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An Update On The "Business and Building" Movement...(May 2008) With great excitement and anticipation, we are pleased to provide this update on the progress of the Four Initiatives of The "Building and Business" Movement. Below, is a status update on each area and Initiative, and the newly unveiled Involvement pages for the areas of Political Action, International Affair... [  more... ]

Published mornings - Monday through Friday.

Congress / Politics

Economics / Wall St

Culture / Sports

National / International


Federal Times: The federal program that sells products made from prison labor expects to lose millions due to new law. Federal Prison Industries (FPI), known by the brand name Unicor, has long been a mandatory source for federal purchase


Solutions for Texas: As an additional barrier to employment, Texas has over 100 state laws that forbid a felon working certain types of jobs. Just a few employment opportunities legally banned for felons in Texas are...


Human Rights Watch: US: ‘Drug War’ Unjust to African Americans. Two National Reports Detail Racial Disparity in Arrests and Imprisonment

Know Your Enemy: Heather Mac Donald. If you believe that the criminal justice system is racially biased, you need to know Heather Mac Donald.

Forbes-Oxford Analytica: U.S. Prison Policy Needs Reform. The U.S. prison population is now so large that it has important economic, fiscal and social consequences that are resistant to policy reform.

Urbanite: Does a 60-year-old ex-con hold the key to turning lifetime criminals into law-abiding community members?


San Francisco Chronicle: As San Francisco's population of African American residents has decreased in recent years, the population of black men and women locked up in the San Francisco County Jail has increased dramatically


Austin American-Statesman: U.S. may punish nations that refuse their ex-cons. U.S. is facing a major obstacle in deporting thousands of illegal immigrants, including many convicted felons.


MSNBC: Getting out of prison and into a job. Federal, local governments offering tax incentives to hire parolees


Union Tribune: At the beginning of the decade, the private prison industry was in a tailspin but tougher immigration laws turn the ailing private prison sector into a revenue maker


Heather McDonald: Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist? No: the high percentage of blacks behind bars reflects crime rates, not bigotry.

Washington Post: Fiscal Pressures Lead Some States to Free Inmates Early. "Do you want to build prisons or do you want to build colleges? If you're a governor, it's kind of come to that choice right now."


Union Tribune: Lawsuits raise questions about private prisons

Times-Dispatch: Panel discusses felons who want right to vote

Philadelphia Inquirer: Teaching ex-offenders about their voting rights. Those inside the Mayor's Office of Reentry in Southwest Philadelphia received services that included job training, GED classes, drug counseling, family reunification and pep talks.


Sasha Abramsky: The crime rate in the US has plummeted since the 1990s, so why is the incarceration rate reaching staggering new heights?


Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.: What's amazing is that most of this imprisoning trend is recent, dating really from the 1980s, and most of the change is due to drug laws.

Idaho Mountain Express: Jailbird Makes Us Look Silly. If felons can't vote in Idaho, why should a felon be allowed to become a presidential candidate?


Statesman-Journal: Felons' right to vote can be confusing. Oregon is more lenient, but rules vary among states

Detroit news: House speaker's foes criticize Dems for hiring felon


Altoona Mirror: Officials seek solutions for juvenile center. Northwestern Human Services will be contacted. The company presented a plan to construct a $5 million to $6 million juvenile detention and treatment complex.

Hartford Courant: Jobs For Ex-Offenders. To tell inmates to pay their dues and rehabilitate themselves, then deny them a job when they do, is wrong.


Daily Press: For some members of the West-Central U.P. Regional Community Corrections Program, spending time working in the community may be more effective than serving time in jail.

Noreen: He’s learned the hard way: Ex-con earns 2 degrees

New York Times: Letters To The Editor. Are Too Many Americans in Prison?


Hutchinson: Pre-trial Detention Traps Black and Brown Youth. The numbers of young people incarcerated for lengthy pre-detention jail time nearly doubled in the 1990s.


