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Forum Being Held to Examine Sweeping Juvenile Justice Proposal
Eckerd Youth Alternatives, Inc., headquartered in Clearwater, Fl., has unveiled a proposal to restructure the provision of juvenile justice services at the circuit level, based on the community based care model of privatized child welfare functions. A pilot for implementation is proposed for Judicial Circuit 6 but would have significant statewide impact. Although the proposal was presented in front of a legislative committee last week, the public forum to be held in Tallahassee tomorrow Tuesday, February 16th, will be the first wide scale airing and discussion among stakeholders and citizens. Other forum topics will include pending legislation, budgetary issues, and the status of the Juvenile Justice Reform Blueprint. The forum will be held at First Presbyterian Church, 110 N Adams St. in Tallahassee. Click here for more information.
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Obama, black leaders focus on economic hard times
President Barack Obama and three prominent African-American leaders grappled Wednesday with how to improve economic opportunities for blacks, whose joblessness looms well above the national average and is nearly twice that of whites.
On a day of treacherous weather in Washington, Obama kept his scheduled meeting with Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP; Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network. Dorothy Height, chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women, could not make it to the White House because of the pounding snow and winds that kept most of the nation’s capital shut down. Read entire story at Black Politics On The Web.
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Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu elected mayor of New Orleans
Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans in a landslide Saturday. He will replace term-limited Ray Nagin and become the majority-black city’s first white mayor since 1979. Read entire story here.
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Analysis: Do Blacks Truly Want to Transcend Race?
Five little words — ”I forgot he was black” — have exposed a contradiction in the idea of a post-racial nation. The comment came from MSNBC host Chris Matthews after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech Wednesday. Read entire story at BlackPoliticsOnTheWeb.com
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Retiree says equality 'never happened' at KSC
Look at old photos of the Apollo firing room at Kennedy Space Center and you'll notice a few things the people have in common: all are men, most are wearing short-sleeved shirts and ties or white lab coats, and not a single one of them is black. Read entire story at floridatoday.com.
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Obama plan unacceptable
From the Apollo missions to the space shuttle Endeavour’s scheduled launch today, spaceflight has inspired generations of young Americans to advance human understanding of the universe around them. In the 20th century, the space program created thousands of Florida jobs. Read entire story here.
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Future of Black Colleges in Flux
The nation's historically black colleges and universities have been essential to the success of African-Americans since 1837. Popularly known as HBCUs, these schools remain important, producing 23 percent of black college graduates even though they constitute only 3 percent of the nation's colleges and universities. Read entire story at tampabay.com.
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Shocker: Tea Party Convention Opening Speaker Suggests a Return to Jim Crow Voting Laws
The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a "literacy test" to protect America from presidents like Obama -- a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting. In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country." Read entire story at alternet.org.
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Governor Crist Congratulates Emmitt Smith on Hall of Fame Induction
Pensacola native and former University of Florida football great, Emmitt Smith, was elected to the National Football League Hall of Fame. The NFL's all-time rushing leader, his value as a team player is demonstrated by playing three Super Bowl Championships for the Dallas Cowboys. He continues to be a great ambassador for the game of football with his charity work, especially through Pat and Emmitt Smith Charities. He will be inducted in August.
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Ex-POW in Iraq war recalls nightmares, depression
Shoshana Johnson survived gunshot wounds to both legs and 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq. Life wasn't so easy when she came home, either. In a new book out this week, the 37-year-old single mother describes mental health problems related to her captivity and tells how it felt to play second fiddle in the media to fellow POW Jessica Lynch, who was captured in the same ambush. Read entire story at Yahoo.
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Marco Rubio, Charlie Crist clash on who should be counted in Census
U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio backtracked Thursday from his statement that the U.S. Census should count only "legal American citizens,'' temporarily shifting his surging campaign into damage control. Read entire story at MiamiHerald.com.
