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From SeeingBlack.com The 411 Dorothy Height Joins the Ancestors at 98
Dorothy Height: “I think it’s up to all of us to know that what Rosa Parks started, what the civil rights movement achieved, was a great deal—we’ve made progress. But we have a long way to go. And we need that same spirit. And each of us, from this celebration, should remember Rosa Parks, and her message would certainly be: ‘You are a child of God. You can make a difference.’ Thank you.” Benjamin Hooks Transitions at 85 Meanwhile, in Memphis, another prominent civil rights figure, Benjamin Hooks, will be buried April 23 following his transiton last week at the age of 85. Hooks led the NAACP from 1977 to 1992. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2007. Hundreds Mark 15th Anniversary of Oklahoma City Bombing Hundreds of people gathered in Oklahoma City on April 19 to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people and wounded over 600 others. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano addressed a crowd that included survivors of the attack and relatives of the dead. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: “We honor the continued need for vigilance against the violent ideologies that led to this attack, so that we can recognize their signs in our communities and stand together to defeat them. And above all, we remind ourselves that what defines us as a nation, as a people and as communities is not what we have suffered but how we have risen above it, how we have overcome.” Pro-Gun Rallies Held in DC, Virginia As the ceremony was held, hundreds of people gathered in Washington, DC for a pro-firearm rally on Capitol Hill. Speakers urged the crowd to support lawmakers who oppose gun control. The right-wing Chicago radio host Erich Muller was among those to attend. Erich Muller: “My message to the federal government is obey the laws. We have a right to have guns. I live in the city of Chicago. It is a bloodbath, and I don’t have a right to protect my family. The average response time, 911 call, is fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes—I don’t have that kind of time. I need a gun to protect myself. It’s my right as an American.” Another pro-gun rally was also held nearby in Virginia, where attendees openly carried guns on their hips and over their shoulders. It was the first armed rally in a national park since President Obama signed a law authorizing weapons in national parks last year. Video Captures Md. Police Beating of Unarmed Student In Maryland, three Prince George County police officers are under investigation following the release of video showing them beating an unarmed student. The incident occurred after a college basketball game last month. On the video, the student, John McKenna, is seen among a crowd celebrating a victory by the University of Maryland men’s basketball team. He is rushed by three officers who beat him with their batons. McKenna was initially charged with assaulting the officers, but those charges have been dropped. Gates Criticizes WikiLeaks for Releasing Video of US Attack Defense Secretary Robert Gates continues to reject calls for a probe into the US military’s indiscriminate killing of twelve Iraqis despite video capturing the attack on tape. Last week, the watchdog website WikiLeaks released a classified US military video showing a US helicopter gunship firing on Iraqi civilians in 2007. Gates has staunchly defended the servicemembers involved, claiming they were involved in a “combat” and “split-second” situation. On Tuesday, Gates criticized WikiLeaks for releasing the video, saying, “These people can put out anything they want, and they’re never held accountable for it. There’s no before, and there’s no after.” Arizona Bill Forces Officers to Determine Immigration Status In Arizona, state lawmakers have approved what’s being described as the harshest anti-immigrant measure in the United States. The Arizona House of Representatives voted to force police officers to determine the immigration status of someone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant. The state Senate passed a similar measure earlier this year, and Republican Governor Jan Brewer is expected to sign it into law. At a rally outside the state legislature, Phoenix-based employment attorney David Selden said the measure will increase racial profiling. David Selden: “The policeman on the street is placed in an unacceptable position of, in every encounter that they have with a citizen, having to try to enforce immigration laws in that context and question persons based upon a reasonable suspicion of what that person’s immigration status might be. And what that means, really, is basically it will be the public policy and law of Arizona to encourage racial profiling.” Goldman Sachs Accused of Civil Fraud in Sale of Mortgage Securities The Securities Exchange and Exchange Commission has filed a civil suit accusing the Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs of securities fraud for selling a mortgage investment that was established to fail. The investment consisted of pools of risky mortgages that had been packaged together. According to the SEC, the pools were picked by another Goldman client who was betting against their success. The client, John Paulson, made over $3.7 billion from the collapse of the housing market but is not named in the suit. The SEC’s Director of Enforcement, Robert Khuzami, said Goldman was in clear violation of disclosure rules. Robert Khuzami: “The rule is that you need to play fair, need to provide the kind of proper and full disclosure that the securities laws require, or face the consequences.” Investors lost over $1 billion on the securities linked to the suit. The case marks the first time federal regulators have taken legal action against a Wall Street firm for profiting from the housing market crash. ProPublica Becomes First Online Pulitzer Winner In media news, winners of this year Pulitzer Prize for journalism have been announced.. The investigative website ProPublica became the first online news outlet to receive a Pulitzer. Investigative reporter Sheri Fink won for a lengthy article on allegations doctors at a New Orleans hospital euthanized patients in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Fink discussed her story on Democracy Now! last year. Sheri Fink: “All we know is that Dr. [Anna] Pou was seen going into this patient’s room with medications, saying, ‘I’m going to tell him I’m going to give him something for his dizziness.’ And later, during the investigation, he had died, and they found these drugs, morphine and midazolam. These two drugs that were found in many of the patients were found in him. So it’s hard to know exactly what happened there.” Justice Stevens Announces Retirement from Supreme Court President Obama is vowing a speedy appointment to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. The eighty-nine-year-old Stevens announced Friday he’ll step down at the end of the Court’s regular session in June. At the White House, Obama paid tribute to Stevens’ thirty-five years on the bench. President Obama: “He has worn the judicial robe with honor and humility. He has applied the Constitution and the laws of the land with fidelity and restraint. He will soon turn ninety this month, but he leaves his position at the top of his game. His leadership will be sorely missed…Now, as Justice Stevens expressed to me in the letter announcing his retirement, it is in the best interest of the Supreme Court to have a successor appointed and confirmed before the next term begins, and so I will move quickly to name a nominee, as I did with Justice Sotomayor.” Stevens has long been regarded as the leader of the “liberal” wing of the Supreme Court. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union said, “The civil liberties legacy of Justice Stevens is deep and broad. He has promoted racial equality, supported gay rights and defended a woman’s right to choose…Without his leadership, the Bush administration might well have succeeded in its effort to deprive Guantánamo detainees of any rights and any access to US courts.” ACORN Staffer Reported Prostitution Claims to Police Details continue to emerge on the extent of the false claims in the controversy that led to the collapse of the community organizing group ACORN. ACORN disbanded as a national organization last month after months of legal and financial difficulty largely stemming from the release of undercover videos taken inside its offices. The right-wing activists behind the videos claimed they showed staffers offering advice to two individuals posing as a pimp and a prostitute. But their story continues to be discredited piece by piece. A recent probe by California Attorney General Jerry Brown undermines a key claim that an ACORN staffer in San Diego offered advice on smuggling a group of prostitutes from Mexico. Brown’s probe verified that the staffer, Juan Carlos Vera, in fact called the police right after the meeting to report what he had heard. Vera has long maintained he called the police, but his claims have gone largely ignored. He was fired from his position at ACORN as the controversy reached a peak last fall. Virginia Gov. Apologizes for Excluding Slavery from Confederate History Month Proclamation And Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell has apologized for excluding slavery from a proclamation designating April as Confederate History Month. The initial proclamation called on Virginia residents to “understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War.” McDonnell initially said he had excluded slavery because he wanted to focus on issues “significant” to Virginia. McDonnell called the move “a major omission” and says he’s amended the document to call slavery “an evil and inhumane practice.” Critics want McDonnell to revoke the proclamation entirely, saying it celebrates Virginia’s racist past. Obama Signs Jobless Benefits Bill After Dems Overcome GOP Filibuster President Obama has signed a jobless benefit bill into law after congressional Democrats overcame a Republican filibuster to approve it. The measure restores unemployment insurance and COBRA health insurance subsidies for the unemployed through next month. More than 200,000 unemployed workers have been denied the benefits because Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma was able to delay the bill before the two-week Easter recess. On Thursday, three Republicans joined Senate Democrats to break the deadlock and approve the bill by a vote of 59 to 38. The House quickly followed with a 289-to-112 vote for the bill’s passage. US Foreclosures Break Monthly Record New figures show US foreclosures are at a record high. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings topped 367,000 last month, the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing reports in January 2005. Nearly 260,000 homes and other properties were repossessed in the first quarter of the fiscal year. That’s an all-time record and a 35 percent jump from the previous year. Group Challenges Revised Surveillance Law A group of journalists, attorneys and human rights activists are challenging revisions to US surveillance laws that they say are hampering their ability to do their work. On Friday, members of the group told a federal appeals court they’ve been forced to forgo communicating by phone or email out of fear of government surveillance. The revised 2008 surveillance law dropped a requirement that the government identify the subjects of its surveillance. Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch says she’s made three recent trips to meet former CIA prisoners in Jordan to avoid speaking to them by phone and on Mars by the mid-2030s. Report: Insurers Shifting Costs to Avoid Healthcare Laws A Senate panel says some of the nation’s largest insurance companies have begun manipulating their accounting practices to avoid following the new healthcare reform laws. In a new report, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation says insurers are counting administrative costs as medical costs to avoid requirements on how every premium dollar is spent. The report cites the insurance giant WellPoint as having “‘reclassified’ more than half a billion dollars of administrative expenses as medical expenses.” The news comes as the insurance giant UnitedHealth Group has announced chief executive Stephen Hemsley took home almost $100 million in compensation from exercising stock options last year. CIA Officials Expressed Concern over Interrogation Tapes Newly disclosed documents show CIA officials expressed concern over a 2005 decision to destroy interrogation videos showing the waterboarding of foreign prisoners. The ninety-two tapes were destroyed amidst worries they would do political damage if ever publicly revealed. One agency staffer reported the official who ordered the destruction, Jose Rodriguez, worried the tapes’ disclosure would be “devastating” and “felt it was extremely important to destroy the tapes.” But one day after the destruction, the deputy to then-CIA executive director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo warned the move may have been “improper.” In response, Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union said, “These documents provide further evidence that senior CIA officials were willing to risk being prosecuted for obstruction of justice in order to avoid being prosecuted for torture. If the Department of Justice fails to hold these officials accountable, they will have succeeded in their cover-up. Is the CIA Assassination Order of a US Citizen Legal? US officials have confirmed a Yemen-based Muslim cleric has become the first US citizen added to a CIA list of targets for capture or killing. Anwar al-Awlaki is a US-born cleric accused of having ties to the failed Christmas Day airline bombing and the shooting at Fort Hood. Many legal experts have questioned the legality of the assassination order under US and international law. Widow of Miner Files Wrongful Death Suit Against Massey A widow of one of the twenty-nine people killed in the West Virginia mining disaster earlier this month has filed a wrongful death suit against the mine’s owner, Massey Energy. The suit from Marlene Griffith accuses Massey of aggravated conduct in its handling of working conditions and safety violations at the mine. The Upper Big Branch explosion was the worst mining disaster in forty years. Massey Energy has been cited for thousands of safety violations in recent years, with fifty-seven citations just last month. Wilma Mankiller of Cherokee Nation Dies at 64 And the Native American leader Wilma Mankiller has died at the age of sixty-four. Mankiller was the first woman to head the Cherokee Nation, the second-largest tribe in the United States. China Earthquake Toll Passes 2,000 The death toll from last week’s earthquake in China’s Tibetan province of Qinghai has surpassed 2,000. Nearly 200 people are still listed as missing, and over 12,000 have been wounded. The Chinese cabinet has declared Wednesday a national day of mourning. Air Travel Resumes in Europe Amidst New Ash Warning Air travel is slowly resuming in Europe after volcanic ash from Iceland grounded flights for over five days. European officials say they expect 60 percent of flights to be operational. Flights to and from Britain remain closed, and British officials say a new cloud of ash from Iceland could extend the delay. New Zealand Signs UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights New Zealand has become one of the last holdout countries to ratify the UN declaration of indigenous rights, leaving only the US and Canada in opposition. New Zealand cabinet member Pita Sharples announced the move on Monday. Pita Sharples: “I come with humble heart to celebrate the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. The New Zealand government has long discussed this matter and has recently decided to support it.” The UN General Assembly passed the sweeping declaration granting native peoples the “right to self-determination” in 2007 with an overwhelming 143 votes in favor. New Zealand was one of only four countries to vote against the declaration, along with the US, Australia and Canada. Australia has also reversed its position. US Cancels Climate Aid to Bolivia, Ecuador over Copenhagen Opposition And the Obama administration has confirmed it’s denying climate aid to at least two countries that refused to sign on to last year’s Copenhagen environmental accord. The State Department has canceled funding of $3 million to Bolivia and $2.5 million for Ecuador. Bolivia vocally opposed the accord, while Ecuador has issued its tacit rejection by refusing to sign on so far. A coalition of southern, island and developing countries opposed the non-binding accord largely over its exclusion of mandatory and robust emissions cuts at the levels recognized as necessary to avert devastating climate change. There are fears the funding cuts could signify the Obama administration will attempt to punish nations financially for defying the US stance on climate agreements. In a statement, Kate Horner of Friends of the Earth said, “The US is acting like a bully, strong-arming the most vulnerable countries to get them to sign onto an ineffective and unfair deal that will not move the world closer to a just climate agreement.” Brazilian Rancher Found Guilty in Murder of US Nun In Brazil, a Brazilian rancher has been convicted of ordering the 2005 murder of the American nun Dorothy Stang. Stang spent thirty years in Brazil trying to prevent ranchers from taking the land of poor Amazon farmers. The rancher, Vitalmiro Moura, was found guilty of organizing Stang’s killing and sentenced to thirty years in prison. Another rancher accused in Stang’s death is set to go on trial later this month. Click here to post a comment. Click here to view all our blogs and discussion groups, where you can comment on any news stories or post your own news. Read and search hundreds of news stories on SeeingBlack.com's 411 Channel. Do you shop at Amazon? Please shop through our link and support SeeingBlack.com! © Copyright by SeeingBlack.com |