Szarzynski: ‘War on drugs’ cloaks oppression. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration’s support for the Contras likely materialized in clandestine cocaine sales, much of which ended up in the streets of inner city America.

The Jamestown Sun: The Commission on Alternatives to Incarceration focused on preventing recidivism of prison inmates, particularly through vocational training before inmates leave the prison system.

Rocky Mountain News: Prison gangs, racial tension volatile mix


Central Valley: Shake Down. An inside view of what is really going on inside the Prison Industrial Complex.

The Hoya: Punishment Shouldn't Outlive the Sentence


ACLU: Prison Litigation Reform Act Must be Fixed, Law denies justice to victims. “People who have had their rights violated, including rape victims, have been deprived of having their constitutional claims heard in court,”


Sheila Bedi: It's time to help rebuild our communities and our nation with sound policies that promote safety and shrink our prison system. With 1-out-of-100 Americans behind bars, we can't afford anything else.

Dallas Morning News: Texas Youth Commission aims to abandon large, remote prisons


Palm Center: Military Has Recruited More Serious Ex-Offenders Than Previously Known


Stop The Drug War.com: "This is a big issue for Cynthia, especially as it impacts communities of color and regarding the prison industrial complex"


Philadelphia Inquirer: Since 1990, inmates in the state's 26 prisons have doubled from 22,000 to more than 44,000. In the same period, costs spiraled from $407 million in 1990 to $1.4 billion in 2006-07. Facing an 11,000-bed shortfall by 2011


American Press: If an inmate is injured or hurt in a jail cell, who is responsible for paying the costs of treatment and any continuing care?

Erika Wood: What if 5.3 Million More Americans Could Vote? Millions of people in the U.S. can't vote because of felony convictions. Restoring their right to vote means restoring democracy.


Washington Post: D.C. has the fourth-highest incarceration rate in the nation, according to a report that says jails nationwide are bursting at the seams even though crime is nearly as low as it has been in 30 years.

Fraser: Mandatory madness. Maryland clings to the injustice of rigid sentencing in drug cases

Star Ledger: Citizens twice as likely to land in NJ prisons as legal, illegal immigrants

Black Enterprise: Capital Crunch for Black Businesses. Fed report reveals tightened lending standards for smaller firms


Economist: Barack Obama's success shows that the ceiling has risen for African-Americans. The median black household income has risen from $22,300 (in 2006 dollars) in 1967 to $32,100 in 2006. Most blacks today are middle class.


On The Issue Of Black Male Unemployment Why Is The Voice Of Senator Charles Schumer Louder Than The Black Political Establishment? Listen To The May 7th Edition Of "The Cedric Muhammad And Black Coffee Program"


Chicago Tribune: Urban League ready to let first 16 businesses in NextOne program move on to next step. Urban League President Cheryle Jackson said she isn't worried her freshman class will lose ground


PR Newswire: The National Black Chamber of Commerce Concerned HR 5353 'Internet Freedom Preservation Act' Limits Minority Businesses


Sun Times: Black inventors get a boost. Calvin E. Flowers fought to preserve his patented invention, a telephone locking device, and now proudly sees it on store shelves nationwide at Walgreens.


Orlando Sentinel: Harold Mills' rise from an Ohio housing project to a Harvard degree and CEO of Florida's largest black-owned business comes as no surprise to his mother, Alice Trent.


Black MBAs to Host Entrepreneur & Career Summits. June 12th Events Offer Attendees Opportunity to Meet Business Experts and Top Employers Face-to-Face


The Chronicle: The Queen City will play host to the Black Enterprise Kidpreneur/Teenpreneur Conference on May 15 at the Charlotte Convention Center.


Black Enterprise: Raven-Symoné Goes Against the Grain

Baltimore Sun: State is grappling with minority pacts. Protest rejected in one case; another put off


Wall Street Journal: Ronald D. Brown (1953 - 2008) With an Eye to the Past, He Built for the Future. Atlanta Life Financial Group, became one of the largest African-American-owned companies in the country.


