpiece of the new visitor center exhibits is a life-size tableau of a burial ceremony.

A Burial Ground and Its Dead Are Given Life

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Who?s Holding The Smoking Gun?


Who?s Holding The Smoking Gun?


By Jecquea Howsie

Headline: As rapid gunfire broke-out a 12-year-old boy sought refuge inside a tennis shoe store; crouching behind shelves-so he wouldn?t be noticed, accidentally stood up just as the final bullet entered the store and shot him in the chest. The little boy looked at the intended target pleading, ?Please don?t let me die,? instead, he looked at the boy and fled.

Images like these plague black communities, and as the war on terror continues to divide American families, the genocide of the youth destroys the black aesthetic.

?Not since slavery,? notes former U.S. Secretary of Human Services Dr. Louis Sullivan, ?has so much calamity and ongoing catastrophe been visited on Black males.? Likewise, it?s the African American community?s massive homicide rate that accounts for most of America?s murders.

Recent studies suggest that two factors explain this high murder rate in America. First is the violence of the drug trade in African-American communities. Crime expert Eli Lehrer notes:

Read More...

Eric Holder, Sean Bell & The Legacy of Al Sharpton


Eric Holder, Sean Bell & The Legacy of Al Sharpton
By C.B. Forde

On Tuesday, February 16th 2010, the Justice Department announced that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers involved in the slaughter of Sean Bell for violating his civil rights. While many of my fellow African Americans are probably disappointed in Eric Holder, (America?s first Black Attorney General), I am not. After reading the official statement given by the Justice Department, I must say that I was impressed by the way the situation was handled. I was impressed that representatives of the Justice Department met with the family to explain why they could not move forward. While I feel strongly that the death of Sean Bell was a heinous crime and violation of his human rights, it was not a violation of his civil rights. The problem here is that people do not understand the difference and Al Sharpton is either incapable of or has no desire to articulate the difference.

Al Sharpton has been the most visible civil rights activist for the last two decades. However, it seems that he is more interested in the change in his pocket rather than changing the legal system

Read More...

New York Gov. David Paterson fell under fresh pressure Thursday to drop his run for a full term

clipped from www.chron.com

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. David Paterson fell under fresh pressure Thursday to drop his run for a full term after a report of a domestic abuse complaint against a top aide and questions about whether the governor was out of line for contacting the aide's girlfriend before the case was dropped.

Rep. Steve Israel, a fellow Democrat and longtime congressional member from Long Island, told The Associated Press that he called Paterson early Thursday, urging him to drop his bid.

"I think it's become apparent that he should not seek election and should announce it soon," Israel said. "And sometimes friends have to speak unpleasant truths."

Israel said he reminded the governor that there is "life after Albany." Israel declined to say what Paterson's response was or share other details of the call. Paterson spokesman Peter Kauffmann declined to comment.

Allies Turning on Paterson, State Police Official Resigns

clipped from gothamist.com

022510dave.jpg
AP/Mike Groll
[UPDATE BELOW] Representative Steve Israel of Long Island, a longtime friend of Governor Paterson’s who was high in the running to fill Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate seat, personally called Paterson this morning to implore him to abandon his election campaign in light of today's news. Israel would not reveal Paterson's response, but he tells City Room, "I think it’s become apparent that he should not seek re-election and should announce it soon. Look, sometimes friends have to speak unpleasant truths, and as a friend, I told the governor there is life after Albany." Paterson has had trouble building support in the Democratic party for his campaign, and now it seems that his allies are taking the opportunity to jump ship.

Former police officer pleads guilty to Danziger Bridge shooting cover-up of stunning breadth

NY governor suspends aide, seeks investigation


NY governor suspends aide, seeks investigation

Gov. David Paterson has suspended a close aide and is asking for an investigation by the attorney general after a published report linked the aide to a claim of domestic violence involving a former girlfriend.

Paterson on Wednesday said he was suspending David Johnson, who rose from volunteer to driver to confidant in more than a decade of working for the Democrat. Paterson also asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate a New York Times article's claims that state police may have pressured the woman to drop a criminal case against Johnson.

The Times cites court records and the woman's lawyer in describing a case of domestic violence and a possible effort by state officials to avoid a potential political embarrassment for the governor's office.

