Group asked to evaluate Bay Aread transit police
CHARLENEMWestern Region Corresponden Oscar Grant shooting update (FinalCall.com) - The Bay Area Rapid Transit Department has hired the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives to conduct an independent review of its policies. The goal is to ensure that a situation like the fatal shooting of a Black male passenger on New Year's Day does not happen again. When then-BART officer Johannes...
Dozens of CIA ‘ghost prisoners missing’
NEW YORK (IPS/GIN) - At least three dozen detainees who were held in the CIA's secret prisons overseas appear to be missing–and efforts by human rights organizations to track their whereabouts have been unsuccessful. The story of these "ghost prisoners" was comprehensively documented by Pro Publica, an online investigative journalism group. In September 2007, Michael V. Hayden, then director of...
Sojourner Truth statue in Capitol at last
ASKIAMSenior Correspondent WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - After a nearly 13-year struggle, “Truth” has been firmly established at the United States Capitol. A bronze bust of abolitionist and women's suffragist Isabella Baumfree–who began calling herself “Sojourner Truth” at age 46–was unveiled in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol Visitor's Center April 28, finally establishing the “Truth” of the struggle of many Black women...
Farrakhan: Give justice to victims of police torture
Farrakhan: Give justice to Cortez Brown, all victims of police torture in America CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan urged the community to support Cortez Brown, who says he was tortured in 1990 by Chicago police officers who forced him to confess to two murders. Mr. Brown said he was 19-years-old at the time. Mr. Brown was sentenced to 35...
African first ladies highlight health at summit
CHARLENEM LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com) - Fifteen first ladies from Africa gathered at the Skirball Cultural Center April 20-21 for the unprecedented “African First Ladies' Health Summit 2009” to address critical issues of health and education facing women and girls on the continent. The closed working summit was hosted by U.S. Doctors for Africa, a Los Angeles-based non-profit, humanitarian group, which provides medical...
Blacks, Latinos, Asians lose as newsrooms shrink
(FinalCall.com) - The fight to increase diversity in newsrooms received a stunning blow April 16 when the American Society of News Editors annual newsroom census revealed U.S. newsrooms became less diverse in 2008 from the year before. The percentage of Black, Asian, Hispanic and Native American journalists in the nation's newsrooms dropped from 13.5 percent in 2007 to 13.4...
Hip hop generation urged to ‘step up’
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com - A Black president does shift the mental paradigm, but Blacks should not recklessly wave the American flag with a blind eye to the backlash against the rise of President Barack Hussein Obama, explained Kofi Taharka to a spirited crowd of National Black United Front (NBUF) members and supporters. Speaking April 11 on the theme “It Is Time...
Obama’s First 100 Days
ASKIAMSenior Correspondent President gets points for style and substance, forcing critics to acknowledge shrewd moves WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - About the worst thing his harshest progressive critics have to say about President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office is that he's nothing more than a “Black Bill Clinton.” But with that, most of them concede: “At least he's not George W. Bush.” While...
FBI targets religious groups?
CHARLENEM Rights advocates condemn infiltration of Muslim houses of worship LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com) - Demands for answers from the FBI regarding reports that it sent a paid informant into Muslim mosques have reached beyond a national coalition of Muslim organizations and civil liberties groups and into the U.S. Congress. Advocates warn the activity is another sign of troubling government intrusion into the lives...
High court rejects Mumia Abu Jamal appeal
ASKIAMSenior Correspondent WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - The Supreme Court dealt a cruel blow to journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, April 6, denying without comment his appeal to overturn his conviction for the 1981 killing of a White police officer. “The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection,” Robert Bryan, his chief defense attorney wrote to supporters recently....