Boston Bay-Stae: With little fanfare, Mayor Thomas M. Menino recently took a small step forward in his attempt to increase city business with minority- and women-owned businesses (MWBEs).


Toledo Journal: Councilman Ashford has decided to hold his proposed legislation to raise minority participation goals in contracts with city government while an administration official tries to produce evidence that the ''capacity'' doesn’t exist


FraserNet Launches First and Only Search Engine Dedicated to Finding and Promoting Black-Owned Businesses


John Hope Bryant: The Silver Rights Movement and the State of Financial Literacy in America


The Valley Independent: Schooner center provides work attire to women, girls. A job interview can be stressful, especially for someone who is not dressed for success.


Global Politician: Here he was, in 1965, admitting that segregation had provided a kind of "protective tariff" when it came to black businesses, which, for years had met the needs of the black communities their entrepreneurial owners had helped develop.

Buffalo News: Black Chamber seeks entrepreneurial equality. Tries to build minority-business opportunity through advocacy, mentoring activities


Chicago Tribune: Conceding that his administration has failed to efficiently vet minority- and women-owned firms who want city contracts, Mayor Richard Daley plans to end its efforts to certify such companies.

Chicago Tribune: GOP hopeful Ozinga defends effort to start minority-owned spinoff business


Vital Voice: DJ Kaos- Black club owners need to figure it out. After many African-American club owners don’t see big bankrolls coming right away, they go against the grain and immediately turn to two-dollar this and two-dollar that.


John McCain May Be On To Something With His Appeal To Black America Through The Capital Gain Tax. Listen To The April 23rd Edition Of "The Cedric Muhammad And Black Coffee Program"


AP: Black colleges seeking more financial support from alumni

Connecticut Post: An educated black woman's journey to prominence.


Washington Post: African American History Museum Gets $5 Million Gift From Boeing


Plain Dealer: Young CEO Ephren Taylor II promotes black empowerment


Warner Bros.’ Telepictures Productions is joining forces with Time-owned Essence magazine to expand the already-popular African-American brand across a number of platforms, including TV and the Internet.


Lake County News-Sun: Minorities still hope for share of Navy job $125 million and no setasides -- 'something's really wrong'


New Orleans City Business: ‘Talking Black’ adds perspective to city issues. WBOK is owned and operated by Bakewell Media Co. Bakewell Media is owned by Danny Bakewell Sr. and Danny Bakewell Jr. who also own the Los Angeles Sentinel.


Black Voice News: Is Moreno Valley Leadership trying to run Black Owned Businesses out of the city?


Macon.com: In the ongoing debate about how to promote racial harmony in America, it might be argued that a microcosm of the answer can be found in a real estate office in Warner Robins


Hartford Courant: Like so many other publications, Black Enterprise is going "green."


A Lesson For All Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners. The April 'Science Of Business' E-Letter Is Now Available. Read A Free Excerpt As CM Cap Explains How Starbucks Has Lost Its Focus And Why You Shouldn't Make The Same Mistake!


Worker's World: 'Harlem is not for sale!'


New York Times: As HUD Chief Quits, a Look at Close Ties. In 2003, the year before Mr. Jackson was named secretary, 14% of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s contracts went to black-owned firms. By 2007 they were receiving 25%


Boston Globe: Keeping the boys away from the girls. Schools try to close an achievement gap with single-sex classes

The Times: A member of the Bloods street gang who fired a gun on a NJ Transit bus was sentenced to six years in prison.


Cedric Dials Up Harlem To Salute The MVP. The May 7, 2008 Edition Of "The Cedric Muhammad and Black Coffee Program" Says 'May All of You Chris Paul Supporters Suffer Slowly. The Redemption Of KOBE continues."


Charleston Daily Mail: Olympic champion motivates local girls

Centre Daily: Facing Lower Earnings, Higher Costs, and Crippling Debt Burdens, Young Voters Begin Movement for Economic Reforms


Californian: As gang violence picks up in Salinas, some Monterey County leaders have serious concerns about gang lifestyle being celebrated at the Monterey Music Summit at the end of the month.