Paterson said the report raises serious questions that must be thoroughly investigated by Cuomo, who is widely believed to be considering a bid for the governor's office in November.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When Cell Doors Won’t Close

February 16, 2010

When Cell Doors Won’t Close

As of Tuesday afternoon, New York State had about 5,000 empty beds in its 67 prisons. Even if the state weren’t flat broke, this would be an expensive proposition. Just turning on the lights in the morning costs money. Correction officers must be on duty 24 hours a day, year round, even when there are only a handful of inmates to watch.

Take, for example, three prisons in the northern reaches of the state, near the Canadian border. In a count taken Dec. 31, a prison in Lyon Mountain had 91 employees and 135 inmates. The Ogdensburg Correctional Facility had 287 employees and 474 inmates. The minimum security portion of a complex in Red Creek had a staff of 67 for a grand total of 71 inmates.

It’s not that the prisons are overstaffed, it’s just that they’re under-prisonered.

New York has 13,000 fewer inmates today than it did in 1999, when the prison population was at its peak. The state projects that a year from now, the number will go down by an additional 1,000. Crime has been dropping, and nonviolent offenders are spending less time behind bars.

But closing prisons is even harder than closing hospitals. (About a quarter of the state’s hospital beds were chronically empty when a special commission on health care issued a report in 2006.)

The prison industry is the foundation of local economies in many parts of the state. And for years, the correctional facilities spread throughout the vast rural stretches of the state helped protect Republican legislative districts from dwindling populations — the inmates are counted as permanent residents when maps are drawn for the Senate and the Assembly.

Yet the prisons survive changes in the political weather.

A little more than two years ago, the governor announced that he would close four unnecessary prisons. But that governor’s name was Eliot Spitzer.

At the time, Republicans controlled the State Senate, and their majority leader was hailed in a rally outside the Capitol by correction officers who chanted, “Joe Bruno! Joe Bruno!”

Mr. Bruno has since moved on, resigning suddenly one day, and then slowly being turned on a prosecutor’s spit for using his Senate powers to stoke his private business interests. Mr. Spitzer left even more quickly in a prostitution scandal.

With his departure, the state effectively suspended its efforts to shutter prisons. Right after David A. Paterson became governor, he agreed with the Legislature to spend $34 million to keep open the four prisons that Mr. Spitzer had wanted to close. The Paterson administration did close three prison camps, but spared one in a district represented by a Democrat.

Now the Democrats control the Senate by a single vote, giving every Democratic senator tremendous negotiating power. As a way to save $46 million, the governor has proposed closing four prisons, including the one in Ogdensburg, which is represented by a Democratic senator, Darrel J. Aubertine.

On his Web site, Mr. Aubertine made it clear that he did not think any of the four should be closed, especially the one in Ogdensburg.

“The devastating negative economic impact to these communities will outweigh any proposed savings,” Mr. Aubertine said.

BOTH Mr. Aubertine and the president of the union representing the state correction officers dispute the counts taken by the Department of Correctional Services, saying that there are not enough beds in the system now to accommodate all the inmates without “double bunking.” The union has made television and radio ads that warn of dire consequences to public safety if prisons are closed and claim that the department’s administration is bloated. But Brian Fischer, the correction commissioner, said that most inmates are in single cells or dormitories, and that there is plenty of room.

Even though the state expects that no one will lose a job if some prisons are closed — there’s enough attrition so that it would be possible for any employee to find a job through a transfer — there will be major upheavals in the prison towns. The families of prison employees go to the schools, pay taxes and keep their communities humming.

But for a state facing billions in deficits for years to come, even the considerable power of the prison industry might not outweigh these stark numbers. In the four prisons that the governor has proposed closing, there are 547 employees and 851 inmates. That’s one state employee for every 1.5 prisoners.

E-mail: dwyer@nytimes.com

Inside a Divided Upper East Side Public School

Big Apple Barbecue Fastpasses Available

clipped from www.zagat.com

Big Apple BBQ
The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party



While we're on the topic of New York tasting events that always sell out, the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party will be taking over Madison Square Park on June 12–13 and fastpasses are already available. The crazy-popular event (125,000 people attended last year) offers a chance to sample 'cue from pitmasters from around the country, amidst a  backdrop of live music, seminars, cooking demos and book signings. It's always a mob scene, so a fastpass – which entitles you and a guest to $100 in food as well as access to express lines – is a seriously good bet if you're planning on going. To learn more, head on over here.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

First Department Rules Bronx Merger Illegal

Free Breaking News: First Department Rules Bronx Merger Illegal

Daniel Wise

New York Law Journal

February 24, 2010

The 2004 merger of the courts that handle criminal cases in the Bronx into a single court with jurisdiction to handle both felonies and misdemeanors is unconstitutional, a divided panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled this morning.

