Nagin - Guilty of Corruption - to be Sentenced June 11

Feb. 23, 2014

Nagin Sentencing June 11

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Former New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin has made history by becoming the first mayor in New Orleans’ nearly 300-year history to be tried and convicted for a crime committed while in office.

Nagin, a New Orleans businessman and Democrat who famously vowed to root out corruption once elected, was found guilty on 20 of 21 counts in a federal court. He was convicted on one count of conspiracy, five counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering and four counts of filing a false tax return.

The 57-year-old ex-mayor was found not guilty on one count of bribery, stemming from an alleged bribe involving businessman Rodney Williams.

“I maintain my innocence,” a stoic-faced Ray Nagin said as he left the federal courthouse.

“We did our best,” lead defense attorney Robert Jenkins told reporters. “I’m surprised. I really thought the jury would not find him guilty of any of these counts,” Jenkins said. “We will move on to the appeal process.”
A sentence hearing has been set for June 11.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Nagin could face 20 years behind bars, and possibly more time plus fines. The former mayor remains free on bond and was not taken into custody.

At times during the trial, a defiant Nagin engaged in heated exchanges with federal prosecutors and denied taking bribes although he did acknowledge that he did whatever he could to support his sons and the family business.

“Like any father, I wanted to help my sons,” Nagin testified.

When his time on the witness stand was finally over, Nagin said, “Thank you Jesus.”

“Our public servants pledge to provide honest services to the people of Southeast Louisiana,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite, a New Orleans native who took over the reins at the U.S. Attorney’s Office after his predecessor was forced to resign amid an online posting scandal, said Wednesday in a written statement. “We are committed to bringing any politician who violates that obligation to justice.”

The 21-count federal indictment charged Nagin with accepting more than $160,000 in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business, Stone Age, in exchange for promoting the interests of local businessman Frank Fradella. Nagin, who as a newly installed mayor pointed to the pre-dawn arrest of a cousin who drove a cab as proof of his seriousness about ending public graft, was also charged with accepting at least $60,000 in payoffs from contractor Rodney Williams for his help in securing city contracts.

“The road to former Mayor Ray Nagin’s conviction began with one phone call from a courageous citizen,” Rafael C. Goyeneche III, a former cop and president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said in a released statement. “That citizen told the MCC about shipments of granite from Florida by the truckload to the Nagin family business in New Orleans. It was only one piece of a corrupt puzzle but when placed in the hands of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the pieces grew one by one into a sprawling picture of corruption and betrayal.”

From the day he was inaugurated when he jumped out of a horse-drawn carriage in the middle of Faubourg Tremé — to the surprise of his wife, reporters and onlookers — to second-line in the street, to the day he told the federal government to get off its “ass and do something” after Hurricane Katrina, Ray Nagin had a knack for keeping things interesting. He will be forever remembered for his infamous “Chocolate City” remark, proposal to reopen the Canal St. hotels as casinos after Katrina, his decision to mask as the Roman general Maximus on Fat Tuesday and his description of himself as “vagina-friendly” during a local celebration of “The Vagina Monologues.”

“Nagin’s legal problems began long before his indictment on 21 counts of corruption,” W.C. Johnson, a member of Community United for Change and host of local cable-access show “OurStory,” told The Louisiana Weekly. “Nagin first began deceiving the people of New Orleans when he changed his political affiliation from Republican to Democrat. During his tenure as mayor, Nagin displayed Republican values throughout his color of governance. In addition, Nagin ran scared for his reelection bid that caused Nagin to embrace his Black roots and persuade the working poor to reelect him for a second term. The amount of political capital Nagin owed to the working poor should have raised the living standards of the working poor and the economic stability of the Black business community. Unfortunately, neither group benefited from the support in rejecting Mitch Landrieu’s bid to upset the Nagin administration.

“The worst demonstration of Nagin’s rejection of the working poor and Black business community came when public housing residents petitioned the mayor and his administration to reject the demolition of the major housing communities known as projects,” Johnson continued.

