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December 28, 2009 - January 3, 2010 • MN Metro Vol. 35 No. 52 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • www.insightnews.com
Census undercount would hurt Black communities By Pharoh Martin NNPA National Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) –America’s foremost Black organizations recently held a meeting to discuss the 2010 census and strategies that will ensure the process does not undercount Black people, a fiasco that could cause communities to miss out on their fair share of trillions of dollars in public resources and political representatives in Black districts. The National Urban League, the National Action Network, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the NAACP, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association, all met with Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, his senior staff and Census Bureau representatives to express
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Applying online: How to navigate around the internet’s black holes
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Melanie Campbell, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Ron Daniels, Institute of the Black World, 21st Century; Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network; Marc Morial, National Urban League; Ben Jealous, NAACP; and Gary Flowers, Black Leadership Forum.
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African American Caucus screens candidates for January endorsements Cameron’s
By Lydia Schwartz Contributing Writer On December 12, the MN Democratic-Farm-Labor (DFL) African American Caucus screened candidates who are seeking Party endorsement for governor. The Caucus wants to consider candidates who will promote cultural diversity and affirmative action at all levels of the DFL. The African American Caucus is an organization within the DFL that works to promote the participation of African American communities in the political and electoral process in the State of Minnesota. They support the ideals of the Democratic Party and its causes while focusing on critical issues pertaining to the African American community. There was a strong presence at the African American Caucus candidate screening as Caucus members took notes and asked their potential candidates questions. There was excellent participation as DFL caucuses prepare decisions on who to endorse for governor. The Caucus and the DFL Party will vote on their gubernatorial endorsements in January. Almost all of the candidates seeking DFL endorsement for the gubernatorial race appeared at the screening, one even by telephone conference. Attending were MN Sen. Tom M. Bakk (DFL-6); former US Sen. Mark B. Dayton; former MN Rep. Matt Entenza; Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner; former MN Sen. Steve Kelley; MN Speaker of the House, Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL-60A); MN Sen. John J. Marty (DFL-54); the Mayor of Minneapolis R. T. Rybak; and MN Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL63A). The only candidate seeking DFL endorsement for governor that did not make an appearance at the African American Caucus screening, because of a scheduling
long-awaited sci-fi thriller beats expectations
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Pete Souza
Sen. Tom M. Bakk (DFL-6)
A White House nurse prepares to administer the H1N1 vaccine to President Barack Obama at the White House December 20, 2009.
President Obama gets H1N1 vaccination In an interview last week with American Urban Radio Networks in the Oval Office, the President made clear that the time for adults to get their H1N1 shots is now and that it is safe. From ABC News’ write-up of the interview: “People need to understand that this vaccine is safe,” Obama said. “Michelle and I just got the shots ourselves... we wanted to make sure nationwide that children were getting it before adults did. And now there’s enough vaccine so that adults should get it as well.”
Former US Sen. Mark B. Dayton
The President spoke about how his daughters received the vaccine in October, when it was first being made available to school-age children. He said that it’s important for parents to vaccinate their children. “That’s the most important population because this flu, unlike seasonal flu, disproportionately affects children and young people — healthy children and young people as well as people with underlying conditions like asthma or neurological diseases. So it is so important and, frankly, the
African American vaccination rate has been lower, substantially lower so far than the general population,” he said. “I think people just need to understand: If I had the two people that are most important in my life, my two daughters, get it right away — and they’ve been just fine with it and in fact haven’t gotten sick this entire flu season — then you need to know that you need to make sure your children get it as well.” Learn more about H1N1 and your family at Flu.gov.
Veteran music industry producer Andre Fischer to keynote BDPA event
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The curse of high expectations By Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist Commentary
Former MN Rep. Matt Entenza conflict, was DFL Party member Ole S. Savior. The purpose of the MN DFL African American Caucus is to foster the involvement of Minnesota African Americans in the political process and promote their active participation in the DFL Party. They support the election of candidates to elected and appointed public party offices
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(NNPA) - I went to Copenhagen as part of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Commission to Engage African Americans in Climate Control. The Commission – led by Carolyn Green formerly of Sonoco included environmental justice guru Robert Bullard, Dillard University professor and environmental justice leader Beverly Wright, Frank Steward of the Association of Blacks in Energy, Leslie Fields of the Sierra Club, and me. We spent a week alternating between exhilaration and frustration, exhilaration at connections and opportunity, frustration at long lines (six hours
for me on Monday to get a credential that soon proved worthless), the marginalization of NGOs (nongovernmental organizations like the Joint Center), and further frustration at the way negotiations were progressing. All of us waited with bated breath to hear President Obama speak to the issues. We were heartened that he had come to present the United States’ position, and excited that he not only spoke, but was actively involved in negotiations for several hours. Part of the Joint Center group gathered at Klimaforum09, which is described as “the people’s climate summit.” It’s a large, sprawling space with dozens of meeting rooms, and on Friday, a big screen television where hundreds of people gathered to watch the Obama’s speech. The space has flava, too, as a group of
folk rehearsed for entertainment that they presented in the early afternoon, and another television screen shows a panel of leaders who are meeting even as President Obama speaks. We have gone to Klimaforum 2009 because we want to hear our President in the company of others. Some of our group are part of other groups and some have been asked to sign statements or letters condemning the United States’ position, even as we see a President who has gone further than anyone else has on this issue of climate change. He has not gone far enough for some, and I suppose this is the result of the high expectations that President Barack Obama has brought to the international stage. He is so much better than our leadership of the past. He is
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Fitzgerald, Jr. personifies classic quality
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