Cross Posted on Jack and Jill Politics

Yesterday I introduced you and the JJP community to the Hip Hop Caucus movement. Today I invite you to get involved…

Hurricane Katrina was the first moment when the Hip Hop Caucus movement filled a major void in our civil rights movement of today.It is really when our momentum got going, and our relevancy was made clear.  Our work organizing and mobilizing in response to Hurricane Katrina is why the Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund is now a member of the Black Leadership Forum and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Â It is also the reason why we have worked so hard to more deeply connect the African American community to the climate and environmental movement, (some examples here and here).

The 5 Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is this August 29th.  What you probably already know is that Katrina survivors still remain displaced, and there is still rebuilding and restoration that needs to happen. Â Yet you may not know that some of the Road Home Recovery dollars remain sitting in government bank accounts, not yet spent.

This brings me to why I really wanted to reach out to you today. Â Despite the focus on the BP Oil Spill and the upcoming 5 Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the civil and human rights community, the labor community, and the progressive community, have mostly moved away from the injustices from the Hurricane Katrina experience.

Sometimes, you've got to go backwards to go forward!

On August 28, 1955, Emmitt Till was killed in Mississippi, and the shocking photos published in JET Magazine of his open casket funeral catalyzed the civil rights movement. On August 28, 1963, at the March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his I have a Dreamatic speech.  On August 28, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the shores of the Gulf Coast, and in the morning of the 29th, the levees broke flooding the lower 9th Ward and other areas of the city.

This year Glenn Beck, a Fox News commentator who consistently spreads lies and misinformation through lightly-veiled coded words of hate, announced that on August 28, 2010 he will lead a rally at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. This rally is to, in his words, restore honor to America. In no reality could Glenn Beck ever co-opt the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for his odious purposes.

Let Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Fox News have Washington, DC on August 28th this year. We shall respond with morality, faith, and love for our country. We will not respond to hate with more hate.

Continue Reading HERE

(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop star Wyclef Jean will announce his bid for the President of Haiti, a source has confirmed with AllHipHop.com exclusively.

Sources close to Wyclef confirmed with AllHipHop.com that the rapper will announce his bid for the country’s highest office next Thursday, on August 5th.

The 37-year-old was born in Haiti, but immigrated to the United States at the age of 9-years-old, when he landed in Brooklyn, before settling in South Orange, New Jersey.

As a member of The Fugees and as a solo artist, Wyclef has sold millions of records, in addition to collaborating with artists like Paul Simon, Gloria Estefen, Destiny’s Child, Carlos Santana and others.

The rapper sprung into action on January 12th, when his native land was leveled by a 7.0 earthquake that left 300,000 people dead over a million others displaced.

Even prior to the earthquake, Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti organization raised funds for the country, but after the deadly earthquake, the rapper helped raise over $10 million dollars in less than three months.

The rapper will make his official announcement just two days prior to the country’s August 7th deadline to submit his plan for running for President.

Analysts are predicting that Wyclef Jean will easily win the race with his financial connections, influence among the Haitian youth and his political influence around the world.

Continue Reading Article HERE

Remember This???

BILOXI, Miss. — BP's incoming CEO said Friday that it's time for a "scaleback" of the massive effort to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but stressed the commitment to make things right is the same as ever.

Tens of thousands of people – many of them idled fishermen – have been involved in the cleanup, but more than two weeks after the leak was stopped there is relatively little oil on the surface, leaving less work for oil skimmers to do.

Bob Dudley, who heads BP's oil spill recovery and will take over as CEO in October, said it's "not too soon for a scaleback" in the cleanup, and in areas where there is no oil, "you probably don't need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach."

He added, however, that there is "no pullback" in BP's commitment to clean up the spill. Dudley was in Biloxi to announce that former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt will be supporting BP's Gulf restoration work.

Continue Reading Article HERE

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.

On August 28, 1955, Emmitt Till was killed in Mississippi, and the shocking photos published in JET Magazine of his open casket funeral catalyzed the civil rights movement. On August 28, 1963, at the March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have a Dream" speech. On August 28, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the shores of the Gulf Coast, and in the morning of the 29th, the levees broke flooding the city of New Orleans.

This year Glenn Beck, a Fox News commentator who consistently spreads lies and misinformation through lightly-veiled coded words of hate, announced that on August 28, 2010 he will lead a rally at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. This rally is to, in his words, "restore honor to America." In no reality could Glenn Beck ever co-opt the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for his odious purposes.

Let Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Fox News have Washington, DC on August 28th this year. We shall respond with morality, faith, and love for our country. We will not respond to hate with more hate.

Continue reading HERE

By the Grio

The city of New York has agreed to pay more than $7 million to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from the fatal 50-bullet police shooting of an unarmed man on his wedding day.

The settlement filed in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday pays $3.25 million to the estate of Sean Bell, who was killed in 2006 outside a strip club in Queens while leaving his bachelor party. As part of the settlement, the city agreed to pay $3 million to Joseph Guzman and $900,000 to Trent Benefield, both of whom were wounded in the shooting that killed their friend.

The lawsuit had accused the city of wrongful death, negligence, assault and civil rights violations.

Continue reading HERE

By The Associated Press

The federal government is rapidly expanding a program to identify illegal immigrants using fingerprints from arrests, drawing opposition from local authorities and advocates who argue the initiative amounts to an excessive dragnet.

The program has gotten less attention than Arizona's new immigration law, but it may end up having a bigger impact because of its potential to round up and deport so many immigrants nationwide.

The San Francisco sheriff wanted nothing to do with the program, and the City Council in Washington, D.C., blocked use of the fingerprint plan in the nation's capital. Colorado is the latest to debate the program, called Secure Communities, and immigrant groups have begun to speak up, telling the governor in a letter last week that the initiative will make crime victims reluctant to cooperate with police "due to fear of being drawn into the immigration regime."

