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Boehner Predicts Minority and Young People Not a Factor in November

Sept. 2, 2012

Boehner Predicts Minority and Young People Not a Factor in November

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers

boehner

U. S. Rep. John Boehner, Speaker of the House

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) admits that the GOP doesn’t do well with Blacks and Hispanics but said Aug. 27 that they don’t have to.

He predicted at a media lunch at the Republican National Convention that he doesn’t expect a repeat on November 2012 of the massive turnout at the polls by Blacks, Hispanics and young people that keyed President Obama’s 2008 victory.
“This election is about economics,” he told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor lunch when asked about the Republican Party’s standing with Blacks, Hispanics and young voters."These groups have been hit the hardest. They may not show up and vote for our candidate but I’d suggest to you they won’t show up and vote for the president either then.”

His statement drew a media reaction claiming that Boehner is dismissing the minority and youth voters. The headline in the online Atlantic Wire said “Boehner Says Out Loud He Hopes Blacks and Latinos 'Won't Show Up' This Election.”


“It's not much of a reach to say that Boehner hopes Republicans will win, and when he was asked to explain how that might happen despite polls showing historically low minority support, he predicted that low turnout for those groups means the polls won't matter,” Elspeth Reeve wrote for the Atlantic Wire. “His prediction, in other words, is what he hopes will happen.”

Conservative publications denounced the Atlantic Wire’s inference. Matt Vespa of Hotair.com called it “desperate” and asked “does anyone else feel we talk about race too much?”

“They construed this story to make the GOP look racist, even though the minority vote isn’t where the election will be decided,” Vespa wrote.

Despite Vespa’s assertions, GOP officials nationwide continue to push for voter ID laws, which will disproportionately affect minorities. In Pennsylvania, where the law was upheld earlier this month, State House Speaker Mike Turzai admitted that the law could prove beneficial to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

“Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done,” he said at a Republican State Committee meeting in June when speaking of his state party’s accomplishments,.

Coastal Leaders Want BP to Clean Up Its Mess by Susan Buchanan

Sept. 2, 2012

Coastal Leaders Want BP to Clean Up Its Mess

By Susan Buchanan

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Regional leaders at a Gulf Coast Restoration Summit, held in New Orleans on August 17, said they’re relieved that Congress passed the RESTORE Act in June, especially given Washington’s gridlock. But they’re unsure when money from RESTORE, which devotes 80 percent of BP’s Clean Water Act fines for the 2010 spill to Gulf states, will be available. Meanwhile, the coast is grappling with the spill’s aftermath. Liquid and matted oil linger in coastal marshes and tarballs continue to wash up on Grand Isle.

Jefferson Parish President John Young, Plaquemines Parish President Bill Nungesser and Plaquemines Coastal Director P.J. Hahn said they’re tired of BP’s oil and litter. That includes metal anchors attached to the seafloor that were left behind when oil containment boom was removed. “Thousands of these anchors are in our waterways,” creating navigation hazards, Hahn said.

Young explained that BP contractors cut the polypropylene lines connecting the boom, but left the anchors in place. He called it an example of BP’s lack of follow through since the spill and “their wanting to say it’s over and move on.”

Connie Rocko of the Harrison County Board of Supervisors in Mississippi said when the volunteer group Women of the Storm visited Capitol Hill this spring, “they told them ‘down South, we’re taught that if you make a mess, you clean it up.’”

Hahn spoke of a problem predating the spill and said the oil-and-gas industry needs to remove aging pipelines, some of which are 60 to 80 years old, from the water. “Every day I hear about these old pipes,” he said. “They’re accidents waiting to happen.”

Parish leaders faulted the U.S. Coast Guard for not following up fast enough on reports of oil and tarmats associated with the spill. The Guard on several occasions told officials it didn’t have a boat to check out their concerns.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, who wasn’t at the conference, asked the Coast Guard in a mid-August letter to require that BP remove any remaining oil and spill-response equipment that exist along the Gulf. She wants BP to get rid of large mats of oil buried near the shore.

John Young, a former maritime lawyer, said the effects of BP’s gross negligence are widespread. Dispersants and crude oil have taken their toll on Gulf pogey or menhaden—used in fish oil supplements—and on shrimp and crabs, he said. “But we don’t talk about that much because it might scare people away,” he said, and added that he’s been eating Gulf seafood since the spill.