“Nagin’s rejection of the very people who saved the Nagin Administration was the beginning of Nagin’s demise. Interestingly enough, many Black politicians in New Orleans are blinded by the illusion of ‘good old boy’ politics being the saving grace when it comes to the relinquishing of political power through the electoral process. Blacks who are allowed to ascend to political positions in New Orleans either lack the vision of empire building or are dissuaded by the images of ‘Strange Fruit’ hanging from the poplar tree. Without regards to historical accounts, Blacks dismiss the notion of, ‘the greater the risk, the greater the rewards.’ Using Atlanta as an example, America has witnessed what Blacks can do once they go all in for the high-stakes game of politics. Regrettably, Blacks in New Orleans would rather risk going to jail as a common thief than risk death for control of the pie. Once again settling for the crumbs from the pie instead of getting the pie.”

In 2006 Nagin defeated challenger Mitch Landrieu in a hotly contested race to win a second term as mayor.

Landrieu, who became Nagin’s successor in 2010, talked about the Nagin conviction Wednesday.

“This is a very sad day for the people of the city of New Orleans,” Landrieu said. “The conviction of former Mayor Nagin is another clear indication that the people of this city will not tolerate public corruption or abuse of power. Four years ago, the people of this city turned the page on that sad chapter for New Orleans and on the old way of doing business. We are moving forward and are restoring the public’s trust in government. Our city’s best days are ahead of us.”

W.C. Johnson said there’s a lesson to be learned from Nagin’s fall from grace.

“Ray Nagin, William Jefferson, Oliver Thomas, and others should pass on to Black political hopefuls the merits of self-determination for the race, instead of individual riches,” Johnson told The Weekly. “The old cliché, ‘a rising tide lifts all ships,’ needs to be the watchwords for Black politicians in New Orleans. There are only a few metropolitan cities that enjoy a Black majority. Fewer still are metropolitan cities that reward the Black population because the Black race is in the majority. European history reveals European conquest. In the vigor that Blacks embrace the European model, why have Blacks overlooked the conquest of empire-building blocks that lead to true political power? Are Black politicians so disconnected and self-absorbed, or are Black politicians so afraid that the obvious eludes them?”

Sounding like a fallen elected official who believes he suffered a knockdown but is not out for the count, Nagin sent the following message via Twitter Thursday: “Praying 4 prosecutors, government witnesses, jurors…God still in control.”

A similarly upbeat Robert Jenkins said he was hopeful about the findings of a report about prosecutorial misconduct in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“I promise you that if it’s what we think it is…it’s a bombshell,” Jenkins told FOX 8 News.

According to FOX 8 News, the report is being kept under wraps by U.S. District Judge Kurt Englehardt for now.

A similar investigation by the Feds led to the overturning of a number of convictions in at least one high-profile, post-Katrina murder case involving NOPD officers.

“There are many objections, and those appeals are based on those,” Jenkins said.

For now, Nagin remains in Dallas, Texas on home confinement.

“New Orleans has been damaged in an immeasurable – yet, thankfully not irreparable – way by Ray Nagin’s and Greg Meffert’s campaign of corruption and self-dealing,” former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, Nagin’s immediate predecessor, “It is a sad day for all of us when those who are elected and entrusted to protect our citizens demonstrate such little regard for the tremendous duty and responsibility of leading this great city. I hope that this conviction reminds the current generation of New Orleans elected officials, as well as others across the nation, of just how essential personal integrity and commitment are to public service.

“Fortunately, my hometown of New Orleans is strong and resilient and has already begun, under a new administration, to move past the damage directly caused by Nagin and Meffert,” Morial, who currently serves as National Urban League president, added. “Elected office is a sacred public trust, and ineptitude, lack of integrity, and abuse of power have no seat at the table. I hope that everyone who is proud to call New Orleans “home” can now fully put this behind us and move on to the business of continuing to push our city forward.”

U. S. Holds Confab in Nigerian Capital While Attacks Escalate in North

Feb. 23, 2014

U. S. Confab in Nigerian Capital While Attacks Escalate in North

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – As Assistant Secretary of State Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Bureau of African Affairs, makes her third trip to Nigeria since assuming her post in August, a bloodbath is occurring in northern Nigeria where a state of emergency was imposed almost nine months ago.

Ms. Thomas Greenfield is leading the U.S. delegation to the U.S.-Nigeria Binational Commission meeting Feb. 17-18 in Abuja.

