2014-12-31

Throwbacks’ help propel urban ratings record.

Story by Inside Radio

Whether classic hip-hop evolves into the next classic rock or devolves into the next Jammin’ Oldies won’t be apparent for some time. But during the brief period since it became radio’s hottest new format, “throwback” stations are already helping grow the ratings pie for the larger urban contemporary format.

“Thanks in no small part to that growing trend, in December urban contemporary picked up right where it left off last month, breaking November’s record results for listeners 6+ (3.4) and 25-54 (3.8) while tying the number for 18-34 year-olds (6.3),” Nielsen says in a new report. Urban is ending the year on a high note: 2014 was its most successful year in PPM history. The format ranked sixth among all formats in its core 18-34 demo.

This year was also one for the record books for hot AC, which nailed its best ratings ever under electronic measurement. December’s hot AC PPM ratings shattered its previous records in three demos: 6+ (a 6.5 in December), 18-34 (7.2) and 25-54 (7.0).

AirAsia Pilot’s Final Request Was Met by Two-Minute Radio Silence


Indonesian soldiers carry coffins containing victims of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash at the Indonesian Air Force Military Base Operation Airport on Dec. 31, 2014 in Surabaya, Indonesia.(Photographer: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)

Story by Bloomberg
Written by Herdaru Purnomo and Kyunghee Park

It took about two minutes for air-traffic control to respond to AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA)’s ill-fated Flight 8501 when the pilot requested permission to elevate the plane, according to Indonesia’s air navigation operator.

In the final communication from the plane, one of the pilots asked to climb to as high as 38,000 feet, said Wisnu Darjono, director at AirNav Indonesia, citing a transcript of the conversation from the National Transport Safety Committee. Air traffic control authorized the plane to ascend only to 34,000 feet about two minutes later, after which contact was lost, Darjono said.

Accuweather.com data shows there were storms along the path of the plane, which Indonesia’s air transport director has said was flying at 32,000 feet.

Air-traffic control “couldn’t immediately give permission to fly at 38,000 feet because checks needed to be made to see if there were other planes nearby,” Darjono said in a phone interview. The “pilot didn’t reply.”

Radar data appeared to show that AirAsia made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the plane’s limits, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the probe’s initial findings.

As divers seek to find the plane’s black boxes, those final minutes may provide crucial clues as to what caused the Airbus Group NV (AIR) A320 plane to crash on Dec. 28 with 162 people on board into the ocean near Pangkalan Bun, about 600 miles southeast of Singapore. Rescuers started pulling bodies and debris from the water yesterday.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-31/pilot-s-final-request-was-met-by-two-minute-radio-silence.html

2014-12-30

2014 Honor Roll

2014 Honor Roll compiled by Radio's Legendary Jazz Programmer Lawrence Tanter

As the year comes to a conclusion – we pause and say a Final “So Long” to these Music Innovators and Contributors who passed away in 2014.

With Deep Respect & Gratitude…their Legacy is acknowledged and never forgotten.

Horace Silver
Joe Cocker
Vernon Slaughter
Jessica Cleaves
Tim Hauser
Charlie Haden
Joe Bonner
Joe Sample
Paul Horn
Augie Johnson
John Blake
Gerald Wilson
Bobby Womack
Buddy De Franco
Jimmy Scott
Idris Muhammad
Casey Kaseem
Buster Jones
Herb Jeffries
Dr. Maya Angelou
Jackie Cain
Amiri Baraka
Bunny Ruggs
Frank Dunlap
Dick Berk
Deon Jackson
Blue Lovett
Jimmy Ruffin
Jerry Coffin
Don Davis
Frank Strazzeri
Johnny Winter
Gil Askey
Wayne Henderson
Pete Seager
Ralph Penland
Ronny Jordan
Armando Peraza
Kenny Drew Jr.

They shared the gift of music and made our journey enjoyable.

Forty-Eight Percent of Black Female Teens have an STD


Commentary by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu

The above figure is not a new statistic. My concern is that it has become the norm
and is unacceptable. One fourth of White female teens have an STD. That figure
would be a little more acceptable. Is the Black community in denial? Do we feel
it's okay if almost half our female teens have an STD? When I speak nationwide
to youth, many of them tell they are virgins. I then ask how can you be a virgin
with an STD? They then tell me it was oral or anal sex which they feel did not
violate their virginity.

Were you aware that the leading cause of death in the Black community is
abortion? Each day, 1,786 Black children are aborted. Can you imagine 52% of
Black pregnancies are aborted? Again, this not a new statistic, my concern like
with STDs, is that it has become acceptable. Are 52% of all pregnancies aborted
acceptable to you? Has abortion become the new form of birth control?

African Americans are 13% of the U.S. population male and female. I would
expect Black females to be 13% of females in America who are HIV positive. The
reality is that Black females are 64% of the women in America who are HIV
positive. Again this is not a new statistic. Are you okay and accepting of the fact
that 64% of all women in America who are HIV positive just happen to be Black?
Has this become the norm? Is that our reality? Are Black people in denial? Have
all the statistics made us numb?

How can we reduce these statistics? While writing Raising Black Girls, I discovered
that Black girls start puberty before anyone else. They start at 8 years and 8
months while White girls start at 9.7. Black girls also start their menstrual earlier
than anyone else at 12.06. Whites start at 12.88. In writing the book, I wanted to
understand why. I discovered a relationship between puberty, menstruation and
sexual activity. In addition, I also found a relationship between puberty, diet,
exercise, body mass index and being breast fed.

I want to close with a positive statistic seldom if ever is mentioned. There are
thousands of Black girls who wear chastity rings and have taken the oath of
abstinence until marriage. I salute and applaud you!
________________________________

Excerpt from the books by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu: "Raising Black Girls" and "Educating Black Girls"

What The Color of Your Urine Says About You (Infographic) -- Color, density, and smell can reveal health problems

Story by Health Hub from Cleveland Clinic

Human urine has been a useful tool of diagnosis since the earliest days of medicine. The color, density, and smell of urine can reveal much about the state of our health. Here, for starters, are some of the things you can tell from the hue of your liquid excreta.



Article Link: http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/10/what-the-color-of-your-urine-says-about-you-infographic/

2014-12-29

Sound quality still matters to consumers

Story by Inside Radio

For lovers of high fidelity sound, the rise of web radio isn’t exactly easy on the ears. And as many Americans found new gadgets under their tree last week, there’s a silver lining for over-the-air FM radio, and HD Radio in particular: most still say audio quality matters.

A global survey commissioned by CSR found that 82% of those polled rate excellent sound quality as one of the most important features in home audio systems.

And 79% agree the quality of sound is becoming more important than the appearance of devices.

Two-thirds of people believe they can tell the difference between a pair of $500 headphones and a set that costs just $50.

While people historically liked to show off the look of their stereo’s speakers, today they’re seeking out CD-quality sound, according to CSR SVP Anthony Murray. “Music is hugely important to consumers and a way many of us make a personal statement, manage our emotions and deal with the daily grind,” he says. “Consumers have demonstrated that they view their sound systems and equipment as something worth investing in but they increasingly have less patience for poor sound quality, difficult set-up procedures, multiple remotes and devices that aren’t interoperable with the equipment they already have.”

