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Nationalplatforms.com is one of the latest in political websites that functions as a centralized location to get the platform positions of all the current presidential candidates. While it is still a work in process, you may want to keep this in your bookmarks as we get closer to the election season.
NEW YORK (AP) — The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame.Fashion designer Marc Ecko, who bought the ball in an online auction, set up a Web site for fans to vote on the ball’s fate, and Wednesday announced the decision to brand it won out over the other options — sending it to Cooperstown unblemished or launching it into space.
Ecko said he believed the vote to brand the ball showed people thought “this was shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn’t necessarily the clearest it could be.”
Ecko, whom Bonds called “an idiot” last week, had the winning bid Sept. 15 in the online auction for the ball that Bonds hit Aug. 7 to break Hank Aaron’s record of 755 home runs. The final selling price was $752,467, well above most predictions that assumed Bonds’ status as a lightning rod for the steroids debate in baseball would depress the value.
The asterisk suggests that Bonds’ record is tainted by alleged steroid use. The slugger has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. Fans brought signs with asterisks on them to ballparks as he neared Aaron’s hallowed mark. (more…)
(ballerstatus.com) The wrongful death suit of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. just got a little more complicated recently, when a prison inmate who had implicated a former Los Angeles Police Department officer in the shooting of the rapper renounced his story, making the unsolved case even that more of a mystery.According to the Los Angeles Times, Waymond Anderson, who is serving a life term for murder, said in a recent deposition that he lied about LAPD involvement in the Notorious B.I.G. murder as part of a “scam” to benefit from large monetary settlement out of the city.
That’s not all either. He also accused the rapper’s family and its lawyer of participating in the scheme and offering to pay him for false testimony implicating the LAPD.(more…)
Bottom line–somebody knows something. And they are paying a lot of money to keep it in the dark.
(AllAfrica.com/ipsnews.net) Every night besides the town hall of Athens, next to Omonia square, where the narrow streets of the popular entertainment hub district Psirris begin, black girls from Nigeria gather to work.Dressed provocatively, they approach people who pass by and offer their services. “Come on baby I know you want me”, you hear one say playfully with a big smile on her face. Or is it a mask she wears?
The beautiful young Nigerians, between 20 and 25 years old, are victims of trafficking, forced to prostitute themselves for little money.
“Everyone knows that. The young Athenians who gather in Psirris to have fun; the policemen who casually drive through the area to keep an eye on things; the mayor of Athens; most of all the ‘customers’,” says resident Miltiadis Papathomopoulos, as he stares at the girls, and the people walking by. (more…)
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(SI.com) Most recently, of course, Donovan McNabb, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, declared that African-American quarterbacks suffer much more scrutiny than their white brethren. It was a particularly interesting observation coming from McNabb, because, if you recall, Rush Limbaugh resigned from ESPN four years ago for saying that the very same McNabb was overrated, inasmuch as the oh-so-sweet white media desperately wanted a black quarterback to succeed.All this, though, comes on the heels of the following:
About three times as many black fans as white fans rooted for Barry Bonds to pass Henry Aaron’s record. Of course, Aaron is African-American too, but so many blacks believed that whites were singling out Bonds to demonize him alone as a steroid-user that it became a race issue.
Likewise, black supporters of Michael Vick claimed that white critics were piling on Vick for running dog fights and killing and torturing dogs simply because he was a black star.
Gary Sheffield of the Detroit Tigers alleged that the reason there were so many more Hispanics in baseball than African-Americans was because baseball executives thought Latinos were more malleable.
If you will excuse me, of all the overblown racial issues in this country, the sturm and drang wasted on the declining numbers of African-Americans playing baseball is surely No. 1. We are supposed to get exercised because black kids now choose basketball and football over baseball? This is baseball’s fault? As long as children are playing sports, instead of playing video games — fine. Whether they prefer soccer, skateboarding or sprinting — who cares?
As for McNabb, he has not found a lot of support for his contentions — including a couple of other African-American quarterbacks, who have said, essentially, hey, Donovan, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the huddle. Listen, quarterback is the most scrutinized position in American sport. There’s even a truism that the best job in football is back-up quarterback, because everybody thinks you must be great … until you become the starting quarterback and then you’re a bum. (more…)
Again, I believe that this whole issue is being carried largely by mainstream media and not by your average sports fan. However I do how his comments are a bit insulting to a fan base that only cares if you win or loose games. Trust me, it will be the press, not fans that will remind him of his quote sometime later in the season.
