Blacks Splitting On Obama?

Black leaders are now divided on
Obama and how he should be handling
black issues. How will this division
effect the final outcome of this issue?
Check out the article below and then let
us know what you think.



*Some noted Black leaders recently have suggested publicly that President Obama does not need to focus on Black issues.
In response to mounting evidence showing African Americans are disproportionately lagging behind on all economic indicators despite assertions of a so-called “post-racial” era, Tavis Smiley said Tuesday he will moderate a national conversation examining whether in fact there needs to be a Black agenda and the accountability of leadership to address issues facing Black Americans.

Smiley formally announced the forum this morning on the Tom Joyner morning Show. Reaction to his statements and position was swift. Immediately after, during a telephone press conference with EUR and several other black oriented media outlets, Smiley said that his comments had already prompted a heated response from Rev Al Sharpton, one of the “Black Leaders” that Smiley identified.




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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Another Black Physician Comes Under Fire

Once again another prominent black
doctor is under the microscope.
This time Dr. Andrew Rutland a Chula
Vista,California physician was caught
in a sting, violating a court order not
to practice. Check out the article below.
Your comments are welcomed.






Less than a month after Dr. Andrew Rutland was barred from performing surgeries after an abortion patient's death, state medical authorities say they caught the physician in an undercover sting apparently violating the court order.

For the second time in as many months, state officials are seeking the immediate suspension of the Chula Vista physician's license. A hearing is set for Thursday in San Diego. Rutland could not be reached for comment.

His lawyer, Paul M. Hittelman, said Rutland did nothing to violate the court's order.

"It's not asserted that he was doing any surgical procedures," said Hittelman, adding that Rutland's physician daughter performed those procedures.

On Jan. 7, Administrative Law Judge James Ahler stopped short of granting the request by lawyers for the Medical Board of California, deciding instead to temporarily limit his practice until a full hearing could be held. One potential problem for the state was proving that Rutland posed an immediate danger -- given that it took five months to bring its case.

This time, lawyers for the medical board will present evidence of a sting operation hatched a couple of days after the January hearing.

At that time, in response to a request from Rutland's lawyer seeking clarification of the no-surgery order, the judge amended it to specifically ban him from performing "first trimester abortions and endometrial curettage procedures."

Two weeks later, Medical Board investigator Carmen Aguilera-Marquez made an appointment for an abortion at A Women's Choice Family Planning Clinic in Chula Vista. She used an undercover alias and brought a urine sample from a pregnant woman.

At the clinic, she saw Rutland in a room through an open door standing by a woman lying on an examination table, according to a petition filed by the board. The patient's legs were bent, and Rutland was looking into the patient's cervical area, she said.

She spoke with a friend of the patient who told her that the woman was there for a "chemical abortion," a spontaneous miscarriage induced with pills inserted by a physician, she said in the petition.





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Three Striker Tows The Line

Jerry Dewayne Williams the first person
convicted under California's three strike
law back in 1994 walks very carefully these
days. He has to or he could spend the rest
of his life in prison. Check out the story
below and feel free to offer an opinion.





If he ever returns to prison, Jerry Dewayne Williams knows he'll probably never get out.

To stay clear of trouble, he has left behind the Compton neighborhood where police knew him and cut ties with friends from wilder days. Once a hard partyer, the 43-year-old says he prefers the company of a mystery novel or a "Law and Order" episode on television.

Williams is one of more than 14,000 felons who, under California's three-strikes law, face a possible life sentence if they commit another felony. But few, if any, grasp the reality of that threat better than Williams.

Fifteen years ago, the gangly laborer made worldwide headlines when he was convicted of snatching a slice of pizza from a group of children near the Redondo Beach Pier. A judge, citing California's newly adopted three-strikes law, sentenced him to 25 years to life.

Williams -- dubbed the "pizza thief" -- became an iconic symbol in the political and ideological battle over California's push to get tough on crime. But as the public furor over his case subsided, Williams persuaded a judge to reduce his prison term, and he was quietly released after a little more than five years behind bars.

A decade later, Williams finds himself serving a different kind of life sentence.