Parish leaders noted that Alaska is still suffering from the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill, and said they’ll hold BP responsible for as long as it takes to restore the Gulf.

Under the Clean Water Act, BP can be fined anywhere from $1,000 to $4,300 per barrel spilled or between $5 billion and $20 billion. But that money won’t be collected anytime soon because the federal trial against BP doesn’t start until next January. Meanwhile, Natural Resource Damage Assessment or NRDA funds, which are separate from RESTORE Act money, are already being disbursed for early projects.

Coastal leaders, however, are concerned that it’s taking officials and scientists awhile to develop NRDA plans. Connie Rocko had a suggestion, saying “if we take all the plans that we’ve had all these years, we should have a good NRDA plan.” The NRDA process, which is guided by state and federal agencies, identifies damages caused by the spill before addressing them.

Nungesser discussed restoration approaches and said the feds need to listen to people on the coast. “We have to quit letting Washington and California environmentalists tell us what to do,” he said. Plaquemines officials plan to build land to protect their parish—which is a 70-mile-long strip on the Mississippi River, jutting into the ocean—against storms. In June, the Parish Council approved a bond issue to pump river sediment into open water to build land.

In Jefferson Parish, John Young said “we need ring levees around Lafitte. Last September, flooding during Tropical Storm Lee showed just how vulnerable Lafitte is.” The town of Lafitte is 25 miles south of New Orleans.

Louisiana officials plan to allocate the state’s share of RESTORE Act dollars through a $50 billion master plan for coastal protection and restoration, approved by the state legislature in May. The plan calls for spending $870 million on an eventual, ring levee around Lafitte.

Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter encouraged audience members to ask “how do we keep the pressure on” for coastal restoration? He helped negotiate the RESTORE Act in Congress and continues to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete levees and other protective structures. He said a meeting will be held in September on RESTORE Act plans, and will include the Coast Guard, the Army Corps, Louisiana Coastal Chair Garret Graves and BP, though the date hasn’t been set.

Nungesser said “our fight is just beginning. We have a lot of opportunities to do the right thing now. We can turn a bad situation into a good one if we try.”

This article originally published in the August 27, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

Black-owned Newspaper Fights City Agency's Contract Decision By James Wright

Black-owned Newspaper Fights City Agency's Contract Decision

By James Wright

informer protest 2

Attorney Johnny Barnes, at the mic, stands by Washington Informer publisher Denise Rolark Barnes (no relation.) Ward 6 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Keith Silver (far right) held a press conference with supporters of The Washington Informer Newspaper on Monday, August 20 in front of the Judiciary Square Building in Northwest Washington, D.C. PHOTO: Roy Lewis

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Washington Informer

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A group of community activists and leaders has staged a rally to protest the denial of a city contract to the largest District-based African-American newspaper solely on the basis of it not being a "newspaper of general circulation."

Keith Silver, a Ward 6 advisory neighborhood commissioner and civil rights activist, and noted attorney Johnny Barnes, held a press conference on August 20 in front of the Judiciary Square Building in Northwest to protest a recent ruling by the director of the D.C. Office of Contracts to award an unclaimed property advertising contract worth more than $30,000 to The Washington Times instead of The Washington Informer.

Silver demanded that the board "review and reverse its procurement decision."

"I challenge the assertion that The Washington Informer serves a specific ethnic group," said Silver, quoting a part of an e-mail that Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes received on July 30 from Joseph A. Giddis, director of the contracts office, as to why her newspaper did not receive the contract.

However, shortly after the demonstration and after Barnes filed legal documents requesting that a stay or a delay be granted by the District of Columbia Contract Appeals Board on the contract agreement, The Washington Informer received a response from the contract appeals board that said the matter is "moot" because the Times already published the advertisements in its August 13 and August 20, 2012 editions

"In addition, the District responded that urgent and compelling reasons existed to continue with contract performance of the contract," according to the response.

The Washington Informer, located in Southeast, was co-founded by Calvin and Wilhelmina Rolark in October 1964 to publish positive stories about the District's Black community. In 1981, under the leadership of Wilhelmina Rolark, a D.C. Council member, a law was passed that allowed newspapers other than The Washington Post to bid for city listings of tax and unclaimed properties on the basis of being a newspaper of general circulation.

As recently as September 2009, The Washington Informer published the D.C. Unclaimed Property advertisements and in June 2011, it ran the D.C. Tax Sale advertisements.

