Support NorthStar News - Make a Donation

video icon  Video of the Week

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010)

Search Past Issues

September 6, 2012

  • Tutu Says Bush and Blair Should Be Tried for Roles in Iraq War

    Tutu Says Bush and Blair Should Be Tried for Roles in Iraq War South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote in a British newspaper that former President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried by the International Criminal Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands, for their roles in the Iraq War.

    More
  • Plan to Graduate More Black Men

     Plan to Graduate More Black Men The percentage of black men enrolled in college is equal to their percentage in the population by Frederick H.

    More
  • Ryan's College Girlfriend Spent Time In Prison

    Ryan's College Girlfriend Spent Time In Prison Deneeta Pope, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s black college girlfriend, served five months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing funds from Ernst & Young, one of the nation’s big four accounting firms. Paul Ryan TMZ, the celebrity news website, reported that a grand jury in November 1999 indicted Pope for allegedly swindling Ernst & Young out of $77,000.

    More
  • IRS Funks Up George Clinton’s Day with a Tax Lien

    IRS Funks Up George Clinton’s Day with a Tax Lien Funkmaster George Clinton may be in a funk after the IRS hit the legendary musician with another tax lien. Clinton failed to pay $7,457.89  worth of taxes in 2009 and $13,301.

    More
  • Oprah’s Rihanna Interview Puts OWN Ratings in Top 25 for First Time

    Oprah’s Rihanna Interview Puts OWN Ratings in Top 25 for First Time Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Target Market News (TriceEdneyWire.com) The second season premiere of Oprah's Next Chapter, featuring singer Rihanna, gave OWN its highest ratings for a Sunday premiere since the network's launch in January 2011.

    More
  • Court Shoots Down Texas Voter-ID Law

    Court Shoots Down Texas Voter-ID Law by Frederick H. Lowe The United States District Court for the District of Columbia struck down Texas’ photo-ID law, which the three-judge panel called the most-stringent in the country, after ruling the law would place a significant financial burden on racial minorities to obtain required identification to vote in November’s election.

    More
  • Judge Orders Ohio to Restore Early Voting Days

    Judge Orders Ohio to Restore Early Voting Days by Frederick H. Lowe A U.S. District Court Judge has ordered Ohio officials to restore three days of early voting prior to the November 6 presidential election for all Ohio residents, not just state residents who are in the military and vote by absentee ballot. The ruling by Judge Peter C.

    More
  • Four Years Ago, Blacks Voted in Higher Numbers than Whites

    Four Years Ago, Blacks Voted in Higher Numbers than Whites by Frederick H. Lowe In the 2008 presidential election, the first ever in which a major political party nominated an African American for president, black-voter turnout exceeded white-voter turnout for the first time in U.S.

    More
  • 47 Black Delegates Attended the Republican Convention

    47 Black Delegates Attended the Republican Convention by Frederick H. Lowe The number of African-American delegates who attended last week’s Republican National Convention was higher than in 2008 but lower than in 2004, according to “Blacks and the 2012 Republican National Convention.” The study reported that 47 African-Americans, or 2.1 percent of the 2,286 delegates attended the 40th Annual Republican National convention in Tampa, Fla., wrote Dr.

    More
  • NAACP Urges Blacks To Support the Justice Department

    NAACP Urges Blacks To Support the Justice Department The NAACP is urging African Americans to sign an online petition supporting the U.S.

    More
  • Convention Is a "Pep Rally and a Launching Pad’’ for Obama’s Re-election

    Convention Is a by Hazel Trice Edney CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama is set to accept the nomination this week to lead America for four more years.

    More
  • Romney’s Campaign Wedge: Taxpayers vs. Welfare Queens

    Romney’s Campaign Wedge: Taxpayers vs. Welfare Queens Colorlines The issue of taxes is the Republican Party’s dog whistle on race.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan—engaged in a nail-biting political fight—have resorted to blowing it loudly and unashamedly.

    More
  • Romney’s Hoped-For Post-Convention Bounce Falls Flat

    Romney’s Hoped-For Post-Convention Bounce Falls Flat Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for president, did not receive much of a bounce after his party’s national convention last week in Tampa, Fla., according to the Gallup organization.

    More
  • Peace Prize Winners Protest NBC War Show

    Peace Prize Winners Protest NBC War Show (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Seven Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa, are protesting the new NBC  show Stars Earn Stripes, which, they say, glorifies war and armed violence. In a letter to NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt, the Nobel laureates said, “It is our belief that this program ...

