Derwin Blows It?
February 28, 2008
Did Oakland Police deliberately blow the case in Chauncey Bailey Killing to allow suspects to walk free?
According to the February 27th issue of the Eastbay Express, Devaughndre Broussard, suspect in the assassination of Chauncey Bailey, told 60 Minutes, from his jailhouse cell, that Oakland Homicide Detective Derwin Longmire encouraged him to take the fall and not let Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV go down. The paper raises the question that if Broussard’s claims are true, “the police have likely blown the entire case.”
For more information see this week’s express.
What do you think? Is this the end of the case?
Celebrity Profiles: Fools Gold
February 20, 2008
FOOL’s GOLD in Theaters on Feb. 8th
Sandra Varner’s Celebrity Profiles
Kate Hudson (Skeleton Key, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and Matthew McConaughey (Amistad, A Time to Kill, We Are Marshall) re-team in the romantic comedy, FOOL’S GOLD, opening in theaters on Feb. 8th.
In this film, the two (Hudson as “Tess” Finnegan,” McConaughey as Ben “Finn” Finnegan) are a divorcing couple whose egos clash albeit they make a concerted effort to dig up buried treasure on the ocean’s floor.
Filmed in Australia, the story centers on the legendary 18th century Queen’s Dowry, chests packed with exotic treasure that was lost at sea in 1715. The wildly hunt sends the squabbling couple –along with several bumbling cohorts– on a water-adventure fiasco, finally getting the gold. [Read more]
Reporters Without Borders
February 20, 2008
Post publisher Paul Cobb addresses international media assembled by Reporters Without Borders as part of a global call of awareness and tribute to 87 journalists killed in the line duty during 2007. Post Editor Chauncey Bailey was gunned down in downtown Oakland, August 2, 2007. Below: left to right, He Qinglian (China)and Interpreter, Milkias Mihreteab (Eritrea), Ayub Nuri (Iraq) and Khalid Hasan (Pakistan). Photos courtesy of Lucie Morillon. (www.rsf.org).
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) launched its annual report at a press conference in Washington, D.C. The conference highlighted the situation of press freedom in China, Pakistan, Eritrea, Iraq, and the U.S.
RWB’s annual report on press freedom highlighted that 87 journalists were killed in 2007, the highest number since 1994. [Read more]
Memorial Service Scheduled For Lucy Ellis Johnson
February 20, 2008
A memorial service for Lucy Johnson will be held at the African American Art & Culture Complex located at 762 Fulton Street (between Webster and Buchanan) in San Francisco on February 23, 2008 at 3:00 P.M.
Lucy Ellis Johnson passed away on February 1, 2008. Lucy was born to James and Lottie Ellis in England, Arkansas on October 20, 1926. Johnson worked for the Bell Systems/AT&T as a telephone operator and staff clerk for almost 30 years. One of the first African American telephone operators in San Francisco, she loved traveling, and her trips abroad to Jordan, Israel, Europe and South Africa. [Read more]
Velma’s Jazz Club Hosts Benefit for KPOO
February 20, 2008
Bay Area Bands volunteer time to raise funds for African American Radio Station
By Wade Woods
Over 30 years ago a group of young African Americans with no experience in Radio took over a small station located in a garage in an alley off Sixth Street. They originally went to meet the owner to ask for a couple of hours of air time in order to air programs that would be of interest to the African American Community, after two hours of discussions the owner told the group that what they wanted to do would take a hold station and asked them to have their lawyer draw up papers and he would transfer the station to them. They enlisted the help of a friend just out of law school and soon found themselves in possession of KPOO radio station. [Read more]
African American Honor Roll Celebration
February 20, 2008
Students honored for Academic Excellence
By Wade Woods
Last week at Third Baptist Church over 500 students who achieved a grade point average of 3.0 or better were honored by the San Francisco Alliance of Black Educators. These students came from elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, charter schools and special schools from all parts of the city.
This is an annual affair that the Alliance puts on every year. The San Francisco Alliance of Black Educators is an alliance of educators from diverse fields and affiliated with the National Alliance of Black School educators. [Read more]
University High Raises $6,000 for Jena 6
February 20, 2008
Rev. Edward Chipps Taylor III of the Louisana NAACP presents Jena 6 t-shirts to student leaders Natalia Pasmanick (center) and Haley Baron at a student assembly at San Francisco University High School.
By Jaron Epstein
Students at a prominent private high school in San Francisco have raised nearly $6,000 to support African American high school students known as the Jena 6, who have become a national symbol of the inequalities that exist within the criminal justice system.
At an assembly of the entire student body at San Francisco University High School, held Thursday, Feb. 14, student leaders presented the check to Rev. Edward Chipps Taylor III, executive director of the NAACP Louisiana State Conference Gulf Coast Advocacy Center, which was active both in relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the defense of the Jena 6. [Read more]
Rev. James Orange, 65 Dies
February 20, 2008
Civil Rights Activist ignited the Selma to Montgomery March
The Rev. James Orange, right, prays at the tombs of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in 2007.
The Rev. James Orange, a civil rights activist whose 1965 jailing sparked a fatal protest that ultimately led to the famed Selma-to-Montgomery march and the Voting Rights Act, died Saturday at Atlanta’s Crawford Long Hospital, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said in a statement. He was 65.
Orange was a native of Birmingham, Alabama, “who resided in southwest Atlanta for four decades while fighting the good fight for equality and social justice for all mankind,” said the SCLC, a civil rights organization.
Orange was arrested and jailed in Perry County, Alabama, in 1965 on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors for enlisting students to aid in voting rights drives. [Read more]
50 Years of Proud Black History
February 20, 2008
The Williams renewed their wedding vows and walked down the aisle, for the first time, at Humanity Baptist Church, last week, as they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Pastor George L. Anderson presided over the ceremony which was followed by a reception. The Williams were first married at City Hall in a Civil Ceremony in San Francisco in 1958. The Williams have seven children, 16 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren. [Read more]
Dellums’ Economic Outlook Plan Calls For 803 Police by End of ‘08
February 20, 2008
On Tuesday morning, Mayor Dellums delivered his economic outlook address to members of the city-wide Chambers of Commerce at the Oakland Marriott City Center. The remarks served as an opportunity to reaffirm the mayor’s commitment to working in collaboration to see Oakland prosper and to encourage business leaders to assume greater leadership roles promoting education, workforce development, and green business and technology in Oakland. Among the key areas covered during the speech were: public safety; his recently submitted affordable housing plan; the importance of city-wide zoning and smart development; and his comprehensive police recruitment proposal that will go before the City Council Tuesday evening. [Read more]