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U.S. Senate candidate puts his name in a different kind of race
U.S. Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek announced he's in the race. Literally. "I will be the lead sponsor of Mike Wallace's #01 race car at the NASCAR Nationwide Series Race on 2/13," he said Tuesday via Twitter. Read story at progressflorida.org
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Lawmakers push for civil-rights Hall of Fame
Every day, people in the state's capital city pass by the historic site of a 1960 lunch counter sit-in and just see an old, abandoned brick storefront. But two black lawmakers, one of whom was behind the Legislature's formal slavery apology two years ago, see the building as a symbol of Florida's important role in the civil-rights movement. Now they want the state to establish a memorial in Tallahassee to honor that history. Read entire story at MiamiHerald.com
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DJJ Chief Peterman Repaid Taxpayers for Excessive Travel
Florida juvenile justice chief Frank Peterman has reimbursed the state for nearly $27,000 in questionable taxpayer-funded travel between Tallahassee and Tampa, trips that allowed him to spend long weekends near St. Petersburg, where his wife and children live and where he still preaches at a Baptist church.The two checks were drawn on an account at Achieva Credit Union in Largo, near St. Petersburg. They total $26,811. The repaid money is equal to a full year's salary for many, many state employees, and follows a highly critical report on Peterman's travel by Gov. Charlie Crist's chief inspector general that recommended Peterman repay the state as a form of "corrective action ... for travel not fully and completely justified as official state business." Crist ordered the IG investigation after a Times/Herald report last November detailed Peterman's many flights to and from the capital and Tampa, along with extra penalties for last-minute changes to flights, luggage fees and extensive use of costlier short-term airport parking. The amount Peterman repaid the state includes all travel from Tallahassee to St. Petersburg as well as the excessive luggage fees and airline re-bookings. Tambay.com, Steve Bousquet (2/1/10).
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Governor Crist Reappoints Lawrence Shipp to Tampa Port Authority
Lawrence “Larry” Shipp, 55, of Tampa, Vice President of TAG Resources LLC was reappointed for a term beginning January 27, 2010, and ending November 25, 2013.
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FAMUers Need 10,000 to Sign Petition to Expand Pharmacy School
FAMU's College of Pharmacy, ranked as one of the top pharmacy programs in the country, needs your help. The College of Pharmacy has received nearly 1,200 applications but can only accommodate 150 of those qualified students. In order to accommadate more students, FAMU's Pharmacy School want to ask Florida's state government for $2-3 million to complete phase two. The goal is to collect at least 10,000 signatures in the next few weeks to present to Governor Charlie Crist. Every signature counts. Want to help? Please sign FAMU Petition online.
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Support Kindell "Sunshine" Johnson for Miss FAMU
Tampa native, Kindall "Sunshine" Johnson, is running for Miss Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University 2010-2011 this February. Campaign Week starts Wednesday, Feburary 10th and ends Monday, Feburary 15th. We would like to do a video competition within the student body called: "Why I've got Sunshine for Miss FAMU!" The winning submission will receive a $500 book scholarship. We are asking for financial contributions for the campaign and funding for the scholarship. If possible, we would like to bless the second and prize winners using surplus donations. Please assist this beautiful woman of God with her efforts to represent the Tampa Bay Area with the highest honor possible, serving as Miss Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University 2010-2011! For more information contact Matthew G. Holte at (813) 310-2964.
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Russell Simmons Announces International Hip-Hop Summits
Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) Founder Russell Simmons and CEO Dr. Benjamin Chavis have partnered with several organizations to create the Music 4 Peace Initiative and Tour. Read entire story at allhiphop.com.
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Critical state report targets Juvenile Justice chief Peterman
TALLAHASSEE — A highly critical state report released Tuesday night finds Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Frank Peterman ran up $25,000 in questionable travel and should reimburse taxpayers for those expenses.
The report by Gov. Charlie Crist's chief inspector general, Melinda Miguel, concludes Peterman's frequent flights between Tallahassee and Tampa were not adequately documented. She concluded that the lack of paperwork and corroborating testimony "does not support his statement" that the travel was necessary.
"Evidence does not dispel the appearance that Peterman's travel to and from the St. Petersburg area was for his own convenience," the report says. "We recommend corrective action be taken including, but not limited to, obtaining reimbursement to the state for travel not fully and completely justified as official state business."
Peterman, 47, told the Times/Herald that he would repay the state for all questionable travel. Read more by the St. Petersburg Times.
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Miami’s T. Willard Fair to Head National Task Force On Education and the Military
The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) announced in late January that T. Willard Fair, a member of the Florida State Board of Education, has been selected to serve on a year-long NASBE study group—Common Ground: Education and the Military Meeting the Needs of Students—to examine the skills youths need to become strong students and leaders as they transition from post-secondary education to the next phase of their lives. As chairman of the 2010 national study group, Fair will meet with other state board members, researchers, and policy analysts to examine how specific curricula and assessment programs developed by and for the military may be adapted to improve public education. Among other topics, Common Ground will explore how to improve graduation rates, expand test prep resources, and elevate the need for well-trained teachers, particularly in science and math.
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