"I walk on eggshells," he said. "Any little thing that I do, I could be back for the rest of my life."

Controversial life sentences under the three-strikes law are hardly novel. Those sentenced under the law include a thief caught shoplifting a bottle of vitamins and a drug addict who swiped nine videotapes to sell for heroin.

But few cases have polarized opinion as much as Williams' theft of an extra-large slice of pepperoni pizza. The case continues to divide today, resurfacing whenever opponents of the law launch another reform attempt.





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Congresswoman Watson Steps Down

Congresswomen Diane Watson is stepping down
from her congressional seat. We commend this
great lady for her more than thirty years
of public service.



Ending more than three decades of public service, U.S. Rep. Diane Watson announced Thursday morning that she would step down from her congressional seat at the end of this term.

She declined to endorse a successor.

“I appreciate the trust … that you have placed in me,” said Watson, speaking at a Los Angeles news conference, flanked by community leaders including L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, LAPD Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger, school board member Marguerite LaMotte and the Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray.

Watson, a Democrat, said she was leaving to spend “quality time” with her mother, who just turned 100 and recently broke her hip.

The announcement capped a political career that began when she was the first black woman elected to the LAUSD school board and culminated with her election to the 37th Congressional District. She was also the first black woman elected to the state Senate, in 1978.






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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Black Jobs?

The country is recovering from one of the
worst recessions in history yet blacks seem
to be going under more and more. President
Obama needs to do more to assure that blacks
get a fair shake in this recovery. Do you
agree?





Reporting from Washington - Amid signs that black Americans are not sharing in the nation's fledgling economic recovery, President Obama on Wednesday met at the White House with African American leaders, who urged him to adopt a new approach more tightly focused on chronically depressed communities.

While the unemployment rate in January dropped below 10% for the first time in five months, joblessness among blacks increased slightly, to 16.5%.

"We're not looking for race-based programs but, like the president, we want to make sure that everyone is included," the Rev. Al Sharpton said after the meeting. "We need to make sure that those efforts to spur job creation are equally and fairly distributed so that, when the rubber meets the road, we're all in the car."

The meeting came at a time when some black leaders have faulted Obama for not pursuing policies more targeted on the economic woes of their community.

Sharpton and the two other leaders in the meeting -- NAACP President Benjamin T. Jealous and National Urban League CEO Marc H. Morial -- have been supportive of Obama in the face of those complaints.

Obama remains supremely popular among African Americans. David Bositis, a political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, recently surveyed blacks in four states and found that 80% approved of the job he was doing as president.

But even Obama's supporters want to be sure that the jobs legislation being drafted in Congress will be effective in minority-dominated communities with high unemployment.

"More must be done," said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) after the January unemployment report was released. "As lawmakers, we must not shy away from targeted public policy that seeks to address the specific and unique issues facing minority communities."

The House in December passed a $154-billion jobs bill that included several provisions sought by the Congressional Black Caucus, such as a $500-million summer jobs program and a $1-billion fund for affordable housing. It also included $26.7 billion to help state and local governments maintain public service jobs -- workforces in which minorities are well represented.




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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Is The Trickle Down Effect Back For Blacks?

Obama says rather than pass laws that are
conducive to help blacks he wants to pass
legislation that will benefit all Americans.
This way no one is left out. When the chips
are down in this country it is black folks
that are the hardest hit. Will we ever get
preferential treatment? Even now with a
black man in the White House we must still
stand in line and wait. What's your take?
Check out the story below.






There was no big speech or fancy ceremony when President Obama observed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday last month. Instead, for his first King holiday as president, Mr. Obama quietly installed a rare signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Oval Office and invited a small group of African-American elders and young people to come see it.
The private gathering — “an intimate discussion,” in the words of Dorothy Height, a 97-year-old grande dame of the civil rights movement — was typical of Mr. Obama, who has steered clear of putting race front and center in his administration. But that low-key approach is frustrating some black leaders and scholars, who are starting to challenge Mr. Obama’s language and policies.

On Capitol Hill, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are expressing irritation that Mr. Obama has failed to create programs tailored specifically to African-Americans, who are suffering disproportionately in the recession. In December, some of them threatened to oppose new financial rules for banks until the White House promised to address the needs of minority groups.

