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Activists call press conference on videotaped beating
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Tuesday, January 31 at 7:02 PM
Jamala Rogers and other community activists will be conducting a press conference and "community rally" on Wednesday, Feb. 1, at the Maplewood Police Station/City Hall, 7601 Manchester Blvd.
The event, which is to begin at 11:30 a.m., is in response to the beating of Edmon Burns by Maplewood and St. Louis City police officers which was caught on tape by local television helicopter cameras. The FBI is said to have begun an investigation into the matter.
Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO) made the following statement today regarding the passing of Coretta Scott King:
"Coretta Scott King was a woman of uncommon valor and great dignity. As a partner to her late husband, Mrs. King was an essential part of the struggle. After his tragic death, her courage and leadership inspired millions of Americans to continue the mission of non-violent social change in the pursuit of justice, peace and equality. Mrs. Clay and I would like to express our deepest sympathies to the King family. They have lost a beloved matriarch and our nation has lost one of its finest citizens."
Former PUB DEF/Riverfront Times/STL Journalism Review writer C.D. Stelzer is blogging from Ireland.
In his Jan. 28 post he notes that a case of Budweiser in Ireland, which is made by Guinness under a contract with Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, costs more than €37.00 for a 24-can case. Ouch.
Did you know that now you have to tell the state whenever you sell your car?
"Effective January 1, 2006, the seller of a motor vehicle, trailer, or all-terrain vehicle must report the sale within 30 days to the Department of Revenue." Failure to do so can cost you up to $200. Click here to read more.
As Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice today after being confirmed by the Senate 58-42, Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) released a video on his website expressing his support for President Bush's nominee -- and asking for some money for his campaign. Click here to see that video. Be prepared to get hit up for a donation.
For the record, Missouri's two senators, both Republicans, voted for Alito. Illinois' two senators, both Democrats, voted against. Click here to see the roll call vote.
Around the world this morning, people are mourning the loss of Coretta Scott King. The widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died today after suffering from failing health for months. In August, she had a major stroke and then a week later suffered a mild heart attack. She was 78.
Click here to read more about the life of this great woman.
In the city's continuing effort to alienate young people, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted on Friday to make it illegal to have large speakers in your car. You read that right; not to play loud music, just owning the speakers would be illegal. To add injury to insult, the law allows the police to take a citizen's car (before being found guilty) and force them to pay a fine of $250 to $500.
The bill, sponsored by Craig "Guess What's Playing on My iPod" Schmid, outlaws speakers larger than 12 inches, possession of more that one 10-inch speaker, or more than 2 amps (or just one with more than 300 watts output). Perhaps most ridiculous, "Craig's Law" also outlaws speaker boxes.
[Update:Ed Rhode, spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay, said that the mayor does not have a position on the bill yet.
Here are some interesting quotes from Friday's debate on Board Bill #81...
Dionne Flowers (2nd Ward), in support of the bill: "We're not talking about loud music, good music. We're not talking about trying to restrain you. We're just talking about nuisance."
Freeman Bosley, Sr. (3rd Ward), in support of the bill: "Here I am with my ten year-old and they're playing some of the most foul music you ever heard. They're not playing Mozart. They're not playing Paganini. They're not playing anything that you would really want to hear. They're playing some of the foulest stuff, cussing people, calling ethnic names out, popping their fingers to it. And what really amuses me, I see some of the women in there while they're callin' them all kinds of names in there. And they're just popping and shaking. Well I don't like it. I think it's wrong."
Lyda Krewson (28th Ward), in opposition to the bill: "I don't really want to hear this music either. I happen to have a 16 year-old and I hear it more than I'd like to. But I attribute that to being old and cranky."
Steve Conway (8th Ward), in opposition to the bill: "People who run red lights, they can kill you. We don't seize those cars when people run red lights. Yet some kid's playing his music too loud and we want to take his car."]
He's not running for re-election this year, but Aldermanic Board President Jim Shrewsbury is raising cash as good as anybody who is. During the last three months of 2005, Shrewsbury raised more than $40,000, according to his campaign's quarterly report. That brought his total cash on hand to $128,070.88.
Over in Kansas City, Congressman and former Mayor Emanuel Cleaver is receiving criticism for not giving in quite the same manner he received.
The issue (as it always is) is cash. Cleaver received hundreds of thousands of dollars for his 2004 election from friends in Washington. Now, they want some of it back.