The State of Play Research Report shows that three-quarters (76%) of people have listened to streamed music at home in the past month — and that 62% think everyone will stream music from the internet within five years as CDs, vinyl and mp3 files become obsolete.

The results are based on online interviews by Loudhouse Research among 2,000 adults aged 18 to 65 during October and November.

President Obama marks end of combat in Afghanistan

Story by CNN
Written by Kevin Liptak

Honolulu -- Thirteen years and more than 2,000 American casualties after it began, the war in Afghanistan will conclude responsibly, President Barack Obama said on Sunday.

In a written statement marking the formal end of U.S. combat there, the President said the remaining 10,000 or so American troops in Afghanistan would still face danger but that the longest U.S. war ever was now history.

"Our personnel will continue to face risks, but this reflects the enduring commitment of the United States to the Afghan people and to a united, secure and sovereign Afghanistan that is never again used as a source of attacks against our nation," President Obama said.

American troops went to fight in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the U.S. spent more than $1 trillion dollars there and lost upwards of 2,200 servicemen and women.

The President vowed to wind the Afghan war down when he took office, eventually announcing this year he would reduce the number of troops stationed there to about 10,000 — a massive reduction from the nearly 150,000 who once served.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/28/politics/obama-afghanistan-end-of-combat/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

2014-12-26

President Obama Weekly Address: Happy Holidays from the President and First Lady


The President and First Lady wished Americans a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and thanked our brave troops for their service. Especially as our combat mission in Afghanistan comes to a responsible end in the coming days, we are reminded of all that military men, women, and families sacrifice to keep us safe.

The President and First Lady asked everyone to take some time this holiday season to visit JoiningForces.gov and find out how to give back to the men and women in uniform who have given so much for all of us.


2014-12-24

Houston grand jury will not indict police officer over fatal Jordan Baker shooting

After months of testimony, a grand jury has decided not to indict police officer Juventino Castro over the fatal shooting of Jordan Baker, a 26-year-old unarmed black man, in January.

Read more from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/24/houston-grand-jury-jordan-baker-shooting

Darnell Moore of #BlackLivesMatter, Speaks Out Against NY Mayor Bill de Blasio's Call To Pause Protests





Story/Video by Huffington Post
Written by Emily Tess Katz

The #BlackLivesMatter contingency isn't pleased that Mayor Bill de Blasio (NY-D.) has requested they suspend their protests.

De Blasio asked that protestors pause their demonstrations until the funerals for the two policemen murdered in Brooklyn this past weekend have passed, but the #BlackLiveMatters campaign is set on exercising their first amendment right to protest. They argue that timing is a non-issue and that they still plan to express their voice in the wake of non-indictments for Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

"To protest is a first amendment right," Darnell Moore, a #BlackLivesMatter activist, told HuffPost Live on Tuesday. "Particularly peaceful protest that has an aim -- the aim of responding to the types of practices that deaden lives disproportionately of black folk in our country."

These protests are what is keeping the conversation about the police murders of Garner, Brown and countless others alive in America, Moore explained.

"These actions have produced a lot of conversations across the country, really raised the consciousness of a lot of folk," he said. "It's about the transformation of a system -- it isn't about the demonizing of individuals, and I think that's really important."

To halt protests would arguably be a way of halting solidarity with the families of the victims, he suggested.

"It is important to just acknowledge the moment that we're in," he asserted. "It's one where we should have deep empathy for the families of the slain."

2014-12-22

Soul Singer Joe Cocker dead at age 70 from Lung Cancer


Singer Joe Cocker dead at age 70. Above singing big hit "Feeling Alright".


Joe Cocker and John Beluchi on Saturday Night Live in 1976


Joe Cocker and Luciano Pavarotti - "You are so beautiful"


Joe Cocker, Patti LaBelle, and Billy Preston - "You are so Beautiful"


Joe Cocker at Woodstock 69


Joe Cocker - "With a little help from my friends"


Joe Cocker, Phil Collins, and Queen - "With a little help from my friends"

Police Unions and others Blast NY Mayor Bill De Blasio after shooting deaths of two NYPD policemen


Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch speaks to reporters following the shooting deaths of two NYPD officers in Brooklyn on Dec. 20, 2014. (credit: Sonia Rincon/1010 WINS)

Story by AP

Police union officials blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio Saturday, saying the blood of two NYPD cops who were shot and killed in Brooklyn is on his hands.

“There’s blood on many hands tonight. Those that incited violence on the streets under the guise of protest that tried to tear down what NYPD officers did every day. We tried to warn it must not go on, it cannot be tolerated,” Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said. “That blood on the hands starts at City Hall in the office of the mayor.”

“Those who allowed this to happen will be held accountable,” he added.

The Sergeants Benevolent Association tweeted: “The blood of 2 executed police officers is on the hands of Mayor de Blasio. May God bless their families and may they rest in peace.”

On Saturday, some officers turned their backs on de Blasio as he walked into the hospital following the shooting deaths of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.

The mayor’s office later issued a statement responding to the PBA, saying, “It’s unfortunate that in a time of great tragedy, some would resort to irresponsible, overheated rhetoric that angers and divides people. Mayor de Blasio understands this is the time when we must come together to support the families and friends of those brave officers New York City lost tonight – and the entire NYPD community.”

Others also took to social media to place blame on the mayor.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki tweeted: “Sickened by these barbaric acts, which sadly are a predictable outcome of divisive anti-cop rhetoric of #ericholder & #mayordeblasio. #NYPD”

NY State Sen. Greg Ball posted a statement on Facebook that said, in part, “Today, our NYPD and other law enforcement and emergency responders have walking targets on their backs and are in grave danger. Mince no words. The Mayor is directly responsible for their safety or lack thereof.”

Long Island Congressman Peter King said it is “time for elected officials to stand by the men and women of law enforcement and end the demeaning of police officers and grand juries.”

Police said the suspect, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, approached the passenger window of a marked police car and opened fire, striking Ramos and Liu in the head.

It happened around 2:47 p.m. Saturday at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Tompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“They were, quite simply, assassinated — targeted for their uniform,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said. “They were ambushed and murdered.”

Bratton said Brinsley had made online posts that were “very anti-police” prior to the shooting, which comes at a tense time between police unions and de Blasio.

Lynch and de Blasio have been locked in a public battle over treatment of officers following the grand jury’s decision not to indict an officer in the death of Eric Garner.

Demonstrators around the country have staged die-ins and other protests since the ruling, a decision that closely followed a Missouri grand jury’s refusal to indict an officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

Following the Garner decision, de Blasio said he and his wife, Chirlane, have had to have painful conversations with their teenage son, Dante, about “how to take special care with any encounter he may have with police officers.”

“I’ve had to worry over the years, Chirlane has had to worry: Is Dante safe each night?” de Blasio said earlier this month after the grand jury’s decision. “And not just from some of the painful realities of crime and violence in some of our neighborhoods but safe from the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors.”

Lynch slammed the mayor’s comments, saying “our city is safe because of police officers,” adding de Blasio was “throwing them under the bus.”

Just days ago, Lynch suggested police officers sign a petition that demanded the mayor not attend their funerals should they die on the job.

