February 2014 Edition
Student members of YES (youth empowered in the struggle) told approximately 200 attendees of the importance of sustaining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Dream.” YES hosted the 20th annual laying of the wreath ceremony held each year at the base of the statue at State St. and MLK Drive.
Carter says serving is why he’s running school reform and community policing, frequently using the term “accountability.” School administrators need to make sure our kids are being taught. “We cannot afford our students’ performance to
stagnate. Our kids are our future, they will carry the legacy of this great country forward,” he maintains. “We need to encourage our police officers to interact more with neighborhoods. And the city council needs to spend the taxpayer money more responsibly, it makes no sense to spend millions on remodeling City Hall and giving tax breaks to favored developers while turning street lights out on out most vulnerable citizens, he concluded.
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For over 20 years, Darly Carter has served the public as a volunteer and as a community organizer. “I think my calling has always been to serve the people in this city, “ he said in a interview with the newspaper. Carter, 41, is a life long resident of Racine and is seeking to unseat Jim Kaplan, as alderman of the 4th District. The 4th District is bordered by English to the north, the lake to the east, Root river to the south and the east side of Martin Luther King to the west. “We’re the forgotten neighborhood,” Carter said. He believes that one of his priorities will be to work to bring businesses to the 4th District. “Businesses are leaving the district at an alarming rate. We need to promote a county and city partnership to retain the businesses we have, as well as recruit new ones to the area,” Carter asserts. He envisions Douglas Avenue as a hub for new small businesses in the 4th District. We already have a great infrastructure in place with several buildings open and ready to receive new tenants. Whenever Carter talks about issues concerning district residents, he includes
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The documentary film “Pattern or Practice” premiered at Milwaukee’s Oriental Theater on Monday the 20th of January. The film’s producer, local businessman Jim Spodick, says he took on the project as a means of exposing corruption in Racine government, particularly in regard to minority owned bars and nightclubs. Approximately 250 people were in attendance and the film was enthusiastically received, despite its disturbing message that city government has practiced discrimination against minority liquor license holders. The evidence shown strongly supports that allegation, though elected officials vehemently deny it. Rather than offer facts to support that denial, however, they have attempted to cast a negative light on the producer and persons appearing in the film, which is entirely consistent with one of the tactics alleged in the movie. The “pattern” described in the movie consisted of connecting as many troubling incidents as possible to a targeted business to create a bad public image. This makes revocation of a liquor license far easier because citizens are supportive of eliminating “trouble spots” in their community. The discrimination became apparent when statistics revealed that only minority businesses were being closed while white owned bars, many with far worse police records, were allowed to remain open. Racine was once home to 28 minority owned bars and nightclubs. Now only six remain, and there is pressure being applied to some of those. The producer reports that “Pattern or Practice” has been accepted by a number of independent film festivals and is being submitted to several others. Future screenings of this film are being scheduled locally. For information about when and where you will Spodick has shown a willingness to make it available to interested groups on a shared revenue basis.
Black History Month
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Pattern or Practice hits success at Milwaukee opening debut