Funk legend Sly Stone now homeless and living out of a van in LA

Funk legend Sly Stone now homeless and living out of a van in LA

By WILLEM ALKEMA and REED TUCKER

Last Updated: 5:33 AM, September 25, 2011

Posted: 2:05 AM, September 25, 2011

In his heyday, he lived at 783 Bel Air Road, a four-bedroom, 5,432-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion that once belonged to John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.

The Tudor-style house was tricked out in his signature funky black, white and red color scheme. Shag carpet. Tiffany lamps in every room. A round water bed in the master bedroom. There were parties where Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Miles Davis would drop by, whereEtta James would break into “At Last” by the bar.

Just four years ago, he resided in a Napa Valley house so large it could only be described as a “compound,” with a vineyard out back and multiple cars in the driveway.

JOHN CHAPPLE

SOUL SURVIVOR: Sly Stone, now 68 years old, shows he can still get funky -- brandishing a Taser for a photo session in front of his Studebaker.

JOHN CHAPPLE

"I like my small camper. I just do not want to return to a fixed hom ... I must keep moving," Stone says.

But those days are gone.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/the_rise_and_fall_of_sly_stone_qijyKoYzmAqer1PA0YogSJ#ixzz1YyEcxqvv

African-American - News

African-American - News September 13, 2011

See African-American Weather

Obesity, bigger waist may mean higher death risk for black women (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Being obese and having a larger waist may be linked with a higher risk of dying for African American women, a study finds.

Our First Black President (The Atlantic)
Remember Mr. Coates, Morehouse College put Howard University on the map; the first African-American president of Howard University was a Morehouse Man, Dr.

NAACP Chapter Joins Maryland Coalition to Pass Marriage Equality Bill (MySoCalledGayLife)
Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the broad and diverse coalition working to bring civil marriage equality to Maryland, today announced the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the newest member of its steering committee.

Nashville museum on African American music planned (The Macon Telegraph)
A new museum in the works for Nashville will aim to expand the public's idea of what makes the town Music City.

James Craig Anderson Was Killed Because he was Black not Because he was Gay (womanist-musings)
There is no doubt in my mind that this is a racial hate crime. I found his murder incredibly triggering and that is why I didn't write about it before. I have however been following this story very closely. As a Black mother with Black sons, what happened to Anderson represents my worst nightmare. This weekend as I was going through my reader, I noticed that several gay blogs have finally gotten around to writing about this story. Please note that Black blogs have been writing about Anderson's death since it happened, and I doubt that without their constant attention, that this story would have made the national news. At any rate, reading these gay blogs I learned that Anderson was Black and gay. A light bulb clicked on, and I realized why his death had suddenly been deemed worthy of coverage - his sexuality. When Anderson was just another Black man, who was a random victim of White supremacy, none of the GLBT blogs had a damn thing to say about it. I suppose it was considered not to be a gay issue. Now that it has been revealed that Anderson was a gay man, being beaten and then driven over by a truck is suddenly deemed horrifying. To that I say fuck you - fuck you ten thousand times over. They weren't screaming gay slurs at Anderson, they were screaming racial slurs at him and believing that you can appropriate his death to advance the cause of gay rights is repulsive.

National Panhellenic Council, NAACP and Black Caucus hold candlelight memorial (The Digital Collegian)
A crowd of people aggregated in front of Old Main with candles last night in remembrance of those who lost their lives on Sept.

Stuyvesant High School Grads Sick 10 Years After 9/11

Stuyvesant High School Grads Sick 10 Years After 9/11

September 8, 2011 6:30am | By Julie Shapiro, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

SEE MORE PHOTOS

BATTERY PARK CITY — When Stuyvesant High School's 3,000 students returned to their Battery Park City classrooms on Oct. 9, 2001, they thought the worst was over.

Less than a month earlier, the 14-to-18-year-olds had fled their school, some in tears and some numbly silent, as the World Trade Center collapsed just three blocks behind them.

The students at one of the city's most selective high schools were ready to get back to their routine of coursework and college applications, and ready to reassemble the pieces of their pre-9/11 academic and social lives.

But from their first breath of smoky, dusty air they took as they emerged from the subway that October morning, many of the students feared that they had returned to lower Manhattan too soon.

"We could see the fire burning [at Ground Zero] on our way to school," said Lila Nordstrom, who was a senior on 9/11.

"It was very clear it was not safe."