Why Cops and Republicans Are Blaming #BlackLivesMatter Protests for a Double Murder

Story by Bloomberg
Written by David Weigel

CBS story link: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/12/20/police-unions-others-blast-de-blasio-after-shooting-deaths-of-2-nypd-cops/

On Saturday, a man with a lengthy arrest history allegedly shot his ex-girlfriend, used her phone to Instagram threats against police–"I'm putting wings on pigs today"–then carried out the murders of two New York police officers. He tagged his picture with the names of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two black men killed this year in encounters with the police. Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot at 3 p.m.; the gunman quickly turned the weapon on himself.

Five hours later, the official Twitter account of the "Sergeants Benevolent Association" reacted by blaming NY Mayor Bill be Blasio.
____________________________

Sergeants Benevolent Association
@SBANYPD

The blood of 2 executed police officers is on the hands of Mayor de Blasio. May God bless their families and may they rest in peace.
8:09 PM - 20 Dec 2014
____________________________

“The protests, even the ones that don't lead to violence ... all of them lead to a conclusion: The police are bad.”
--- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani


Political figures, on the right, took that as permission to pile on "anti-cop" Democrats. New York Governor George Pataki, the state's forgettable former Republican governor, tweeted that the killing was "a predictable outcome of divisive anti-cop rhetoric of #ericholder & #mayordeblasio." Greg Ball, a Republican state senator from the suburbs north of the city, went on Facebook to explain why de Blasio was to blame.

"The Mayor is directly responsible for their safety or lack thereof," wrote Ball. "This Mayor brings all new meaning to 'I didn't know you could stack shit that high.'" Again, this wasn't from a Twitter troll. It was from a key New York state senator, who leads the state Homeland Security committee in the expanded GOP majority taking office in two weeks.

In this age of Twitter outrage, it's easy for a couple of rumblings from anonymous people to craft a "narrative." That's not what's happened in New York. No need to elevate scattered Internet agitators; Police unions and key Republicans spent the weekend linking the killings of two cops to the protests that began in Ferguson this summer and accelerated after a grand jury didn't indict the police whose encounter with Staten Island man Eric Gardner ended in his death.

Americans had been divided on the Ferguson story, but the Garner story, which was fueled by cellphone video of the man gasping "I can't breathe" before he literally couldn't, was something else. By a 3-1 ratio, most Americans thought the grand jury made the wrong call.

The Saturday/Sunday backlash to the cop killings effectively retconned the backlash. They were no longer gatherings of concerned people representing the opinions of most Americans. They were violent campaigns against cops. Video of the crowds surging through Manhattan were sifted through again, for the moments when some protesters chanted "What do we want? Dead cops!" Even the protesters who'd ignored or shouted down those chants were suspect.

"The protests," fretted former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, "even the ones that don't lead to violence—a lot of them lead to violence—all of them lead to a conclusion: The police are bad."

Giuliani knew this turf. He narrowly lost a 1989 campaign to David Dinkins, the city's first (and so far only) black mayor. In 1992, Giuliani joined the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association at a rally protesting Dinkins's proposal of a civilian review board to investigate allegations of police misconduct.

"We're not going to get an impartial panel from the mayor because the mayor is basically anti-cop on every issue," said Officer Jorge Gautreau to a reporter from Newsday.

"He never supports us on anything," said Officer Tara Fanning to the New York Times. "A cop shoots someone with a gun who's a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family."

The civilian review board was created anyway. A year later, Giuliani defeated Dinkins. New York didn't elect a Democrat to city hall for 20 more years. So there's precedent for the current police criticism of de Blasio, and precedent for the politics. Murders in New York City are down 85.2 percent this year from the same period in 1993, according to the NYPD's own statistics. Still, the current leader of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association was out on Saturday, talking about "blood on many hands tonight," from "those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protest, that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day."

By a solid margin, most Americans had disagreed with the grand jury's decision to not indict the officers involved in Eric Garner's death. In retrospect, and with intent, they were being called accomplices to a double murder. There's a bit of score-settling going on here; some of the conservative media voices calling out the #BlackLivesMatter protesters say they're applying the "collective guilt" rules that unfairly linked Sarah Palin to the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona.

Giuliani, Ball, Pataki et al are not interested in that. They are amplifying the anger of police officers, who feel disrespected by de Blasio as they once felt disrespected by Dinkins. They want the skepticism and second looks at police tactics to stop.

CBS story link: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/12/20/police-unions-others-blast-de-blasio-after-shooting-deaths-of-2-nypd-cops/

NY Slain Officer's Family Grateful for Prayers; Shooter issued a warning before shooting


Photographs of slain New York Police officers Wenjian Liu, left, and Rafael Ramos are placed in a makeshift memorial honoring the men at the 84th Precinct in the Brooklyn borough of New York, where the officers were stationed. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who vowed online to shoot two "pigs" in retaliation for the police chokehold death of Eric Garner, ambushed Ramos and Liu in a patrol car Saturday and fatally shot them in broad daylight before running to a subway station and killing himself. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Link to read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Slain-Officers-Family-Grateful-for-Prayers-286514861.html


The man who shot dead two New York police officers told members of the public to "watch what I'm going to do" shortly before the attack, police say.(Photo issued by NYPD)

Link to read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30572042

2014-12-19

President Obama vows U.S. response to North Korea over Sony cyber attack

Story by Reuters
Written by Aruna Viswanatha and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to respond to a devastating cyber attack on Sony Pictures that he blamed on North Korea, and scolded the Hollywood studio for caving in to what he described as a dictator trying to impose censorship in the United States.

Obama said the cyber attack "caused a lot of damage" to Sony but that the company should have spoken to him before letting itself be intimidated into canceling the release of "The Interview," a comedy portraying the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"We will respond," Obama told an end-of-year news conference. "We'll respond proportionally, and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose."

Two hours before he spoke, the FBI announced that investigators had determined that North Korea was behind the hacking of Sony, calling it an unacceptable act of state-sponsored "intimidation."

Obama said North Korea appeared to have acted alone. Washington began consultations with Japan, China, South Korea and Russia seeking their assistance in reining North Korea's cyber activities.

It was the first time the United States had directly accused another country of a cyber attack of such magnitude on American soil and sets up a possible new confrontation between longtime foes Washington and Pyongyang.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-behind-sony-hack-possible-china-u-152034211--sector.html

FCC won't ban Redskins use for Radio and TV stations

Story by Inside Radio

The Federal Communications Commission is refusing to order radio and television stations to stop using the term “Redskins” as it rejects a petition seeking to block the license renewal for a station owned by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder. But the fight appears far from over.

Georgetown University law professor John Banzhaf had led the charge, urging the FCC to reject the application filed by Red Zebra Broadcasting’s WWXX, Buckland, VA (94.3) seeking a new license. They claimed the “ESPN 980” WTEM simulcast wasn’t fit to be a license holder since it used the word “Redskins” on-air, which they characterized as “a derogatory racial and ethnic slur” and a violation of government limits on profanity and obscenity.

But Audio Division chief Peter Doyle concluded in the seven-page decision that “Redskins” doesn’t fit the bill since it’s not sexual or excretory in nature. “The First Amendment and Section 326 [of the Communications Act] prohibit the Commission from censoring program material or interfering with broadcasters’ free speech rights,” Doyle concludes. He also points out there are no provisions in the law or FCC rulebooks that specifically bans hate speech.