A four-judge majority in an unsigned opinion concluded in People v. Correa, 51080C/05, that then-Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and then-Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman, who has since succeeded Judge Kaye as chief judge, "overstepped the bounds of administrative and operational authority they possess under the state Constitution."

In dissent, Justice Rolando T. Acosta (See Profile) warned that the majority's "unbridled judicial activism effectively upends tens of thousands of misdemeanor convictions in Bronx County over the past five years."

Contrary to the majority's conclusion, Justice Acosta wrote, the state Legislature, "cognizant of the great wisdom inherent in the separation of powers doctrine," has delegated to the chief judge the authority to implement the merger.

A unanimous panel, in a second unsigned opinion, People v. Mack, 19145C, also found the Bronx merger unconstitutional based on the majority opinion in Correa.

The First Department decisions will appear in the print edition of tomorrow's Law Journal.

Because there was overlap in the membership of the two panels, a total of six judges concluded that the merger was unconstitutional and also violates the state Judiciary Law.

Justices Richard T. Andrias (See Profile) and Leland G. DeGrasse (See Profile) were in the majority in both cases. The remaining judges joining the majority in Correa were Justices Eugene Nardelli (See Profile) a\nd James M. Catterson (See Profile).

Rounding out the four-judge panel in the unanimous Mack decisionwere Justices John W. Sweeny Jr. (See Profile) and James M. McGuire (See Profile).

Under the merger, the New York City Criminal Court in the Bronx, which had handled only misdemeanors, was combined with the Criminal Term of the Supreme Court, which had handled only felonies, were combined into a newly created Criminal Division of the Supreme Court, Bronx County (NYLJ, Nov. 9, 2004).

The pilot project ran into opposition from the start. The Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York, joined by the Association of Court of Claims Judges, opposed it.

The 48 judges assigned to the about-to-be-merged court sharply questioned Office of Court Administration officials in an hour-long session about the legality of the experiment (NYLJ, Oct. 29, 2004).

Court administrators argued that the merged court, with the added firepower of 10 Criminal Court judges who had been promoted to acting Supreme Court justices, would reduce backlogs of both felony and misdemeanor cases.

The combined court succeeded in holding the number of pending misdemeanor cases steady despite a 35 percent rise in misdemeanor filings between 2004 and 2009. But the number of pending felonies during that period has outpaced new filings, 72 percent to 10 percent.

In a recently released official evaluation of the merger, court officials found that "five years on, the Bronx merger has not yet proved to be a wholly effective solution" (NYLJ, Nov. 6, 2009).

In the report, court officials pledged to augment the number of judges assigned to the merged court, which had dipped to 41, and to take other administrative measures to clear the felony backlog.

Free Breaking News: First Department Rules Bronx Merger Illegal.

ACORN's New York branch to cut all ties with national parent group

clipped from www.nydailynews.com

ACORN's New York branch to cut all ties with national parent group

ACORN is getting a face-lift.

The social service group and lightning rod for GOP outrage is undergoing a makeover that has led its New York branch to cut all ties with the national parent group.

ACORN in New York will now be called New York Communities for Change. Its progressive mission - and leadership team - will remain largely the same, officials of the new organization said yesterday.

A New School Hopes to Learn From the Charters

A New School Hopes to Learn From the Charters

A new primary school proposed by Teachers College at Columbia University aims to address this issue head-on. The school’s goal, its founders say, is to transfer some of the best charter school features to a school run by the Department of Education, while showing how a primary school can benefit from a close affiliation with a college.

Called the Teachers College Community School, it is likely to open in September 2011 in northern Manhattan, and while there is no site yet, Teachers College hopes for a place somewhere between West 110th and West 155th Streets, an area that includes Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights. There are many charter schools in central Harlem, but far fewer in these neighborhoods.

A zoned school, it will start with a prekindergarten, kindergarten and first grade and will expand to K-8 over five years.

Third NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement

Event: Third NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement

En español abajo

Invitation: To members and families of organizations, community members, and people of good conscience, who are fighting against displacement in their communities across NYC.

