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August 9, 2012

  • Job Growth Spurts in July but Not for Black Men

    Job Growth Spurts in July but Not for Black Men by Frederick H. Lowe The nation’s nonfarm businesses added 163,000 jobs in July, but black men didn’t catch a break. Except for white women, the jobless rate for African-American men shot up in July, compared with June’s numbers.

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  • Employment-Population Ratio Drops in July

    Employment-Population Ratio Drops in July by Frederick H. Lowe The employment population ratio for black men and black women 20 years old and older dropped in July compared with June, the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education, reported on Friday.

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  • Drought is Expected to Grow Higher Food Prices

    Drought is Expected to Grow Higher Food Prices Although Americans spend less each week on food than they did in the late 1980s, this summer’s Midwest drought is expected to dramatically increase food prices.

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  • Coalition Sues Pennsylvania Over Voter Materials

    Coalition Sues Pennsylvania Over Voter Materials A coalition of organizations has sued top officials of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in federal court, charging that they have not provided voter-registration materials to welfare recipients in violation of the National Voter Registration Act.

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  • U.S. Rep. Fined $10,000 by Ethics Committee

    U.S. Rep. Fined $10,000 by Ethics Committee by Frederick H. Lowe The U.S. House Ethics Committee has fined U.S. Representative Laura Richardson $10,000 for forcing her congressional staff to work on her re-election campaign and then covering up or altering evidence to thwart an investigation. The committee levied the fine on Aug.

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  • Man Killed in a Cop Car

    Man Killed in a Cop Car Family outraged that police claim the man killed himself (TriceEdneyWire.com) - The FBI is investigating how a 21-year-old black man ended up shot and killed while handcuffed in a Jonesboro, Ark.

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  • Kofi Annan Resigns as Special Envoy to Syria

    Kofi Annan Resigns as Special Envoy to Syria by Frederick H. Lowe Kofi Annan, who announced last Thursday that he is stepping down at the end of August as United Nations Special Envoy to Syria, told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, that the international community was unable to reach a unified plan to resolve the country’s ongoing civil war. “I have made it clear that one of the key ingredients, one of the key, essential attributes for a mediator to succeed in this sort of situation is the unity of the international community,” Annan said.

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  • Haitian Museum Awarded $148,000

    Haitian Museum Awarded $148,000 Congressman Frederica Wilson announced recently that a $148,769 grant had been awarded to the Haitian Heritage Museum, which is located on the outskirts of Miami where the largest number of Haitians live outside of Haiti. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent Washington, D.C.-based federal agency that supports museum and libraries, awarded the grant to the Haitian Heritage Museum.

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  • Black Museums Receive $1.4 Million

    Black Museums Receive $1.4 Million The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a Washington, D.C.-based independent agency that provides financial support to the nation’s museums, last month awarded $1.

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  • Activists Challenged to Motivate Voters

    Voters By Hazel Trice Edney (TriceEdneyWire.com) - With black unemployment rates still stuck in double digits while whites’ jobless rates remain consistently below the national average, economic frustration and suffering in the black community is making it difficult for grassroots organizers to motivate people to go to the polls Nov.

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  • DOJ Orders New Orleans Police Reforms

    DOJ Orders New Orleans Police Reforms (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Seven years after a series of high-profile murder cases involving the New Orleans Police Department rocked the nation, the U.S.

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  • Sikh Temple Shooter Was A White Supremacist

    Sikh Temple Shooter Was A White Supremacist Wade Michael Page, who Wisconsin police said murdered six people at a Sikh temple on Sunday before he was killed, was an active member of the white power music scene, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups. Page, a U.S.

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  • Mau Mau Fight Their Way to UK Court

    Mau Mau Fight Their Way to UK Court By Njeri Mbure (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Three elderly Kenyans are in court, seeking compensation and an apology for extreme torture by the British during its colonial rule of Kenya.

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  • Black Justice Coalition Hires Policy Director

    The National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights organization dedicated to empowering the black gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community, has named Michael J.

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  • Lightning Bolt Strikes Again

    Lightning Bolt Strikes Again Usain Bolt successfully defended his 100-meter title on Sunday in the 2012 London Olympic Games, setting an Olympic record of 9.63 seconds, the second-fastest time ever recorded.