In June, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer's Office of Contracts issued a solicitation bid for the publication of the city's unclaimed property listing to "a newspaper of general circulation" that is "widely distributed in the District of Columbia." The Washington Informer, the Times and two other publications submitted bids.

On July 24, the contracts office sent an e-mail to Denise Rolark Barnes stating the bid "is expected to be awarded to The Washington Times." On July 30, Giddis e-mailed Rolark Barnes, saying that "in this solicitation, only one awardee was anticipated, and the requirement for the publication is a newspaper of general circulation."

That day, Rolark Barnes responded by e-mail stating that The Washington Informer has a general circulation and has been recognized as such by the contracts agency since 1981.

On Aug. 2, Giddis responded to the publisher via e-mail saying, "The Washington Informer was found non-responsive based on the fact that the Washington Informer serves a specific ethnic group."

"It is our view that targeting a specific ethnic group does not meet the requirement of a newspaper of general circulation," he said.

Washington Informer supporters vehemently disagree with Giddis.

"The Washington Informer speaks for the entire community," said Nick McCoy, a political and gay rights activist.

"I generally get the newspaper on 14th and P Streets, N.W., but you can get it on Connecticut Avenue, in Bloomingdale and on Alabama Avenue in Southeast. The statement that it is not a newspaper of general circulation should be retracted."

John Zottoli, who lives in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Northwest and who is white, said he's surprised with the board's reasoning.

"I am a faithful reader of the Informer," said Zottoli, 66. "I pick up the Informer at the Safeway on Columbia Road. I read the newspaper for the editorial and news sections."

Zottoli said that "he was offended" by the unspoken assertion that because he is White, he does not read the Informer.

Nathan Saunders, president of the Washington Teachers' Union, concurs, saying that the founders of The Washington Informer gave the newspaper its name for a reason.

"Calvin and Wilhelmina Rolark did not name it The Washington Black Informer," Saunders said. "It is designed for all of Washington. It would not have lasted this long if it were only for Blacks."

Roach Brown, an activist for the District's returning citizens, said "you cannot find the Washington Times in Ben's Chili Bowl" and "the Washington Informer goes to federal penal facilities across the country."

Trayon White, who represents Ward 8 on the D.C. State Board of Education, said that The Washington Informer helped him get back into school when he was kicked out because he wore dreads and that "The Washington Informer stands up for the people."

"We need to support the Black press," said White, 28.

Johnny Barnes offered a detailed analysis of the paper's legal standing in this matter. The request for the stay of the Times contract is based on the fact that The Washington Informer has been a newspaper of general circulation as defined by the D.C. government since 1981; the language of Section 5 of the District law that applies to the situation "makes it clear that The Washington Informer qualifies as a newspaper of general circulation"; the decision by the contracts board's director on the basis of The Washington Informer serving a "specific ethnic group" may be in violation of District and federal civil rights laws. The Washington Informer is a Certified Business Enterprise in the District and has priority in contracts whereas the Times is not; The Washington Informer has deep roots in the District and the demands for an automatic stay for discovery and a hearing have not been addressed.

Johnny Barnes added that the basis of awarding the contract is flawed.

He said, "None can argue that anecdotally the likely subscribers to the Washington Times are conservative and Republican – the anecdotal opposite of the population of the District of Columbia, which is overwhelmingly Democratic and progressive." 

"If The Washington Informer can be disqualified because it appeals to a specific ethnic group, a similar disqualification can be leveled against the Washington Times, which some might subjectively argue appeals only to a certain ideological group. In truth and objectively, neither newspaper should be disqualified for such a reason, not permitted by law."

CORRECTION


August 26, 2012
Correction:
hospital-house-moved
In  the story, headlined "Post Katrina: New Orleans Property Owners Sue as Hospitals are Built", 
published August 19 as Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly,  the 
photo of a home that was once located in the  “hospital zone” that was moved to Hoffman Triangle 
 was incorrectly described as being "damaged by the flood waters as a result of Hurricane Katrina.” The 
condition of the house (above), photographed by Sandra Stokes, is in fact, the result of it   
being moved, but not secured, to make way for the hospitals. We regret the error.

49 Years Later, Blacks Still Pressing to ‘Overcome’ By Hazel Trice Edney

49 Years Later, Blacks Still Pressing to ‘Overcome’
By Hazel Trice Edney

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) – It is called the anthem of the civil rights movement, no doubt sang at every major march and rally during the 1960s- including at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, 49 years ago this week.