Hosted By: Movement for Justice in El Barrio

Time: 4:00 p.m.
Day & Date: Sunday, February 28, 2010

Location: El Barrio, NYC

Register:
RSVP "As soon as possible": 212-561-0555 or movementforjusticeinelbarrio@yahoo.com
  • The number of adults and children that will be attending, their names and an address at which you would like to receive your tickets.
  • Once you have RSVP’d you will receive your tickets and more details on the Encuentro.

Background:
An echo that turns itself into many voices, into a network of voices that, before the deafness of power, opts to speak to itself, knowing itself to be one and many, acknowledging itself to be equal in its desire to listen and be listened to, recognizing itself as different in the tonalities and levels of voices forming it. A network of voices that resist the war that power wages on them. – Words of the Zapatistas at the “First Intercontinental Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.”

An Encuentro is a space for people to come together, it is a gathering. An Encuentro is not a meeting, a panel or a conference, it is a way of sharing developed by the Zapatistas as another form of doing politics: from below and to the left. It is a place where we can all speak, we will all listen, and we can all learn. It is a place where we can share the many different struggles that make us one.

“The rebels search each other out. They walk towards one another, breaking down fences, they find each other.” — “First Intercontinental Encuentro”

The rebels have met. In our first and second Encuentros, rebels who are fighting for dignity and against displacement came together to voice their presence, their rage, their struggle and their dreams. We broke down the fences that power constructs to divide us, we listened to one another’s voices, and we learned from one another.

Now the moment is different. Around the city, the country, and the globe, capitalism is heaving and shaking. We see it showing thin cracks in its concrete walls. We see its self-destruction as it razes its smaller empires. We see it exploit the cynical opportunities it envisions in terrible natural and human disasters. We see its agents rush to the battlefield to crack down on communities rising up to build something different.

We walk along a trembling fault line of resistance and oppression and construct a path towards a future with dignity. With the knowledge of other compañeros and compañeras in this struggle we have walked forward stronger and now we must find ways to support each other.

Here in East Harlem, the giant has fallen. The London based multi-national corporation Dawnay, Day Group bought up an empire of 47 buildings in El Barrio with the intention of displacing our community members from our homes and raising rents by ten-fold.  They failed in their mission in the face of years of fierce organized resistance from the tenants of Dawnay, Day that form part of Movement for Justice in El Barrio. They fell victim to their own greed. Now they face foreclosure. Movement for Justice in El Barrio is building an alternative in the ruins.

Across Harlem, the three council members that represent East, Central and West Harlem, millionaire Melissa Mark-Viverito, Inez Dickens and Robert Jackson have time and again joined billionaire Mayor Bloomberg, as he holds on tightly to the reins of power, in planning, promoting, and approving plans that displace our communities.

As we struggle here, we do not forget our sisters and brothers resisting in the far corners of the world. Nor do we forget where we come from and that many of us have already experienced displacement from our homelands. We join the humble and simple people across the world in their resistance as we stand up and join the fight against a global capitalist system that has pushed us to this dignified rage.

In this Third NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement we will hear directly from movements fighting against displacement from across the world:

We will facilitate direct live participation from the South African Shack Dwellers to the Third NYC Encuentro. The South African Shack Dwellers Movement is fighting against displacement under the banner of “Land & Housing in the City.” They are standing tall and fighting back against forced removal and continued state repression.

We will also facilitate direct live participation from San Salvador Atenco, Mexico by the Peoples Front in Defense of the Land who will share about their organized creative resistance to protect their land and their culture and to free their political prisoners.

In Haiti, a natural disaster unfolds and amplifies into a man-made disaster from the roots of neoliberal capitalism and from new visions to regenerate its exploitation. We will hear from organized Haitians who have been fighting against displacement for years and will be returning to NYC from Haiti to report directly on the most recent devastation.

Local politicians use their power, influence and money to try to buy-off resistance and pacify dissent. There are those that choose to accept the money of the powerful and ride on the currents of their power. In this Encuentro, we seek to speak directly to those who have chosen to fight against displacement and for dignity from the ground up and who will not be swayed by the seduction of the powerful and their riches.

Power seeks to divide and marginalize us as people of color, as women, as transgender, gay and lesbian, as youth, as the elderly, as workers, as immigrants, as tenants. We must resist division. We must seek to come together.

In this Third Encuentro, we will premiere a documentary of our 2nd NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement in which 38 groups came together to share their struggles.

Groups fighting against displacement across New York will share our struggles and use this gathering to find ways to mutually support each other. We will share whatever form of expression we choose, whether it be verbally, through song, poetry or rhyme, through a video, through artwork or however people can best express their struggle.