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110908/downtown/stuyvesant-high-school-students-sick-10-years-after-911?utm_content=blackcotton212%40gmail.com&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Stuyvesant%20High%20School%20Students%20Sick%2010%20Years%20After%209%2F11&utm_campaign=Stuyvesant%20High%20School%20Students%20Sick%2010%20Years%20After%209%2F11content#ixzz1XUKtGB51

Teen Missing from Lexington Avenue Home

Teen Missing from Lexington Avenue Home

September 3, 2011 4:51pm | By Tom Liddy, DNAinfo News Editor

Matthew Rosario, 14, of East Harlem, went missing from his apartment on Aug. 31, 2011 (NYPD)

MANHATTAN — An East Harlem teen vanished from his home last Wednesday, police said.

Matthew Rosario, 14, was last seen at his house on Lexington Avenue, near East 101st Street, at 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 31.

He is described as 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Those with tips can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS, log onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text CRIMES (274637) then enter TIPS577.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110903/harlem/teen-missing-from-lexington-avenue-home#ixzz1XDJZFdwk

Snakes In The Pulpit: Creflo Dollar Says Shoot Non Tithes Payers With Uzi And Shows His Love For Money! [Video]

 

Snakes In The Pulpit: Creflo Dollar Says Shoot Non Tithes Payers With Uzi And Shows His Love For Money! [Video]
charlieblanko
Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:00:50 GMT

Judge Defends Homeless Woman’s Right to Sit on Fifth Avenue

 

Police repeatedly hassled Sojourner Hardeman for sitting quietly in front of a shuttered store on Fifth Avenue, so she's taking them to court. Homeless since last September, Hardeman was arrested in March and detained, but released without charges and has been issued disorderly conduct summonses despite her lawyer's claims that "passive panhandling" is "clearly constitutionally protected." A judge has already ordered that cops leave her alone unless they have probable cause, but her lawsuit has not yet been settled.

According to Ms. Hardeman's complaint, officers approached her four times in July and ordered her to leave the spot in front of the empty storefront, at one point, saying: "You can't be here. This is Fifth Avenue."

Nothing says privilege and elegance in 2011 like boarded-up windows.

After Panhandler Says Police Harassed Her, a Judge Tells Them to Stop [NYT]

Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli

Filed Under: nypd, fifth avenue, lawsuits

Judge Defends Homeless Woman’s Right to Sit on Fifth Avenue
Joe Coscarelli
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:33:00 GMT

A Poll Tax by Another Name

By JOHN LEWIS

Correction Appended

Washington

AS we celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, we reflect on the life and legacy of this great man. But recent legislation on voting reminds us that there is still work to do. Since January, a majority of state legislatures have passed or considered election-law changes that, taken together, constitute the most concerted effort to restrict the right to vote since before the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Growing up as the son of an Alabama sharecropper, I experienced Jim Crow firsthand. It was enforced by the slander of “separate but equal,” willful blindness to acts of racially motivated violence and the threat of economic retaliation. The pernicious effect of those strategies was to institutionalize second-class citizenship and restrict political participation to the majority alone.

We have come a long way since the 1960s. When the Voting Rights Act was passed, there were only 300 elected African-American officials in the United States; today there are more than 9,000, including 43 members of Congress. The 1993 National Voter Registration Act — also known as the Motor Voter Act — made it easier to register to vote, while the 2002 Help America Vote Act responded to the irregularities of the 2000 presidential race with improved election standards.

Despite decades of progress, this year’s Republican-backed wave of voting restrictions has demonstrated that the fundamental right to vote is still subject to partisan manipulation. The most common new requirement, that citizens obtain and display unexpired government-issued photo identification before entering the voting booth, was advanced in 35 states and passed by Republican legislatures in Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri and nine other states — despite the fact that as many as 25 percent of African-Americans lack acceptable identification.

Having fought for voting rights as a student, I am especially troubled that these laws disproportionately affect young voters. Students at state universities in Wisconsin cannot vote using their current IDs (because the new law requires the cards to have signatures, which those do not). South Carolina prohibits the use of student IDs altogether. Texas also rejects student IDs, but allows voting by those who have a license to carry a concealed handgun. These schemes are clearly crafted to affect not just how we vote, but who votes.

Conservative proponents have argued for photo ID mandates by claiming that widespread voter impersonation exists in America, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. While defending its photo ID law before the Supreme Court, Indiana was unable to cite a single instance of actual voter impersonation at any point in its history. Likewise, in Kansas, there were far more reports of U.F.O. sightings than allegations of voter fraud in the past decade. These theories of systematic fraud are really unfounded fears being exploited to threaten the franchise.

