Dear Tavis: Although we’ve never met, I feel like I know you. I’ve followed your career and listened to your commentary for over a decade.

During that time you’ve inspired me and challenged me. You gave me reasons to smile, to hope and to dream.

Most recently you’ve left me scratching my head.

Your unwarranted assault against President Obama’s creation of policies that aim to lift up all Americans is particularly disturbing. Equally troubling is your upcoming travel to the president’s hometown to press your case for a new “black agenda” in the Obama administration.

Perhaps this wasn’t your intent, but such rhetoric suggests that the president has been ignoring the pressing concerns of African-Americans — which is just not the case.

Read More Here

Fast forward some years later and now schools across the country are competing to win organic choices over unhealthy lunch options for their school. I’m jealous!

The Organic Trade Association is hosting a national contest to award a lucky school with an organically grown garden or the option to have an organic vending machine on campus. The initiative “Organic. It’s Worth It In Schools” aims help schools access more organic food.

According to a survey by the OTA, more than half of the individuals polled feel that the best way to encourage children to make healthy food choices is by improving education about health and nutrition. A good way to start is by offering it!

So, if you want to enter your school to win a really cool organically grown garden or an organic vending machine, act now!

Visit www.OrganicItsWorthIt.org through May 1 and enter your school’s name and address when you sign up for an electronic newsletter to win. Similar to a petition, your school must receive at least 1,000 newsletter sign ups to win.

James, if you happened to see this via Google Alert. . .I love you.

The article also points out that “as the population of disadvantaged students grows, overall scores continue to sag.” Thus, as long as communities continue to be stripped of funding which provides assistance for things such as social services, housing and the creation of new jobs, there will continue to be a widening achievement gap between privileged and poor and minority students.

What I found interesting is that there is a connection between the two. According to Newsweek, “the weakest teachers are relegated to teaching the neediest students, poor minority kids in inner-city schools.” Statistics often demonstrate that this does not always happen due to mere coincidence.

In the state of Nevada the relationship between these factors is no different. An annual survey by Education Week magazine ranked Nevada 50th in the nation for the quality of its public K-12 education, with Las Vegas receiving a letter D grade. Also, according to city data Nevada ranks third in unemployment. If Las Vegas was a state it would rank second behind Michigan. The unemployment in Las Vegas ultimately led to foreclosure where Nevada ranks worst in the nation, causing many displaced families. To top it all off, Nevada teachers are some of the lowest-paid employees in the state and are currently facing an additional 1.75% salary cut on top of the 10% across the board that has already been proposed by Republican governor Jim Gibbons, which would result in thousands of teacher layoffs and 50-student class sizes in high schools.

How do we improve education for all when faced with so many obstacles?

Getting a product out of development and to market is one thing. Getting it into a top-tier store is like that times 100. Thousands of companies are vying for the same limited shelf-space. “If the designs make the first cut, there’s a lot of back-and-forth with clients, manufacturers and retailers as we ensure the designs hit on every cylinder,” says RKS’s Ravi Sawhney. “Distribution, margins, packaging, channels…everything has to be just right.” The marketplace attention garnered by RKS’s new headphone line for Vestalife is a testament to its intelligent strategy–laser-focused on a particular audience and manufactured with drop-dead gorgeous looks as a high priority.

A key to Vestalife’s success may have also been due to Sawhney’s unique development strategy. He tapped four female designers from his team–Soyun Kim, Leah Thomas, Young Bang, and Hojin Choi–and let them explore whatever headphone concepts tickled their fancies.

Read the rest of her article: Vestalife’s Headphones Are Music to Women’s Ears

I’m a community organizer. Last week, I did something I never thought would be possible. I met with the president of the United States in the West Wing of the White House.

President Barack Obama met for 75 minutes with 14 leaders from across the country to discuss immigration reform — and the destruction of some 1,100 immigrant families a day through deportations carried out by his administration.

The meeting was tense, blunt and passionate. And there was a racial irony to our discussion. Our labor, faith and immigrant rights leaders included seven Latinos, three Asians and four whites. We were meeting with our country’s first African-American president, the son of an immigrant father. His senior advisers at the meeting included three African-Americans (one the child of immigrants), a Latina, a Chinese-American woman and a white woman.

There were years of intertwined friendships and relationships at the table, including my own with the president that began when he was a Chicago community organizer in 1986. Yet, despite all of these ties, we were there to tell him about his moral failure on immigration, and his looming political catastrophe.