“I don’t think we expected anything to change overnight because we had an African-American in the White House, but the fact still remains that we’ve got a constituency that is suffering,” said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland. “I think he could do more, and he will do more.”

Some black scholars fault Mr. Obama as failing to lead on the issue of race. The Kirwan Institute, which studies race and ethnicity, is convening a conference on Thursday to offer policy prescriptions. After analyzing the State of the Union address, the institute’s scholars warned that “continued failure to engage race would be devastating.”

Michael Eric Dyson, a Georgetown University sociologist and longtime supporter of Mr. Obama, is exasperated. “All these teachable moments,” Professor Dyson said, “but the professor refuses to come to the class.”

In an interview in late December with American Urban Radio Networks, a group of black-owned stations, Mr. Obama conceded that there was “grumbling” among African-Americans, especially about his jobs policies. But he rejected the idea that he should pay special attention to them — an argument that Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a black author and political analyst, called “disingenuous at best, and an insult at worst.”

Mr. Obama framed it this way: “I can’t pass laws that say I’m just helping black folks. I’m the president of the United States. What I can do is make sure that I am passing laws that help all people, particularly those who are most vulnerable and most in need. That in turn is going to help lift up the African-American community.”

Until now, black leaders have tended to tread lightly in criticizing Mr. Obama, and some find it personally painful. Black Americans remain overwhelmingly supportive of Mr. Obama; a recent ABC News poll found that 96 percent approve of his job performance.





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Conrad Murray Negotiating Surrender

Conrad Murray the doctor at the center
of the Micheal Jackson controversy is
negotiating a surrender to the District
Attorney's office. The sticking point
is whether he should be handcuffed. The
police have taken the stance that he
should be handcuffed thus showing him
as some kind of thug criminal. How do
you feel the doctor should be treated?


An attorney for Michael Jackson’s doctor said he was in negotiations with a prosecutor Thursday morning about how the physician will surrender to face criminal charges in the pop icon’s death.

No case has been filed against Dr. Conrad Murray, but the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is expected to file an involuntary manslaughter charge and potentially other counts against him this week, said numerous sources familiar with the case.

Murray’s lead attorney, Ed Chernoff, said he and Deputy Dist. Atty. David Walgren were discussing arrangements for booking and arraigning the doctor after the case is filed.

“We both share the goal of the efficient administration of this process,” Chernoff said.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

A sticking point appeared to be whether Murray, who is staying with the mother of his infant son in Santa Monica, will be arrested and placed in handcuffs or permitted to turn himself in at a police station or courthouse.

Los Angeles Police Department officials were pushing for an arrest, according to a departmental source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The source said police were concerned that allowing Murray to turn himself in suggested to the public -- including future jurors -- that he was entitled to special treatment and was a “white-collar” case rather than an accused criminal.

Murray’s lawyer insisted there was no reason for handcuffs or police cars.

“An arrest of Dr. Murray would be a waste of money, time and resources. We’ve always made it clear: You tell us where; we’ll be there. I’m sure something can be arranged,” Chernoff said.

He said Murray and his defense team have met with bail bond companies in preparation for the charges.

“We’ve had eight months to prepare,” he said, referring to the criminal probe of Murray that began in the hours after Jackson’s June 25 death.

Murray acknowledged giving propofol, a powerful anesthetic intended for use in operating rooms, to Jackson as a sleep aid the morning of his death, according to court documents. The coroner’s department ruled the death a homicide and said it was caused by “acute propofol intoxication” in combination with the use of sedatives also administered by the doctor.

Involuntary manslaughter, which applies to unlawful killing committed without malice or an intent to kill, carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.






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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

The Soloist Debuts First CD

Nathaniel Ayers the cellist portrayed by Jamie Foxx
has finally cut his first CD with the help of a few
friends. Congratulations are in order. Check out
the story below then post your thoughts.



With a little help from his friends, the Soloist cuts his first CD.
I was beginning to think we'd never get around to making the CD that Nathaniel Anthony Ayers has been talking about for years.