A sure sign of progress was when President Lyndon B. Johnson used its words amidst his Voting Rights speech before Congress March 15, 1965: “We Shall Overcome”, he declared to applause. Indeed, it is the clarion declaration of the struggle for equality and justice for African-Americans.

And yet, 49 years since the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”, at the height of the protests that ultimately led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, justice leaders in 2012 say Blacks have yet to overcome. In interviews this week, they resolved that August 28, 1963 is yet a euphoric reminder of the equality that must still be attained.

“The March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs inspired a change in the national discourse on equality and helped usher through the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act,” said Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP.  “Today, we have reaped the rewards of our predecessors’ action, but we have yet to fully realize their dream – a country of economic opportunity and equality for all.”

He continued, saying that the NAACP has now reconstituted its Economic Department and dedicated it “to bridging the racial economic inequality that perpetuates racial division in the United States. The department advocates for best practices and policies that advance economic inclusiveness and equal opportunity. It is particularly focused on ending the predatory lending practices that made the bursting of the financial bubble so devastating to African-Americans.”

The National Urban League reported in March this year that the NUL’s Equality Index of Black America, which compares Black progress to Whites reveals the distance that America as a nation must go:

  • In economics, African-Americans measure 56.3 percent compared to Whites.
  • In social justice, African-Americans measure 56.8 percent compared Whites.
  • In health, African-Americans measure 76.5 percent compared to Whites.
  • In education, African-Americans measure 79.7 percent compared to Whites.
  • And in civic engagement, African-Americans are 98.3 percent compared to Whites.

 

“Things have significantly changed, but not enough,” National Urban League President/CEO Marc Morial said this week. “The dismantling of dejure segregation and the expansion of Black political power are the most visible signs of this change. The persistence of poverty, economic and educational disparities, and violence remain the unfinished business. And the rise of a new reactionary 21st century backlash combined with cynicism and apathy concerns me the most.”

Other issues of unequal justice remain prevalent. The criminal justice system is overrun with Black males in prisons; police profiling and brutality remain disparate in Black communities; more than four million convicted felons, the majority of them Black and Latino, cannot register to vote although they have served their time and are released from prison; civil rights leaders are currently fighting new voter identification laws around the nation that they believe effectively disenfranchise millions of African-Americans.

Seeing the systemic changes of the past, some rights leaders believe it is still incumbent upon “we the people” to place pressure upon the government in order to achieve justice.

“We have laws protecting our rights that we did not have before, but these rights are constantly threatened, so we must be mindful and ever vigilant,” said Julian Bond, chairman-emeritus of the NAACP, who was at the March on Washington. “Despite remaining divisions between Black and White life chances, we enjoy opportunity we did not in the past.
Our condition is a frustrating mixture of better and not as good as it should be. It requires each of us to do all he or she can to insure it improves, and the improvement is made permanent.”

 

Even then, the psyche of those who would fight for justice must remain focused on the millions who are struggling – not just about self, says Dr. E. Faye Williams, national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, and chair of the Black Leadership Forum.

 

Unfortunately, I fear that too many of us have come to believe that individual success is more important than group success,” Williams says. “Too many of our people are not connecting their success to the sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King and other heroes and sheroes who came before us…and I am afraid that limits our ‘overcoming’ in greater numbers.”

Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, agrees that there is much more that people should be doing to help expedite conditions – even economic struggles.

“There is strong evidence that hope is on the way and work is on the way. The new 163,000 jobs in July is a sign of progress,” Ogletree said. “If we can get employers to stop watching the market and start hiring people, we can solve the jobs problem today. We solved it during the depression in the 1930s and as Americans, we can solve it now. That is the essence of patriotism.”

The key to overcoming is to not give up even when conditions appear hopeless, concludes Jealous.

“The activists who marched in 1963 may not have known that landmark legislation was around the corner, but looking around the crowded mall at their peers, they surely knew they were on the right track. Forty-nine years on, the NAACP is still working to protect communities from discrimination and to provide the skills needed to realize the dream of economic justice.”

Summing it up in that March 15, 1965 speech, which came as a result of the March on Washington and the bloody protests that followed in places like Selma, Ala., President Johnson’s words appear relevant today:

“There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem,” he said. “It’s not just Negros, but really it’s all of us that must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice…And we shall overcome.”

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