Stateside

The FBI is looking into whether Pittsburgh police officers violated the civil rights of an 18-year-old violist who accused them of brutally beating him as he walked to his grandmother’s house after dark.

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Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean defended his charity last Monday in the wake of questions about its practices while calling on the international community to enable the evacuation of his homeland’s earthquake-ravaged capital.

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Former gang member Alfred Lomas (in photo above) talks with reporters during a “LA Gang Tours” tour of Los Angeles. Only miles from the scenic vistas and celebrity mansions that draw sightseers from around the globe, but a world away from the glitz and glamour, a bus tour is rolling through the dark side of the city’s gang turf. Passengers paying $65 a head sign waivers acknowledging they could be crime victims as they put their fate in the hands of tattooed ex-gang members who say they have negotiated a cease-fire among rivals in the most violent gangland in America.

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Working side-by-side for over two days, Minister Farrakhan met with an initial focus group of 12 to discuss revitalization strategies. Later they were joined by a delegation of approximately 30-40 influential religious leaders from across the country representing many different faiths including the African Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, Christian Methodist Episcopal and United Methodist Episcopal.

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The conference will provide journalists the tools to effectively report on the impact of health, health policy and health care reform on communities of color. This annual conference has garnered the attention of headliners and newsmakers in the fight including former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund and Phill Wilson, Founder of the Black AIDS Institute.

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The NAACP has filed a discrimination lawsuit against US Airways, claiming it assigns African American employees to less desirable gates and shifts, and gives work areas dominated by black employees racially loaded nicknames such as “Compton,” “Camden,” and “The Ghetto.”

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Former basketball star Jayson Williams pleaded guilty last Monday to aggravated assault for accidentally killing a limousine driver in his bedroom, finally closing one notable chapter in his troubled post-NBA life.

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New Orleans’ black political base is one more victim of Hurricane Katrina. The storm decimated once-thriving black, middle-class neighborhoods, undercutting efforts by black candidates to raise money and build voter support.

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