Listen and act, environmental justice activists say to major federal agencies
(FinalCall.com) - The federal government represented by agencies including the Dept. of Homeland Security, Labor Dept. and Environmental Protection Agency will continue Public Listening Sessions in February, according to federal officials. Attendees will have opportunities to offer input on presidential Executive Order 13650 “Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security” issued last summer. Topics will include improving operational coordination with state,...
Remembering poet, freedom fighter Amiri Baraka
By Saeed Shabazz-Staff Writer- (FinalCall.com) - Amiri Baraka, 79, born in 1934 in a Newark, N.J. hospital teacher, activist, artist, leader, died on Jan. 9 in a Newark, N.J. hospital. Mr. Baraka, born Everett LeRoi Jones, had been admitted to the Beth Israel Medical Center's Intensive Care Unit in December. Mr. Baraka leaves behind his wife Amina Baraka and children Ras...
What we can do for ourselves in 2014
By Charlene Muhammad CHARLENEM (FinalCall.com) - Projections for Black America in 2014 aren't gloomy for those who refuse to put all hope for survival in America's hands. While many look to the failing U.S. economy and weak politicians for jobs and programs, others say an unlimited future awaits those willing to pool their resources and talents for their own benefit. There's a...
Finally free, an outspoken attorney calls for resisting oppression in U.S.
NEW YORK (FinalCall.com) - Civil liberties attorney Lynne Stewart, 74, was granted compassionate release from a federal prison hospital after serving four years of a 10-year sentence. She was convicted of providing material support to terrorist activity and two counts of giving false statements. The root of her crime, according to one of her attorneys, was conveying to the press...
‘Black Coffee hits theaters Jan. 10
By Toure Muhammad -Contributing Writer- CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The Internet is buzzing about "Black Coffee" a new movie hitting select theaters Jan. 10 starring Darrin Dewitt Henson, Lamman Rucker, Erica Hubbard, Gabrielle Dennis and Christian Keyes. Directed by Mark Harris and produced by N.D. Brown and Harris, the film will have a limited theatrical release starting January 10 in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago and...
Making history with Prison Reform Ministry in Pennsylvania
By Gregory X Moore PHILADELPHIA - Student National Prison Reform Minister Abdullah Muhammad, who heads the Nation of Islam's Prison Reform Ministry, visited Pennsylvania state prisons, touring seven institutions and delivering to inmate populations a message on “The Time And What Must Be Done,” which is taken from the 52-week lecture series of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Student Minister Abdullah...
More NYPD racial profiling in 2014?
By Saeed Shabazz -Staff Writer- NEW YORK (FinalCall.com) - “People are angry, they feel betrayed by mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, and we intend to follow him around the city wherever we can find him until he hears our complaints concerning stopping ‘stop and frisk,'” anti-police brutality activist Juanita Young told The Final Call. Days before his victory in November, Mr. de Blasio reportedly...
Activists striking back against conservative legislative agenda in state of North Carolina
By Saeed Shabazz -Staff Writer- Labor and community activists working in Southern states plan to make North Carolina ground zero in their fight against the American Legislative Exchange Council's State Policy Network, a web of think tanks in all 50 states the activists contend are hijacking state politics by enacting draconian policies behind closed doors. Fresh from its 2013 State and Nation Summit...
Shut ’em down! – Compton to shutter hotels over charges of prostitution
By Charlene Muhammad CHARLENEM COMPTON, Calif. (FinalCall.com) - The Compton City Council is poised to revoke the license of a motel that residents and community activists say has been a long-standing hub for sex trafficking of Black women and girls. Council members voted to issue a resolution to revoke the Hub Motel's conditional use permit and business license Dec. 3. “Once they...
Public, elite see U.S. power in decline
JIM.LOBE WASHINGTON - For the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, both the U.S. public and the foreign policy elite see Washington as playing a less important and powerful role in the world than it did a decade before, according to the latest quadrennial survey released here by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pew...