I remember back in the day when back up quarterback Doug Williams for the Washington Redskins had to take over for the injured Jay Schroeder, folks were unsure about him and the team’s chances of going to the Super Bowl. After he led the team to win over the Broncos in the ‘88 Superbowl, he became the hero.
Anybody remember someone in the press asking him “How long have you been a black quarterback?”
Todd Lewan of the Associated Press the other day did a story on the Jena situation that clarified some of the misinformation surrounding the case. I first heard about some of this information by way of a fellow blogger pointing me to a piece written by Jason Whitlock who mentioned some of these findings in his latest piece. I had no way of confirming it, so I thought best to wait for a minute to see if any of this was being disputed. So far I have heard nothing. I even did a search for Todd Lewan’s name in Technorati (a site that keeps track of various subjects within the blogosphere) and found not one mention of his name or the article on any of the same websites that had been tracking this case from day one (as of 11:10pm PST on 9/24).
Here is a portion of Lewan’s article. I would advise readers to read the whole article by following the link at the end of this excerpt below as he also does confirm with locals that there has been some racial problems within the Jena justice system.
Black and white, they say that in its repeated retelling — enhanced by omissions and alterations of fact — the story has taken on a life of its own. It has transformed a school-yard stomping into an international cause celebre, and those accused of participating in it into what one major Southern daily came to describe as “latter-day Scottsboro Boys.”
And they say that while their town’s race relations are not unblemished, this is not the cauldron of bigotry that has been depicted.
To Ben Reid, 61, who set down roots in Jena in 1957 and lived here throughout the civil rights era, “this whole thing ain’t no downright, racial affair.”
Reid, who is black, presently serves on the LaSalle Parish council. He reads the papers. He hears the talk outside of church on Sundays about how the Jena Six business is dividing his hometown down racial lines.
He doesn’t buy it.
“You have good people here and bad people here, on both sides. This thing has been blown out of proportion. What we ought to do is sit down and talk this thing out, ’cause once all is said and done and you media folks leave, we’re the ones who’re going to have to live here.”
[…]
There is, however, a more nuanced rendition of events — one that can be found in court testimony, in interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and in public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention.
Consider:
_The so-called “white tree” at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
_Two nooses — not three — were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students “were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them,” according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
_There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
_The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days — they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.
_The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, NONE SHOWED UP.
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YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Jorge Castaneda knelt on a rocky ledge with a map of the Sierra Nevada spread before him.“There aren’t street names,” the 18-year-old city kid said only half-jokingly just before his first backpacking trip. “How are we supposed to read these maps?”
Castaneda was with a group of young men from inner-city Oakland and Los Angeles heading into the Yosemite backcountry for a five-day, 20-mile excursion sponsored by an outdoor education program called WildLink.
The group’s aim is to help them forge a connection with public lands that will keep them coming back, and hopefully beef up the ranks of those who spend their free time hiking, climbing, fishing or otherwise enjoying open spaces.
The goal is especially important because national parks face twin concerns: Lack of diversity among visitors and fewer of them overall.
A 2004 survey by the U.S. Forest Service showed that 92.7 percent of those who visited national forests over a three-year period were white.
At the same time, the number of people visiting public lands is dwindling. The National Park Service found in 2006 it had nearly a million fewer visitors than the year before, and 14.5 million fewer than in 1999.
Experts say a range of factors are contributing to the drop in visitor numbers, from gas prices to shorter vacations. But “it may be that a certain portion of our decline is because population growth is being driven by people who are not traditional national park users,” said Jim Gramann, a social scientist with the park service.
[…]
A National Park Service survey in 2003 showed Americans of all backgrounds gave the same reasons for staying away from public lands — cost, distance, not knowing what to do there and lack of interest. But some differences emerged, giving a sense how cultural perceptions of the outdoors might vary among groups.
Blacks were significantly more likely to say they received poor service from park employees or that they felt uncomfortable while visiting parks. Hispanics expressed greater concern than others about having to make reservations too far in advance and about personal safety while outdoors. (more…)
A really interesting topic.
For me, camping is one of those activities that has never caught on on either side of my family. It was always seen as “something White folks do”. Plus, there was always that thought in the back of your mind that you would wake up one night in your tent surrounded by the klan (lol). Breaking that mindset can be such a challenge.
I think for me that has really change since living out here in the West. Most of my perceptions of camping and hiking were formulated by what I saw on television. However after making the drive from Colorado to California, I knew I just had to get out there in the great outdoors (Man, what a beautiful drive!!!).
