June 3, 2012

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Greek Picnic, Inc. (AGP) is making its annual return to the Atlanta Metro area with a series of events from Wednesday, June 6 through Sunday, June 10.

In its eighth year, the event has grown from a small gathering of members of African-American Greek Letter Organizations at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to a celebration of unity and camaraderie with more than 20,000 participants of various races and ethnicities contributing more than an estimated $25,000,000 to the economy of Atlanta.

The week of events, applauded by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, is organized by Tiwa Aganga-Williams, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., and focuses on social awareness and service. Besides the traditional “stepping” competitions and fraternal activities, the Atlanta Greek Picnic will hold its annual voter registration drive on June 9^th at Morris Brown College and on the same day will also conduct a community service project with St. Francis Table, Feeding the Homeless Ministries. AGP also continues what has become a vital tradition: donating funds to Morris Brown College. With $30,000 already raised, organizers hope to exceed their mark made last year of $40,000, which was donated to the historical institution.

This jamboree of young and old, from all over the country, not only illuminates the rich history of Atlanta to those returning or first time visitors —but it also impacts the lives of young people through their positive, unifying work in the community and celebrations of rich African American traditions through Black Greek Letter Organizations.

For more information, please visit http://www.atlantagreekpicnic.com/2012/,  www.Facebook.com/AtlantaGreekPicnic or see www.YouTube.com/AtlantaGreekPicnic.

You may also call Jennifer Thomas at 404-692-2599 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Two White Richmond policemen are under investigation for allegedly making threatening comments concerning President Obama during his recent re-election rally visit to Virginia Commonwealth University.

The gist of the alleged comments:

• One policeman is reported to have said he wished he could blow up the stage while the president was speaking.

• The other officer is alleged to have said he wished he had a gun, inferring he’d like to shoot the president.

Richmond Police said an investigation of the two officers and their remarks is ongoing. Otherwise, department officials are tight-lipped about the matter.

“The Department will not identify the officers nor discuss their current work status,” department spokesman Gene Lepley stated in a press release.

Lepley also stated that the department had conferred with the Secret Service.

Bill Frantzen, special agent in charge of the Richmond office of the Secret Service told the Free Press in a phone May 29 interview, “We don’t comment on issues on any type of statements. We consider this issue resolved. We’re not looking into it any farther.”

The head of the state NAACP called for “the greatest penalty” to be administered if the investigation reveals the officers made the comments.

“The life of the President and any other persons must receive the greatest protection and is the primary duty of the police and nothing less,” said King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the civil rights organization.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones called the alleged remarks by the two officers “appalling” and “certainly not reflective of how the Richmond Police Department generally conducts itself.”

He added, “There are no circumstances under which the alleged conduct will be tolerated.”

The comments allegedly were made during the President and first lady’s May 5 visit to VCU’s Siegel Center where they spoke. A Black officer overheard the remarks and reported them to his superiors.

The two officers “did not have an assignment related to the president’s detail,” according to the statement issued by the police.

The department deemed the comments as “inappropriate” in the release.

“These alleged comments, while not criminal in nature, are currently being investigated by the Department for appropriate administrative action,” Lepley stated. Threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict bodily harm on the president is a Class D felony; punishment ranges from five to 10 years in prison.

By Hazel Trice Edney

Michael Grant, President, National Bankers Association

WASHINGTON - (TriceEdneyWire.com) - The head of a national Black bankers organization is warning that growing foreclosures upon churches across America indicate that houses of worship must quickly change the way they do business or possibly face a national crisis.

“A trend in church foreclosures is causing national leaders representing African-American communities all over America to focus their attention on potential solutions to avert an impending crisis,” writes Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers Association in a three-page report, released exclusively to the Trice Edney News Wire. “With the advent of the mega-church as a phenomenon, church leaders are being forced to rethink their growth strategies.”

At least 138 church properties were sold by banks last year and about 270 around the nation since 2010, according to CoStar, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information company. Ninety percent of the sales reportedly result from foreclosure.

On March 6, Reuters reported, “Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data…The surge in church foreclosures represents a new wave of distressed property seizures triggered by the 2008 financial crash, analysts say, with many banks no longer willing to grant struggling religious organizations forbearance.”

According to Grant, whose organization has a membership of 37 banks, he sees no major disparity between the numbers of foreclosures upon Black and White congregations. However, he writes, “A preliminary analysis of many African-American churches that pursued aggressive expansion strategies has yielded a few interesting and common patterns.”

He ticks off the patterns as follows:

• Expansion efforts were not usually directed by financial plans constructed by individuals who had the expertise to give church leaders sound financial advice.
• Many financial decisions by those who oversee aggressive expansion strategies were not rooted in frugal planning or monitored by systems of accountability.
• Record-keeping is often not dictated by accepted accounting practices.
• Lending institutions are oftentimes not contacted early enough to avail the church of bank assistance in the forms of loan modifications or forbearance.
• Many church leaders mistakenly believe that bank assistance is available after foreclosure procedures have begun. In reality, by the time the church is being foreclosed on, the bank has exhausted all of the remedies at its disposal.

Grant concludes that though many church decisions are made based on faith and visionary leadership, “The church must be thought of as a business.”

He states, “Just as the hospital exists to promote physical health and wellness, it is nonetheless a business. The church’s business is to promote spiritual health and well-being. It is also a business. If sound business principles are not adhered to, the church jeopardizes its ability to provide a valuable benefit to its congregants.”