Los Angeles Times: Aging members of the Businessmen -- precursors of the Bloods and Crips -- want to end the cycle of violence they helped create in South Los Angeles


Wall Street Journal:Murder Spike Poses Quandary. He was one of 14 people, all African-Americans, to die in a 13-day spasm of violence. April 2008, with 18 murders, was 20% deadlier than April 2007.


National Post: He's got 99 problems, but the youth vote ain't one. Obama speaks a code to the kids


It Is The Official Reference Book Of The "Business and Building" Community Development Initiative. Learn More About The Powerful "War of The Bloods' In My Veins" And Its Author, Dashaun "Jiwe" Morris...


E From Queens Says The Calm After The Sean Bell Verdict Is A Sign That Black People Are Afraid To Shake Things Up. Listen To The April 30th Edition of "The Cedric Muhammad And Black Coffee Program"


Boston Globe: What Paul Pierce's hand gesture - and his $25,000 fine - say about the fast-evolving world of gang signs

WLOX: We all emphasize our commitment to the next generation," says Carlton Reeves, Mississippi Black Professionals' Association Convention President.

Grand View College: Teen Summit: State of the Black Youth in Iowa Friday, June 27


Journal Sentinel: Educator inspires students with vision of cap and gown. Lawyer created school as pathway to college


Kane: Black kids on buses may slip into MPS lore


Village Voice: What Sean Bell's Legacy Needs To Be.

MyCentralJersey.com: "Bloods" gang is state's largest. Members now found outside urban areas


Baltimore Sun: The Fellowship of Lights, a Baltimore nonprofit that has provided about 10,000 runaways and homeless youth a temporary place to stay over the past 38 years, will permanently close


News & Observer: His passion is getting involved. For George Wilson eacting isn't solving issues


New York Times: A poet who gave his name as Thug Love said gang members from the Bloods and Crips should unite to “police and protect their own community” the way the Black Panthers did decades ago.

New York Daily News: Bronx native involves kids with Youth Ministries for Peach and Justice


New York Times: In Bell Case, Black New Yorkers See Nuances That Temper Rage


Allthingscynthiamckinney.com: Cynthia McKinney. Statement on the Sean Bell Verdict


Redding News Review: Fulani 'deeply saddened and angry' over Bell verdict

Russ Simmons, Music and Black Leaders Taking Stand in Sean Bell Case

Final Call: BMOC - Black Men On Campus. North Carolina program works to increase numbers of minority male college students


The Jackson Sun: Meeting airs education concerns. Panelists discussed support for schools and parental involvement

The Mirror: Black Daddies Club meets to discuss issues. Brandon Hay is looking to dispel the stereotype that black fathers don't play a role in their children's lives.


Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Judge Marvin Arrington had seen and heard enough. The parade of black men and women — criminals and mothers of criminals — he saw every day frustrated him.


Arkansas News Bureau: Schools lacking in sex education, former surgeon general says. Black women in the U.S. are three to four times more likely to die in pregnancy than white women.


Final Call: Black youth in Peril. Many challenges face Black youngsters, but violence may be most difficult


The Register-Herald: Shrine hopes to keep black schools’ legacy alive. It’s been more than 40 years since West Virginia’s black schools were integrated into the rest of the state’s school system.


AP: The Bush administration sought to bolster its signature education law Tuesday, announcing new rules designed to address the nation's dropout problem and ensure close attention is paid to the achievement of minority students.

Forest Park Review: Expanded kindergarten jeopardized by small numbers. In particular, school officials were hoping the expanded offering would attract more black students, perhaps helping that demographic boost its early language skills


The Advocate: For the second time in less than month, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, held a round-table session on curbing gang violence yesterday, this time focusing on coordinating efforts among Fairfield County cities.

Tallahassee.com: Teens, look now for jobs. Slumping firms make summer market highly competitive

Star-Telegram: Tough life lesson may await job-seeking teens


Wooten: Forum on manhood misses the mark. Not addressed, apparently, was manhood, as in fatherhood. Or manhood, as in taking responsibility.