In Georgia, Florida, Ohio and other states, legislatures have significantly reduced opportunities to cast ballots before Election Day — an option that was disproportionately used by African-American voters in 2008. In this case the justification is often fiscal: Republicans in North Carolina attempted to eliminate early voting, claiming it would save money. Fortunately, the effort failed after the State Election Board demonstrated that cuts to early voting would actually be more expensive because new election precincts and additional voting machines would be required to handle the surge of voters on Election Day.

Voters in other states weren’t so lucky. Florida has cut its early voting period by half, from 96 mandated hours over 14 days to a minimum of 48 hours over just eight days, and has severely restricted voter registration drives, prompting the venerable League of Women Voters to cease registering voters in the state altogether. Again, this affects very specific types of voters: according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, African-Americans and Latinos were more than twice as likely as white voters to register through a voter registration drive.

These restrictions purportedly apply to all citizens equally. In reality, we know that they will disproportionately burden African Americans and other racial minorities, yet again. They are poll taxes by another name.

The King Memorial reminds us that out of a mountain of despair we may hew a stone of hope. Forty-eight years after the March on Washington, we must continue our work with hope that all citizens will have an unfettered right to vote. Second-class citizenship is not citizenship at all.

We’ve come some distance and have made great progress, but Dr. King’s dream has not been realized in full. New restraints on the right to vote do not merely slow us down. They turn us backward, setting us in the wrong direction on a course where we have already traveled too far and sacrificed too much.

John Lewis, a Democrat, is a congressman from Georgia.

Correction: August 27, 2011

An earlier version of this article misstated a quotation engraved on the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. The quotation is "out of a mountain of despair we may hew a stone of hope," not "out of a mountain of stone."

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial

Philip Scott Andrews/The New York Times

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial will officially be dedicated on Sunday. More Photos »

Harlem's "Runner Lady" In Great Shape At 87

Harlem's "Runner Lady" In Great Shape At 87

A Harlem woman is celebrated by friends and her community for staying in great shape and running three miles a day despite being a month away from her 88th birthday and undergoing dialysis treatment.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY VANCE, SPEAKER QUINN, COUNCIL MEMBERS DICKENS AND JACKSON, AND BROTHERHOOD/SISTER SOL ANNOUNCE SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROGRAM FOR CENTRAL HARLEM YOUTH

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.

District Attorney, New York County

For Immediate Release

August 10, 2011

DISTRICT ATTORNEY VANCE, SPEAKER QUINN, COUNCIL MEMBERS DICKENS AND JACKSON, AND BROTHERHOOD/SISTER SOL ANNOUNCE SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROGRAM FOR CENTRAL HARLEM YOUTH

Pilot Program Exposes Students to Educational and Workforce Possibilities, and Cultural Experiences

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., City Council Speaker Christine M. Quinn, Council Member Robert Jackson, Council Member Inez E. Dickens, and Khary Lazarre-White, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Brotherhood/Sister Sol, joined nearly 40 students on the steps of City Hall today to announce the launch of a new summer internship program. Based at The City College of New York, the six-week program kicked off in late July. The participating students, who are between the ages of 12 and 16, attend educational workshops and tours at some of New York’s leading cultural institutions and businesses.

“This program was born out of a desire to engage youth this summer, and provide them with unique educational and cultural opportunities,” said District Attorney Vance. “Learning doesn’t stop when school is out, and thanks to the generosity of the City Council, these 40 teens and pre-teens are being exposed to some of the best that New York has to offer through a multitude of workshops and educational field trips.”

Council Speaker Quinn said: “Today's announcement could mean the start of something very big for the young people participating in this program. At the completion of this internship, students will have had the opportunity to experience a world of cultural and educational institutions while also giving back to the community. Young people can have life altering, lasting, positive experiences in this type of environment. I want to thank Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, and my colleagues for their unwavering support in helping our young people thrive.”

Council Member Dickens said: “I have admired and supported the work of Khary Lazarre-White, Executive Director of Brotherhood/Sister Sol, and his dedicated staff and volunteers. This project embraces our young people. It is also inclusive of emancipated youth. Through exposure to positive educational and cultural enrichment, this project opens the doors to limitless possibility for our young. I want to applaud Speaker Christine Quinn, for she has been consistent in leveraging resources to stem the tide of youth violence and gang activity. It is my hope that through continued collaboration with the DA’s Office, the City Council, law enforcement, community based organizations, concerned parents and citizens, we will see the day when we do not lose another precious child to senseless violence.”