Read more of this powerful op-ed by Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights here

One of the subjects debated amongst the lawyers, dentists and publishers, who make up the board, was whether or not Hip Hop should be taught as a cultural movement. According to the Huffington Post, right wing members voted that Hip Hop should be deleted as a requirement and that students should not be taught about its cultural impact across not only the United States, but the world.

Conservatives also approved to have a sociological focus on institutional racism and its presence in American society banned from the books, as well as removing important references of Latino and Hispanic figures throughout history.

The Texas State Board of Education approved of the new expectations with a 10-5 vote, and a final decision is expected to be made in May, but not before holding an open forum where the public can produce additional arguments and even possibly, different amendments to stop some of the changes from being implemented.

If the amendments are approved, the changes to the content will affect learning nationwide because most school textbooks are published in Texas and would be taught to millions of students for the next 10 years.

I thought we were taking guns off the streets..?

Washington — Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place – the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.

Law enforcement officials said both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.

The use of guns that once were in police custody and later involved in attacks on police officers highlights a little-known divide in gun policy in the United States: Many cities and states destroy guns gathered in criminal investigations, but others sell or trade the weapons to get other guns or buy equipment such as bulletproof vests.

In fact, on the day of the Pentagon shooting, March 4, the Tennessee governor signed legislation revising state law on confiscated guns. Before, law enforcement agencies in the state had the option of destroying a gun. Under the new version, agencies can destroy a gun only if it’s inoperable or unsafe.

Kentucky has a similar law, but it’s not clear how many other states have laws specifically designed to promote the police sale or trade of confiscated weapons.

A nationwide review by The Associated Press in December found that over the previous two years, 24 states – mostly in the South and West, where gun-rights advocates are particularly strong – have passed 47 laws loosening gun restrictions. Gun-rights groups are making a greater effort to pass favorable legislation in state capitals.

John Timoney, who led the Philadelphia and Miami police departments and served as New York’s No. 2 police official, said he doesn’t believe that police departments should put more guns into the market.

“I just think it’s unseemly for police departments to be selling guns that later turn up,” said Timoney, who now works for Andrews International, a security consulting firm.

He said he had once been offered the chance to sell guns to raise money for the police budget.

“Obviously, we always need the money, but I just said, ‘No, we will take the loss and get rid of the guns,’ ” Timoney said.

A spokeswoman for the Memphis police said gun swaps are a way to save taxpayer money.

One weapon in the Pentagon attack was seized by Memphis police in 2005 and later traded to a gun dealer; the gun used in the Jan. 4 courthouse shooting in Las Vegas was sold by a judge’s order and the proceeds given to the Memphis-area sheriff’s office. Neither weapon was sold by the Memphis law enforcement agencies directly to the men who later used them to shoot officers.

In both cases, the weapons first went to licensed gun dealers but later came into the hands of men who were legally barred from possessing them – one a convicted felon, the other mentally ill.

The history of the two guns in the recent attacks was described by officials from multiple law enforcement agencies on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigations. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives provided reports on the gun traces to the investigating agency, but it is barred from publicly disclosing the results.

At the Pentagon, gunman John Patrick Bedell carried two 9mm handguns, one of them a Ruger.

Law enforcement officials say Bedell, a man with a history of severe psychiatric problems, had been sent a letter by California authorities Jan. 10 telling him that he was prohibited from buying a gun because of his mental history.

Nineteen days later, the officials say, Bedell bought the Ruger at a gun show in Las Vegas. Such a sale by a private individual does not require the kind of background check that would have stopped Bedell’s purchase.

Mike Campbell, an ATF spokesman in Washington, would not confirm the details. He would say only that Bedell “appears to have purchased the gun from a private seller.”

The gun already had changed hands among gun dealers in Georgia and Pennsylvania by the time that Bedell bought it. Officer Karen Rudolph, a Memphis police spokeswoman, said her department traded the weapon to a dealer in 2008 for a different gun that was better for police work.

The Ruger had sat in Memphis police storage for years at that point, after being confiscated from a convicted felon at a 2005 traffic stop.

*jacked from jsonline

Underground rap stalwart Murs reunites with 9th Wonder for ForNever, the pair’s third collaborative album. The 10-track collection features “I Used To Luv Her,” a remake of Common’s mid-1990s classic, as well as “The Problem Is…”, a powerful examination of the struggle to make an honest living.