Thug Life Army: Crisis of the Nigga Intellectual: How Conscious Hip Hop Failed Us. Despite what power the conscious movement professed to have, it was unable to organize a defense for its casualties of war

Final Call: One million high school dropouts in U.S. each year


Boston Globe: In this battle, more than a few good men are needed. Several referred to the Million Man March as a hopeful moment when the black community seemed poised to address head-on the issues of fractured families and absent fathers.

Examiner: Only about one in 10 of the District’s public school students who are eligible for free, federally funded tutoring took advantage last year, leaving unspent tens of millions of federal dollars available to improve city performance


Inquirer: A nonpartisan "summit" in Phila. used music celebrities as an incentive. "This is all about getting the largest youth vote in history," said Benjamin Chavis, president and CEO of the Hip-Hop Research and Education Fund, one of the sponsors.

Delaware Online: Ex-cop tells parents about gangs. Families told what to look for, how to try to prevent activity


A Rhetorical Revolution? Bomani Armah Wants To Ban The Phrase 'N-Word.' And Marcia Of Banthenword.org Weighs In On The State of The N-Word Eradication Movement, Only On The April 16th Edition of "The Cedric Muhammad and Black Coffee Program."


AP: 3 more lawmakers are seeking investigations of federally funded research in poor, black neighborhoods that resulted in sewage sludge being spread on several families' lawns to determine whether it could combat lead poisoning in children.


Birmingham Times: Andretta Rhone, Miss Black Alabama USA 2008 is an exquisitely, optimistic, and devoted young woman of excellent spirit and finesse


Friends of The Congo: UN Under Fire in the Congo


Ghana Review International/The Statesman: The newly installed Yoruba Chief of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Ahmed Amin Olugbon is disturbed by the way Nigerians living in Ghana are linked to criminal activities.


Ethiopian Observer: EPRDF Support Forum Denounces Amnesty International Smear Campaign on Ethiopia.


Jamaica Observer: and Cuba have agreed to collaborate in the areas of agriculture, health, tourism, water resources and housing, Prime Minister Bruce Golding told reporters in Kingston yesterday.


Mufson: Nigerian Militant Speaks Out on Oil


AFP: The African Union (AU) urged all Zimbabwean parties to hold a free, transparent and non-violent presidential runoff.


Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday: Agriculture Minister, Arnold Piggott dismissed claims that poor planning caused cane farmers to miss out on a $60 million grant from the European Union (EU) to help them make the transition out of sugar cultivation.


AP: More than a thousand prominent African-American leaders, executives, entertainers and activists will head to Tanzania for a summit with their African counterparts to help raise living standards on the world's poorest continent.


Quigley: US, IMF role in Haiti’s food riots


San Francisco Chronicle: Many displaced Kenyans afraid to return home


Cite Libre: Steve Paikin's outrageous TVOntario Black-focused school panel discussion glorifies America's Jim Crow era

The New Vision: After China, India, Japan calls on Africa


To Jump Start BlackElectorate.com's "Business and Building" International Affairs Initiative Would You Support And Attend A Unique Africa-Diaspora Networking Event Later This Year? Join Our Working Group...


Kozloff: Letting Down Afro-Colombians. The Shameful Failure of the Black Congressional Caucus


Sun Sentinel: But even more at risk is an Afro-Colombian culture unique to its spirit of altruism, cooperation and equality.

East African: Lawyers from East Africa and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) are seeking legal action against the Chinese government over arms supplies to Zimbabwe.


The African Union has called for more peacekeepers to be sent to Somalia in an attempt to stabilise the war-ravaged country.

The New Independent: Lester Holloway: 'Victim stories have had their day in black papers'. The new editor of 'New Nation' newspaper, says it's time for the ethnic press to move on from a 'oppressed' mindset, but insists slavery is still a hot topic.