The KC Star reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which coordinates the party’s House campaigns, poured lots of donations into the congressman's campaign. Now, as they seek to help other Democrats across the nation, they want some of his nearly $200,000 war chest to go to the cause. So far he's only given 10 grand.
The primary election for state representative in the 60th district is still several months away, but candidate Jamilah Nasheed is wasting no time giving people things to talk about (See this, this, and this). Her campaign reached out and touched voters twice this weekend.
Several residents of the 60th district received in the mail a "community survey" from Citizens for Jamilah Nasheed, which asks for opinions relating to neighborhood issues, parks, and satisfaction with the level of service provided by the current state rep, Amber Boykins (though she is not mentioned by name). Voters were also asked to rate six concerns using numbers 1 through 5, with 1 being the biggest area of concern and 5 being the least. (No word yet on what to do with the 6th.)
Then on Sunday voters in the 60th, including this reporter, received a phone call from the campaign. Click here to listen.
Nasheed's opponents, former State Rep. Robert Bartlett and Shaun Simms, husband to Amber Boykins, have been quiet so far. But the race can be expected to heat up closer to summer.
Sylvester Brown weighs in on Annie Malone parade's move
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Sunday, January 29 at 7:01 AM
Post-Dispatch columnist Sylvester Brown offers his take on the Annie Malone parade's proposed move from north St. Louis in today's edition of the paper. Click here to read it.
With governments all over the globe trying to come to grips with the Hamas victory in this week's historic elections, one St. Louisan has been in the middle of it all, observing with her own eyes the wonder that is democracy.
Sister Mary Ann McGivern, who ran for a seat on the St. Louis school board in 2003, is in the region as an elections observer with the United Nations. She gave PUB DEF permission to publish the letters she wrote last week to friends here.
Jan. 23, 2006 -- I am sitting in an internet cafe in the center of the Old City, Jerusalem.We had two excellent days' training by the United Nations. The speakers from the Central Election Commission were candid. There are new election laws, requiring, for instance, full financial disclosure. One candidate wrote: I received one million dollars (US) from Fatah. I spent it.
These three days the security forces are voting so they can work during the election. The first morning a policeman called the Central Election commission to say his commanding officer ordered him to claim he is illiterate so that someone can watch how he votes. So the ElectionCommission announced that all the Security Forces had to pass a written test and so no one would be allowed to claim illitaracy.
We got lots of details on the issues, the voting process, and negotiations with Israel. Crossing the check points is tough. Our international passports get us through quickly once we get there, but there are such long lines. You take a taxi and then walk a couple of blocks and then pass through concrete rooms and two or three turnstyles and a metal detector and your packages get x-rayed. Some people are turned away or told to go to the end of the line.
Today we got a briefing that is a risk assessment. The bottom line is that the risk is low. That's the least dangerous rating possible. All the political parties are fielding candidates and they all expct to win in some districts. They also hope to come close in others. They want to see the results. So they have nothing to gain and everything to lose from disrupting the elections. And they have everything to gain from us saying the elections were transparent and credible.
I've been asking people if they plan to vote. In the city of Jerusalem, several men in the shops have told me no. One man who owns a little coffee shop talked to me at length about his analysis. Very interesting. Then he introduced me to other men and told them to tell me if they plan to vote.
One man said he plans to vote for Fatah -- unless I would be willing to pay him not to vote.
But the woman next to me on the bus is planning to vote and so are the taxi drivers. Very interesting.
This is my short first report. I have taken a ton of notes and I will write more about the whole process.
Now I have to go read all the UN pages of materials, study the maps, figure out where we will be, etc.
Love,Mary Ann
PS -- I got the invitation to be an observer in early December from the Nonviolent Peaceforce. I've been a member from the beginning, an old friend of founder and director Mel Duncan.
PPS -- There are many similiarities to Northern Ireland. But it is shocking that things here are so bad and it only started after WWII. Things are very bad.
Jan. 25, 2006 -- Being here for elections is terrific. I keep thinking how much you would see. There is a campaign silence the day before and the day of elecitons. The Palestinians have only had two elections, one in '96 and one last year for president. This was like a birthday party and the hats and cake were campaign leaflet. They totally ignored campaign silence. Veiled women were out wearing campaign hats and staffing tables at the door of the school-polling stations, tallying who showed up to vote.