P.S. Children are especially invited to come break open the “Neoliberal” Piñata!

We will provide dinner, childcare and Spanish/English translation.

Movement for Justice in El Barrio
We are a group of humble and simple people who fight for justice and for humanity. Movement for Justice in El Barrio is fighting against gentrification in El Barrio, a process that is better understood by we who are affected by it as the displacement of families from their homes for being of low income, immigrants and people of color. We are part of the Zapatista initiated transnational movement called “The Other Campaign.”

For Movement for Justice in El Barrio, the struggle for justice means fighting for the liberation of women, immigrants, lesbians, people of color, gays and the transgender community. We all share a common enemy and its called neoliberalism. Neoliberalism wishes to divide us and keep us from combining our forces. We will defeat this by continuing to unite all of our communities until we achieve true liberation for all.


Evento: Tercer Encuentro De Nueva York por la Dignidad y contra el Desplazamiento

Invitación a: Al pueblo de Nueva York, i ntegrantes de organizaciones, a sus familias, y a la  gente de buena conciencia que est á luchando contra el desplazamiento en sus comunidades.

Organizado por: Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio

Tiempo: 4:00 p.m.
Día y Fecha: Domingo, Febrero 28, 2010

Ubicación: El Barrio, Ciudad de Nueva York

Registro:
RSVP "tan pronto como sea posible": 212-561-0555 or movementforjusticeinelbarrio@yahoo.com
  • Una vez que confirme, recibirá sus boletos y más detalles sobre el Encuentro.
  • Para  más información o confirmar que viene, por favor contáctenos al  (212) 561-0555 o a: movimientoporjusticiadelbarrio@yahoo.com
Historial:
“Un eco que se convierte en muchas voces, en una red de voces que, frente a la sordera del Poder, opte por hablarse ella misma sabiéndose una y muchas, conociéndose igual en su aspiración a escuchar y hacerse escuchar, reconociéndose diferente en las tonalidades y niveles de las voces que la forman. Una red de voces que resisten a la guerra que el Poder les hace”: Palabras de los zapatistas en el “ Primer Encuentro Intercontinental por la Humanidad y contra el Neoliberalismo ”

Un Encuentro es un espacio de intercambio humano y de reflexión. Un Encuentro no es una conferencia con discursos o con un panel de oradores, sino un momento de intercambio que los Zapatistas han diseñado como otra forma de hacer política: de abajo y a la izquierda. Es un lugar donde todos podemos hablar, donde todos vamos a escuchar a los demás, y donde todos podemos aprender. Es un lugar donde podemos compartir las muchas luchas diferentes que hacen de nosotros uno solo.

“Los rebeldes se buscan entre si. Se caminan unos hacia los otros. Se encuentran y, juntos, rompen otros cercos. ”:
“ Primer Encuentro Intercontinental ”

Los rebeldes se han reunido. En nuestro primer y segundo E ncuentros, los rebeldes que están luchando por dignidad y contra el desplazamiento se reunieron para dar voz a su presencia, a su rabia, a su lucha y a sus sueños. Rompimos las barreras que el poder construye para dividirnos; escuchamos la voz del otro, y aprendimos uno del otro.

Ahora el momento es distinto. Por toda la ciudad, por todo el país y por todo el planeta, el capitalismo está tambaleándose. Lo vemos mostrando grietas delgadas en sus muros de concreto. Vemos su autodestrucción mientras va demoliendo sus imperios más pequeños. Lo vemos explotar las oportunidades que cínicamente visualiza con terribles desastres naturales y humanos. Vemos a sus agentes precipitarse a los campos de batalla para dividir a las comunidades que se levantan para construir algo diferente.

Caminamos a lo largo de una falla en tierras de resistencia y opresión y construimos un camino rumbo a un futuro con dignidad. Con el conocimiento de otros compañeros y compañeras en esta lucha hemos caminado más fuertes, y ahora tenemos que encontrar formas de apoyarnos los unos a los otros.

Aquí en el este de Harlem, el gigante ha caído. La corporacion transnacional basada en Londres, Inglaterra, Dawnay, Day Group había comprado un imperio de 47 edificios en El Barrio con la intención de desplazar a nuestra comunidad y subir las rentas hasta diez veces más. Fracasaron en su misión al enfrentarse a años de una feroz resistencia organizada por los inquilinos de Dawnay, Day, que forman parte de Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio. Ellos cayeron víctimas de su propia codicia y la corporacion se derrumbo. Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio está construyendo una alternativa sobre las ruinas.