Continue reading HERE

By Monique W. Morris for theGrio

I woke up the other day and noticed that everyone was a so-called "racist"--or so it would seem. The problem with this analysis is that it isn't true. Over the past few weeks, a flurry of "racism" charges have been swirling around the public sphere, misinforming the American public about what racism is, and how we might address it. Bigotry is being confused with racism. Prejudice is being mistaken for discrimination. This misguided discourse is so popular because most Americans don't know what racism looks like today--in the "post-racial" society that claims to celebrate "colorblind" or race-neutral policies that supposedly have erased all systemic barriers to equal participation and justice in American society.

Gone is legal segregation. Gone are color barriers to the most powerful political position in the country. African-Americans don't have to march with signs that read, "I am a man" to be treated with dignity in restaurants or other public spaces. But just because people aren't carrying the signs, doesn't mean the signs aren't there.

Talking about race and racism in America has always been difficult--in private and in the public sphere. Over 100 years ago, W.E.B. DuBois prophetically claimed that the problem of the 20th Century would be the problem of the "color line." However, in the 21st Century, we're challenged to cross a color line we're not even supposed to see, even if the vestiges of racial bias, discrimination, and bigotry are still visible to any naked eye that's actually paying attention.

Continue readign HERE

By John Vidal for The Guardian

British, American and Norwegian engineers are in a race to design and build the holy grail of wind turbines – giant, 10MW offshore machines twice the size and power of anything seen before – that could transform the global energy market because of their economies of scale.

Today, a revolutionary British design that mimics a spinning sycamore leaf and which was inspired by floating oil platform technology, entered the race. Leading engineering firm Arup is to work with an academic consortium backed by blue-chip companies including Rolls Royce, Shell and BP to create detailed designs for the "Aerogenerator", a machine that rotates on its axis and would stretch nearly 275m from blade tip to tip. It is thought that the first machines will be built in 2013-14 following two years of testing.

But the all-British team of designers and engineers, which includes Eden project architects Grimshaw, is in stiff competition with other groups. Earlier this year US wind company Clipper, which has close ties with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, announced plans to build 10MW "Britannia" turbines in north-east England.

Continue reading HERE

For Reuters

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will unveil as early as Monday a slimmed-down energy bill seeking to make offshore drilling safer and convert trucks to run on domestic natural gas.

The full Senate could begin consideration of Reid's bill on Tuesday and Democrats would like to pass it by the early part of the following week.

With time running short ahead of a month-long recess starting Aug 6, Democrats abandoned efforts last week to put climate-control measures in the bill. Reid said then that he had no Republican votes for items such as carbon caps and mandates requiring utilities to generate some of their power from alternatives sources such as wind and solar.

Continue reading HERE

Tune in at 12pm PST / 3pm EST to watch the Keynote Panel below!

Video clips at Ustream

By Tim Gaynor for Reuters

A U.S. judge grilled lawyers for the Obama administration and Arizona on Thursday over the legality of the state's tough, new immigration law set to take effect next week, but gave no timetable for a ruling.

The Obama administration is seeking a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the law that requires state and local police, during lawful contact, to investigate the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect of being an illegal immigrant.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton peppered lawyers for both sides during a 90-minute hearing over whether the state law contravenes federal authority over immigration law, and if predictions by critics that it will lead to racial profiling were overstated and unwarranted.

Continue reading HERE

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson for theGrio

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was direct, forceful and blunt when he said that the USDA does not tolerate racial discrimination. This was Vilsack's widely circulated public explanation for firing Shirley Sherrod. There are two problems with this. One, the world now knows that Sherrod did not do or say anything to merit being branded a bigot and sacked. Vilsack and President Obama subsequently apologized to Sherrod and offered her her job back.

The second problem is more troubling. Vilsack should have been talking about the shameful and disgraceful treatment of black farmers by his agency, and the equally shameful and disgraceful treatment of the farmers by Congress. The day after Vilsack issued his lofty pronouncement about zero tolerance for racial discrimination, Gary Grant, President of the 20,000 member Black Farmer & Agriculturalists Association, flatly called Vilsack's statement "a complete lie." He had good reason. During the past quarter century, tens of thousands of black farmers have lost their land, homes, and livestock, due to the blatant refusal by the USDA to make or guarantee loans to them.

Continue reading HERE

by Stacy Feldman for SolveClimate

Federal law that would require utilities to generate a portion of their power from renewable sources has been put on the backburner until fall 2010 at the earliest, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) conceded on Thursday.

Industry groups were outraged, saying the delay in passing a renewable electricity standard (RES) endangers thousands of existing and potential jobs and billions of dollars.

Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, called the decision "beyond comprehension."

Continue reading HERE

By Ruben Navarrette Jr for CNN

What does the rhetorical feud between the Tea Party and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have to do with the case of Shirley Sherrod, a black former Agriculture Department employee who resigned this week under pressure from the Obama administration?

Everything, if you ask Sherrod.

"[The NAACP] is the reason why this happened," Sherrod told CNN's Tony Harris. "They got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of that."

Before we get to "all of this," props to Attorney General Eric Holder. Last year, in a speech during Black History Month, Holder argued that the United States is "a nation of cowards" that can't talk about race. He was right. And now it turns out Americans are even more cowardly when it comes to talking about racism -- real or alleged.

Continue reading HERE

By CNN

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund approved Wednesday the cancellation of Haiti's $268 million debt to the fund.

The board also approved a three-year request by authorities to support Haiti's reconstruction and growth program.

The decisions are part of an effort to support Haiti's longer-term reconstruction plans after the January 12 earthquake, which killed more than 220,000 people, destroyed 60 percent of government infrastructure and left more than 180,000 homes uninhabitable.

Six months later, more than 1.5 million remain in overcrowded displacement camps.

Continue reading HERE

By CNN

A tropical depression or tropical storm that formed near the Bahamas Thursday morning could threaten operations to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said.