Mary Ann
Jan. 28, 2006 -- I am back at the internet cafe in the center of the Old City, Jerusalem. Finally, the vote seems to have gotten the world's attention.
I was up at 4 am, at the checkpoint at Bethlehem at 5 am. The checkpoints are a whole story in themselves. Tough places. At the one to Ramallah someone had written the words the Germans put at one of the concentration camps: work makes you free. I have a photo and a photo the next day of it blacked out.
Anyway, I was in Hebron at a public school at 6:45 AM to witness the opening of the polls there. I was in about 11 polling stations during the day. The vote was counted at each station beginning at 7 pm. The count took about four hours. The classroom where I was had four broken windows.
Coat, vest, scarf and hat were not enough to keep me warm.
These were fair elections, born of deep frustration and anger. But other Palestinians are afraid and despairing of peace.
Yesterday 7 of us who were still here participated in a nonviolent demonstration at a little village where the wall is taking their olive trees for a settlement.
Love, Mary Ann
UPDATE 1:
Jan 31, 2006 -- The fact of the occupation & How the voting took place
The occupation is the first thing to be observed and reported on. When Dr. Hanna Nasir, chair of the Palestinian Central Election Commission, opened the United Nations Development Pragramme orientation for observers, that's what he told us, that the elections could not be viewed apart from the occupation and that he hoped on our return to our homes we would tell people how we experienced the occupation.
I did experience the occupation. I passed through checkpoints, was intimidated by men with guns, was threatened with confiscation of my camera for taking a picture of the observation tower at a check point. Entering the country I faced fewer questions than when I've gone to Northern Ireland, but the exit scrutiny of my passport, rejection of Palestinian credentials and a demand for non-existent Israeli ones, triple x-ray of my luggage and purse, page-by-page scrutiny of the book of West Bank maps of election sites that was part of our briefing, and the flippant question of what I saw when I observed the elections, followed by a bullying scowl at my answer -- this examination made me nervous of failure. What if the Israelis refused to allow me to leave the country?
But my nervousness is not the same as the fear of a man on the housekeeping staff at my hotel in Jerusalem. He is afraid to visit his home village because the last time, when he tried to cross back from the West Bank he was thrown into prison for three months, beaten, jailed with violent men., despite being told at his arrest that his record was clean.
My nervousness is not the same as poverty. The schools where the elections were held had blackboard and chalk, but no maps on the walls or papers of best work, much less shelves of books or cabinets of paper, scissors, glue, crayons. The last classroom I was in, where I watched the ballot counting for four hours, had four broken windows. My coat, vest, hat, scarf and gloves were not enough to keep me warm.
A taxi driver in Hebron, taking us to the next school on our polling list, said he wasn't voting. He lives in H1, the militarized section of Hebron City where the army protects Jewish settlers who have illegally evicted Arabs and established a militant commune. Three of us observers got lost there, looking for a school, and were followed ominously by two of the male settlers, even through soldiers' checkpoints. The cabbie said it is foolishness to pretend that either Fatah or Hamas has any power to resist the occupation and he was unwilling to participate in the charade.
The Israelis only allowed voting in Jerusalem at the Post Offices, and only allowed 6300 of about 120,000 eligible voters to vote, to make the point that in their view the Israelis were not occupying East Jerusalem but had annexed it and now Arabs were foreigners. The postal clerks were Israelis. Some made provision for secret ballots, others didn't. Some explained the complex ballot, others didn't. Some kept campaigners out of the post offices, others didn't. The Jaffa Gate post office is so small a portable voting booth was set up outside around the corner, but the postal clerks weren't telling voters where it was. And Palestinians with blue cards, giving them permission to live in Jerusalem, were afraid that voting would put their residence cards at risk.
The occupation was the background of the voting, but the voting was splendid. The election workers were faculty, men and women, and the polling stations were three to six or so classrooms, each with a register of 500 to 700 registered voters. The lists were posted outside the school and to enter the school voters had to hide campaign paraphernalia like caps and flags and fliers. An ID checker sat outside each classroom and inside a worker crossed the voter's name off the registration list, another inked the left index finger, and a third handed each voter two ballots.