Boyne: The tragedy of Zimbabwe


Yahoo/Reuters: Jesse Jackson urges Haiti debt relief

Guardian: Special delivery'. Bump buddies' pass on care and services knowhow to reduce infant mortality among black children


AFP: The United Nations has denied a BBC report that it had covered up trafficking in gold and arms by Indian and Pakistani peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


VOA: AU Chief Warns Price Hikes Pose 'Crippling Challenge' to Africa

Telegraph: Conservationists in Kenya have called for a ban on an agricultural pesticide which is killing wildlife.

Rev Dr Mervin Stoddart: Prayer for Jamaica's children

Hess: America causing world food crisis and starvation


Abdu: Face of Ethiopia is uglier than one seen by Houston. Government's PR machine hides many brutal truths

Hitchens: I believe that Mugabe was also driven into a permanent rage by the adulation heaped internationally on Mandela, an accolade of praise and recognition that he felt was more properly due to himself.


The Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda. The religion, which is practiced by hundreds of thousands of Brazilians, celebrates its centennial this year.


LA Times: Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Muta Maathai speaks. The founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement urges attendees to 'start with small things, start with ourselves,' in a campaign to save the environment and ease poverty.


Bermuda Sun: Is our black government going to sit back while this cultural landmark, built on the sweat and tears of emancipated slaves, falls victim to the wrecking ball?


Central Chronicle: Wooing Africans, countering China, In his inaugural address, Manmohan Singh called for turning the 21st century into a 'century of Asia and Africa' and described Africa as the "land of awakening".


CNN: A senior U.S. State Department official said Thursday she believes President Robert Mugabe lost the March 29 presidential election to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.


Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya: Racism, the slave trade, colonialism and apartheid are just as evil as the Holocaust and other forms of behaviour based on the assumption that your own people are more human and thus deserving of greater respect than others.


Record Net: Nation of Islam group reaches out to Latinos. Latinos are part of what it has dubbed "the original family," suggesting that Latinos come from African ancestry.


Roanoke Times: African immigrants, black Americans at odds. Tensions have increased at a Roanoke apartment complex.


Fidel Castro: POPE Benedict XVI outshone Brown, the British Prime Minister, who replaced Blair, whom I met and spoke with for a few minutes during a recess at the WTO Second Conference in Geneva 10 years ago


Jamaica Observer: The global economy waits for no man. Academics and officials are concerned that the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU will undermine the Caricom Single Market and Economy. They should know better.


Newsweek: The People’s Pugilist. Bolivia's feisty president believes there are ways to counter capitalism's impact on the climate and on food supplies.

EU calls for new trade deals with Andean countries

Jamaica Gleaner: Schoolgirl jail near Sabina on cards


IPS: Spain has expanded its presence in Africa by recently signing trade agreements with Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).


AFP: Tsvangirai pushes for UN intervention in Zimbabwe


San Francisco Chronicle: Muslim leader urges shift from black theology. Bay Area residents had a rare opportunity Sunday to hear a man who may be the single most influential Muslim in America. But the limits of his reach were also on display.


Canadian Press: Opponents of Toronto Afrocentric school vent rage in e-mails. "I'd prefer to see my tax dollars devoted to community support, rather than a regressive, racist, segregated educational experiment..."


The Standard: Africa’s pioneer media scholar. Prof Alfred Opubor was the first to get a doctorate degree in Media and Communication in Africa. He has trained many journalists and media practitioners who have won coveted awards around the globe.


The Independent: White on black: the racism in women's glossies. "The African look is the hardest look to get work for. Some of that has to do with photographers who are not au fait with how to light black skin properly..."


Guardian: Leftist former bishop set for victory in Paraguay election. The Vatican, fearing a throwback to the "liberation theology" era of troublesome, leftist priests, has suspended Lugo. But the Pope is reportedly keen on cordial relations.

Wall Street Journal: Cuba and the Vatican


Trinidad and Tobago Express: There will be no subsidy on food, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said


UN News: Lack of cooperation prompts UN to close Angola human rights office

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