In northern Borno State, meanwhile, suspected Islamist fighters launched an early morning attack on Sunday, Feb. 16, setting off explosions and burning down dozens of homes. In Izghe village, the gunmen reportedly rounded up a group of men and shot them, before going door-to-door and killing anyone they found. The death toll at 90 is mounting.

“As I am talking to you now, all the dead bodies of the victims are still lying in the streets,” a resident, Abubakar Usman, told the Reuters news agency by phone. “We fled without burying them, fearing the terrorists were still lurking in the bushes.”

Police commissioner of Borno State, Lawal Tanko, confirmed the attack but said he had no details of the casualties.

Efforts by President Goodluck Jonathan to crush the insurgents have had little effect. In fact, according to observers, by increasing troop levels Jonathan increased the level of violence. Some of the current crisis, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, Permanent Representative to the U.N., suggested a possible link to security forces themselves.

Power, speaking to civil society groups in Abuja last December, said: “The United States is concerned by some of the stories we hear of inhumane detention practices in Nigeria… I have discussed those with officials here. Security crackdowns that do not discriminate between legitimate targets and innocent civilians are both counterproductive and wrong.

“We know how hard it is to fight insurgency and terrorism, but we have also seen how much more effective we are when we put the welfare of the local population at the heart of our efforts.”

According to the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the NY-based Council on Foreign Affairs Africa project, the number of victims from President Jonathan’s inauguration in May 2011 to January 2014 had reached 6,866.

In addition to the much-publicized Boko Haram insurgents who want to carve a breakaway Islamic state in Northern Nigeria, others resorting to violence include ethnic rivals, farmers, herdsmen, a new generation of Niger Delta militants, and government soldiers who kill civilians indiscriminately, according to the Tracker. Police are also notorious for extrajudicial murder.

What Will Happen if the Minimum Wage Increases? By William Spriggs

Feb. 23, 2014

What Will Happen if the Minimum Wage Increases?

By William Spriggs

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Last week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report saying that the proposal to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour in 2016 would cost the creation of 500,000 jobs in 2016. While they did conclude that millions of families would be lifted out of poverty, they cautioned there would be real losers by adding people to the roles of the unemployed and underemployed.

Their conclusions are curious because the research they cite in their report on the minimum wage points to opposite outcomes. For instance, they cite the work of Hristos Doucoliagos and T. D. Stanley who looked at more than 64 studies on the jobs effect of minimum wages increases.

Doucouliagos and Stanley conclude there is: "Little or no evidence of a negative association between minimum wages and employment...." The CBO also cites the work of David Card and Alan Krueger who similarly conclude that after reviewing the available research there is little support for a negative relationship between minimum wage increases and employment loss. The CBO also cites the work of Dale Belman and Paul Wolfson, who limit their look to synthesizing the findings of research done since 2000.

Belman and Wolfson conclude: "The effects are statistically detectable but small, even when restricting attention to the effect on either youth or the food and drink sector." The CBO also cites a study by John Schmitt that synthesizes the many studies done since 2000 on the effects of the minimum wage. Schmitt concludes that: "The weight of that evidence points to little or no employment response to modest increases in the minimum wage."

The CBO in its text says it thinks the studies that are most reliable look at changes in the minimum wage that have been taking place at the state level, and that the studies need to control for local labor market differences. This is an endorsement of the approach taken by the work of Sylvia Allegretto, Arindrajit Dube, Michael Reich and Ben Zipperer that CBO also cites. CBO looks heavily at the effect of the minimum wage on teen employment. Teenagers are a small fraction of minimum wage workers, but a large share of teenagers are affected by changes in the minimum wage.

The Allegretto study they cite, using methodology that CBO reports is the most reliable, finds that increasing the minimum wage has between a very small negative effect to a small positive effect on teen employment, but either effect is so small it is essentially zero; no effect.

So, if the available evidence CBO considered suggests that there aren't employment effects, why would CBO report employment effects? The studies of Doucouliagos and Stanley and of Card and Krueger CBO cite discuss a phenomena known as "publication bias." Because for many years, economic theory predicted raising the minimum wage would lead to job loss, the only available research published by economists showed job losses.

Economists either manipulated their models to get the desired effect-leaving out other important variables and explanations for job losses, or didn't get published. Unfortunately, CBO appears to have succumbed to a similar malady in policy discussions. But, as is often the case, policy in Washington is behind.