Council Member Jackson said: “Taking a fresh look at what is around us is a challenge at any age; understanding the significance of what we see, even more so. I am very pleased that District Attorney Vance and Brotherhood/Sister Sol will be collaborating and working together to open the eyes of forty lucky youth to some of the astounding cultural resources that are right here in our neighborhoods. I thank my Council colleagues and the Speaker for committing the funding that makes this program possible; the horizons of these young people will be forever broadened as a result of participating and I believe they, in turn, will share what they know with their friends and families.”

Brotherhood/Sister Sol Executive Director and Co-Founder Khary Lazarre-White said: “The Brotherhood/Sister Sol’s Future Foundation summer immersion program builds on sixteen years of our youth development model – we are seeking to expose young people to workforce possibilities, culture, and higher education; to provide nurturing and holistic mentorship; and to empower youth to define a moral and ethical code by which to live their lives. I appreciate the work of the Manhattan DA’s Office and City Council in facilitating this program.”

Brotherhood/Sister Sol Program Coordinator Frantz Jerome said: “The Bro/Sis Future Foundation program exists to guide children in Harlem and open their eyes to cultural, educational and career possibilities. It is an introduction to the ideals of Bro/Sis: Positivity, Community, Knowledge and Future.”

Led by several counselors who are former graduates of the Brotherhood/Sister Sol program themselves, the participants in this program take educational and cultural field trips up to three days each week, to places including Central Park, El Museo del Barrio, and Fordham University. When not out in the community, the students attend workshops at City College on a range of topics, including community building, conflict resolution, and spoken word performance. Upon completion of the six-week program, participants will receive a $250 stipend.

Sex Ed Becomes Mandatory For City Middle, High School Students

 

In an email to principals, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says beginning in the second semester of the upcoming school year, all public middle school and high school students will have to have at least one semester each of sex education as part of their health curriculum.

Sex Ed Becomes Mandatory For City Middle, High School Students
Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:52:41 GMT

For Uganda Little Leaguers, Exhilaration and Then Heartbreak

For Uganda Little Leaguers, Exhilaration and Then Heartbreak

Tadej Znidarcic for The New York Times

The Rev. John Foundation Little League team, Middle East-Africa champions, practiced last week in Kampala, Uganda.

By PAUL POST

KAMPALA, Uganda — Felix Barugahare has no idea what a sporting goods store is. He shares a glove and swings someone else’s bat, and there is a good chance that his baseball cleats are the first pair of shoes he has worn.

Felix is a second baseman for the Rev. John Foundation Little League team, the first team from Africa to qualify for the Little League World Series. But the players’ aspirations for international success were dashed Friday when they were denied visas to travel to the United States. The State Department said that some of the visa applications included birth records that “several parents admitted had been altered to make some players appear younger than they actually are.”

It is a sad coda to an inspirational story of a fledgling program for poor children who hoped to test their skills against the best teams in the world. More frustrating for Uganda is that for the second year in a row, a seemingly open path to South Williamsport, Pa., where the tournament is held, has been blocked by adults behind closed doors rather than by children on the playing field.

Many of the boys on the foundation team live in crowded homes with their extended families, subsisting on as little as $100 a month. Some have no parents. And when there are parents in the picture, they are often illiterate, making it difficult to verify the birth certificate information and complicating State Department interviews.

click here for full article

Police Search for Two Girls Missing Since Monday

Police Search for Two Girls Missing Since Monday

July 27, 2011 9:41am | By Tuan Nguyen, DNAinfo

Queen Sutherland, 14, (L) and Janell Johnson, 13, were last seen in Harlem July 25, 2011. (NYPD)

UPPER EAST SIDE — Police are seeking the public’s help to locate two girls who have been missing since Monday night.

Queen Sutherland, 14, of E 102nd Street and Janell Johnson, 13, of Brooklyn, were last seen around 9:00 p.m. in Sutherland’s house in Harlem. The girls are cousins, police said.

Sutherland is described as 4-foot-11-inches tall and weighing 100 pounds. She has black and blond braids and was last seen wearing an orange t-shirt, blue jeans and neon green and gray sneakers.