The ballots were complex. The first one contained 11 lists, slates of national party candidates. The second was lists of individuals running to represent the district. Hebron voters could select nine from about 25 candidates. From seven o'clock in the morning through to seven at night I did not see one instance of an election worker losing patience or cutting an explanation short. I don't speak Arabic, but these transactions were transparent.
Even more remarkable, the election worker who was in charge of the ballot boxes never once in places where I was took a ballot out of a voter's hands to fold it or place it in the box. Women sometimes tried to hand off their ballots but the workers never took them. Illiterate voters brought trusted assistants with them and there too the election workers made sure it was the voter who put the ballot in the box. The voters guarded their ballot secrecy and the election workers guarded the voters. It was inspiring. It was a fair and transparent and credible election.
Meanwhile, outside the schools, on the playgrounds, the parties were campaigning. Cars and taxis were draped in Hamas green and Fatah yellow. Boys and men lined the gateways handing out campaign material. At one school a veiled woman working for Hamas sat at a table next to the school entrance, checking off voters from a copy of the registration list. It’s what party operatives do all the time, track whether their committed members vote.
Yes, this may have been intimidating to voters. It was illegal. All campaign activity was supposed to have ended two days earlier. But it was such a vigorous commitment to the electoral process that it did my heart good. Not an inch of this campaigning spilled over into any school I was in, and I didn't hear of accounts elsewhere of in-school party regalia – except in the Jerusalem post offices.
I had one big cultural shock. At about six o'clock in one polling station a man unrolled a prayer rug and quietly prayed for about three minutes. Then a second man used the rug, then four more. Then two men prayed together, singing a portion of the Koran loudly. The voting process continued, no one batting an eye. And less than half the men in the room prayed, though judging by the vote most of them voted for Hamas.
The vote count was exciting. At 7 PM the door was locked and the ballots in each box were unfolded and counted, along with invalidated ballots, and the counts were reconciled. Meanwhile, one of the men wrote the names of all the lists or slates on the blackboard. He kept the public tally while other workers and observers also kept count. Each party and local candidate as well as domestic organizations had the right to send observers. An English-speaking representative of the Association of Community Organizations (as best he and an English teacher could translate it) provided me with a running commentary.
In this polling station, 336 ballots were cast. It didn't take more than 20 ballots to see that in our little room one of the slates was headed for a landslide. I asked who it was and my kindly interpreter whispered Hamas. The excitement was palpable.
The Hamas list received 247 votes, Fatah 63, the next lists 11, 6, 2 and one votes. Five slates received no votes. The individual votes went the same way, a landslide for all 9 Hamas candidates.
Mary Ann
UPDATE 2:
Feb. 1, 2006 -- The elections were Wednesday, January 25. On Thursday the UN Development Programme and Grassroots International for the Protection of Palestinians (GIPP) held debriefings and analyses that I have yet to summarize in writing.
But on Friday seven of us observers from the Nonviolent Peaceforce crossed the checkpoint again at Ramallah and took a minibus to the very small Arab town of Bil'in. Just a year ago, on February 20, 2005, bulldozers turned toward Bil'in and began to uproot olive trees and clear a path for the wall. The 3000 citizens of Bil'in had feared that the Jewish settlers in Modi'in Illit were going to confiscate their land and that day calls went out from Bil'in. The man who gave us an orientation, Mohammed Katib, said he came back from work in Ramallah and a huge number from the village went to the construction site protest. Then, he said, they had a village meeting and began to develop an organization. They are committed to nonviolence, using their minds, not their hands or weapons. They welcome international partners and Israelis. They don't talk about political parties but about the Palestinian people.
"Our struggle is against the occupation, not the people. They take the land and say 'security.' They kill people and say 'security.' We pull this reason from them. Our hands are tied. We tie our bodies to the trees. We tie ourselves to each other with no way to protect ourselves. We are not a security threat. Our message is to stop the war in our lands and the uprooting of our trees.
"The media describes the Palestinians as terrorists and there is a misunderstanding about who is the occupier and who is the victim. If there is an Israeli tank and a Palestinian with a gun, the story is about two armies facing off. The real story is about an occupying army and an occupied people.
"At first the villagers protested every day, then three times a week, now every Friday. If the soldiers do not use violence, then we can stop the wall and the uprooting of the trees. We cancel their weapons and we show Palestinians that we can use our minds to be stronger than those who are following orders. But so far the soldiers have used violence against us. Four hundred have been injured, ten seriously" [including an Israeli and a Portuguese woman six weeks ago who had both her arms broken].