On our recent trip from Monterey, CA we drove part of the way back by taking the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). Now THAT is another trip worth taking.
On one side of the highway is all mountains. On the other side, nothing but blue ocean and forest. There were camping grounds all along the road which gave me some ideas for a possible future camping trip with just my son or the entire family.
Our house is located right at the foot of the Cleveland national forest and just recently someone showed me the location of the hiking trails. I am planning on hiking it in a few weeks as the trail leads to the top of a mountain range with a awesome view of both Riverside and Orange counties (I heard that you could even see the ocean).
This is one of those things I am really pushing myself to do because I know my children will thank me for it later. Plus, knowing me I will get hooked once we make the plunge.
Anybody out there with camping experience?
(smallbiztrends.com) Generation Y (25 and under) has grown up watching their parents go off to work every day, 40 - 60 hours per week, with fierce loyalty only to be downsized, outsourced, or laid off in their 40’s and 50’s.This reality has the 20-somethings with a different mindset from previous generations. We do not want to merely work our time away, but to live a life of significance and fulfillment. That means being and doing more than just having.
In order to be the things you want to be and do the things you want to do, you must have time AND money. Yeah, we want the big tv and the fast car, but more than that, we want quality of life, and those of us who have a nice car know that it does not necessarily translate into quality of life. (more…)
This article also contains links to bloggers that show you how to make money online.
(radioink.com) Urban radio remains the best way to reach black consumers, according to a new presentation by ROI Media Solutions based on Arbitron Portable People Meter data. In Philadelphia, more than 91 percent of black listeners 12 and older listened to at least one of the market’s five Urban-oriented stations over the course of a typical week.ROI’s “Urban Radio in the PPM World,” introduced at the Interep Power of Urban Radio Summit in New York last week, is designed to be used by Urban broadcasters to sell the value of their radio stations to advertisers and marketers.
The presentation also points to the importance of the black community to the local economy in Philadelphia, where African-Americans make up 20 percent to 30 percent of the customer base for major retailers and financial institutions. (more…)
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It is amazing how a little knowledge can actually change the course of a generation. Do you realize how many diseases our kids could avoid just by learning how to understand food labels?
The ball is now in your court.
(sbsun.com) When authorities began finding marijuana grow houses in Southern California this year, they were shocked by their sophistication and by the complex Asian crime syndicates believed responsible for their establishment.But after months of examining their history and movement, investigators say the appearance of the crime syndicates in the region was practically inevitable.
An organization similar to the purported network of marijuana grow houses established by Asian criminal organizations in the Inland Valley was first discovered nearly a decade ago in British Columbia, authorities say. A combination of factors fueled its move south: Canadian police focused more attention on its activity, and competing Canadian gangs began to set up their own grow houses, saturating the market.
What’s more, the large size of the customer base for marijuana in Southern California made the southward move smart from an economic standpoint.
But ultimately, the rise in marijuana grow houses - in the Inland Valley and elsewhere - is driven by the high value of the potent, THC-rich “B.C. bud” strain of the drug that can be grown only in controlled indoor environments.
The value per pound of the drug - as high as $6,000 - is on par with the value of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, making the production of marijuana a significant cash generator for criminal organizations.
And operating a grow house is relatively low risk. A person with no criminal record who is convicted of marijuana cultivation might be sentenced to only probation. Those found producing equivalent amounts of harder drugs such as cocaine or heroin could face up to 25 years in prison, said Michael Abacherli, a San Bernardino County deputy district attorney. (more…)
What is interesting about this story is that a few months ago and about 15 minutes from my house, the police busted several houses involved in the same thing. What really surprised me was that these gangs bought these homes at a price tag between $700-800k. These were very nice 4-6 bedroom homes with at least 4000 square feet of living space. I guess when you think about it, it was a clever idea at the time, because who would expect a marijuana grow house in a half million dollar home?
From what I understand (based on what the neighbors in that community told my wife), these gangs gutted out the entire house and made it into one big greenhouse (like the article described).
Another reason why you should know your neighbors.
Dang! I know at least a couple of people who will be pissed over this.
Article dated 9/12/07
(blackcollegewire.org) The new school year at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro began with the revelation that a state audit has uncovered close to $2 million in mismanaged funds.
The audit documents instances of fraud and mismanaged federal grants and other funds, including $380,000 in vending receipts that were diverted to a spending account for former chancellor James Renick, who stepped down last year and is now a senior vice president at the American Council on Education in Washington.
