News & Views

Guadeloupe, a French colony in the Caribbean, has been brought to a standstill as a result of trade union actions over the last several weeks.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 44 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the African American struggle for self-determination.

For years the WCCUSD has been bitterly embattled in a monetary fight. This has resulted in a never-ending cry from students and families begging for schools to stay open in their communities.

The economic health and social vitality of our urban communities are critically important to the prosperity and quality of life for Americans.

New data from the New York City Police Department shows the final total of stop-and-frisks for 2008 to be a record 531,159. Over 80 percent of them were of Black and Latino New Yorkers.

We need to confront our racial past - and our racial present. In things racial, we have always been and continue to be essentially a nation of cowards. This Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must - and will - lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom."

There are those who fear this warrior for justice. They are afraid of the accountability that must be applied to the transgressors, no matter who they are.

For a degrading, violent, racist cartoon against President Obama, the New York Post wins the prize for reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism.

As city departments cut vital health and tenant protection programs, one might conclude that the obvious targets for cost savings have already been hit. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

"Those policies of either marginalizing or outright demonizing of the city's dark-skinned youth lie buried under Oakland like so many kegs of explosive, primed to blow," writes J. Douglas Allen-Taylor. Hear audios from the last Town Bizness Townhall. PACK COURTROOM 112 MONDAY, Feb. 23, 9am, 661 Washington, Oakland, to support POCC Minister of Information JR, liberation journalist charged with a bogus felony in the Oakland Rebellions.

While charges have been dropped for many of those arrested in recent Oakland protests over the BART police shooting of Oscar Grant, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office is moving forward with six or seven cases, at least three of them felonies.

Despite the city's considerable wealth, our local economy is suffering. Ten thousand more San Franciscans are unemployed than a year ago, 1,000 families have lost their homes to foreclosure and more people are waiting in lines for free food than anyone has seen in a generation.

As the United States delves further into a serious long-term recession, African Americans are facing the challenge of coming from a seven-year silent recession into a depression. What the national economy is going through could decrease the Black middle class by a staggering 33 percent.

The evening before Human Rights Watch expert on Rwanda Alison Des Forges' critical quote on the secret deal worked out between Rwanda's murderous U.S.-backed President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila appeared in the Washington Post, Des Forges died in a the fiery crash of Continental Flight 3407.

In March 2008, the Jewish Community Federation arranged San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's all-expense paid junket to Israel, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel.

A general strike against rising living costs much higher than those in France has been in progress on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe since Jan. 20 and on Martinique since Feb. 5.

If you're poor and the bank is coming for your home, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has a plan for you. Just squat, she says.

Tell Congress to reject the $5 billion in the stimulus package that would hire 13,000 more cops and fund the war on drugs and gangs.

The African Union summit has elected Libyan Revolution Leader Muammar Al-Qaddafi the new president of the AU. The position will give Al-Qaddafi the power to influence policies across Africa for the next year.

Madison suggested creating a new capital, one that would geographically be part of the South but in close proximity to the North - a capital that would allow Southerners to safely bring their human property.