So, despite overwhelming support from Nobel laureates in economics and past presidents of the American Association for raising the minimum wage because those on the cutting edge of economic knowledge know the consensus of the field has changed, the policy debate in Washington is locked in the old world because Republicans have made increasing the minimum wage a partisan issue. The safe spot for the "non-partisan" CBO is to side with Republicans that there will be job loss, but give in to the current state of economic thinking that wages will rise and poverty fall.

It is a strange change in fate that raising the minimum wage is no longer an issue to economists, but is a political football. Until the 1970's, increases in the minimum wage won majority support from both Republicans and Democrats. Given the overwhelming support of Americans for raising the minimum wage, and the current state of economic knowledge, raising the minimum wage should be smart policy, not partisan. The CBO should have punted instead of creating needless confusion.

Follow Spriggs on Twitter: @WSpriggs. Contact: Amaya Smith-Tune Acting Director, Media Outreach AFL-CIO 202-637-5142

The Value of HBCU’s - Part Two by James Clingman

Blackonomics

The Value of HBCU’s
By James Clingman

Part Two

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - With specific emphasis on Howard University, let’s consider a few solutions to the challenges HBCU’s face. There are some who say HBCU’s are irrelevant and no longer necessary because we are living in a “post-racial” society, mainly because a Black man was elected President by a majority of white people. What do you think?

He who defines you also controls you; he can set the height of the bar and raise it anytime he wants. The relevancy and necessity of HBCU’s, often promoted by those who have no stake in their existence, is a question that constituents of HBCU’s should answer. Do we value HBCU’s? Have they served us well? Have they played an important role in American history? Should we allow them to fade away because a few critics say they should? Will we define ourselves, or let someone else to do it?

One look at the list of Howard University graduates made me think about the tremendous void in our society that would exist without their contributions and achievements. There are similar alumni lists for other HBCU’s of Blacks who have contributed to this nation in virtually every category of service, business, media, research, entertainment, politics, education, science, engineering, medical, and legal, just to name a few. Irrelevant? Anachronism? Outlived their usefulness? Not by a long shot.

Roger Madison, Izania.com, says, “We simply don’t have a history of reaching back to lift up our own and build our own institutions of thought leadership. Our brightest have anchored themselves in mainstream institutions and have felt very little obligation to help raise the level of quality at our HBCUs.” As I recall, Harold Cruse’s, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual drew a similar conclusion and, more recently, W.D. Wright’s, The Crisis of the Black Intellectual, continues that premise.

Since the critics invariably compare the top HBCU’s to Harvard, here’s something to think about. Hedge Fund Manager, Ken Griffin, recently gave $150 million to Harvard, a school that already has a $32 billion endowment. I doubt we will see one or two Black super-wealthy individuals do that, but I know that through our collective action, we can meet a similar goal, that is, if we value our schools.

Yes our HBCU’s need money, just as every school does, but they also need other resources, many of which those of us who care can offer. We can volunteer to teach a class as a guest lecturer, do an online presentation to a class, hold more of our meetings and conferences on HBCU campuses, and pay them rather than some other venue.

Current HBCU students could mount continuous PR and marketing campaigns that tell the fantastic stories of their HBCU. Some do that already, but we need more. With all of the social media available to students and their never-ending use of it, personal testimonies of how their HBCU helped them could replace many of the 140 character “tweets” they post daily. No school is perfect; all have positives and negatives. But we must tell our own stories about the value of HBCU’s and refuse to accept any contention that they are no longer necessary.

We must also work to keep our schools on solid financial ground, the responsibility of which starts with the Presidents and their administrators. Good stewardship of HBCU funds is essential. Just like any business, Howard and all HBCU’s must diversify income streams, invest in new information technology, and continue to provide high quality education in the face of rising costs.

One day we may get a Ken Griffin to step up for an HBCU, but until then and even afterward, we must exercise our collective responsibility to support our own schools. There are probably a million members of Black fraternities and sororities. A fund could be established in which each one would deposit a minimum of $10.00 per month to be given to their respective HBCU each year. Howard University is the alma mater of thousands, many of whom are doing very well financially and probably would donate much more on a monthly basis. Masons, Shriners, religious groups, business and professional associations could do likewise. The keys to helping ourselves are commitment, sacrifice, consistency, and sustainability.