“It’s really sad,” said Arnita Floyd Moody, a recent North Carolina A&T graduate and 2006-07 student government president. “That money should have been used to give the support that our students need.”
Chancellor Stanley Battle, who only recently took over as chancellor at A&T, warned against sensationalizing the report.
[…]
According to University of North Carolina system policy, the vending money was supposed to be set aside for scholarships, student financial aid, reconciliation of campus debt and student activities. Instead, according to the audit, the money was spent on alumni events, travel by Renick’s wife, commissions for artwork, and even a $150,000 annuity for an unnamed faculty member. (more…)
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Joanne Jacobs writes…
(pasadenastarnews.com) The magnet school scheme was tried from 1985 to 1997 in Kansas City, Mo., at a cost of $2billion. To lure suburban white students, Kansas City’s inner-city schools were equipped with lavish facilities: Indoor pools, gymnasia, high-tech science labs, computers, etc. But programs designed for the needs and interests of middle-class white suburbanites did not serve inner-city blacks. And few suburban students were willing to commute to city schools for a luxury athletic complex or a classics magnet. Test scores remained dreadful. By 1997, the district actually had a smaller percentage of white students than when the plan started.
Well, what about moving poor kids to better schools?
That’s been tried too with no effect on academic achievement. The journal Education Next reports on a study of families who moved out of public housing projects and into better neighborhoods in Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York: “A randomized evaluation of the `Moving to Opportunity’ program - a federal housing program piloted in five major U.S. cities that sought to relocate poor families by providing housing vouchers - shows that, contrary to expectations, moving families out of high-poverty neighborhoods has no overall positive impact on children’s learning.”
The new neighborhoods were significantly less poor and their residents were better educated. But researchers found no difference in children’s reading or math scores or in behavior or attitudes toward school when comparing families that won the housing lottery with those who didn’t. There also was no effect on retentions in grade or suspensions.
Researchers thought the youngest children might gain more than older students who’d spent years in schools with low expectations. Nope. Children who moved in the early grades did no better, compared to the control group, than older children.
You can take the poor out of the ghetto or barrio - and they’re usually delighted to move to safer areas. But they take with them the same habits and attitudes that undercut school success. (more…)
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Cynthia Tucker writes in her latest column “Black victims of crime deserve outrage, too”:
“Even black politicians and activists pay less attention to cases where black victims are given short shrift. Though most crime involves a victim and a perpetrator of the same race, there is no tradition of outrage on behalf of black victims who are attacked by black assailants. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, who is black, has noticed the difference.
“Everyday my office … handles horrible cases involving the sexual assault and/or death of black children, black women and black senior citizens. It is difficult for me to recall an occasion wherein my office has received a note, card, letter or phone call from any black advocacy group or political leader in support of these victims. We receive many communications in support of black defendants in some of those same cases,” he wrote in an e-mail.
“I am very disturbed about what’s happened to Genarlow Wilson and the ‘Jena Six,’ but I am equally disturbed by the plight of the endless number of black victims who don’t have the benefit of community support or outrage,” he said.” (more…)
Reading her article immediately reminded me of a post I did the other day regarding acquittal rates in mostly Black urban areas. Here, I want to revisit Paul Craig Roberts’ say on the matter:
“Inner-city blacks understand that the defendant doesn’t always get a fair shake from prosecutors and police, who are under career pressures to produce high conviction and arrest rates. Inner-city blacks are not only street-smart but also justice system-smart. In contrast, middle class jurors are naive about the criminal-justice system and assume that police and prosecutors are purer than they are.
This means that black juries are doing a better job than white juries. The purpose of juries is to prevent innocents from being framed, not to fight crime by putting defendants away. Black juries will seldom convict on the basis of police evidence and prosecutorial argument alone. They require independent witnesses and a thoroughly investigated case. The fact that inner city juries are more likely to acquit explains, in my view, why charges against blacks are more likely to be dismissed. Prosecutors have learned that they have to present black juries with better evidence and, therefore, dismiss inner-city cases that they would be prepared to present to white juries.” (source)
He later makes the following statement in the same article:
“…and that’s why savvy black jurors don’t trust prosecutors and police and insist on higher standards of justice than white juries require.”
Where Roberts misses it big time in his analysis is that oftentimes real criminals are often set free by ‘downtown juries’ as proven by the ridiculously high crime rates in most urban areas. This is a very bad definition of “savvy”. The two biggest factors are the no-snitching policy adopted by folks who are afraid of retaliation and the automatic drive to ‘defend one of our own’ when faced with a judgment of prison and/death being issued by system with racial discrimination in its history. Regardless, folks who oftentimes should be put behind bars have grown accustomed to the fact that with a mostly-Black jury, they have a huge advantage–leaving the community at the mercy of criminals.