Communications attorneys had said it was doubtful the FCC would step into the fight or try to limit stations’ use of the word. Red Zebra has also noted opinion surveys show a “small minority” of Americans object to its use. The company had been pushing the FCC to quickly rule on its license renewal to undercut Banzhaf’s threat to bring similar actions against radio and TV stations around the country.

The decision by the FCC was not unexpected. That’s according to Banzhaf, who brought the challenge. Disappointed but undeterred, he now vows to appeal the staff-level decision to the full Commission and onto the U.S. Court of Appeals if necessary.

“We have many more strings to our bow,” Banzhaf says. He points out a similar petition seeking to block the license renewal of Fox Television’s KTTV-TV, Los Angeles should get a “more serious consideration” by the agency since it was filed on time, unlike the one filed against WWXX. And Banzhaf says the L.A. petition includes several additional legal arguments, including that stations that use the term “Redskins” on-air are creating a “racially hostile environment.

Appeal likely in FCC’s ‘Redskins’ ruling.

2014-12-18

Chris Rock says Hollywood is a "White Industry"


Chris Rock opens up about the Hollywood Film industry (photo: Hollywood Reporter)

Story from Hollywood Reporter
Essay by Chris Rock

I was probably 19 when I first came to Hollywood. Eddie Murphy brought me out to do Beverly Hills Cop II and he had a deal at Paramount, so I remember going through the gates of the Paramount lot. He's in a Rolls-Royce, and he's not just a star, he's the biggest star in the world. Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer's office was in the same building as Eddie's office, and they would come to work every day with matching cars. Some days it would be the Porsches, and the next day it would be Ferraris. I was like the kid in A Bronx Tale. I got to just hang around when the biggest parts of show business were happening. I was only there a couple of weeks, but I remember every day Jeffrey Katzenberg would call Eddie Murphy — I don't even know if Eddie was calling him back — but it was like, "Jeffrey Katzenberg called again." "Janet Jackson just called." "Michael Jackson called." It was that crazy. I've still never seen anything like it. I had a small part in the movie, but my dream was bigger than that. I wanted to have a convertible Rolls-Royce with a fine girl driving down Melrose blasting Prince.

Now I'm not Murphy, but I've done fine. And I try to help young black guys coming up because those people took chances on me. Eddie didn't have to put me in Beverly Hills Cop II. Keenen Wayans didn't have to put me in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Arsenio didn't have to let me on his show. I'd do the same for a young white guy, but here's the difference: Someone's going to help the white guy. Multiple people will. The people whom I've tried to help, I'm not sure anybody was going to help them.

And I have a decent batting average. I still remember people thinking I was crazy for hiring Wanda Sykes on my old HBO show. I recommended J.B. Smoove for Saturday Night Live, and I just helped Leslie Jones get on that show. She's about as funny as a human being can be, but she didn't go to Second City, she doesn't do stand-up at The Cellar and she's not in with Judd Apatow, so how the hell was she ever going to get through unless somebody like me says to Lorne Michaels, "Hey, look at this person"? I saw her at a comedy club four or five years ago, and I wrote her name down in my phone. I probably called four managers — the biggest managers in comedy — to manage her, and all of them said no. They didn't get it. They didn't get it until Lorne said yes a few years later, and then it was too late.

Some of these younger black guys just want me to see their act. Some come to me for advice. Hannibal Buress called the other day. They want to know about agents and managers and the business; this kind of deal and that kind of deal; dealing with the media and dealing with family; money crap and where they should live. It's big brother shit, and they ask because there aren't that many black people to turn to. Who do you hire? Where's the big black PR agency? Where are the big black agents? Where's the big black film producer? That's why I've been all over Steve McQueen. I put a microchip in Steve's pocket and track him like an Uber driver. Steve thinks we keep bumping into each other by accident. "Hey, Steve, my man!" I don't care if I have to play a whip, I'm going to be in a Steve McQueen movie. But I digress.

It's a white industry. Just as the NBA is a black industry. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing. It just is. And the black people they do hire tend to be the same person. That person tends to be female and that person tends to be Ivy League. And there's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, that's what I want for my daughters. But something tells me that the life my privileged daughters are leading right now might not make them the best candidates to run the black division of anything. And the person who runs the black division of a studio should probably have worked with black people at some point in their life. Clint Culpepper [a white studio chief who specializes in black movies] does a good job at Screen Gems because he's the kind of guy who would actually go see Best Man Holiday. But how many black men have you met working in Hollywood? They don't really hire black men. A black man with bass in his voice and maybe a little hint of facial hair? Not going to happen. It is what it is. I'm a guy who's accepted it all.

We cut it out in Top Five, but there had been a scene where Kevin Hart, who plays my character's agent, is in his office talking to me, and he finds out that "Zoolander" (Ben Stiller) is down the hall and he's mad because none of the agents called him. He's the only black agent at the agency, and there was a line in the movie like, "I'm the only black agent here. They never invite me to anything, and these people are liberals. This isn't the Klan."

But forget whether Hollywood is black enough. A better question is: Is Hollywood Mexican enough? You're in L.A, you've got to try not to hire Mexicans. It's the most liberal town in the world, and there's a part of it that's kind of racist — not racist like "F— you, nigger" racist, but just an acceptance that there's a slave state in L.A. There's this acceptance that Mexicans are going to take care of white people in L.A. that doesn't exist anywhere else. I remember I was renting a house in Beverly Park while doing some movie, and you just see all of the Mexican people at 8 o'clock in the morning in a line driving into Beverly Park like it's General Motors. It's this weird town.

You're telling me no Mexicans are qualified to do anything at a studio? Really? Nothing but mop up? What are the odds that that's true? The odds are, because people are people, that there's probably a Mexican David Geffen mopping up for somebody's company right now. The odds are that there's probably a Mexican who's that smart who's never going to be given a shot. And it's not about being given a shot to greenlight a movie because nobody is going to give you that — you've got to take that. The shot is that a Mexican guy or a black guy is qualified to go and give his opinion about how loud the boings are in Dodgeball or whether it's the right shit sound you hear when Jeff Daniels is on the toilet in Dumb and Dumber. It's like, "We only let white people do that." This is a system where only white people can chime in on that. There would be a little naivete to sitting around and going, "Oh, no black person has ever greenlighted a movie," but those other jobs? You're kidding me, right? They don't even require education. When you're on the lower levels, they're just about taste, nothing else. And you don't have to go to Harvard to have taste.

Fifteen years ago, I tried to create an equivalent to The Harvard Lampoon at Howard University, to give young black comedy writers the same opportunity that white comedy writers have. I wish we could've made it work. The reason it worked at Harvard and not at Howard is that the kids at Howard need money. It's that simple. Kids at Harvard come from money — even the broke ones come from money. They can afford to work at a newspaper and make no money. The kids at Howard are like, "Dude, I love comedy, but I've got a f—ing tuition that I've got to pay for here." But that was 15 years ago; it might be easier to do it now because of the Internet. I don't know.