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  • Stevie Wonder No Longer Blinded by Love

    Stevie Wonder No Longer Blinded by Love He files for divorce Singer Stevie Wonder is no longer singing to “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”  to his wife, Kai Millard Morris, because they are getting a divorce, according to the TMZ, the entertainment news website. According to divorce papers, Wonder, whose given name is Stevland Morris, cited irreconcilable differences.The couple has lived apart since October 2009.

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  • 2nd Woman Sentenced to Death by Stoning

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Rights groups are demanding a review of the sentence of stoning issued against a 23-year-old Sudanese woman, convicted of adultery. It is the second such case in recent months.

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  • Victories and Stereotypes

    Victories and Stereotypes By Julianne Malveaux (TriceEdneyWire.com) - If you don’t follow Olympic gymnastics, you may not have heard about Gabrielle Douglas before this year.

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  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History August 9 through August 15 August 9 1994 ----- The general assembly of the United Nations proclaimed in December 1994 that August 9 was to be the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

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  • Congressional Black Caucus Loses a Member

    Congressional Black Caucus Loses a Member Conyers wins but Clarke loses in Michigan by Frederick H. Lowe U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Jr., on Tuesday won the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District The Congressional Black Caucus, however, lost a member when U.S.

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  • Steve Harvey's TV Talk Show to Debut

    Steve Harvey's TV Talk Show to Debut Steve Harvey, host of the game show Family Feud, will host an hour-long nationally syndicated talk show originating from Chicago, beginning on Sept. 4, NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution announced on Monday.

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Dr. Ronald V. Myers
Dr. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., also plays the trumpet.

Juneteenth Foundation Names Board Members

by Frederick H. Lowe
The National Juneteenth Observance Foundation named two new board members at its recent annual board meeting and convention in Indianapolis.

The board members assumed their posts several months before United States Senate may vote to approve a resolution that recognizes Juneteenth as a national holiday observance.

The foundation, which is based in Belzoni, Miss., named Glen Johns Reed of the Memphis Juneteenth Freedom Festival in Memphis, Tenn., and James Tucker of the African-American Voice Newspaper Juneteenth Caribbean Heritage Celebration in Colorado Springs, Colo., Dr. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., a  family practitioner in Holmes County, Miss., and chairman of the foundation’s board of directors, tells The NorthStar News & Analysis.

Reed and Tucker replaced two board members who stepped down either because of illness or death. Board members do not serve a specific number of years, said Dr. Myers who also is a minister and  jazz musician.

Juneteenth, or June 19th, is also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day.  It is a holiday honoring  African-American heritage by commemorating the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in 1865.

The modern Juneteenth movement began  in 1994 when a group of Juneteenth leaders from across the country gathered in New Orleans at Christian Unity Baptist Church to work for greater national recognition of Juneteenth. The Rev. John Mosley, director of the New Orleans Juneteenth Freedom Celebration, convened the meeting.

Juneteenth is recognized in 41 states, but Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R.,Texas)  introduced on June 19, 2012,  a resolution into the U.S. Senate that would recognize June 19th as a national holiday observance but not a paid federal holiday in which people would take the day off and schools would close.

This is to Dr. Myers’ liking. “We need another federal paid holiday like we need a hole in the head economically,” said Dr. Myers, adding that he questions the federal holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., where schools are closed and students are not able to learn about Dr. King or the civil-rights movement from their teachers. Dr. Myers also questions the validity of Columbus Day since Native Americans were already living here.

Sen. Hutchinson’s proposed joint resolution, which has 22 co-sponsors in the Senate, would, if passed, designate Juneteenth Independence Day by amending Chapter 1 of title 36 of the United States Code.

If passed and signed into law, the president would then be requested to issue each year a proclamation calling on state and local governments to observe Juneteenth Independence Day with appropriate ceremonies, programs, and activities.

“It would be a recognized holiday observance like Flag Day,” Dr. Myers said.

The proposed legislation is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vermont). The resolution has been read twice but additional action has not been scheduled, according to Thomas.gov, the website that follows  legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Designation of June 19 as a national holiday would force the nation to confront constructively its slave past, Dr. Myers said.

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