Desde todas partes de Harlem, una vez más, los tres concejales que representan el este, el centro y el oeste de Harlem —la millonaria Melissa Mark Viverito, Inéz Dickens y Robert Jackson— se han unido con el billonario alcalde Bloomberg, quien no suelta las riendas del poder, para planificar, fomentar y aprobar planes de expulsión de nuestras comunidades.

Mientras aquí luchamos, no olvidamos a nuestros hermanas y hermanos que resisten en todos los confines del mundo. Tampoco nos olvidamos de dónde venimos y que muchos de nosotros hemos ya sido desplazados de nuestra patria. Nos unimos a la gente humilde y sencilla de todo el mundo en su resistencia; nos unimos al esfuerzo por derrocar un sistema capitalista global que nos ha obligado a esta digna rabia.

En este Tercer Encuentro Nueva York por la Dignidad y contra el Desplazamiento vamos a enterarnos directamente de lo que nos cuentan los movimientos que luchan contra el desalojo por todo el mundo:

Facilitaremos la participación en vivo desde San Salvador, Atenco, México del Frente de Pueblos por la Defensa de la Tierra, quienes compartirán con nosotros su resistencia creativa y organizada para proteger su tierra y su cultura y para liberar a sus presos políticos.

Facilitaremos la participacion en vivo desde Sudafrica del Movimiento de Los de Casas de Carton que está luchando contra el desalojo bajo el lema de “Tierra y Vivienda en la Ciudad”. Están manteniéndose en pie de lucha y respondiendo a la expulsión forzada y al continuo estado de represión.

En Haití, un desastre nacional se despliega y amplifica como un desastre de fabricación humana desde las raíces del capitalismo neoliberal y desde nuevas visiones para regenerar su explotación. Vamos a oír a los haitianos organizados que han estado luchando contra el desalojo durante años y que regresarán desde Haití a la ciudad de Nueva York para informarnos directamente de la más reciente devastación.

Los políticos locales usan su poder, su influencia y su dinero para tratar de comprar la resistencia y de pacificar a la disidencia. Hay quienes eligen aceptar el dinero de los poderosos y navegar en las corrientes de su poder. En este Encuentro, buscamos hablar directamente con quienes han elegido luchar contra el desplazamiento y por la dignidad desde la base, y que no se dejan dominar por la seducción de los poderosos y sus riquezas.

El poder busca dividir y marginarnos como gente de color, como mujeres, como homosexuales, como lesbianas, como transgéneros, como jóvenes, como ancianos, como trabajadores, como inmigrantes, como inquilinos... Debemos resistir la división. Debemos de buscar la manera de unirnos.

En este Tercer Encuentro estrenaremos un documental de nuestro Segundo Encuentro de la Ciudad de Nueva York por la Dignidad y contra el Desplazamiento, en el cual 38 grupos se reunieron para compartir sus luchas.

Los grupos que luchamos contra el desalojo por todo Nueva York compartiremos nuestras luchas y utilizaremos esta asamblea para encontrar formas de apoyarnos mutuamente. Compartiremos cualquier forma de expresión que elijamos: puede ser verbal, o mediante una canción o poesía o rima, un video, una pintura o lo que sea con lo que la gente mejor pueda expresar su lucha.

PD: ¡Los niños están especialmente invitados a venir a romper la “piñata neoliberal”! 

Habrá cena, atención a los niños y traducción español/inglés.

Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio.
Un grupo de gente humilde y sencilla que luchamos por justicia y humanidad. Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio está luchando contra el desalojo en El Barrio, un proceso que, como mejor lo entendemos nosotros a los que nos afecta, es que es el desalojo de las familias, sacarlas de sus casas por ser gente pobre, inmigrantes y gente de color. Somos parte del movimiento transnacional iniciado por los zapatistas llamado “La Otra Campaña”.

Para el Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio, luchar por justicia significa luchar por la liberación de las mujeres, los inmigrantes, las homosexuales, la gente de color, las lesbianas y la comunidad transgénero. Todos tenemos un enemigo común que es llamado neoliberalismo. El neoliberalismo desea dividirnos e impedir que combinemos nuestras fuerzas. Lo derrotaremos mediante la unión de todas nuestras comunidades hasta que logremos una verdadera liberación para todos.