The system showed significant signs of intensification during the overnight hours with thunderstorm activity increasing, Morris said. Several forecast models show the system could move into the Gulf.

The National Hurricane Center said it would probably initiate tropical storm warnings and watches for portions of the Bahamas and southern Florida at 11 a.m. ET. Showers and strong gusty winds will spread over the Bahamas, portions of Cuba and southern Florida over the next couple of days, the hurricane center said in its 8 a.m. ET update.

Continue reading HERE

By Mila Sanina for CNN

President Obama will sign into law Thursday the Improper Payment Elimination Act -- an effort designed to slim down wasteful government programs and curb fraud in federal spending.

"The fact is, Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money, bartered and traded, divvied up among lobbyists and special interests," Obama said in March when he announced the initiative. "And it has been a place where waste -- even billions of dollars in waste -- is accepted as the price of doing business."

Continue reading HERE

By Tom Doggett for Reuters

Millions of electric-powered vehicles that would slash America's dependence on foreign oil and cut its carbon emissions would be put on the road under legislation approved by a Senate committee on Wednesday.

The legislation, passed 19-4 in favor, was one of several bills cleared by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that might be folded into a broader energy and climate bill Democrats are struggling to bring to the Senate floor.

A new bill that addresses climate change and renewable energy is a key priority for the Obama administration but time is running short on the congressional calendar with a scheduled August recess and congressional elections looming in November.

Continue reading HERE

By CNN

A black former Agriculture Department official who resigned under pressure after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer said Wednesday the agency's decision to review her case is "bittersweet," but said she isn't sure she would accept her job back if it is offered.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said early Wednesday that he will review the case of Shirley Sherrod, who resigned Monday after the video clip first appeared on a conservative website and later on Fox News.

In the video, Sherrod, the former USDA director of rural development for Georgia, seems to tell an audience at an NAACP function in March that she did not do her utmost to help a white farmer avoid foreclosure.

However, Sherrod later said the clip only shows part of her comments, and that she tells the story of her experience -- from nearly a quarter century ago when she was not a federal employee -- to illustrate the importance of moving beyond race.

Continue reading HERE

By Lori Montgomery for The Washington Post

The Senate broke a months-long stalemate Tuesday over a plan to restore emergency jobless benefits to millions of people who have been out of work for more than six months, voting to advance the measure over Republican objections that it would add $34 billion to the nation's bloated budget deficit.

The 60 to 40 vote all but assures that the bill will pass the Senate when a final vote is taken Wednesday. The measure would then go back to the House, where leaders expect to quickly approve it and send it to the White House for President Obama's signature later this week.

Once signed, the bill would revive benefits for more than 2.5 million people whose checks were cut off when the program expired June 2. It also would ensure that up to 99 weeks of income support would be available to a broader universe of jobless workers through the end of November.

Continue reading HERE

By Reuters

The United States and dozens of other countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars toward clean-energy initiatives to help battle climate change, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Tuesday.

Meeting in Washington, D.C., for a two-day conference, delegations from 24 countries representing 80 percent of global energy consumption promised initiatives that would mean building fewer power plants and using more clean energy.

"We know the clean-energy challenge won't wait, and we won't wait either," Chu said at the first Clean Energy Ministerial.

With the U.S. Senate virtually gridlocked on passing an energy and climate change package this year, the Obama administration is under pressure to provide leadership in global climate talks that are making little progress.

Continue reading HERE

By Matt Davis for nola.com

As enthusiasm for urban farming continues to spread beyond its established stronghold in the West, hundreds of New Orleans residents are now growing their own produce, keeping backyard chickens, and even experimenting with other livestock in a city whose laissez-faire regulatory environment and long hours of sunshine make ideal conditions for a new breed of urban pioneer.

"There's a huge amount of enthusiasm for urban farming right now," said Alicia Vance, project manager at the New Orleans Food and Farm Network, a nonprofit group established in 2002 to improve access to fresh food throughout the city.

Vance's organization leads community gardening classes, works with would-be urban farmers to establish raised beds and proper backyard growing conditions, and demonstrates animal husbandry techniques.

Continue reading HERE

By David A. Love for theGrio

A group of mostly Republican lawmakers in the nation's capital refuses to pass a bill that would reauthorize an extension of $33 billion in unemployment benefits. And in blocking the legislation during desperate times, they are holding 2.5 million Americans hostage, all for a political stunt. Those 2.5 million people are the chronically unemployed whose benefit checks ran out in May, and they're hurting. And so are their families. Either these politicians in Congress do not understand the depths of people's pain, or they simply don't care.

As they seem to willfully ignore the plight of the unemployed, conservative Republicans would have us believe they are opposed to the extension of benefits because it will only add to the deficit and the national debt. Meanwhile, they have convinced themselves that the $1.6 trillion in tax cuts enacted under President Bush will magically pay for themselves. In the end, they would rather extend these tax cuts--which provide absolutely no help to the economy-- rather than provide assistance to the unemployed, a measure which has been proven to stimulate economic growth.

Continue reading HERE

By Henry Fountain for The New York Times

As scientists on Monday allayed concerns that BP’s well in the Gulf of Mexico was damaged, the company said it was considering an alternative plan that could permanently seal the gusher sooner than had been anticipated.

Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP, said the company was studying the possibility of a “static kill,” in which heavy mud would be pumped into the recently capped well. Also known as bullheading, the procedure would force the oil and gas back down into the reservoir.

“The static kill does give us a new option,” he said at a briefing in Houston. A decision to proceed could be made in several days, Mr. Wells said.

He said that the procedure could speed the process of sealing the well and that the digging of a relief well, which has been seen as the ultimate solution and could be completed by August, might be needed only to confirm that the technique had worked.

Continue reading HERE

By The Associated Press

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no one really knows what it cost and how many people are involved, The Washington Post reported Monday.