We often talk about the “State of HBCU’s,” but this is about the “Fate of HBCU’s.” Will we determine that fate or leave it up to others? By working together in support of our colleges and universities, we can mitigate out-of-reach tuitions, provide more educational opportunities for our young people, and maintain the high quality and tradition of our valuable and valued HBCU’s. A statement made by Howard’s acting President, Dr. Wayne Frederick, speaks volumes: “Howard wrapped me in an audacity by believing in me and creating an environment that made me comfortable.” There’s that word again, “Audacity.”

Who Should Be Afraid? By Julianne Malveaux

Feb. 23, 2014

Who Should Be Afraid?
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In the years after enslavement ended, Southern whites did all they could to return to a manner of slavery. No white “owned” a black person, but many whites behaved as if they did. Theoretically blacks were free to come and go as they pleased, but if they went to the wrong store, sat in the wrong part of the bus, or failed to yield narrow sidewalks to whites, they could practically expect a physical confrontation. All a white woman had to do was cry “rape” for a black man (and usually the wrong man) was beaten or lynched. Whites expected deference from black people, and when they didn’t get it, they demanded it with physical threats or worse.

In the months after World War II, twelve million soldiers returned home from the war. Seven percent of them – nearly 800,000 black soldiers -- got something less than a hero’s welcome. Indeed, thousands of black World II veterans were beaten, often because these men wanted the same rights at home that they fought for abroad. Their sense of dignity and equality seemed to embolden the Ku Klux Klan, which was responsible for soldiers in uniform being pulled off busses, beaten and shot. In some cases these soldiers had their eyes gouged out; in some cases they were tortured and lynched.

Whites engaged in the writing of Jim Crow laws that were imposed on blacks but not whites, vagrancy laws that made it possible to jail a black man because he had no money. These unequal laws made it as easy to find a nearly free labor market as it had in slavery. There was no relief from this unfairness until the late 1960s and early 1970s. And whites attempting to reinforce their myth of white superiority by reinstituting the practice of deference found a black population less ready to defer, more willing to engage the courts (and in some cases the streets) in a quest for equality.

When the myth of white superiority does not work, too many whites hide behind their so-called fear as a way force deference or provide penalties for those who will not engage in white people’s fantasies. If Michael Dunn were so afraid of Jordan Davis and his friends, why did he get out of his car and confront them about their loud music. None of us, of a certain age, loves loud music, but most of us know how to close a window and tolerate it for a moment or two. Dunn says he was afraid of teens playing “thug” music. Those teens might well have been afraid of him, just as the World War II veterans had been afraid of the KKK. Jordan Davis and his friends might have been as frightened as formers slaves were, when they refused to cross the sidewalk into the streets so that whites could go first. Some of these black folks ignored their fear and attempted to engage in their citizenship rights. Some were lynched because they would not defer to outmoded customs.

Gary Pearl could be Michael Dunn’s evil twin, with a pecuniary twist. In 1983, Pearl left his job as a city sanitation supervisor in Louisville, Kentucky because he says he had a nervous breakdown because he had to work with black people. A psychiatrist testified that Pearl was suffered from paranoid schizophrenia; judge ordered that he be paid $231 per week. The state appealed the award, it was eventually overturned, and Gary Pearl returned to the obscurity he had before the “fear” defense.

What would happen if every black person fearing white people got to file for unemployment compensation, or carry a gun around to assuage himself of his safety? Would a jury be as lenient toward that black man as they were with Michael Dunn? Would they acquit just like the jury acquitted the men who killed Medgar Evers (it took decades for a jury to finally do the right thing). A hard read of history suggests that blacks have more to fear from whites than the other way around, but it is whites, rationalizing their fear, who get to shoot without justification.

A thorough read of history, however, would remind us of the Dred Scott case where the Supreme Court ruled that black people have no rights that whites are bound to respect. Clearly Michael Dunn, George Zimmerman and the others who have Klan sensibilities and invisible hoods, believe a nineteenth century Supreme Court ruling instead of twenty-first century realities. For folks like Dunn and Zimmerman, however, the nineteenth century is not very different than the twenty-first.