“I think when I work with anybody, my ability to be flexible is what helps make things work,” Murs muses. “When it comes to 9th, I pretty much just let him run the whole show. That’s why it works with us. I’m one of the few rappers out here secure enough to relinquish some control in the studio. I mean, I’m still a total control freak. I’m just not as bad as the rest of them.”

Due in stores April 13 from SMC Recordings, the eclectic yet soulful ForNever also includes collaborations with a diverse guest list highlighted by Kurupt, Suga Free, Verbs, Sick Jacken and Uncle Chucc in what could be the duos bes collaborative effort to date.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi yesterday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford on behalf of 18-year-old Constance McMillen, who said she faced some unhappy classmates after the Itawamba County School District said it wouldn’t host the April 2 prom.

“Somebody said, ‘Thanks for ruining my senior year,’” McMillen said of her reluctant return yesterday to Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton.

The lawsuit seeks a court order for the school to hold the prom. It also asks that McMillen be allowed to escort her girlfriend, who is a fellow student, and wear a tuxedo, which the school said violated policy.

The district’s decision March 10 to cancel the prom came after the ACLU demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because the group said the policy violated students’ rights. The ACLU said the district violated McMillen’s free-expression rights by not letting her wear a tux.

more after the click

McMillen said she never expected the district to respond the way it did.

“A lot of people said that was going to happen, but I said, they had already spent too much money on the prom” to cancel it, she said.

McMillen said she didn’t want to go back to the high school in Fulton the morning after the decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates.

“My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I’m still proud of who I am,” McMillen told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. “The fact that this will help people later on, that’s what’s helping me to go on.”

The school board statement said it wouldn’t host the event “due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events” but didn’t mention McMillen. District officials didn’t return calls seeking comment in time for this story.

At least one supporter has offered to help McMillen and her classmates hold an alternate prom.

New Orleans hotel owner Sean Cummings told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson that he was so disappointed with the school board’s decision he offered to transport the students in buses to the city and host a free prom at one of his properties.

“New Orleans, we’re a joyful culture and a creative culture here and, if the school doesn’t change its mind, we’d be delighted to offer them a prom in New Orleans,” he told the newspaper. “Concluding your high school experience should be a joyful one. One shouldn’t conclude that experience with all their friends on a negative note.”

Same-sex prom dates and cross-dressing are new issues for many high schools around the country, said Daryl Presgraves, a spokesman for GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a Washington-based advocacy group.

“A lot of schools actually react rather than do the research and find out what the rights of these students are,” said Presgraves.

McMillen says she hopes her fight will make it easier for gay students at other schools facing discrimination.

“I want other kids to know that’s it not right for schools to do that,” she said on CBS’s “The Early Show.”

In 2002, a gay student sued his school district in Toronto to allow him to attend a prom with his boyfriend. A judge later forced the district to allow the couple to attend and stopped the district from canceling the prom.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., says a bill he’s introduced in Congress would make it illegal to discriminate against gay and lesbian students. He says at least 10 states have such laws, and his bill is modeled after those.

“This situation with the prom is a perfect example of why we need to protect students from discrimination. In this case it’s a prom. It other cases, it’s getting beaten up or killed,” Polis said.

The school district had said it hoped a privately sponsored prom could be held.

Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw says he’s seen the South portrayed as “backwards” on Web sites discussing the issue, “but a lot more people here have biblically based values.”

Itawamba County is a rural area of about 23,000 people in north Mississippi near the Alabama state line. It’s near Pontotoc County, Miss., where more than a decade ago school officials were sued in federal court over their practice of student-led intercom prayer and Bible classes.

REAL RAP^^^^

“A black woman play mama and daddy/
while daddy ride around all day flossing his caddy/
He got the 24s spinnin, 3 or 4 women/
but he’s much too busy for the kids to come visit”/

A recent report by the Pew Foundation has highlighted something that’s been going down for a little while now: It’s becoming increasingly impossible to make money through traditional news.

My brother and I have been bickering about this ever since the New York Times announced their plan to start charging for access to the paper online. While I don’t think I could survive without my weekly dose of the Times (at the very least I have to read the Ethicist, tear up at the Modern Love Column and roll my eyes at Maureen Dowd), I just don’t think most people are going to be willing to pay. Heck, I’m reading about the Times’ inevitable demise on Gawker, and they’re never gonna charge.