A two-year investigation by the newspaper uncovered what it termed a "Top Secret America" that's mostly hidden from public view and largely lacking in oversight.

In its first installment of a series of reports, the Post said there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in some 10,000 locations across the U.S.

Some 854,000 people — or nearly 1 1/2 times the number of people who live in Washington — have top-secret security clearance, the paper said.

Continue reading HERE

By The Associated Press

Oil company BP says that the cost of dealing with the Gulf of Mexico spill has now reached nearly $4 billion.

The company, which last week managed to place a temporary cap on the leak, said Monday it has made payments totaling $207 million to settle individual claims for damages from the spill along the southern coast of the United States.

To date, almost 116,000 claims have been submitted and more than 67,500 payments have been made, totaling $207 million.

Including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, payment of claims and U.S. government costs, BP says it has now spent $3.95 billion.

The company adds that it is still too early to quantify the eventual total cost.

DIRECT LINK

By Kristen Hays & Eric Onstad for Reuters

BP's shares rose on Friday on hopes that it has at last capped the ruptured subsea well that has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the past three months and can now begin the clean-up.

BP finally choked off the leak on Thursday, the first time it has managed to cap the flow since the blowout on April 20 which has caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history and an environmental disaster for the U.S. Gulf coast region.

Investors welcomed the news that the leak has been capped but remained cautious since BP needs to complete 48 hours of tests on whether the well will remain intact after a new tight-sealing containment cap was installed on the mile-deep subsea wellhead three days earlier.

Continue reading HERE

by Elizabeth Dias for TIME

One hundred thousand faithful Americans are telling Glenn Beck that enough is enough. This summer as Beck travels the United States solo and with Bill O'Reilly, Faithful America--a multi-faith justice organization--has rallied its members to push back against Beck's anti-Christian-social-justice message. When Beck makes stops in South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., the group's provocative new ad will follow his trail and challenge his words as “piecemeal gospel” on local Christian radio stations.

As pointed out in my post yesterday, Beck's recent attacks on Christian theologies of justice find little to no support from Scripture. Faithful America says Beck specifically ignores the message of the prophets and Jesus. “He has gone after what's at the heart of what we believe our faith tradition says,” Beth Dahlman, Faithful America's online organizer, told TIME. “For people in our community, there is just no way to read scripture and not think about social justice. It's our obligation as people of faith to take that seriously and to do all we can to make that good news a reality.”

Continue reading HERE

By Pete Yost for The Associated Press

One of the key Bush administration lawyers in the evolution of the CIA's interrogation program cast doubt on whether the Justice Department approved some of the harsh steps the agency took to get terrorist suspects to talk.

Former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee's remarks were contained in a transcript sent to the special prosecutor investigating CIA interrogations by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., who also made a copy public on Thursday.

Interviewed by Judiciary Committee members on May 26, Bybee stressed the limits that he helped set on how far the CIA could go while at the same time acknowledging that his legal advice helped pave the way for tactics such as waterboarding, which evokes the sensation of drowning.

Continue reading HERE

Bill Nye (the Science Guy) helps  explain how BP's new containment cap is supposed to work.

By Andrew Morrison for theGrio

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that the unemployment rate for teens this summer is expected to be 26.4 percent This is the highest number since they began tracking in 1948. Double that number and you begin to come close to the unemployment rate for black and Hispanic teens. Summer jobs that many of us were accustomed to growing up are virtually non-existent. Research shows a direct correlation to criminal activity and lack of meaningful work experience among teens.

What's the solution?

We could demand that the federal government allocate more dollars for summer employment programs and make sure that the state spends the money wisely. This political option should be pursued. As a business coach and someone who built a mult-million dollar company in my 20s. I suggest that all of us can also pursue a practical approach as well. Instead of helping a teen find a job how about helping them to create one?

Continue reading HERE

by Roman Wolfe for AllHipHop

Rapper Jay-Z will headline Alicia Keys’ annual Black Ball charity event this September at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

Jay-Z will be joined by Alicia Keys and Sade during the event, which will raise funds for Keys’ charity Keep A Child Alive.

The organization has been holding the Black Ball fundraiser since 2005.

The charity event has raised over $10 million dollars since its inception.

Keep a Child Alive is a non-profit dedicated to providing life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, care and support services to children and families whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

DIRECT LINK

by Cara Anna for The Associated Press

The government calls it "sealed management." China's capital has started gating and locking some of its lower-income neighborhoods overnight, with police or security checking identification papers around the clock, in a throwback to an older style of control.

It's Beijing's latest effort to reduce rising crime often blamed on the millions of rural Chinese migrating to cities for work. The capital's Communist Party secretary wants the approach promoted citywide. But some state media and experts say the move not only looks bad but imposes another layer of control on the already stigmatized, vulnerable migrants.

So far, gates have sealed off 16 villages in the sprawling southern suburbs, where migrants are attracted to cheaper rents and in some villages outnumber permanent residents 10 to one.

Continue reading HERE

by Julianne Hing for Colorlines

Six more New Orleans police officers have been indicted by the federal government for their involvement in the killing of two black men in the days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and in a broad effort to cover it up. The charges were announced yesterday by Attorney General Eric Holder and the Assistant AG Thomas Perez, along with other New Orleans officials.

Four officers (Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, Officer Anthony Villavaso and former Officer Robert Faulcon) were charged with civil rights violations for killing a teenaged boy named James Brissette. Their supervisors, Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and former Sgt. Gerard Dugue, were charged with helping orchestrate a cover-up of the September 5, 2005, shooting that also left a 40-year-old mentally disabled man named Ronald Madison dead. Four other people, relatives of Brissette, were also injured that day.

Five years later, FBI investigators are still trying to piece together the actual events that day. The NOPD maintains that its police officers were defending themselves from gun fire on the Danzinger Bridge, but victim and witness accounts say the victims were unarmed. In 2008, a criminal court judge threw out a state-level case being prosecuted by the Orleans Parish district attorney, prompting the involvement of the federal government.