Last summer, on a trip to San Francisco, where Mr. Ayers was honored for his spirit by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, we came up with the perfect name for it:

"Putting on Ayers."

But when readers and friends asked when it would be available, I had no good answer.

Some days Mr. Ayers is fine; some days not.

Some days he wants companionship; other days he needs to be alone.

As for the CD, he'd back off one day, calling it a terrible idea. And then he'd be ready to roll the next day.

Finally, a few weeks ago, it all seemed to be coming together. We had a day booked in a Silver Lake studio. A pal of his, Joe Russo, had agreed to fly in from Connecticut to record with him.

L.A. Philharmonic pianist Joanne Pearce Martin and violinist Robert Gupta had juggled schedules. And Michael Balzary, also known as Flea of the band Red Hot Chili Peppers, was eager to join us.

Then, the night before, Mr. Ayers -- a former Juilliard student who was homeless and playing a two-string violin when I met him five years ago -- backed out of the recording session.

"It's not going to happen," he said, complaining of an upset stomach that I suspected was caused in part by a case of nerves.

I woke the next day to an urgent message from Mr. Ayers: He was feeling better and ready to go, and I was relieved I hadn't called off the whole thing.

An hour later, he canceled, and I lost a few more strands of hair.

The other musicians were standing by. Would Mr. Ayers reconsider?

OK, he said.

I picked him up on skid row and packed his bass, cello, violin, guitar, trumpet and flute into my car. He left his viola, French horn, keyboards and trombone in his room, perhaps saving them for his second CD.

On the way to Silver Lake, Mr. Ayers was nervous but game. He wanted to know how the day would play out, and I reminded him there was no strategy other than for him to jam on as many instruments as he cared to play. Steven Argila, a pianist and owner of the studio, had met Mr. Ayers before and was ready to go with the flow, and the same was true of Stephen Krause, the recording engineer.




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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Black History Month

February which most of us black folks know is
Black History Month and to kick it off below
is a list of black history events. Check it
out, it's an interesting list.





Historical Front Pages from On This Day in History

1800s

* 1857: Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case
* 1863: President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

1900-1950s

* 1947: Dodgers Purchase Robinson, First Negro in Modern Major League Baseball
* 1954: High Court Bans School Segregation; 9-to-0 Decision Grants Time to Comply
* 1956: High Court Rules Bus Segregation Unconstitutional
* 1957: Arkansas Troops Bar Negro Pupils; Governor Defiant
* 1957: President Sends Troops to Little Rock, Federalizes Arkansas National Guard; Tells Nation He Acted to Avoid An Anarchy
* 1957: Miss Gibson Wimbledon Victor

1960s-2000

* 1960: Negro Sitdowns Stir Fear Of Wider Unrest in South
* 1961: 400 U.S. Marshals Sent to Alabama as Montgomery Bus Riots Hurt 20; President Bids State Keep Order
* 1963: Birmingham Bomb Kills 4 Negro Girls In Church; Riots Flare; 2 Boys Slain
* 1963: Mississippi Gives Meredith Degree
* 1963: 200,000 March for Civil Rights in Orderly Washington Rally
* 1964: 3 In Rights Drive Reported Missing
* 1964: Civil Rights Bill Passed, 73-27; Johnson Urges All To Comply; Dirksen Berates Goldwater
* 1964: Martin Luther King Wins The Nobel Prize for Peace

1965: New Negro Riots Erupt on Coast; 3 Reported Shot
* 1965: The Big Parade: On the Way to Montgomery
* 1965: 25,000 Go to Alabama’s Capitol
* 1965: Malcolm X Shot to Death at Rally Here
* 1967: President Sees Marshall Take Supreme Court Seat
* 1968: Martin Luther King is Slain in Memphis
* 1968: 2 Black Power Advocates Ousted From Olympics
* 1971: Supreme Court, 9-0, Backs Busing to Combat South’s Dual Schools, Rejecting Administration Stand
* 1975: Ashe Triumphs at Wimbledon
* 1991: Police Brutality Under Wide Review by Justice Dept.
* 1992: Los Angeles Policemen Acquitted In Taped Beating

2000s

* 2008: Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls





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Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/