I think we’re right in the middle of a wave that’s totally changing the world of media, and we’ve yet to see if that means traditional news as we know it is going to die. What do you think? Does news have a chance?

So I was chillin’ in Pittsburgh over the weekend, catching up with some old friends and making new ones when I realized that there is no urban radio station in Pittsburgh.  How is this possible in a city with a population of ninety-thousand African Americans making up 27% of the city’s population and a lot of cultural diversity, full of artists, poets and underground Hip-Hop? I mean every single channel that I turned to, was either religious, pop or country music. Don’t get it twisted I’m not knocking those genres, and the pop stations would play a few of the very popular Hip-Hop songs. Yet there was not a radio station that played a Combination of Hip-Hop and R&B.  In addition, to not hear an ounce of soul on the radio was really disappointing. I could not even find an old school radio station that played artists like the Temptations.  So what happened in Pittsburgh? There must have been an urban radio station at some point? Right???

The story is that the radio station WAMO, which had been in Pittsburgh for 55 years, was sold this past summer for 8.9 million dollars. Even though there was some protest and community uproar, very little action was taken and the community was completely ignored as they expressed their anger. It almost shows that the city of Pittsburgh completely disregards its black population. There are some alternatives, if you can even call them that. On the weekends The University of Pittsburgh Campus radio station host a R&B show and Carnegie Mellon on Sundays give local community members an alternative but relegates them to only 2 hours a week of Hip-Hop music.  I just don’t think that a population of 90,000 people should be forced to only listen to Hip-Hop on the weekends!! Whelp now I know to stock up on my IPod with music next time I head out west!! For more information on the radio station please click on this link.

Peace

Kirin

Fancy, right? Lots of space to bring you the action oriented news you’ve grown accustomed to. In the year that we’ve been around, a lot has happened at 99problems.org. We’ve seen our staff of writers grow along with traffic to the site and we are absolutely thrilled to be here in 2010, sure to be an epic year for all the artists and activists who make up the 99problems community.

Like what you see? Think something is missing? Let us know! Hit us up on our Contact Form at any time.

Your involvement is what gets us out of bed in the morning. Thank you.

But you gotta wonder, “How real are these scenarios?” or “What happens next?” I’m sure that type of fame doesn’t increase your sexual encounter rate and depression and anger is sure to follow.

Weeks after the show aired, Barbette Harmon, was found stabbed to death with traces of evidences leading back to Atraybion who was the only son out of the 3 present when everything unfolded. He provided the police with stories that didnt add up and now is the main suspect in this case.

Life Count=2

Damn, son

This week, Lady Gaga dropped the video for her song “Telephone” featuring Beyonce. The video is pretty cool. Although Jay-Z might need to keep an eye on Beyonce. She has pretty much gone gaga for Gaga.

Anyway, this guy Beatbox Hitman has become Facebook famous remixing pop’s biggest hits with his human drum patterns. He’s got a bunch of vids up. This time he linked up with the singer Erin and they came up with this entertaining mashup.

In a meeting aides described as “frank but cordial,” members of the Congressional Black Caucus told President Barack Obama on Thursday that he has to do more to help African-Americans.

Members of the caucus have complained — both publicly and privately — that they aren’t getting enough from the nation’s first black president. Thursday’s hourlong session was their chance to make that case directly with Obama, and aides said they did just that.

CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said the group discussed direct job creation and work force training as well as areas where government can help “create jobs immediately.”

People close to the caucus said members pointed to the high unemployment rate in their largely majority African-American congressional districts. They encouraged Obama to push legislation in the Senate that would lead to direct jobs creation, particularly a summer youth jobs program — a proposal that failed in the Senate this week.

In a statement, the White House said that Lee had discussed “the impact of the economy in economically distressed communities and the need for additional assistance in these areas,” and that other CBC members had “presented their concerns and solutions for broadening the impact of the recovery effort.”

The White House said Obama and the CBC members agreed on “a number of things” that could be done to address the unemployment problem, both immediately and in the long run.

Prior to the meeting, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said the CBC would be asking Obama to help get the summer jobs program through the Senate, which has just one black member, Roland Burris of Illinois

Jacked via politico.

Van Jones has sure come out punching like a love warrior. He is debating Andrew Morriss at Economist.com. He is arguing that creating green jobs is part of the government’s responsibility. Morriss argues that only the market should dictate. It’s a really interesting debate. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/dgs3EJ