Continue Reading HERE

By Tom Zeller Jr. by The New York Times

General Electric, in partnership with four prominent venture capital firms, announced a $200 million competition for clean-energy innovation funds on Tuesday.

The program, called the Ecomagnination Challenge, is aimed at fostering ideas that will help speed up the development of the so-called “smart grid” — that is, what energy experts say is a much-needed digital upgrade to the nation’s aging and largely analog electric system.

In announcing the program, G.E.’s chief executive, Jeff Immelt, said the company was hoping to make resources available to those with the most innovative ideas for improving energy creation and distribution in the United States — and ultimately around the globe.

Continue reading HERE

By Kate Taylor For The New York Times

Phone calls and visitors and, yes, dreams from around the world are pouring into the small offices of the Friends of the High Line on West 20th Street in Manhattan these days.

Detroit is thinking big about an abandoned train station. Jersey City and Philadelphia have defunct railroad beds, and Chicago has old train tracks that don’t look like much now, but maybe they too....

The High Line’s success as an elevated park, its improbable evolution from old trestle into glittering urban amenity, has motivated a whole host of public officials and city planners to consider or revisit efforts to convert relics from their own industrial pasts into potential economic engines.

Continue reading HERE

By CNN Staff

The Obama administration has sent a fourth bill for $99.7 million to BP and other responsible parties relating to the energy company's oil spill, according to a statement from the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center.

The government said BP is financially responsible for all costs associated with the response to the spill, including efforts to stop the leak at its source, reduce the spread of oil, protect the shoreline and mitigate damages, as well as long-term recovery efforts for individuals and communities.

The government bills BP and other parties regularly for costs incurred by the federal on-scene coordinator to support federal, state and local response efforts and ensure the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is reimbursed on an ongoing basis.

This is the fourth bill the administration has sent to date. BP and other responsible parties have paid the first three bills, totaling $122.3 million, according to the statement.

DIRECT LINK

by Quil Lawrence for NPR

The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan confirmed this week that at least 10 members of the Taliban are in the process of being removed from a U.N. blacklist at the request of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. It's seen as a step toward peace talks that both military and political leaders agree is the only way to end the nine-year-long insurgency.

But a deal with the Taliban isn't appealing to everyone in Afghanistan, especially Afghan women.

Living under the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from the mid-1990s until the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, is a bitter memory for many. And it is a daily reality for others, who live in parts of the country where the radical Islamists now have de facto control.

Continue reading HERE

By Simon Lomax for Bloomberg

U.S. lawmakers might be too focused on elections in November to approve legislation this year that charges power plants and other industrial companies a price for releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, said Senator John Kerry, a leading advocate of the pollution-cutting plan.

The U.S. Senate, which is expected to take up an energy bill within weeks, has “very little time” left this year to debate legislation, Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, told reporters in Washington yesterday.

Lawmakers face “a lot of pressures, including election pressures, and we’re just going to have to kind of be realistic” about which energy proposals can win enough votes to become law this year, he said.

Continue reading HERE

By Ivan Watson, CNN

On January 12, the earth shook here. More than 220,000 people were killed. More than 300,000 people were injured. The city and large stretches of surrounding countryside were devastated.

Six months later, not much appears to have changed. It still looks like a bomb just dropped on this city.

The government has barely begun the cleanup process. Roads in the center of the city are still blocked by debris. And some experts predict that it could take up to 20 years to remove all of it.

"We have moved 250,000 cubic meters of rubble, which sounds like a lot, until you realize there's 20 million cubic meters of rubble here," said Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the United Nations office of humanitarian affairs in Haiti.

The U.N. estimates 1.5 million people currently live in camps. That means roughly one in nine Haitians are homeless.

Continue reading HERE

Written By Wyclef Jean-- Originally Posted on Huffington Post

We are coming up on an important anniversary, but not the kind of anniversary to be celebrated: On July 12, it will be six months since an earthquake devastated my country, Haiti. My wife, Claudinette, and I have tried to be on the ground in Haiti as much as we can since then with the organization I co-founded more than five years ago, Yéle Haiti. In fact, we were there the day after the quake hit, and we've been back many times since.

Every time I return, I'm in awe of the spirit and resilience of the people of Haiti; I'm also discouraged at witnessing firsthand the terrible conditions in which too many people are still living. About 1.2 million Haitians still occupy the tent camps, without enough food, with barely enough water and with no real sense of security or hope. And then there are the orphanages, overrun with children who lost their parents in the quake. And the people who don't trust the tent camps and are trying to make do in the ruins of their homes, in tents in their yards or even living in abandoned cars.

On this anniversary, I want to continue to keep my country and its people on the top of everyone's minds. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is taking much of the attention of the media and of the American people. I want to remind everyone I can that there is still so much work to do in Haiti to rebuild the country and renew the hopes and dreams of the people, who have suffered so much and who continue to suffer.

Continue reading HERE

By Robert Pear for The New York Times

President Obama will unveil a new national strategy this week to curb the AIDS epidemic by slashing the number of new infections and increasing the number of people who get care and treatment.

“Annual AIDS deaths have declined, but the number of new infections has been static and the number of people living with H.I.V. is growing,” says a final draft of the report, obtained by The New York Times.

In the report, the administration calls for steps to reduce the annual number of new H.I.V. infections by 25 percent within five years. “Approximately 56,000 people become infected each year, and more than 1.1 million Americans are living with H.I.V.,” the report says.

Mr. Obama plans to announce the strategy, distilled from 15 months of work and discussions with thousands of people around the country, at the White House on Tuesday.