I really don't think there's any difference between what black audiences find funny and what white audiences find funny, but everyone likes to see themselves onscreen, so there are some instances where there's a black audience laughing at something that a white audience wouldn't laugh at because a black audience is really just happy to see itself. Things that would be problems in a world where there were a lot of black movies get overlooked. The same thing happened with those Sex and the City movies. You don't really see that level of female movie that much, so women were like, "We're only going to get this every whatever, so f— you, f— the reviews, we're going, we like it."

And you should at least be able to count on your people, and then it grows from there. If someone's people don't love them, that's a problem. No one crosses over without a base. But if we're going to just be honest and count dollars and seats and not look at skin color, Kevin Hart is the biggest comedian in the world. If Kevin Hart is playing 40,000 seats in a night and Jon Stewart is playing 3,000, the fact that Jon Stewart's 3,000 are white means Kevin has to cross over? That makes no sense. If anybody needs to cross over, it's the guy who's selling 3,000 seats.

But here's one thing I've noticed in the last five to seven years, and I didn't think I'd live to see this day. There used to be black film and Eddie Murphy, and the two had nothing to do with each other. Literally nothing. And in the world of black film, everything was judged on a relative basis — almost the same curve that indie films get judged on. It was, "Hey, House Party made a lot of money relative to its budget," or "Oh, we only paid $7 million for New Jack City and it made $50 million." Now, not only are black movies making money, they're expected to make money — and they're expected to make money on the same scale as everything else.

I think they've been better in the last few years, too — a little more daring, a little funnier. But look, most movies suck. Absolutely suck. They just do. Most TV shows suck. Most books suck. If most things were good, I'd make $15 an hour. I don't live the way I live because most things are even remotely good. But when you have a system where you probably only see three movies with African-American leads in them a year, they're going to be judged more harshly, and you're really rooting for them to be good a little more so than the 140 movies starring white people every year.

The best ones are made outside of the studio system because they're not made with that many white people — maybe one or two, but not a whole system of white people. I couldn't have made Top Five at a studio. First of all, no one's going to make a movie with a premise so little and artsy: a star putting out a movie and getting interviewed by a woman from The New York Times. I would have had to have three two-hour meetings explaining that black people also read The New York Times. A studio would've made it like Malibu's Most Wanted. And never in a million years would they have allowed a scene where the rich guy comes back to the projects and actually gets along with everybody. No way. In most black movies — and in most black TV shows and even in most black plays — anyone with money or an education is evil, even movies made by black directors. They have to be saved by the poor people. This goes back to Good Times and What's Happening!!

Now, when it comes to casting, Hollywood pretty much decides to cast a black guy or they don't. We're never on the "short list." We're never "in the mix." When there's a hot part in town and the guys are reading for it, that's just what happens. It was never like, "Is it going to be Ryan Gosling or Chiwetel Ejiofor for Fifty Shades of Grey?" And you know, black people f—, too. White women actually want to f— black guys, sometimes more than white guys. More women want to f— Tyrese than Jamie Dornan, and it's not even close. It's not a contest. Even Jamie would go, "OK, you got it."

Or how about True Detective? I never heard anyone go, "Is it going to be Amy Adams or Gabrielle Union?" for that show. I didn't hear one black girl's name on those lists. Not one. Literally everyone in town was up for that part, unless you were black. And I haven't read the script, but something tells me if Gabrielle Union were Colin Farrell's wife, it wouldn't change a thing. And there are almost no black women in film. You can go to whole movies and not see one black woman. They'll throw a black guy a bone. OK, here's a black guy. But is there a single black woman in Interstellar? Or Gone Girl? Birdman? The Purge? Neighbors? I'm not sure there are. I don't remember them. I go to the movies almost every week, and I can go a month and not see a black woman having an actual speaking part in a movie. That's the truth.

But there's been progress. When I was on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago, we did a sketch where I was Sasheer Zamata's dad and she had an Internet show. Twenty years ago when I was on Saturday Night Live, anything with black people on the show had to deal with race, and that sketch we did didn't have anything to do with race. That was the beauty: The sketch is funny because it's funny, and that's the progress. And there are black guys who are making it: Whatever Kevin Hart wants to do right now, he can do; I think Chiwetel is a really respected actor who is getting a lot of great shots just because he's really good; if Steve McQueen wants to direct a Marvel movie, they would salivate to get him. Change just takes time. The Triborough Bridge has been the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge for almost 20 years now, but we still call it the Triborough Bridge. That's how long it takes shit to change. We're not going to be calling it the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge for another 10, 15 years. People will have to die for it actually to be the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.

I don't think the world expected things to change overnight because Obama got elected president. Of course it's changed, though, it's just changed with kids. And when you're a kid, you're not thinking of any of this shit. Black kids watch The Lord of the Rings and they want to be the Lord of the Rings. I remember when they were doing Starsky & Hutch, and my manager was like, "We might be able to get you the part of Huggy Bear," which eventually went to Snoop Dogg. I was like: "Do you understand that when my brother and I watched Starsky & Hutch growing up, I would play Starsky and he would play Hutch? I don't want to play f—ing Huggy Bear. This is not a historical drama. This is not Thomas Jefferson. It's a movie based on a shitty TV show, it can be anybody. Who cares. If they want me to play Starsky or Hutch, or even the bad guy, I'm down. But Huggy Bear?"

I wouldn't be here if I thought I couldn't play those parts. I never limited myself. And that's the beauty of Obama. It might be a generational thing, because the difference between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson was that Jesse Jackson never actually ran for president. He ran to disrupt the presidency. If he actually ran for president, he probably could have been president. Jesse Jackson won a bunch of primaries in Southern states, but not for five seconds did he think he could be president, whereas Obama was like, "Yeah, I could be president," and nobody stopped him. Literally, nobody stopped him.

2014-12-17

President Obama Delivers a Statement on Cuba


We are separated by 90 miles of water, but are brought together through shared relationships and the desire to promote a democratic, prosperous, and stable Cuba. President Obama is taking action to cut loose the anchor of failed policies of the past, and to chart a new course in U.S. relations with Cuba that will engage and empower the Cuban people.
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Links:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/cuba
White House2: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/cuba?utm_medium=email&utm_content=email407-text2&utm_campaign=cuba

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/17/politics/cuba-policy-change-reaction/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
NBC: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/u-s-cuba-relations/cuba-frees-american-alan-gross-held-five-years-n269926
The Hill: http://thehill.com/policy/international/227384-us-prisoner-freed-by-cuba
Aljazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2014/12/cuba-releases-us-aid-worker-alan-gross-20141217142522855301.html
BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30516740
France24: http://www.france24.com/en/20141217-usa-reestablish-diplomatic-relations-cuba-obama-speech-castro/#./?&_suid=1418851453392045306283892168797
RT: http://rt.com/usa/215331-obama-cuba-policy-embassy/
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/17/obama-cuba_n_6340550.html
Twitter Pete Souza (White House Photographer): https://twitter.com/petesouza/status/545272664617938944/photo/1
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President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro during the official memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, on Dec. 10, 2013. (Photo: Getty Images)

President Obama: "America chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past so as to reach for a better future -- for the Cuban people, for the American people, for our entire hemisphere, and for the world.

After more than 50 years, we began to change America's relationship with the people of Cuba.