Click here to read more on the acquittal rates in urban areas.
Related:
Oh Jena
(foxnews.com) CHICAGO — Police have stepped up their search for a missing pharmaceutical company sales representative after finding the 28-year-old woman’s car near an abandoned building.
Nailah Franklin was last heard from Tuesday, when she sent an uncharacteristically vague text message to friends and family saying that she was having dinner and that she’d call later. She never did.
Franklin’s sister, Lehia Franklin Acox, said the family is trying to stay positive as police search the 2005 Chevrolet Impala for clues that could shed light on her disappearance.
Being positive “is our only option,” Acox said Saturday afternoon ahead of a prayer vigil that evening.
“We’re all just trying to keep our spirits up, but it’s a challenge,” she said.(more…)
This is Antwoin – an active, vibrant African American young man who wants to be a permanent part of a loving family. He enjoys playing musical instruments, swimming, bowling, and video games. Antwoin tends to be very verbal which sometimes gets him into trouble at home and in school. He does well in his academic subjects although he does best with a lot of structure and supervision to help him focus. Antwoin receives individual and group therapy, and his new family must be supportive of his continued need for therapy. Because he has been through some tough times, Antwoin needs a nurturing environment with predictable routines and parents who have a lot of patience. He will benefit tremendously from having a family that won’t give up on him no matter how challenging his transition into the home may become. If you are energetic, nurturing parents ready to open your hearts and home to a child, please consider Antwoin. (source)
Since the story of domestic abuse and possible divorce between Juanita Bynum and her husband Thomas Weeks has been in the headlines, jaws from coast to coast have been flapping over this whole unfolding drama. While most critics are using this time to rightfully shame these and other so-called ministers of the Gospel for fleecing folks out of their hard-earned money, I think that this is a good time for us to use our sudden marriage counseling skills to look at a much deeper problem in the church.
Just recently, my family and I watched the National Geographic program Inside the Living Body. There was a portion of this program that talked about diseases and how the body responds. One such disease is Chickenpox.
As soon as our bodies detect the presence of this and other viruses, the body’s defense mechanisms automatically go to work. Body temperature is raised to prevent the spread of additional virus-infected cells and in the case of the Chickenpox, little blisters are formed all over the skin as a sign that there is a mighty battle being waged inside of you.
Such is the case when some preacher or pastor is being exposed for years of mess he/she tried to keep in the dark. However, what many folks don’t realize (or don’t want to realize) is that these individuals are usually not alone in their double life.
Take for example, PASCH. Ever heard of it? PASCH stands for Peace and Safety in the Christian Home. This is Christian ministry whose main focus is addressing the whole issue of domestic abuse in the Christian home. In fact, if you were to do a quick Google search under the topic, you would find quite a few ministries that address the same issue. How can those of us who claim to be Christians become infuriated about the affairs of one couple, but are completely in the dark about this being a church-wide issue?
As far as divorce within the church goes, the news isn’t any better. Did you know that according to a study conducted by the Barna group ( a Christian research organization) that the rate of divorce among Christians is very close that the divorce rate on non-Christians (read the whole article to understand the numbers here)?
Jesus says in Matthew 7:1-5~
1″Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3″Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Most folks get hung up on that first verse believing that it is wrong to judge anything or anybody. However, you must keep it within context. Verses 2-5 basically instructs us on the right way to judge a person–by making sure you abide by the same boundaries you expect others to keep.
As a person who has spent a good part of his life working with both local and nationally-recognized ministries, I could spend a very long time dishing some of the dirt on prominent figures in the Christian world. However, while it is important to talk about Christian leaders who abuse their positions–cloaking it under ‘exposing the devil’, it is more important for me to see to it that I am treating my own wife and children in a way that is pleasing to God. It is also important for me to show others how to do the same. As for the phonies out there, usually their mess will be the very thing that hangs them in the end. I have a hard enough time judging myself.
Found this on oldtruth.com
“Do you simply go to church to get temporary relief, to forget your troubles and feel happier for a moment? God have mercy upon you if you do! No; the business of the church is to deal with the real problem of men and women–not to give alms, but to offer a cure for the paralysis. This is the unique message of the church, and this is what differentiates it from every other institution under the sun. The church is an expert on the soul. It is not a cultural center or a psychological clinic or a social agency. No; her calling, her commission, is to deal with the souls of men and women. This is what causes their paralysis. Their trouble is not in the mind, nor in the heart, nor anywhere else primarily, but in the soul–that is, in the essence of their being, the center of their life.
