Fear, guns and death
By Inter-Press Service ‘Bowling for Columbine’ takes aim at America’s obsessionsOn the same day in April 1999 that the United States conducted its most intense bombing of Serb positions in Kosovo, two teenagers shot to death 13 others and then killed themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado. But first they went bowling. Such ironic juxtapositions are the crosshairs through which...
Black men respond to L.A. violence
CHARLENEM Official Website for 100,000 Man March Call for 100,000 Man March and gang intervention to bring peace to communities LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com)–Members of seven gang intervention and prevention organizations joined Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad and other community activists Dec. 12 to outline plans for a 100,000 Man March to return peace to the streets throughout Southern California counties. The announcement...
Boycott called in Louisville over police shooting of Black man
(FinalCall.com) - Activists in Louisville, Ky., have called for a boycott of businesses in the downtown area in protest of the December 5 fatal shooting by police detectives of James Taylor, 50, who was handcuffed at the time. A similar boycott for similar reasons has impacted the economy of Cincinnati, Ohio, a city about 100 miles north of Louisville. Activist have...
Alabama researcher demands justice for lynched Blacks
(FinalCall.com) - There are many people alive today, who participated in the lynching murders of Black men and women, according to Dr. Danny Blanchard of Alabama. Researchers say from 1882 to 1968, 581 Blacks were lynched in the state of Mississippi, making it the number one state in America for such murders. Georgia was second with 531 and Texas...
Michigan repeals mandatory minimum drug sentence
FCNNEWSSOURCE LANSING, Mich.–A bipartisan majority of the Michigan Senate Dec. 12 passed a historic package of three sentencing reform bills–HB 5394 (H-3), HB 5395 (H-2) and HB 6510 (H-1)–that eliminates most of the state’s draconian mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. The reform allows judges to impose sentences based on a range of factors in each case, rather than...
Bush courts African leaders
Africa: In the line of U.S. fire? THE WHITE HOUSE (FinalCall.com)–President George W. Bush padded his administration’s diplomatic portfolio in his war on terrorism Dec. 5, meeting here with two African leaders and by visiting Washington’s Islamic Center to celebrate the end of Ramadan. "We must remember that the war on terror is global in nature and if the terrorists...
Unemployment rate soars as benefits end; jobless facing worst market in eight years
FCNNEWSSOURCE WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com)–More than 300,000 workers newly unemployed in November will spend the holidays knowing that they won’t have access to federal jobless benefits. They join the millions of unemployed workers slighted by the House and the Bush administration when they failed to renew the extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits, said an employment advocacy group Dec. 6. "Even...
Peace activists protest Washington Post coverage
WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com)–The major corporate-owned news media in this country are indifferent to voices of dissent against President George W. Bush’s calls for another war against Iraq, and may actually be hostile to Black opponents, according to a group of activists here who protested outside the offices of The Washington Post to illustrate their point. "There is clearly a political...
Black officers settle Oklahoma race suit
FCNNEWSSOURCE While the city admits no wrongdoing and it might increase tensions within the police department, Tulsa, Okla., officials and a group of Black officers agreed Dec. 3 to settle a race discrimination lawsuit against the Tulsa Police Dept. The Black Officers Coalition (BOC) filed the lawsuit in 1994, alleging that Blacks face a segregated work environment, are discriminated against...
Anti-Confederate essay sparks call for Black prof’s removal
HOUSTON (FinalCall.com)–A recent commentary written by a Black university professor in a local Tennessee newspaper, describing sympathizers of the old U.S. Confederacy as "holocaust revisionists" and demanding the removal of a statue that immortalizes a Klu Klux Klan founder, has led to a barrage of hate mail, threats on his life and organized efforts to have him removed...