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From SeeingBlack.com The 411 Three Detectives Acquitted in Killing of Sean Bell
Justice Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict April 25 in his packed Queens courtroom. Cooperman said that prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers did not feel threatened when they opened fire on Bell and two of his friends leaving a bachelor party at a strip club. All three men were unarmed and there was no gun found inside their car. The Associated Press reported that upon hearing the verdict, Sean Bell's fiancée immediately walked out of the courtroom and that his mother cried. More than 200 people gathered outside the courthouse and when news spread of the verdict, some also wept, while others cried, "Murderers! Murderers!" or "KKK!" Bell, 23, was killed outside the strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006. Talk about the verdict in the Sean Bell case on the From the Ramparts blog with jrswriter. Obama’s Ex-Pastor Breaks Silence Following Controversy over Criticism Barack Obama’s former pastor has spoken out in his first broadcast interview since his criticism of US government policies became a major issue in the 2008 Democratic presidential race. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright has come under heavy criticism from political pundits for linking the attacks of September 11 to US foreign policy in the Middle East and for saying the United States was founded on racism. In an interview with PBS journalist Bill Moyers airing tonight, Wright says his comments have been misused. Rev. Jeremiah Wright: “The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly. A failure to communicate is when something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public. That’s not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or, as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a ‘wackadoodle.’ It’s to paint me as something—something’s wrong with me. ’There’s nothing wrong with this country or its policies. We’re perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them.’ That’s not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to communicate.” Bill Moyers: “What do you think they wanted to communicate?” Rev. Wright: “I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And, by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That’s what they wanted to communicate. They know nothing about the church. They know nothing about our prison ministry. They know nothing about our food ministry. They know nothing about our senior citizens home. They know nothing about all we try to do as a church and have tried to do and still continue to do as a church that believes what Martin Marty said, that the two worlds have to be together and that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to speak to those worlds, not only in terms of the preached message on a Sunday morning but in terms of the lived-out ministry throughout the week.” Moyers: “What did you think when you began to see those very brief sound bites circulating as they did?” Rev. Wright: “I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt those who were doing that were doing it for some very devious reasons.” The Bill Moyers interview with Reverend Wright airs April 25 at 9:00 on PBS. Go to the Between the Lines blog by Jackie Jones and join the discussion on Rev. Wright Read and search hundreds of news stories on SeeingBlack.com's 411 Channel. Click here to go to our 411 message board, where you can comment on any news stories or post your own news. Sludge Tested as Lead Poisoning Fix in Poor Black Neighborhoods Lawmakers and the NAACP are calling for an investigation into reports that federally funded scientific experiments in 2000 spread sewage sludge on the yards in poor black neighborhoods to test if it could fight lead poisoning in children. The Associated Press reported on Sunday that researchers spread a mix of human and industrial wastes from sewage treatment plants on the lawns of nine low-income families in Baltimore and a vacant lot next to an elementary school in East St. Louis. The families were told the sludge was safe and not informed about the toxic ingredients the sludge could contain. The report implicated researchers and funders from Johns Hopkins University, the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Agriculture Department. The researchers say the experiment successfully reduced the amount of lead in the soil. But some scientists question the findings, as well as the choice of neighborhood and lack of transparency with the residents. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will convene a hearing on the subject next month. Three Members of MOVE Denied Parole In Pennsylvania, three female members of the group MOVE have been denied parole. They have been held since 1978 following a police raid on their Philadelphia headquarters. During the raid, a police officer was shot dead. Nine members of the group were convicted of third-degree murder. Seven years after the 1978 raid, Philadelphia police bombed the MOVE headquarters, killing eleven members of the group, including five children. Senate GOPers Block Pay Discrimination Bill On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans have blocked a bill that would have overturned a Supreme Court ruling limiting pay discrimination lawsuits. The Senate fell four votes short of considering the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, named for a female employee of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company who was paid 40 percent less than her male colleagues doing the same job. Ledbetter lost her suit against Goodyear after the court ruled she did not file a complaint in time. Republican presidential candidate John McCain joined forty-one other Republicans in voting against the measure. House Votes to Block Admin Cuts of Medicaid Meanwhile, the House has voted to stop the Bush administration from cutting $13 billion in Medicaid healthcare spending over the next five years. The 349-to-62 vote would override a threatened veto from President Bush if the Senate follows suit. U.S. and IMF Policies Have Fueled Food Crisis in Poor Countries As people around the world continue to protest the soaring prices of basic food items, the World Food Program has described the crisis as a silent tsunami. The head of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, blamed the current global food crisis on “inappropriate” policy decisions over the past two decades. He said Wednesday that while investment in agriculture has been sharply reduced in poor countries, wealthy countries have maintained generous farm subsidies. An official from the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Rolf Traeger, faulted the Structural Adjustment Programs prescribed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for gutting agricultural production in the developing world. Nowhere is this perhaps more clear than in the case of Haiti. Thirty years ago, Haiti had all the rice it needed. Then in 1986, Haiti turned to the IMF for a loan. Now, after cutting tariff protections on local rice, Haiti imports most of its rice from the United States, which in turn remains heavily subsidized. US rice farmers get one billion dollars a year in government subsidies. Meanwhile in Haiti, hungry people are rioting in the streets because they cannot afford to buy rice. Soaring Heating Costs Could Bring Record Energy Shut-Offs Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting a record number of American families face energy shut-offs because of record-high heating costs this year. State officials say millions of Americans behind on heating and gas bills could see their power cut over the next two months. Costs for staple items such as energy and food have skyrocketed at a time when wages for lower-income Americans are stagnant. States including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New York have seen record applicants for heating aid. Rhode Island is expected to shut off power to 30,000 families, topping a record set last year. The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association says federal energy subsidies reached nearly six million homes this year, the highest in sixteen years. The figure would have been higher, if not for rules forcing states to reduce the number of eligible recipients. US Food Chains to Ration Rice Sales The rise in food prices is seeing new consequences back in the United States. On Wednesday, the two largest US warehouse chains said they would ration sales of rice because of dwindling supplies. Sam’s Club and Costco say the rationing will apply to bulk sales, not retail sizes. Court: Ex-EPA Chief Can’t Be Held Liable for 9/11 Statements A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman cannot be held liable for telling residents near the World Trade Center site that the air was safe to breathe after the September 11 attacks. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by residents, students and workers in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who said they were exposed to hazardous dust and debris from the fallen Twin Towers after September 11. Murdoch Bids $580 Million to Buy Newsday In media news, Rupert Murdoch has put forward a $580 million bid to buy the New York-based newspaper Newsday. If the deal is approved, this would give Murdoch control of three of the nation’s ten largest circulation papers: the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Newsday. Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Wall Street Journal’s top editor, Marcus Brauchli, resigned in a move that will give Murdoch more power to remake the paper, which he bought in December. Charges Dropped Against Buffalo Art Professor And a federal judge has dismissed charges against a University of Buffalo art professor who was charged with mail and wire fraud after the FBI found harmless bacteria used in art displays in his apartment. The judge said the charges against Steve Kurtz were “insufficient on its face.” Kurtz was originally investigated for bioterrorism. More International News WFP Warns of Food Aid Cut The World Food Program is warning it will need to cut services unless donors can cover a 40 percent rise in operational costs. The price of rice has hit record highs in Asia at $1,000 a ton, nearly triple over the start of the year. Here in the US, two major food chains stoked panic this week when they announced they would ration rice sales at their supermarkets. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson downplayed worries of a domestic food shortage. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson: "In the US, I don’t see food shortages. We have plenty of food in the US. The price of food has gone up, but again that won’t be as significant for the average American as the price of gasoline. But in the world, it is a significant issue, and the United States is focused on getting food to those who need it the most and getting it there quickly, emergency food relief. And we provide about half of that for the world.” ALBA Leaders Launch Joint Food Effort Leaders from Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua have announced a joint program to fight rising food costs in Latin America. Meeting in Caracas, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, says it will create a $100 million Food Security Fund. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said the food crisis underscores the need for radical change. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage: “The developed nations propose to destine each time more food for the production of energy. The developed society intends to feed the automobiles of the rich, of the wealthy society with food. It is an irrational world in which we live today. This is the world that we have to transform and that we are going to transform.” The declaration came hours after the World Food Program declared the global food crisis a “silent tsunami” that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger and poverty. Survey: 60% of EPA Scientists Witness Political Interference A new survey shows 60 percent of Environmental Protection Agency scientists have witnessed political interference in their work during the past five years. The Union of Concerned Scientists says nearly 1,600 scientists responded to its voluntary questionnaire. The scientists complained of seeing data selectively used to justify agency rulings and political appointees forcing the exclusion or altering of scientific findings. House Oversight Committee Chair Henry Waxman says he plans to question top EPA officials next month. CIA Holds 7,000 Docs on Secret Prisons, Interrogations And the CIA has acknowledged it holds more than 7,000 documents dealing with its secret prison and interrogation program. At least nineteen have been withheld from disclosure, because the White House has claimed presidential communications privilege. In one of the documents, CIA officials request support from the Justice Department after concluding the potential for investigations into its interrogation practices is “virtually inevitable.” Drugging of Guantanamo Detainees Comes Under New Scrutiny The Washington Post reports at least two dozen former and current prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere say they have been given drugs against their will or witnessed other inmates being drugged. The allegations have resurfaced after the release this month of a 2003 Justice Department memo that explicitly condoned the use of drugs on detainees. In the memo, former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo rejected a decades-old US ban on the use of “mind-altering substances” on prisoners. Instead, he argued that drugs could be used as long as they did not inflict permanent or “profound” psychological damage. Legal experts and human rights groups say that forced drugging of detainees for any nontherapeutic reasons would be a particularly grave breach of international treaties banning torture. UN Warns Death Toll in Sudan May Be 300,000 In news from Africa, a top UN official said the death toll in Sudan over the past five years may now be as high as 300,000. John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, mentioned the new estimate in a speech at a UN Security Council meeting on the conflict in the western Sudanese region. John Holmes: “A study in 2006 suggested that 200,000 had lost their lives from the combined effects of the conflict. That figure must be much higher now, perhaps half as much again. Yet we continue to see the goalposts receding, to the point where peace in Darfur seems further away today than ever.” Sudan’s UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem said the figure was grossly exaggerated. Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem: “The death of even a single Sudanese is something very regrettable and tragic. But in our own calculations, the number, total number, does not exceed ten thousand.” Israeli Ambassador to UN: Carter a “Bigot” Meanwhile, an Israeli official has leveled Israel’s harshest criticism to date of former President Jimmy Carter’s peace efforts in the Middle East. On Thursday, Israel’s UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said Carter has “[turned] into what I believe to be a bigot.” Gillmeran’s comments follow Carter’s meeting with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria earlier this week. The two discussed a ceasefire with Israel and a long-term peace deal. Carter has accused Israel of undermining any hopes for a viable peace through its expansion of settlements and ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Read and search hundreds of news stories on SeeingBlack.com's 411 Channel. Go to the Between the Lines blog by Jackie Jones and join the discussion on Rev. Wright Click here to go to our 411 message board, where you can comment on any news stories or post your own news. © Copyright by SeeingBlack.com |