The trouble of men and women is their sinfulness. It is not lack of knowledge–they have plenty of knowledge. They know theoretically that war is madness, but that does not prevent their fighting. They know perfectly well that to drink too much alcohol is sheer lunacy, but they do it. Their trouble is this paralysis of the soul, that twist, the fatal thing that holds them down, that sends them astray. It is their estrangement from God. The violation of the law of God known in their own being–that is the trouble….The problem of the world today is the direct, immediate, central problem that men and women do not know God and do not know how to live and do not know how to die. And this central problem leads to all the misery, the unhappiness, the failure, the shame, the remorse, the agony, the bitterness, and the heartbreak of life. This is the problem. What is the value to you of scientific knowledge if it does not help you live? What is the point of being thrilled by great music if it still leaves you a slave to sin? What is the value of admiring art and showing your great cultural understanding if you cannot control your temper? The problem of the world is the problem of the souls of men and women, fallen, with the image of God defaced almost out of recognition. Human beings are almost worse than animals because the possibility of greatness is there in them. It is this contradiction, this paradox, that marks humanity; greatness and smallness, achievement and failure–here is the essential problem.” –more (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, author of the book “Authentic Christianity”)
The Examiner (San Francisco) is in the middle of a series talking about the lawyers behind class action suits and their role behind the political machine of Washington. Definitely worth the read!
(examiner.com) When The Examiner asked legal experts across the country who are top lawyers specializing in filing bigtime class action lawsuits against Fortune 500 companies, public institutions, prominent individuals and small businesses, a dozen names kept coming up.
These are the trial lawyers who win the billion-dollar settlements, generate headlines in newspapers across the country and often become political powers unto themselves. (more…)
Also, click here for the rest of the series.
In case you missed it last night, there was a story on 20/20 that just was too amazing not to at least mention here. The article below tells the story:
(navytimes.com) Spc. Channing Moss should be dead by all accounts. And those who saved his life did so knowing they might have died with him.
March 16, 2006. Southeastern Afghanistan. A fierce ambush and bloody firefight. It was over in a flash and Moss was left on the verge of death.
He was impaled through the abdomen with a rocket-propelled grenade, and an aluminum rod with one tail fin protruded from the left side of his torso.
His fellow soldiers worried: Could he blow up and take them with him? For all anyone knew, the answer was yes.
Still, over the course of the next couple of hours, his buddies, a helicopter crew and a medical team would risk their own lives to save his.
“Moss is an African-American and he’s gone to white. He’s in total shock from the loss of blood. But at the time, I really didn’t think about it. I knew [the RPG] was there but I thought, if we didn’t do it, if we didn’t get him out of there, he was going to die,†said flight medic Sgt. John Collier, 29, then a specialist.
“It was an extremely unusual set of events. He should have died three times that day,†said Maj. John Oh, 759th Forward Surgical Team general surgeon.
The 36-year-old’s surgical skill and command of his own nerves would be put to the ultimate test as, wearing helmet and body armor, he would operate to extract the ordnance from Moss’s booby-trapped body. One wrong move risked the lives of the patient, his own and those of the other members of the medical team.
He said the payoff was worth the gamble.
“For a soldier to be struck by an RPG and be flown and have surgery and survive it’s unheard of,†said Oh. “It was a pretty remarkable experience.†(please read the rest here)
Also, you can watch a video interview of Spc. Channing Moss here.
What really moved me about this story was how quickly soldiers were willing to place their lives on the line for a fellow soldier. In this particular case the soldier in need was Black, most of the other soldiers that broke protocol to save him (because protocol says that because he had a live round lodged in his body, he should have be left on the field) were White. And the main doctor that also chose to place his life along with the life of his fellow doctors was Asian. Everyone was faced with the choice to ‘rightfully’ look out for themselves because of protocol, but they all chose to stay. Perhaps the most moving part for me was when one of the soldiers who had the responsibility to actually remove this unexploded grenade from Spc. Moss actually took on the greatest risk by standing in the direct path of this round as he managed to pull it out and carry it outside the medical wing where he blew up the bomb in a safe location.
Stories like this is yet another reason why I love our military (sports is another good example). While we civilians have the luxury of sitting back and arguing over the mission, arguing over quotes/misquotes/miscalculations by Democrats or Republicans, these young men and women know how to put all of that aside in and work together.