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By Monique W. Morris for theGrio

Yesterday, Johannes Mehserle--the former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer charged with the New Year's Day shooting of 22-year old, unarmed Oscar Grant--was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The conviction carries a maximum sentence of four years, however, the additional guilty gun charge may enhance the sentence by as much as four more years. Though one would be challenged to find a uniform interpretation of what "justice" would look like for the fatal shooting of an unarmed man, "involuntary manslaughter" may challenge many of our modern expectations.

At Mehserle's hearing, protesters shouted, "We want justice. We want it now." Some held signs that read, "I am Oscar Grant." Others taped signs to their backs that read "don't shoot." All of these are signs of a festering discontent with the manner in which police brutality disregards the human and civil rights of individuals in favor of a rogue behavior that has no place in a modern civilization--especially one that's supposed to be "post-racial."

Continue reading HERE

By Brian K. Sullivan for Bloomberg

The current year may become the warmest on record, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist.

Temperature trends across the U.S. and around the world have been among the warmest on record, said David Easterling, a climatologist with NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

“If the warming around the world continues the way it has so far this year, we are likely to have 2010 be the warmest on record,” Easterling said during a conference call on climate change hosted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The combined land and ocean temperatures around the world were 1.22 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average, according to NOAA records. Since 1975, global temperatures have been rising and since 1960 the number of heat waves has been increasing, Easterling said on the call.

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By BBC News

The US and Russia have taken part in the biggest spy swap since the Cold War, in an exchange at Vienna airport.

One plane brought 10 Russian agents deported from the US after a court hearing at which they admitted being agents for a foreign country.

The other was said to have brought four people convicted of spying in Russia.

Both planes took off again after about 90 minutes. The US plane landed at a UK air base and the Russian aircraft touched down at a Moscow airport.

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Join Rev. Yearwood and Talib Kweli for a "Speak-Out Against Arizona" as part of the 5th Annual J Dilla Tribute and Fundraiser at the Black Cat in Washington, DC.

WHEN:

Friday, July 9th at 9:30 PM

WHERE:

Black Cat (1811 14th St NW, Washington, DC)

WHAT:

Speak-Out against Arizona to discuss SB 1070 and how it affects our community. Following the discussion will be a concert hosted by Grap Luva with performances by:

• Kokayi
• Diamond District
• Alison Carney
• West Felton
• Sheba
• Maimouna Yousef
• Roddy Rod
• Kaimbr
• Awthentik
• E Major
• Aradamus
• J Sands
• Tislam
• K'Alyn

INFO:

All Ages, $20 at the door, doors open at 9pm

Watch Talib Kweli's Papers Please, a song in response to Arizona SB 1070

By guardian.co.uk

Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world's first major industrial nation to kick the fossil-fuel habit, the country's Federal Environment Agency said today.

The country already gets 16% of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources – three times' higher than the level it had achieved 15 years ago.

"A complete conversion to renewable energy by 2050 is possible from a technical and ecological point of view," said Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency.

"It's a very realistic target based on technology that already exists – it's not a pie-in-the-sky prediction," he said.

Continue reading HERE

Pensacola Beach, FL -- When Ryan Heffernan, a volunteer with Emerald Coastkeeper, noticed a bag of oily debris floating off in Santa Rosa Sound, she ran up to BP's HazMat-trained workers to ask if they would retrieve it.

"No, ma'am," one replied politely. "We can't go in the ocean. It's contaminated."

Ryan waded in and retrieved the bag. That was Wednesday, June 23, the first day visible oil hit Pensacola Beach. Ryan had been swimming off the beach the day before, as she said, "to get in my last swim before the oil hit." The trouble is that not all of the oil coming ashore is visible. Dispersed oil - tiny bubbles of oil encased in chemical dispersants - are in the water column. On Thursday Ryan was treated at a local doctor's office for skin rash on her legs.

Three days later on Pensacola Beach, I watched BP's HazMat-trained workers shovel surface oiled sand and oily debris into bags early in the morning. The workers followed the waterline like shorebirds, scurrying up the beach in front of breaking waves and moving back down with receding waters.

The late morning sun retired the workers to the shade of their tents and the job of "observing," while it brought out throngs of beach-goers -- children, parents, grandparents -- who happily plunged into the "contaminated" ocean without a second thought.

By The Associated Press

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped sharply last week, signaling that layoffs are slowing but not enough to signal strong job creation. High unemployment remains one of the biggest obstacles to a strong, sustained recovery.

The Labor Department said Thursday that requests for jobless aid dropped by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 454,000. The decline takes claims to their lowest level since early May, erasing the increases of the last two months.

But even as first-time claims fall, the number of unemployed Americans receiving benefits is dropping sharply because their aid is ending.

Continue reading HERE

CHICAGO, July 7 (UPI) -- The number of summerjobs secured by U.S. teenagers is the lowest in decades, a private research group said Wednesday.

The Labor Department said in June 497,000 jobs for 16-19-year-olds had been found, which is 29 percent below the number found in June 2009, employment research firm Challenger,Gray & Christmas said.

"This could end up being the worst teensummer job market in employment records going back to 1948," Chief Executive Officer John Challenger said.

Records show in 1951, employers hired 455,000 teenagers for summer work in June. So far, for the season, teen summer employment had grown by 503,000, a drop of 38 percent from May to June last year, when 809,000 teenagers secured jobs in May to June.

By Davey D

Last year during the Jan 7th 2009 protest, (Oscar Grant funeral/ Oscar Grant Rebellion) many saw a young man with a black hoodie and locks engaging the police about their thoughts and feelings around the murder of Oscar Grant.. The man was seen on tape asking a series of questions about how the cops felt, their thoughts on officer Mehserle whose name was not known to the public and how they would feel if it was one of their kids on the Fruitvale BART station platform that night…The brother would not let up as he spent a good 30-40 minutes going up and down the police line asking each and every officer similar questions… He reminded them that he was a citizen, born and raised in Oakland and wanted to know if he should feel safe riding BART… It was pretty compelling as images of this brother engaging the police were seen all over the world..