Johnson, who stands five-foot-six-inches tall and weighs 115 lbs., has long black hair that she often wears in a ponytail. She was last seen wearing a white t-shirt with the words “Don't Hate Me Because I'm Pretty” and purple pants, and white and purple Airmax sneakers.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or send their tips or text 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

All calls are strictly confidential.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110727/harlem/police-search-for-two-girls-missing-since-monday?utm_content=chiefcharley472%40gmail.com&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Police%20Search%20for%20Two%20Girls%20Missing%20Since%20Monday&utm_campaign=Pol%20Calls%20for%20Notification%20Whenever%20Sewage%20Enters%20City%20Waterwayscontent#ixzz1TQQeLlwg

Unearthing Traces of African-American Village Displaced by Central Park

Unearthing Traces of African-American Village Displaced by Central Park

By LISA W. FODERARO

For more than a decade, anthropologists and historians pieced together the history of a short-lived African-American community that was snuffed out in the 1850s by the creation of Central Park. They combed vital records and tax documents, scanned parkland using radar and studied soil borings.

But because the vestiges of the community were buried beneath the park, the leaders of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History — a consortium of three professors from City College, Barnard College and New York University — were kept from doing the one thing that would open a window onto the daily existence of the some 260 residents: digging.

That all changed eight weeks ago, after they won permission from the city to excavate in an area of the park near 85th Street and Central Park West.

While the borings of the past produced just a few artifacts, the dig, which will end on Friday, generated 250 bags of material that should keep the scholars busy for months, if not years. The work on Wednesday alone yielded a toothbrush handle fashioned of bone and the lid of a stoneware jar.

About two-thirds of the residents of Seneca Village were African-American, while the rest were of European descent, mostly Irish. The community was settled in the 1820s, a few years before slavery was abolished in New York. Despite old news reports that the village was a squatter camp, it was, in fact, made up of working- and middle-class property owners.

Detailed historical maps indicate that the village stretched from 82nd to 89th Streets, between what were then Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Nan A. Rothschild, an anthropologist who is a professor at Columbia University and Barnard College, said that there were other settlements in the area, but that “this is the most formal, coherent community that we know of, because it was laid out in a grid pattern and had three churches and a school.”

With the help of 10 college interns, the institute focused on two primary sites: the yard of a resident named Nancy Moore, and the home of William G. Wilson, a sexton at All Angels’ Episcopal Church, both of whom were black. Records show that Mr. Wilson and his wife, Charlotte, had eight children and lived in a three-story wood-frame house.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/nyregion/unearthing-an-african-american-village-displaced-by-central-park.html

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Student interns in Central Park at the site of Seneca Village, which was settled in the 1820s.

Enlarge This Image

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

A shard of pottery found at the site.

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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Buttons were among the settlement artifacts.

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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

The bowl of a clay pipe from the village, which was demolished in the 1850s.

What Muslim Radicalization Hearings? Peter King Says Another 9/11 Is "Almost Impossible"

 

Republican Rep. Peter King has been keeping busy with refusing "craven surrender to political correctness" by singling out Muslims as a group of people we really shouldn't be trusting. After his first Congressional hearing on "Muslim Radicalization" was mostly an offensive dud, his second one was barely noticed. And yes, there will be a third hearing to combat the scourge of Islam on Wednesday. But Peter King seems to have forgotten how real the danger is, because NY1 reports that he told a group of supporters this morning that "it would be almost impossible for a 9/11-type attack to happen again." [ more › ]

What Muslim Radicalization Hearings? Peter King Says Another 9/11 Is "Almost Impossible"
Christopher Robbins
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:05:10 GMT

FDNY Comes to Harlem Looking to Diversify its Ranks

FDNY Comes to Harlem Looking to Diversify its Ranks

July 18, 2011 5:51pm | By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

 

 

 

Harlem resident and firefighter Khalid Baylor responded to an application he received at a street fair. Eight years later, he's one of the faces of the FDNY's diversity recruitment campaign. (DNAinfo/Jeff Mays)

HARLEM — Khalid Baylor wasn't planning to be a firefighter, but eight years ago he was looking for a career change when a black firefighter handed him an application for the New York City Fire Department at the Harlem Day Parade.

"I was just out in the crowd and I saw this black firefighter who gave me an application and encouraged me to apply," said Baylor, a Harlem resident.

He then went a step beyond. He made copies of the application and handed them out to his friends. Eight years later, Baylor, is an example of both the success and difficulties of recruiting minorities to the largest firefighting force in the country.