The villagers have stood toe-to-toe with the soldiers. They have liked arms and tried to cross the police lines. They have stood on the land. The soldiers have used tear gas almost every week and frequently assault the villagers and their supporters. An Israeli woman in her fifties, Kerstin Sodergran, said two weeks she saw agent provocateurs who the villagers unmasked, after which village leaders were arrested by the soldiers.
Kerstin said the women come sometimes (the only women when I was there were Israelis and internationals), mostly when one or several of the men are being held by the soldiers, because detention and imprisonment are such heavy burdens for the captives and their families. Kerstin said the women become emotional, crying and shrieking and demanding the release of their husbands and sons. And the women are often effective in gaining the men's release.
A few weeks ago, the villagers secretly made their way across the wall and build a house, a shack really, an illegal structure, just the way the settlers do. When the soldiers demolished it, the villagers demanded the Israeli Supreme Court also order the settlers' illegal houses demolished and reroute the wall. They have a temporary stay and the case is to be heard today, February 1, 2006, as I am writing this.
Our group waited at noon until prayers at the Mosque were finished. About 150 men and boys came out from prayer and led 75 internationals who were waiting at a house down the road. We walked through the olive orchard to the wall construction site. The men chanted "No to the fence" and "Upsidedown to the wall." I took a lot of pictures, trying to catch the olive orchard with wild flowers blooming underfoot, the scoured land where the wall is to go, the barbed wire, and in the distance the settlers' village and giant construction equipment I would guess is made by Caterpillar and given to Israel by the U.S. Department of Defense as part of the Camp David agreement.
Some teenagers threw stones from the relative safety of the olive orchard and the soldiers fired tear gas back. Kerstin advised me to stand close to the soldiers to avoid the tear gas. She said the risk is that if the soldiers decide the demonstration is over and order us gone, they may hit nearby demonstrators, but she thinks that's better than the tear gas.
The village supported Fatah, not Hamas. A couple of village demonstrators engaged one of the soldiers in a discussion, saying: this vote for Hamas is your fault, because of the way you treat us.
I've read about Hamas. I know they are militant and disciplined; their guns and bombs have been silent this past year except for one killing in Gaza. I know they provide food and social services to everyone (while other Palestinian and Arab groups serve only their members).
What I saw and was told while I was there is first that Hamas wanted to be a part of the government. A United Nations staffer gave us a risk assessment as part of our orientation. He said that because all the political parties had fielded candidates and because there were no rumored threats of violence, the risk assessment was low to observers – which is the bottom gradation.
Second, although I was there briefly and my contacts were limited to Palestinians who could speak English, when people realized I was there to observe the elections, they wanted to talk to me, to ask me what I expected to see and when I said I had no preconceptions, to tell me what to look for. No one advocated violence or hinted at a willingness to support it. One of the things I've learned in Northern Ireland is that the IRA depended on community support. By the time I got to NI, that support was mostly gone, and similarly I didn't see or hear any support for violence among the people I spoke with in Jerusalem and Palestine.
Let me put a note in here about who I talked to during the 8 days I was there. My taxi driver from the airport described the Arab Christian diaspora and his experience of not being represented in government. I arrived at my hotel at 5 AM and slept till noon. Then I went walking. The proprietors of the Internet Café and a little coffee and juice operation, when I told them why I was there and asked if they planned to vote, told me at length that they did not intend to vote because the elections were a game. The juice vendor brought over several other men who told me they would not vote either – except one who said he planned to vote for Fatah unless I would pay him not to vote. The other men agreed there was a lot of money circulating for non-vote commitments. Then the vendor went on to challenge me: what benefit was I bringing to people who were miserable. What good is it to watch a ballot box? The only point is to listen to people who are miserable, to meet people who have lost everything. These frank comments emboldened me to ask more people if they intended to vote. At the Muslim Women's Center a woman said, "May you touch the living stone as well as the dead stone."
The next day our tour guide in Jerusalem said that Hamas had given some signals they would be willing to talk with the Israelis and that he planned to vote for Hamas. Two Muslim women sitting next to me on the bus told me they planned to vote, but the language barrier blocked discussion. When I came back across the checkpoint from Ramallah a bus driver congratulated me for crossing and when I asked said yes, he planned to vote. But in Hebron two cabbies and two vendors said no, they would not vote.