Continue reading HERE

By Andres Vasquez for Hip Hop DX

Drake has joined Singjay Mavado in building a learning center for Jamaican students. The learning center, housed in Jamaica's Cassava Piece community, has been Mavado's dream for quite some time and the Young Money star was happy to cooperate with a $25,000 donation towards a new library.

The location is familiar to Drizzy, who shot his latest video, "Find Your Love" there in April.

Mavado's manager, Julian Jones-Griffith, explained how it all came together as noted in The Jamaica Star.

"Basically Mavado and Drake shot some scenes in Cassava Piece and struck up an immediate rapport with the people there. He thought they showed him a lot of love and he was very down to earth with them and wanted to do something positive."

Continue reading HERE

By John M. Broder for The New York Times

The Obama administration has asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the moratorium was a rational response to the unprecedented emergency of the BP oil spill.

In a court filing late Tuesday, the Interior Department said that the six-month ban on drilling in more than 500 feet of water, imposed in late May, was necessary to allow time to adopt stricter safety and environmental regulation of deepwater wells.

The action has put hundreds of people who operate and service deepwater wells out of work and brought long-term uncertainty to the Gulf Coast economy. Politicians all along the coast have called the moratorium a case of federal overkill that threatens the livelihood of the region.

Continue reading HERE

NEW ORLEANS – An oil spill that was previously a problem forcoastal Louisiana was trickling deeper inland Tuesday and toward the shores of New Orleans.

Oil sheen and tar balls from the Deepwater Horizon gusher have been spotted in Lake Pontchartrain, the huge lake forming the northern boundary of the city that was rescued in the 1990s from rampant pollution.

"Our universe is getting very small," said Pete Gerica, the 57-year-old president of the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen's Association. He has fished in the lake his entire life. "It's shrinking daily."

Roger Porter for Oakland Local

As I lay suffering in the intense discomfort created by the countdown to the verdict that will inevitably change my city - maybe even the whole country - forever, I have come to realize what most saddens me about the murder of Oscar Grant and subsequent trial of Johannes Mehserle.

It isn't the fact that Grant was shot in the back while he was laying face down on the ground, and it isn't the fact that after the "accidental" shooting the first thing that Mehserle thought to do was to handcuff a mortally wounded man and search him for weapons (emergency medical personal wasn't called until several moments later).

Oscar Grant leaves behind so many things, among them a daughter who is the same age as my little girl. The fact that his daughter Tatianna will never see her father again because of Mehserle's deplorable actions on that platform that night is extremely frustrating, but there is one thing that bothers me even more.

Continue reading HERE

By CNN Staff

A massive, silver-colored blimp is expected to arrive in the Gulf Coast Tuesday to aid in oil disaster response efforts.

The U.S. Navy airship will be used to detect oil, direct skimming ships and look for wildlife that may be threatened by oil, the Coast Guard said Monday.

The 178-foot-long blimp, known as the MZ-3A, can carry a crew of up to 10. It will fly slowly over the region to track where the oil is flowing and how it is coming ashore.

The Navy says the advantage of the blimp over current helicopter surveillance operations is that it can stay aloft longer, with lower fuel costs, and can survey a wider area.

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By Al Jazeera

Israel's prime minister has arrived in Washington DC for talks with the US president as the two leaders seek to downplay tensions over Israeli plans to build housing settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

Barack Obama will host Binyamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, with discussions expected to focus on the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla, the blockade of Gaza, talks with the Palestinians, expanding Israeli settlements and Iran.

The last time the two men met, Netanyahu was reportedly denied the privileges normally granted to visiting foreign dignitaries, including the ritual hand-shake photograph.

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By Jennifer Liberto for CNN

In Washington, there's a code phrase for the middle ground that lawmakers find after a torrent of industry lobbying or partisan debate: "Let's do a study."

The Wall Street reform bill may be the most extreme example: The legislation, which could become law later this month, orders government officials to conduct some 68 studies, according to a CNNMoney analysis.

Instead of toughening up ethical and marketing standards for financial planners, Congress studies the issue in the financial overhaul bill. Instead of making it easier to sue lawyers, accountants and bankers who help commit securities fraud, Congress studies the issue.

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Check out the pictures from the Green The City launch below:

Click HERE to read the press release covering the launch.

I recently arrived home from Haiti.

While I was there I worked in a few aspects of the relief effort including a solidarity mission to aid the Earthquake survivors. In addition to all of this Myself, Cormega and Styles P participated in a show to support Haitian Hip Hop and rebuild the community. I would like to thank Arms Around Haiti and Hip Hop for Haiti for inviting me to be a part of this movement. While I was there I saw both devastation and rebuilding efforts. I also broke bread with people who had lost their entire family. Literally, everyone but them was deceased. Then there were those whose grief centered around losing a mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter as a direct result of what happened. It should make everyone reading this feel blessed to have anyone in his or her life. Think about that… Now think about it some more.

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by Julianne Hing for ColorLines

After a swift but dramatic three week trial, a Los Angeles jury will likely begin deliberating today in the trial of ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle, who has been charged with murder for shooting the unarmed Oscar Grant in the back on New Year's Day 2009. The jury will now decide whether the shooting was a tragic accident, as Mehserle argues, willful murder or something in between.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry declared the shooting wasn't a premeditated act and thus not first-degree murder. Judge Perry's ruling left the jury with four options: second-degree murder, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, and acquittal. "We got everything that we wanted," Oscar Grant's uncle Bobby "Cephus" Johnson told the San Jose Mercury News. "We thought it was second-degree from the beginning."

So what, exactly do the charges mean and what's the jury considering in deciding them? Here's a breakdown of the evidence and the competing arguments jurors will likely weigh for each charge.