We are recognizing the struggle and sacrifice of the Cuban people, both in the U.S. and in Cuba, and ending an outdated approach that has failed to advance U.S. interests for decades. In doing so, we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries.

I was born in 1961, just over two years after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, and just as the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with that country.
Our complicated relationship with this nation played out over the course of my lifetime -- against the backdrop of the Cold War, with our steadfast opposition to communism in the foreground. Year after year, an ideological and economic barrier hardened between us.

That previous approach failed to promote change, and it's failed to empower or engage the Cuban people. It's time to cut loose the shackles of the past and reach for a new and better future with this country.

I want you to know exactly what our new approach will mean.



First, I have instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations that have been severed since 1961. Going forward, we will re-establish an embassy in Havana, and high-ranking officials will once again visit Cuba.

Second, I have also instructed Secretary Kerry to review Cuba's designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism -- a review guided by the facts and the law. At a time when we are focused on threats from ISIL and al Qaeda, a nation that meets our conditions and renounces terrorism should not face such a sanction.

Third, we'll take steps to increase travel, commerce, and the flow of information to -- and from -- Cuba. These steps will make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba. They will make it easier for Americans to conduct authorized trade with Cuba, including exports of food, medicine, and medical products to Cuba. And they will facilitate increased telecommunications connections between our two countries: American businesses will be able to sell goods that enable Cubans to communicate with the United States and other countries.


President Obama on the telephone yesterday with President Castro of Cuba (Photo by Pete Souza)

These changes don't constitute a reward or a concession to Cuba. We are making them because it will spur change among the people of Cuba, and that is our main objective.

Change is hard -- especially so when we carry the heavy weight of history on our shoulders.
Our country is cutting that burden loose to reach for a better future.

Learn more about the steps we're taking to change our policy: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/cuba?utm_medium=email&utm_content=email407-text2&utm_campaign=cuba

Thank you,
President Barack Obama

2014-12-15

North Carolina teenager Lennon Lacy's hanging death ruled a suicide; his mother Claudia Lacy says it was a Lynching



Story and Video by CNN
Reporter Victor Blackwell

Bladenboro, North Carolina -- Claudia Lacy says she can accept anything: even that her youngest son committed suicide -- if it's proven and explained to her.

However, she says, local and state investigators have done neither to support their theory that Lennon Lacy hanged himself one summer night.

"That's all I've ever asked for: what is due, owed rightfully to me and my family -- justice. Prove to me what happened to my child," Lacy says.

She says she's long lost confidence in the Bladenboro Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Now, the FBI is looking into Lacy's death and the local and state investigations that followed.
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Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/15/justice/north-carolina-lennon-lacy/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

50,000 People March Against Police Violence to the US Capitol in Washington DC


News One's video from the National March Against Police Violence from Freedom Plaza down historic Pennsylvania Avenue to the US Capitol this past Saturday 12/13/14.


Hands Up! Attendees and I side-stage at the United States Capitol in Washington DC.


50,000 Marching from Freedom Plaza to the US Capitol on historic Pennsylvania Avenue


Rev Al Sharpton speaks at Freedom Plaza with the Ferguson Youth, whom have been marching in Ferguson daily for over 100 days

The March was more about giving respect to the Parents and Family members of those killed by Police. The closing speakers at the US Capitol and Freedom Plaza Rallies were from the Families of Michael Brown Jr, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, John Crawford III, Trayvon Martin etc... Signs, like this one of Clinton Allen, were carried to remind us that something must be done about Police Brutality.


Executive Director of the National Action Network Janaye Ingram is interviewed by Al Sharpton's News Anchor/Reporter Ebony McMorris from his radio show "Keeping it Real" with Al Sharpton on the Reach Media News-Talk Network, backstage at the US Capitol Rally.



Membership Director of the National Action Network Dominique Sharpton, Chairwoman of the Non-Violent March/Rally against Police Violence to the United States Capitol, delegating authority to one of the many loyal volunteers. The March and Rally was covered "Live" by MSNBC, CNN, CCTV (China Television), and several other media outlets.

Esaw Garner, the widow of Eric Garner taking a moment with her family at Freedom Plaza following the rally. Esaw Garner did not March to the US Capitol, but was provided transportation in time to make a passionate speech and was appreciative. Garner granted us an interview and stated that the large turnout of people in DC and across the country - in support of her late Husband Eric Garner - is "Awesome"!!


Esaw Garner, the widow of Eric Garner, and I - Kirk Tanter - in VIP section of Freedom Plaza. Link: http://www.cctv-america.com/2014/12/13/rally-in-dc-to-protest-against-police-killings


Radio One's News Director Ebony McMorris (center) with March Attendees "Hands up, Don't Shoot"!

National Urban League President and former Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana Attorney Marc Morial speaks to the March Against Police Violence crowd at the US Capitol. Marc let them know exactly what was being proposed to Congress.


NUL President Marc Morial and I at Freedom Plaza in Washington DC before marching to the US Capitol. I reminded Morial that he still owes me a Gumbo meal when I get back to New Orleans. Why? At the Democratic National Convention 2012 in Charlotte, NC, his NUL people did not provide Marc with a pass in time to get into the Arena for our interview with him. So I had to slip Morial and his colleague two passes get them in. Morial and his colleague promised me a Gumbo dinner for my kind gesture.


Congressman Al Green from Houston, Texas, interviewed by CCTV (China International TV), which airs all over China and many Satellite and Cable TV outlets in the US and abroad. Rep Green introduced Bill 5407 to Congress to have Police Officers to wear body cameras. Link: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/5407/text


Mask Men protests at the US Capitol Rally


Michael Brown Sr., father of the late Michael Brown Jr, (center), Brown Sr's friend, and I - Kirk Tanter - backstage area at the US Capitol Rally

Spike Lee with US Flag at the Freedom Plaza ready to March last Saturday Against Police Violence in Washington DC. Spike is documenting the protests.


The Freedom Fighters is a painting illustrated along the March route. Can you name the Freedom Fighters in the painting? Notice the first ladies on the same horse with Dr. King, President Obama, and Minister Malcolm X.

Pastor & Major Gospel Artist Donnie McClurklin brings calm to the crowd at the Freedom Plaza with an inspiring speech.


Ebony McMorris interviewing Comedian/Activist and former 1968 Presidential Candidate Dick Gregory

Attorney for Michael Brown Jr.'s Parents and Trayvon Martin's Parents Attorney Benjamin Crump and me, Kirk Tanter, backstage in tent at the US Capitol.


Freedom Plaza in Washington DC


50,000 people of all races marching to the US Capitol in Washington DC against Police Violence this past Saturday


Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, his wife Dr. Marcia Dyson, and I, Kirk Tanter, in the frigid weather at Freedom Plaza. Michael Eric Dyson's speech at the Freedom Plaza Rally was WELL RECEIVED.



Crowd at the Freedom Plaza Rally in DC

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

Link to CCTV March coverage: http://www.cctv-america.com/2014/12/13/rally-in-dc-to-protest-against-police-killings

2014-12-12

Jay-Z Meets With NY Governor To Discuss Criminal Justice Reform In Eric Garner Case


Jay-Z meets with NY Governor Andrew Cuomo in Manhattan

Story by Global Grind

If there’s one celebrity you can always count on to take part in social action, it’s none other than hip-hop entrepreneur Jay-Z.