After the vote, in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem several Arab Christians told me their fear of Hamas, that Christians would be marginalized, Sharia law would be enacted, and Hamas would fight the Israelis, causing greater misery not only for Arab Christians but for everybody.
But next to all this I have to put the thousands of people I saw outside the 5 schools turned polling centers where I observed. They were confident, enthusiastic, eager, energetic – and at least 60 per cent of them voted by secret ballot for Hamas. My friend Antonio French says people in a voting booth have all sorts of reasons. That's what it looked like to me. They were good people, hoping for the best for their families, not folks with a death wish. They voted for Hamas for the same mix of reasons people in the US voted for Kerry or Bush -- believing their choices would benefit them.
Still more coming Orientation and debriefing Touring and food Conclusions
What I'm sending are drafts, accurate but unpolished writing. This bit about Hamas and who I spoke to in particular may be clunky and too long. Feel free to forward just the part of Bil'in if you wish. But do share this with anyone you think might be interested.
Slay: only a 'few neighborhoods' are unsafe (wink-wink)
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Friday, January 27 at 4:00 AM
Claire Nowak-Boyd pointed out on the Ecology of Absence blog that Mayor Francis Slay published on his blog Wednesday the following statement regarding the recently released city crime statistics:
"As I have written before and as most of you know, many neighborhoods in the City are very safe places today. However, as the stats make too clear, a few neighborhoods are not."
Which neighborhoods are those, I wondered. Could he mean my neighborhood, located in the city's 6th district (in the northern most part of the city)? District 6 did have more homicides than the five districts that make up south St. Louis combined (35 compared to just 30 for districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9).
But what about District 1 (in the southern most part of the city)? While they only had 10 homicides, they had 29 rapes reported last year. And the 3rd District (bound by I-44, Kingshighway, and Chippewa) led the entire city in rapes (51). Even downtown had more rapes reported than all but one northside district.
As a matter of fact, the only "safe" place in the whole city seems to be district 2, which includes "The Hill" neighborhood -- the section of town where most of the city's police officers happen to live.
So maybe Mayor Slay's wink-wink to potential loft buyers might be a little misleading.
The city has a crime problem -- the entire city -- and the sooner we face that reality, the sooner we can address it, as a single community. Crime in one neighborhood is everybody's problem.
In the middle of The City of St. Louis' much touted "rebirth", why are Annie Malone's directors and Mayor Francis Slay giving up on north St. Louis now?
The St. Louis American's Political Eye thinks it's all about race and money. Click here to read that column. Then click here to read the discussion happening on Greg Freeman's Front Porch forum.
This ad on JournalismJobs.com suggests that the Post-Dispatch will be introducing a weekly Fantasy Sports section to the paper. [Insert "fantasy reporting" joke here]
Jamilah Nasheed, candidate for state representative in the 60th district (through which the Annie Malone parade has long passed), sent us the following letter today:
Dear Editor:
It’s troubling to see north St. Louis continue to lose another piece of its heritage and tradition. Last Friday, Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center officials proudly announced a change that they apparently felt would be well received by our community.
Since the inception of the May Day parade some 96 years ago, most black St. Louisans look forward to seeing friends and family participating in and attending the event. Many of us can remember or at least have heard a history lesson on the old days when the parade went through the historic Ville neighborhood. It is a wonderful tradition that generates large crowds and proudly reflects black St. Louis.
Moving it to downtown St. Louis is an insult to the families that use it as a touchstone and to the black owned, neighborhood based businesses, many of which have supported the parade for years.
In a press release, Annie Malone’s new CEO Richard King said, “We’re growing and want to position ourselves as a community-wide celebration, open to ALL who want to support children and families. We hope moving the parade to a larger, more centralized location will attract the interest and enthusiasm of everyone.”
Downtown’s emptied out streets and tall buildings provide no sense of community. It’s harder to park and much, much farther from home. Many of the elderly and young children without transportation who routinely attend the parade will have this tradition taken away from them.
As we enter black history month, we should pride ourselves on preserving our history, not wiping it away. I ask concerned citizens to call Annie Malone and strongly urge them to keep the parade where it belongs in the heart of North St. Louis. The number to reach Annie Malone’s CEO, Richard King, is 314-531-0120. Let him know how you feel.