Church leaders across the nation are being impacted by the economic crisis, not only causing a shortage in the collection plate, but the decreased ability to help parishioners in financial trouble and difficulty paying its own bills, including staff salaries and mortgages. Though small and middle-sized congregations are seeing more foreclosures, even mega-churches have not been exempt from drastic measures.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the 30,000-member Potter’s House in Dallas, said he was forced to make major cuts three years ago in order to avoid doom.

“Membership has gone up. Income has gone down. We’ve laid off about 40 people from our staff. We’ve had to make some hard choices. We’ve had to curtail some of the services that we’ve normally had to provide to the community because our resources are hard hit. I’m getting calls from pastors all over the country who are downsizing, cutting back on services, cutting back on office hours because they are being adversely affected by this also,” he said in an interview with this reporter.

Currently, church organizational leaders are exploring new ways to operate financially as they await improvement in the economy. The Rev. Dr. Franklyn Richardson, chairman of the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC), says understanding more about banking, how it works and specifically how Black banks can help abate financial crisis in churches is on his agenda. He agrees that the Black church, as an institution, does not fully understand how best to relate to banks.

“I don’t think we actually do. I also don’t think we take advantage of what our collective deposits could demand on Monday mornings after Sunday,” said Richardson after holding a session on economics and the Black community during a CNBC meeting last week. “So, we’re looking at – especially given the electronics today, if we were able to bring our Sunday morning deposits together electronically and leverage them in the market, how that could change or have impact on how we can get banking services in our communities. That’s what we’re talking about now.”

Bishop Eugene Ward, Pastor of Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio is also board member of CNBC, which comprises nine denominations and an estimated reach of over 10 million parishioners across the U. S. He says church officials are sometimes actually leery of Black banks.

“I really believe that in most cases we find ourselves being careful when it comes to Black institutions. And we migrate more to Caucasian institutions because of our ignorance and our lack of trust for those who are in Black banking,” Ward says. “The dry answer and a very good example for us is that many of us look to them to favor us and we abuse them rather than cooperate with them to do the same things that we would do with Caucasian institutions.”

Ward adds that church leaders have a skewed view of banks in general.

“We really only want banks for money, but a lot of us right now can’t really afford to pay back,” he said. “And because of banking practices, now Caucasian agencies have turned to where they are really not operating to lend money to Black churches any more, now we’re finding ourselves in really dire straits because we don’t have anyone to turn to. Had we started to invest with the credit unions and the Black institutions, I feel that we would be in much better shape.”

Grant outlines 12 basic facts that church leaders need to know about banks. Among them are the following:

• Churches that seek their bank’s help or assistance as soon as a problem with making payments arises stand a far greater chance of avoiding foreclosure.
• Loans to churches are classified as commercial (or business) loans.
• Proportionately and historically, African-American banks make and have made the largest percentage of all loans to Black churches.
• Loans are the primary sources of revenue for banks.
• Foreclosures could cause banks to diminish their loan loss reserves and negatively impact the community and real estate values.

Ultimately, Grant writes that churches must become more like businesses as they seek to survive in the current economic climate:

“Identifying qualified financial counselors and utilizing certified accountants is no longer a luxury. If the church is to survive to continue its work, it must have an organization structure that resembles the modern corporation.”

Bond Revoked: Trayvon Martin Killer Back in Jail

By Trice Edney Staff

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer charged in the Florida killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, was remanded back to jail Sunday after the judge in the case revoked his bond saying he misled the court about his finances.

Zimmerman, who had been free on a $150,000 bond returned to custody in Sanford, Fla. less than an hour short of the 48-hour deadline given by Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. on Friday. Television video showed the 28-year-old back in handcuffs, dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt.

His attorney, Mark O'Mara, is expected to ask the judge for another bail hearing this week so that Zimmerman can explain to the court why he and his wife said they had little money to make bail when they in fact had approximately $155,000 in a Paypal account. A recording of a telephone coversation between them allegedly revealed that he and his wife discussed the exact amount of the money in code before testifying that they did not know how much was in the account.

Because of their apparent indigent status, Lester gave him a low bail of $150,000 of which he only had to pay a small portion.

He also allegedly turned in only one of two passports after the court requested his passports as a condition of his bail. That was to lessen his risk of fleeing the country.

O'Mara reportedly told reporters that Zimmerman was concerned "for his safety any time he has to come out of hiding."

The latest is an unexpected twist in the case in which Zimmerman, who is White and Hispanic, is charged with shooting 17-year-old Martin in the chest on Feb 26. The unarmed teenager was walking to his father’s residence from a store where he had bought Skittles and ice tea.

Protests broke out in Sanford and around the country when Zimmerman remained free based on police contentions that a so-called “Stand Your Ground” law appeared to apply. But after six weeks of freedom, a special prosecutor charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder. Zimmerman claims he fired the gun in self-defense during a physical altercation with Martin.

Lawyers for Martin’s family say the youth was racially profiled by Zimmerman who called the police for no reason and then followed Martin against the advice of a 911 operator. As Martin walked, he talked on the phone with his girlfriend who has said he told her he was being followed.

Though the judge could very well post a higher bond and free Zimmerman again, his re-incarceration was met with applause from Rev. Al Sharpton, a chief advocate for justice in the case.

"National Action Network and I requested that the Judge review the bail bond after it became very clear that George Zimmerman had raised money online,” he said in a statement. “We joined with the family and others concerned about the fairness of proceedings in asking for a review and we take note that based upon the evidence, the Judge has made a fair-minded decision based upon the evidence."