Jay Z has donated money to the ongoing protests in Ferguson. He has supported the trans community for discrimination, and was on the scene of the rally for Trayvon Martin in New York City. And just recently, the rapper supported Eric Garner’s family this week when he distributed “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts to members of the Brooklyn Nets.

Now, he’s letting his voice be heard by discussing ways to reform criminal justice with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Jay Z and Andrew Cuomo held a private meeting on Wednesday, wherein Jay urged Cuomo to hire a special prosecutor to further investigate Eric Garner’s death at the hands of a city police officer.

According to Cuomo’s spokeswoman Melissa Derosa, the governor and rapper “had a productive conversation about doing a top-to-bottom review of the criminal justice system.”

Other hip-hop celebs like Def Jam founder Russell Simmons and conscious rapper Common joined protesters at a City Hall rally yesterday, where they called on elected officials to hold police more accountable.

Cuomo is considering putting proposals before the State Legislature next year. He is also weighing a request from State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman for temporary authority to investigate fatal confrontations between police and civilians until broader changes in criminal justice procedure occur.

Meanwhile, Jay has ordered thousands more “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts set to be picked up on Friday just in time for the "National March Against Police Violence" from Freedom Plaza to the US Capitol in Washington DC — a National day of action called by Ferguson organizers — on Saturday morning December 13th. 2014.

Marching for Congressional Action on Police Brutality by Al Sharpton

Commentary by Rev. Al Sharpton (via Huffington Post)
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On Saturday, Dec. 13, thousands will join the families of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Akai Gurley and Michael Brown as they and National Action Network and other civil-rights organizations gather in Washington, D.C., for a march against police violence.

Right now the nation is engaged in a thorough conversation about race, policing and healing. While this dialogue is necessary and long overdue, we need more than just talk; we need legislative action that will shift things both on the books and in the streets.

President Obama announced a task force that will report back to him in 90 days with concrete recommendations, and he has also proposed millions in federal matching funds to provide body cameras for some 50,000 police officers. But what happens when he is no longer in the White House?

Congress must immediately start hearings to deal with laws that will change the jurisdiction threshold for federal cases and policing. The executive branch has addressed this most pressing issue, and now it's time the legislative branch do the same.

During the '50s and '60s people organized, marched, boycotted and literally put their lives on the line for the sake of progress. But they didn't do it just for President Kennedy to take action; they continued until congressional laws were passed. They pushed their message forward until things like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 became codified into law.

Today our battle is against police brutality and excessive force. When local prosecutors fail to conduct a fair grand-jury investigation at the state level, as happened in Ferguson and Staten Island recently, the threshold is so high for the federal government to be able to take over the case. That must change.

We cannot continue to allow prosecutors who work with police regularly to then be in charge of cases investigating those same officers and police departments. That is a complete conflict of interest. And in order for federal authorities to step in, we must reform current laws.

I have been involved in the fight against police brutality and misconduct for most of my life. Looking into a mother's or father's eyes as they search for answers, for justice, never gets easier. But it is up to us to demand the changes we need to see implemented.

As National Action Network and I were involved from day one in both the Ferguson and Staten Island cases, and as I said in my eulogy for both Michael Brown and Eric Garner, we need federal intervention without delay. The State has already proven that it cannot do the job.

We are heartened to see many groups spontaneously take the movement to new levels across the country. This is an idea whose time has come.

There will be those who will continue to say that we need to have a discussion. A discussion is necessary, as long as there is follow-through with decisive action. Otherwise, as the saying goes, talk is just cheap.

On our journey toward greater equality and fairness, many will try to ridicule us. They will attempt to divide us and paint us as something we are not. It is up to those of us who would like to live in a country where people are not profiled, harassed, arrested, beaten or killed because of their background or what they look like to keep pushing forward. Our detractors will use the actions of a few bad apples to condemn us all, but we know that our movement is peaceful and our cause just.

Our greatest civil-rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once said:

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

Do not be silent. Do not be complacent. Do not continue to live with police misconduct and violence as somehow acceptable. We are not anti-police; we are anti-police-brutality. And today we challenge Congress to follow in the President's footsteps and take legislative action to protect us, the citizens.

Those who came before us sacrificed so that we may have a more just future. Now we must do the same for the generations that will come after us. As most Americans agree that we need some kind of reform, we head to the nation's capital to answer what exactly we must change and how.

See you on Saturday.

2014-12-11

VIP Room Owner Claims New Residents Are Shuttering Black Businesses With Intimidation and Discrimination


The VIP Room in Washington DC

Story by Afro.com
Written by Shantella Sherman Special
Link: http://afro.com/vip-room-owner-claims-new-residents-are-shuttering-black-businesses-with-intimidation-and-discrimination/

No calls for comments from Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser or ABRA had been returned at press time.

The VIP Room in Washington has stood as a staple of African-American pride for decades. The family-owned social hall, founded in 1978 by Earline and Sam Sampson, has provided a venue for neighborhood and church functions, national gatherings and musical performances that have welcomed DC notables, such as media mogul Cathy Hughes. As unofficial stewards of the Brightwood community, the Sampson family poured hard work and tenacity into their success by supporting local interests and rarely taking time off.

However, Sampson’s eldest son, Bo, who took over management of the hall following his father’s passing in 2011, said he believes all of his family’s hard work has been tapped for destruction through recent attempts by a handful of new, mostly White residents to shutter the business.

“We’ve been here for years with absolutely no problems—no law enforcement issues, no licensing infractions, no ordinance abuses or violations of any sort either inside or around our business—but suddenly, we are being denied a liquor license because the new residents are reporting people urinating outside the building and loitering,” he said. Bo’s siblings, Gary, Mike and Yolanda, also work with him to continue their parents’ legacy.

Previously, temporary day/event licenses were issued through D.C.’s Office of Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) to the VIP Room for alcohol consumption for $300 per license. With the popularity of the venue, Sampson was advised to apply for a tavern license, which would offer an annual renewable liquor license and streamline the cost. It was during this new application process, Sampson said, that new residents began an aggressive campaign to label the business a nuisance.

A one-page flyer announcing a July 28 Advisory Neighborhood Committee (ANC) meeting circulated through the neighborhood and claimed a Class C Tavern Liquor License offered to the VIP Room would “invite late-night noise, increased inappropriate (even illegal) behavior, unwelcome liquor and beer-bottle litter and plenty of congestion.” Ronald Austin, ANC 4B06 chair, said that new residents told him on more than one occasion that they simply did not want the VIP Room to have a liquor license at all.

“The VIP Room has operated for 40 years at its present location. It is applying for a liquor license only so that it can stop applying for temporary one-day licenses every time an event is staged at the premises. There were no complaints from the surrounding neighborhood until it filed its application for the regular liquor license. Only then, did its operation become an issue for a small minority of residents in the neighborhood,” Austin said.

The protest group, according to Austin, only included 11 people, although 35 spoke in opposition to the licensing at the July 28 hearing. Despite asking that the Commission’s ruling that the VIP Room secure a license on Oct. 15, the beverage administration denied the license based on its close proximity to the National Children’s Center, a facility serving children with various disabilities. Sampson said the “center” was only recently categorized as such and the facility is used primarily for administrative tasks.