    More
  • West African Aluminum Refinery Remains Closed Over Wage Dispute

    West African Aluminum Refinery Remains Closed Over Wage Dispute Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from GIN (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Africa’s first aluminum refinery, in the town of Fria, north of Guinea’s capital Conakry, remains locked down five months after workers struck the plant in a fierce battle over wages.

    More
  • California Ethnic Voters Solidly Support Health Reform

    California Ethnic Voters Solidly Support Health Reform by Viji Sundaram New America Media SACRAMENTO, Calif.

    More
  • Michael Clarke Duncan, 54

    Michael Clarke Duncan, 54 Academy Award nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan died Monday morning  at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a Los Angeles hospital, following a July 13th heart attack.

    More
  • Chris Lighty, 44

    Chris Lighty, 44 Chris Lighty, a hip-hop mogul whose roster of clients included 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Diddy and Mariah Carey, was found shot to death behind his home on August 30 in Riverdale, N.Y.

    More
  • Hal David, Writer of Hits for Dionne Warwick, Dies

    Hal David, Writer of Hits for Dionne Warwick, Dies Hal David, who wrote some of singer Dionne Warwick’s greatest hits, including the classic, “Walk on By,” has died. David, who was 91, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Sept.

    More
  • Lost Decades: Longevity Gap Widening for Blacks, Latinos, Less Educated

    by Paul Kleyman New America Media CHICAGO—The longevity gap between “two Americas” has widened since 1990, says a new study.

    More
  • The NorthStar’s Week in Black History

    The NorthStar’s Week in Black History September 6 through September 12 September 6 1905 ----- Alonzo F. Herndon, a wealthy African-American barber and real estate investor, founded the Atlanta Life Insurance Company on this date.

    More
  • Third New Judge for George Zimmerman

     Third New Judge for George Zimmerman Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson has been assigned as the new judge to hear the case involving George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

    More
  • Acceptance Speech Moved Inside

     Acceptance Speech Moved Inside President Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech on Thursday night inside the Time Warner Cable Arena instead of outdoors at the Bank of America Stadium because of the threat of rain.

    More
Voter registration table

Judge Signals Intent to Lift Burden on Voter Drives

A U.S. District Court  judge in Florida has indicated that he will remove severe restrictions on community-based voter-registration drives, handing civic groups a major victory in the voting-rights struggle in Florida, a battleground state in November’s presidential election.

Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in League of Women Voters of Florida vs Kenneth W. Detzner, etc, et al., that he would issue a permanent injunction once he receives confirmation that the federal court of appeals has dismissed the case. Detzner is Florida secretary of state.

“A district court ordinarily cannot enter a final judgement---even an unopposed final judgement----while the appeal of a preliminary injunction is pending,” wrote Judge Hinkle, who sits on the bench in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee. “But a district court can enter an order indicating that it will enter the unopposed final judgement if the court of appeals remands for that purpose or the appeal is dismissed.”

On Dec. 15, 2011, the League of Women Voters of Florida, Rock the Vote, and the Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (“PIRG”) filed suit in federal court in Tallahassee challenging Florida’s onerous new restrictions on community-based voter registration drives.

The restrictions challenged in the suit were enacted by Florida legislators earlier this year as part of H.B. 1355, a broad package of election-law changes.

They include extremely burdensome administrative requirements, unreasonably tight deadlines for submission of completed forms, and heavy penalties for even the slightest delay or mistake. These restrictions are so unnecessarily harsh that they have forced the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote, among other groups, to shut down their voter-registration programs in Florida.

For example, the 2011 statute required a voter-registration organization to deliver a voter-registration application to the Division of Elections or to the local supervisor of elections “within 48 hours after the applicant completes it or the next business day if the appropriate office is closed for that 48-hour period." If the organization failed to do so, it faced fines up to an aggregate of $1,000 in a calendar year, according to court documents.

Judge Hinkle temporarily blocked enforcement of the law in May, saying the restrictions violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

“Thanks to the ruling, we can finally put these roadblocks behind us and concentrate on getting Floridians registered to vote," said Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida.

The Northstar News & Analysis, Inc.
Chicago, IL | 312.504.0223
Copyright © The Northstar News & Analysis, Inc.
Contact Us: info@TheNorthstarNews.com
Privacy Policy

My statusContact Us on Skype