20-Year TRS Suit Settlement Payouts

20-Year TRS Suit Settlement Payouts
Current Pension Topics
By JOEL FRANK

Attention retired members of the eight public-employee retirement systems of the State and the City of New York:

You may have noticed a decrease in your net pension amount. This decrease is due to a change in Federal tax withholding. Last year, tax tables were changed as a result of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Stimulus Bill”). The tax tables for 2010 have reverted back to the prestimulus tax tables.

Attention all active and retired members of Tiers 1 and 2 of the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York (TRS):

Payments for the “20-Year Pension Class Settlement” Have Begun

The payment of benefits in the “20-Year Pension Class Settlement” is underway. Nonretired TRS members who are part of the settlement class received a credit in their Increased- Take-Home-Pay accounts in January. For qualifying retirees and other class members, disbursement of the onetime payments occurred between Feb. 5 and 12. During the same period, settlement class members should have received letters concerning the distribution of their benefits.

The class-action suit challenged the calculation of a specific portion of the TRS retirement benefit for Tier I/Plan A and Tier II/Plan C members. All inquiries about the settlement should be directed to the claims administrator, Gilardi & Co., at 1 (800) 295-4716. If your settlement check was made payable to you, you still have the right to roll over the gross amount within 60 days from the day you received the check.

As a public employee, are you deferring all you can to the Deferred Compensation Plan of the State or City of New York? One way of motivating yourself to increase your contribution is to make believe there is no public-employee retirement system and no Social Security System. Make believe you will get nothing from these two systems.

Having said that, the Maximum Annual Contribution Amount remains unchanged for 2010. Based on the plan you are contributing to and provided you are at least 50 years old, the following table lists the most you can defer for 2010.

Are you contributing to the city’s 401(k) plan and a 401(k) or 403(b) plan with another employer? You must ensure that your contributions to ALL 401(k)’s and ALL 403(b)’s COMBINED do not exceed $16,500 in 2010.

If you contribute $16,500 to the TDA/403(b) Plan of the Teachers’ Retirement System, you can also contribute $16,500 to the city’s 457 Plan but nothing to the city’s 401(k) Plan.

If you contribute $16,500 to the TDA/ 403(b) Plan of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, you can also contribute $16,500 to the city’s 457 Plan but nothing to the city’s 401(k) Plan.

Mr. Frank is a fee-only Retirement Financial Planner and a retired city high school Teacher of Accounting. He can be reached by telephone at (732) 536-9472, or via e-mail at rollover@optonline.net.

20-Year TRS Suit Settlement Payouts | www.thechief-leader.com | The Chief-Leader NYC Civil Service Newspaper.

Environmental Police Officer Jobs Offered

Environmental Police Officer Jobs Offered

Can Take Daily Exam Through Feb. 27; Starts At $25,631

Need H.S. Diploma and 30 College Credits Or Military Service

 

A final round of walk-in tests for Environmental Police Officer jobs paying $25,631 to start will be held on a daily basis through Feb. 27 at the city testing center at 2 Lafayette St. in lower Manhattan.

Protect City’s Water

Those appointed will protect the water supply systems and watershed areas under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Protection while enforcing the rules and regulations governing them.

The maximum salary, reached after six years in the position, is currently $44,742, and there are two higher assignment levels to which job-holders are promoted at the discretion of the agency.

All the jobs currently available are located outside the five boroughs, in counties including Westchester, Dutchess, Greene, Sullivan, Putnam, Delaware, Ulster, Rockland, Orange and Schoharie. On the date of their hiring, candidates must live in either New York City or one of those counties.

Candidates must have a high school diploma plus 30 college credits and at least a 2.0 grade-point-average by their date of appointment, by which time they must also be U.S. citizens and have a driver’s license valid in the State of New York. Two years of honorable full-time U.S. military service or a year of law-enforcement experience will also qualify them if they have the high school diploma.

They must be at least 16 ½ years old on the day they take the test, and at least 20 to be appointed. They cannot be older than 34 on the day they apply, but those who served in the military can be up to six years older and still qualify.

Test Schedule

There is a $30 filing fee to take the exam, which will be held at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services Computerized Testing Center Tuesday and Thursday this week at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday at 10 a.m. Candidates can apply for whichever exam is convenient for them, but will not be able to take a test that is already in progress.