Sampson is among a growing group of Black business owners who claim gentrification in the region is being led by patronizing and prejudice White newcomers with a particular distaste for community-based, African-Americans businesses. The new supplants’ participation in local zoning and neighborhood advisory boards has helped paint Black businesses they want removed as static, underdeveloped neighborhood nuisances, or as a potential danger to neighbors.

“We are prepared to fight for the livelihood of our businesses because we didn’t suddenly become a hindrance to the neighborhood. The VIP Room and loads of other Black businesses have supported our communities’ schools, churches, elders, and been an extended family for them,” Sampson said. “It is barbaric to lie and attempt to destroy a family’s legacy because it doesn’t fit into your definition of viable.”

No calls for comments from Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser or ABRA had been returned at press time.
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Read More: http://afro.com/vip-room-owner-claims-new-residents-are-shuttering-black-businesses-with-intimidation-and-discrimination/

2014-12-10

Senate Report Says Torture Program Was More Gruesome, Widespread Than CIA Claimed

Story by Huffington Post
Link to Report: http://www.scribd.com/doc/249652086/Senate-Torture-Report

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released the highly anticipated 500-page summary of its report on the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program, providing a sobering glimpse into one of the darkest chapters in the U.S. government's history.

In the report, a product of a 5-year investigation, Senate investigators reveal sordid details of the systemic and individual failures by the agency personnel who ran the "enhanced interrogation program" -- the government's euphemism for systematic torture -- during the George W. Bush administration. The program involved capturing terrorism suspects and shipping them to secret overseas prisons, where they were subjected to techniques such as waterboarding.

The CIA's program has long been criticized as un-American and a chilling departure from the nation’s values. Opponents allege that it resulted in gross abuses and inhumane treatment of detainees, some of whom were eventually revealed not to have been involved in terror organizations.

The 6,300-page report may be the most unsanitized official account to date of the agency’s program, which the Senate investigators say was mismanaged, poorly conducted and characterized by abuses far more widespread than the CIA previously conveyed to lawmakers.

The newly released document tears apart the CIA's past claims that only a small number of detainees were subjected to the harsh interrogation techniques. The agency has said it held fewer than 100 detainees and subjected fewer than one-third of those to controversial tactics such as waterboarding. But Senate investigators found that the CIA had actually kept 119 detainees in custody, 26 of whom were illegally held. And despite CIA insistence that the program was limited in scope, Senate investigators conclude that the use of torture was much more widespread than previously thought.

The study reveals several gruesome instances of torture by mid-level CIA officers who participated in the program, including threats of sexual violence using a broomstick and the use of "rectal hydration" in instances of harsh interrogations that lasted for days or weeks on end. And, contrary to the agency's prior insistence that only three detainees were subject to waterboarding, the Senate report suggests it was likely used on more detainees.

The report cites the presence of materials typically used for waterboarding being present at certain "blacksites," or secret prisons, where the agency had previously said waterboarding was not used.

Rather than wrestling with the morality of the agency’s torture program or the operation's damaging effect on the U.S.’ international credibility, Senate investigators instead weighed whether the agency's tactics were effective. Through narrative examinations of 20 separate detainee cases, the panel attempted to make the case that the use of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding did not yield valuable intelligence.

"The committee reviewed 20 of the most frequent and prominent examples of purported counterterrorism 'successes' that the CIA has attributed to the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chair of the intelligence panel, said in a statement Tuesday. "Each of those examples was found to be wrong in fundamental respects."

In some instances, the study finds, the information acquired proved irrelevant to stopping terror threats. In others, the use of the techniques resulted in detainees providing fabricated or inaccurate information, and in still other cases, the information obtained through interrogating the detainees had already been acquired through other techniques.

Given that the techniques were ineffective, the study says, the agency routinely misled Congress and the White House when it claimed that the use of torture did in fact contribute to intelligence victories. For instance, the Senate report pushes back against the CIA's argument that torture provided the information about Osama bin Laden's courier that helped the U.S. kill the al Qaeda leader in 2011. In a 10-page discussion on the subject, Senate investigators say the information that led the U.S. to bin Laden was obtained from a detainee while he was in foreign custody, prior to being subjected to torture.

The CIA, however, refutes these conclusions. In a roughly 100-page official response released alongside the intelligence panel’s summary, the agency contends that harsh interrogation techniques were effective.

“The sum total of information provided from detainees in CIA custody substantially advanced the Agency’s strategic and tactical understanding of the enemy in ways that continue to inform counterterrorism efforts to this day," the agency said in its rebuttal.

The response argues that it's not clear whether the valuable information could have been acquired by means other than harsh interrogation techniques, although the agency concedes that it's possible.

“It is impossible to imagine how CIA could have achieved the same results in terms of disrupting plots, capturing other terrorists, and degrading al-Qa’ida without any information from detainees, but it is unknowable whether, without enhanced interrogation techniques, CIA or non-CIA interrogators could have acquired the same information from those detainees," the rebuttal said.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/09/senate-cia-report_n_6270138.html

2014-12-09

President Obama interview on BET


President Obama sits down with BET reporter Jeff Johnson to speak on the issues of today, including the status of the Federal Government's investigation of the Police Department in Cleveland Police; Staten Island's Eric Garner choking death; and the Police shooting of Michael Brown Jr in Ferguson, Mo.

Talk Show Host Tavis Smiley battles with CNN Reporter Don Lemon over President Obama's B.E.T. interview about nation-wide protests


Don Lemon thinks that Tavis Smiley insults him during interview on CNN (video by CNN)

NBA All-Star from the Washington Wizards John Wall breaks down during postgame interview about the death of his 6-year old friend - Damiyah Telemaque-Nelson - that morning from Cancer


John Wall breaks down in tears talking about the death of Miyah Telemaque-Nelson, a 6-year-old Cancer patient he befriended last March.

Story by NBA
Video by CSN Washington

Washington Wizards guard John Wall didn't sound or look like someone who'd just scored his team's final 10 points in Monday night's double overtime win against the Boston Celtics.

Instead, he broke down during a Post-Game television interview and was somber in the locker room on the day he learned that Miyah Telemaque-Nelson, a 6-year-old Cancer patient he befriended last March, had died.


John Wall shares his goodbye to Miyah on twitter: "She's in a better place... I'll definitely miss my buddy."

"This game was really meant for her. It would've been an even tougher day to lose it," said Wall, who received the news via text message Monday morning and dedicated the game to his friend. "I just went into a mode where I didn't want to lose this game."

Wall scored 26 points and the Wizards rallied for a 133-132 win over the Boston Celtics in double overtime after squandering a 23-point third quarter lead.


An emotional John Wall leaves the court heart-broken over the loss of his young friend Damiyah Telemaque-Nelson, who lost her battle with Burkitt's lymphoma. (Photo: Getty Images)

Link to Miyah's verbal dream on video to have Nikki Minaj send her a pink wig - which Minaj did: http://washingtonwizardsblog.monumentalnetwork.com/2014/04/01/wall-minaj-team-up-to-help-make-young-girls-dream-come-true