None of his friends followed through with the fire department application, but today, Baylor is a firefighter with Engine 35/ Ladder 14 on East 124th Street and Third Avenue. He is also one of the faces of the FDNY's efforts to diversify its ranks, appearing on a new FDNY ad campaign with his 11-year-old son Khalid.

"What I have seen is that a lot of community residents don't know about the job opportunities with the fire department," Baylor said.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110718/harlem/fdny-comes-harlem-looking-diversify-its-ranks?utm_content=chiefcharley472%40gmail.com&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=FDNY%20Comes%20to%20Harlem%20Looking%20to%20Diversify%20its%20Ranks&utm_campaign=Muni-Meter%20Rate%20Hikes%20Take%20Effect%20Above%2096th%20Streetcontent#ixzz1SaU3IkTH

Final Proposal Unveiled for Sherman Creek Waterfront

Final Proposal Unveiled for Sherman Creek Waterfront

July 14, 2011 8:08pm | By Carla Zanoni, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

 

 

SEE MORE PHOTOS

INWOOD — A final proposal for the renovation of Sherman Creek was unveiled at a community forum steps away from the underused and blighted inlet Wednesday night.

The ambitious $83 million plan created by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) over the past two years would seek to reinvent the stretch of the Harlem River between Dyckman and 208th Street.

The plan looks to create four connected areas, including a boardwalk, pebble beach, a walkway over the river and a cove for public waterside use.

"Having worked together with the local community on this plan for the past two years, we're excited to release the completed Sherman Creek Waterfront Esplanade Master Plan," said NYCEDC spokesman Kyle Sklerov, adding that the plan complements the city's WAVES 2020 plan, which aims to increase waterfront access through the five boroughs. 

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110714/washington-heights-inwood/final-proposal-unveiled-for-sherman-creek-waterfront?utm_content=chiefcharley472%40gmail.com&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Morningside%20Park%20Could%20Get%20More%20Policecontent#ixzz1SHcdmklg

“Minority Report” Come True: Facial Recognition in the Hands of Cops

 

Facial recognition technology, a staple of high-tech action adventure films, is making its mainstream debut – in reality.

Dozens of law enforcement groups in several states plan to outfit police with hand-held devices that officers can use to scan irises or take photos of a person’s face, the WSJ reports. The gadget, which attaches to iPhones, then runs the information through a criminal database to find potential matches.

The technology – made by BI2 Technologies of Plymouth, Mass. – raises privacy concerns over whether use of the device would require a search warrant, according to the Journal.

Although courts have not ruled on the issue, individuals – including police officers – can legally take photos of people in public spaces. Even so, Orin Kerr of the George Washington University Law School told the Journal that face- and iris-recognition technology is still “a gray area of the law.”

BI2 says it plans to produce about 1,000 devices for distribution to about 40 law enforcement agencies. Each gadget costs $3,000.

“Minority Report” Come True: Facial Recognition in the Hands of Cops
Patrick G. Lee
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:45:53 GMT

Afghan President Karzai's Brother Killed in Kandahar

 

Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, was shot and killed by a regular visitor to his home in Kandahar, where he was the head of the provincial council. Ahmed Karzai was a controversial figure in Afghan politics, with reports that he was on the CIA payroll and involved in drug trafficking. [NYT]

Read more posts by Emily Watkins

Filed Under: afghanistan, ahmed wali karzai, hamid karzai

Afghan President Karzai's Brother Killed in Kandahar
Emily Watkins
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:24:32 GMT

Fan Mistakenly Calls Jeter “Latino”; Do You Consider Him To Be Black?

 

The fan who caught Derek Jeter’s historic 3,000th hit, Christian Lopez, called Derek Jeter a “Latino” when he was interviewed after catching the historic ball.

Problem is that Derek Jeter is far from Latino — he’s actually half-Black and white.

Now many look at Derek Jeter in the same way they look at Tiger Woods; almost as color-less athletes. Both of them have stayed far away from any type of racial issues or talk which have endeared them to all types of fans.

With his appeal amongst all fans, and refusal to speak about any racial issues, do you consider Jeter to be a Black man?

RELATED:

Black baseball players who are part of the 3,000 hit club

Fan Mistakenly Calls Jeter “Latino”; Do You Consider Him To Be Black?
NewsOne Staff
Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:05:59 GMT

I wondered how long it would be before Jeter's ethnic background would become part of his mighty accomplishment?