Continue reading HERE

By Alan Greenblatt for NPR

What is usually a "gimme" in congressional politics has turned into a hard sell. People who have seen their unemployment benefits expire will have to wait a while longer before seeing another check.

Unemployment benefits generally last 26 weeks, but they are inevitably extended during recessions. With the jobless rate hovering around 10 percent — the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday morning that it stood at 9.5% in June, vs. 9.7% in May, and that total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 125,000 jobs last month — Congress has already extended the benefits several times over the past two years, offering assistance for up to 99 weeks.

But such additional coverage expired June 4 and the Senate has since failed to renew it. The House approved an extension Thursday, but it appears the Senate will not pass its version until after the July 4 recess.

The likely result is that more than 2 million people will have lost their unemployment benefits by the end of next week.

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By Stephen Power for The Wall Street Journal

A hot idea circulating in Washington is that congressional Democrats might try to pass climate-change legislation in the lame-duck session after the November elections. The idea has gained currency as the Senate’s calendar has grown crowded.

But a leading Senate Democrat said the approach won’t work.

If an energy bill is to reach President Barack Obama’s desk this year, the Senate will have to pass a substantial bill before the August recess, said Sen. Jeff Bingaman in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”

Contine reading HERE

By Jason Linkins for Huffington Post

The latest chapter in the media's ongoing struggle to cover the Gulf Oil Spill comes courtesy of PBS Newshour's Bridget Desimone, who has been working with her colleague, Betty Ann Bowser, in "reporting the health impact of the oil spill in Plaquemines Parish." Desimone reports that on the ground, officials are generally doing a better job answering inquiries and granting access to the clean-up efforts.

But Desimone and Bowser have encountered one "roadblock" that they've struggled to overcome: access to a "federal mobile medical unit" in Venice, Louisiana: "The glorified double-wide trailer sits on a spit of newly graveled land known to some as the "BP compound." Ringed with barbed wire-topped chain link fencing, it's tightly restricted by police and private security guards."

Continue Reading Article HERE

Yesterday the Hip Hop Caucus called on the Senate to chart a new direction for America’s future through comprehensive climate and energy legislation that will provide for the sustainability of our nation’s most vulnerable communities. Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Barbara Lee and Members of the Congressional Black Caucus joined 20 African American mayors along with the National Conference of Black Mayors in their call for Senate action.

“The National Conference of Black Mayors accepts the obligation to actively engage in the national conversation on clean energy and advocates for a new and comprehensive climate and energy federal policy.  Our federal lawmakers must have the courage to step away from status quo provisions that have marginalized vulnerable communities and debilitated generations of American citizens with health and economic consequences,” said NCBM Executive Director Vanessa R. Williams.

The call for action is a part of the Green The City campaign, which aims to assist African American mayors in putting their cities on a path to long-term economic and environmental sustainability.

“Regular Americans in cities represented by these Mayors want to see action.  They are ready to help make their cities thrive again, working with their Mayors and city governments.  They realize that while the Senate is being indecisive, their cities and communities are suffering, and a clean energy future sits in the balance,” said Hip Hop Caucus President Reverend Lennox Yearwood. “This generation is fighting for its very existence.”

The delegation of Mayors convened in the nation’s capital for a three-day summit to strategize on advancing a national plan to move their cities to become more energy efficient, reduce pollution and create new clean energy jobs and businesses. While in D.C., Mayors met with Senators, Cabinet Leadership, industry experts and environmental advocacy groups.

The group aimed to impress on the Senate the need for decisive action on comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that will undergird their local efforts.  Mayors and their communities want to create new opportunity through clean energy investments, but they need Washington to act.

The group urged our nation’s leaders to take responsible and reasonable action as it transitions from a fossil fuel economy to a clean energy future for the sake of the American people, and requires the energy industry to operate with regard for our communities and our planet.

By CNN Staff

President Barack Obama renewed his push for comprehensive immigration reform Thursday, calling for bipartisan cooperation on an issue that has repeatedly proven to be a major cause of deep social and political division.

The president tried to find what has often proven to be an elusive middle ground on the subject, highlighting the importance of immigrants to American history and progress while also acknowledging the fear and frustration many people now feel with a system that seems "fundamentally broken."

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by Scott Hensley for NPR

Yeah, we know President Obama signed the health law Joe Biden called a "big #$!@#*& deal" months ago. But July 1, is when we figure you ought to celebrate or mourn, depending on your point of view, the changes to the nation's health care system.

How come? Today things actually start happening.

First up, the mourners: the owners and patrons of tanning salons. A 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services kicks in today. Kris Hart, owner of the Relaxed spa and tanning salon in Washington, tells NPR's Julie Rovner the tax is going to hurt. "I'm already struggling to pay my bills, and now I have to add on another one," he says.

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By Shaila Dewan for The New York Times

When the managers from the federal Fish and Wildlife Service talk about this 2,800-acre preserve of moss-draped cypress, palmetto and marsh, they speak of endangered wood stork rookeries and disappearing marsh habitat, dike maintenance and interpretive kiosks.

But when the members of the Harris Neck Land Trust talk about it, they speak of injustice, racism and a place they used to call home.

In 1942, Harris Neck, a thriving community of black landowners who hunted, farmed and gathered oysters, was taken by the federal government to build an airstrip. Now, the elders — who remember barefoot childhoods spent climbing trees and waking to watch the Canada geese depart in formation — want to know why they cannot have it back.

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For The Associated Press

For the third time in as many weeks, Senate Republicans on Wednesday successfully filibustered a bill to continue providing unemployment checks to millions of people.

But this time, since the slimmed-down measure attracted two Republican votes, its passage seems assured next month once a replacement is in place for Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., who died on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a supporter of the bill, had to vote ''nay'' to take a procedural step that would allow for a revote. Even though the tally stood at 58-38, Democrats were in reality just one vote short of the 60 needed to beat the filibuster. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the sole Democrat against the bill.

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