The multiple-choice test will cover written comprehension and expression, memorization, problem-sensitivity, deductive and inductive reasoning, spatial orientation, information ordering and the ability to visualize how something will look when it’s moved or rearranged. The passing score is 70.

Those who score well enough to be appointed will also undergo a background investigation, for which they must pay $75 for a fingerprint screening. They will also undergo medical and psychological testing, a physical exam, and a drug screening. Those appointed will have to qualify for firearms usage, and will have probationary status for their first 24 months on the job.

For further information, call DCAS at (212) 669-1357.

Monday, February 22, 2010

New York City’s 10 Best Southern, Soul Food

clipped from www.nyc10best.com

New York City’s 10 Best Southern, Soul Food, and Cajun Restaurants

Published: February 22, 2010
New York City’s 10 Best Southern, Soul Food, and Cajun Restaurants

1.  Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. 646 W 131st Street, Harlem. A casual southern style BBQ restaurant with their own version of southern style ribs, similar to St. Louis and Memphis BBQ ribs.  Slow smoked ribs, special seasoning, and their quality meat outshines the competition.  Biker bar and roadhouse decor is always crowded, be prepared to wait.  Best ribs in New York City and my favorite restaurant in Harlem.  Also, try the fried green tomatoes and mac n cheese.  If you want chicken wings, they make a mean BBQ version here, and sometimes I prefer them over the ribs.

Decaying apartments symptom of housing crisis

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Southern California's Negrohead Mountain renamed for black pioneer who settled the peak - latimes.com

Southern California's Negrohead Mountain renamed for black pioneer who settled the peak

By Associated Press

9:28 PM PST, February 20, 2010

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A peak previously known as Negrohead Mountain in Southern California's Santa Monica range was officially renamed Saturday in honor of a black pioneer who settled the area in the 19th Century.

The 2,031-foot mountain near Malibu, the highest peak in the area, became Ballard Mountain after John Ballard, a blacksmith and former slave who bought land on the mountain in 1880.

The name originally contained a vulgar racial slur that even appeared on federal maps, but it was changed to "negro" in the 1960s.

About 90 people including some two dozen Ballard descendants attended the renaming ceremony Saturday at the site where Ballard owned a 320-acre homestead near what is now the community of Seminole Hot Springs.

"I don't know what it means to Los Angeles as a whole, but it means a lot to me," Ballard's 85-year-old great-grandson Reggie Ballard, a retired LA Fire Department captain, told the Los Angeles Times.

The U.S. Geological Survey's Board on Geographic Names approved the change last year after a request from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

"It's not often you get a chance to right an historical wrong," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who made the name-change motion, said at the ceremony Saturday.

A permanent plaque with Ballard's name and story is being placed near the top of the peak.

Ballard was part of a small group that founded Los Angeles' African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1869 but left Los Angeles for the mountains 50 miles away a decade later.

Historians believe that Ballard and his family were fleeing growing segregationist polices in the city.

Southern California's Negrohead Mountain renamed for black pioneer who settled the peak - latimes.com.

Civilian Lawyers To Prosecute NYPD Misconduct Cases

clipped from gothamist.com

Civilian Lawyers To Prosecute NYPD Misconduct Cases

Under a new plan, some cops accused of wrongdoing won't face internal NYPD reviews, but prosecution from outside attorneys who specialize in police misconduct. According to the Daily News, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the Civilian Complaint Review Board now has authority to charge and prosecute officers in some cases when civilians file complaints. The Times reports that the board currently investigates cases and refers them to police for prosecution, though the NYPD only prosecutes some cases. The New York Civil Liberties Union says the new policy isn't "real reform" and could be "an empty gesture" because civilian lawyers will only be able to "prosecute a small number of cases handpicked by the NYPD."

By Ben Muessig in on February 19, 2010 5:22 PM

Health Executive to Lead N.A.A.C.P.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Health Executive to Lead N.A.A.C.P.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Saturday announced the selection of its first new board leader in more than a decade.






N.A.A.C.P.


Roslyn M. Brock will succeed Julian Bond, right, as leader of the association's board. Center, Benjamin T. Jealous, president.

Roslyn M. Brock, 44, the board’s current vice chairwoman, will become chairwoman of the board, taking the reins from Julian Bond, who last year, on the eve of the organization’s centennial celebration, announced his decision to step down. The 64-member board is the policymaking arm of the organization.

In being named vice chairwoman of the N.A.A.C.P. board at 35, Ms. Brock was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position.