Percentage of rise in violent crime matches proposed pay increase for Mokwa
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Wednesday, January 25 at 3:46 PM
According to statistics released today by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime in the city increased nearly 20% since last year. Coincidently, that nearly matches the proposed raise in pay for the city's top cop.
Reports of rape shot up an astounding 61.4% since 2004 (though department officials claim that number is misleading). The numbers of murders were up 14.9%, robbery up 12.7%, and aggravated assault up 22.5%.
It was reported two weeks ago that the St. Louis Police board (whose members are appointed by the governor) had proposed a change in how officers are paid. The change would give Chief Joe Mokwa a 21% raise.
Click here to download a PDF of the SLPD press release (with our own notes).
The campaign finance reports of Robert Bartlett finally reached the Missouri Ethics Commission. The filings of 60th district state rep candidate were postmarked Jan 13, but didn't arrive until yesterday, Jan. 24.
Bartlett, who served in the state house in 1998, has a total of $630.48 on hand. That is considerably less than his opponent Jamilah Nasheed, who reported $10,414 on her Jan. 15 quarterly report.
But Bartlett is still doing better than his third opponent, Shaun Simms, the husband of current 60th district state rep and 4th district state senate candidate Amber Boykins. According to Simms' statement of limited activity, he has raised less than $500 since filing to run for his wife's seat.
This is kind of off topic, but a moment of silence please for Chris Penn. The brother of Sean Penn is best known for his role as "Nice Guy Eddie" in Quentin Tarantino's classic 1992 film "Reservoir Dogs". He was found dead today in Santa Monica.
Judge Michael A. Wolff, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, delivered his State of the Judiciary address today before a joint session of the General Assembly in Jefferson City. He started his speech with the following remarks on the recent passing of a pioneering black judge:
"Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today. Before I begin, I would like for us to remember Judge Theodore McMillian, who died last week. Judge McMillian was our state’s first black circuit judge, state appeals judge and, for the past 27 years, a distinguished member of the United States Court of Appeals in St. Louis. He was a historic figure, an inspiration to those of us who were privileged to know him, and a generous mentor. Through his talents, persistence, civility and sense of humor, Judge McMillian opened doors that had previously been closed to men and women of his race. Let us pause for a moment of silence to honor him. Thank you."
Click here to download a PDF of Wolff's full speech.
Comptroller and Mayor disagree on TIF's impact on schools
By Antonio D. French
Martin Van Der Werf, of the Post-Dispatch, did an interview with Comptroller Darlene Green last week, in which the city's chief financial officer outlined why she thinks the mayor is wrong on the need to ask developers to pay their fair share into city schools. (The story was kind of buried on the Post's website, but here's a link.)
"The TIF for residential development is the one I'm most concerned about," Green said. "Developers are receiving 100 percent of the residential TIF right now - 100 percent. And if we were to look at that and say it's time to change that and give 50 percent to the developers and take 50 percent away from the developers, then we would have a more mutual benefit for the city and the schools."
"I look at this as a prime time to do that. Looking at the residential TIFs on our books right now, if we split the TIF, we would get $66 million over 23 years. That's roughly $2 million a year that would go to the schools. ... And about $950,000 annually would come to the city."
"The mayor's not in step with my opinion, but I believe, over time, that we will come together on this."
Mayor Francis Slay, who has long been criticized for his neglect of north St. Louis, said he supports the decision to move the Annie Malone parade downtown.
"We do not get involved in these decisions," the mayor said in a statement. "If the Director and Board believe that it is in the best interest of their organization to move the parade downtown then we support their decision."
Also, a report on KMOV.com makes the following claim: "Many say moving the parade out of North St. Louis will promote unity."
Green says she supports Civilian Review Board, urges Mayor to do the same
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Tuesday, January 24 at 2:58 PM
St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green today issued the following statement on Board Bill #69, which would create a civilian board to review reports of police misconduct.
“Police officers are a vital part of our community. They risk their lives every day to uphold the law and protect our neighborhoods. But situations inevitably arise where citizens disagree with the amount of force used by police. It’s times like these when a fair and objective review board is necessary to uncover the truth. Holding police officers accountable for misconduct is an important part of building trust within the community and moving St. Louis forward.
“Alderman Terry Kennedy’s legislation creating a civilian review board will not only benefit the city, but the entire region. I commend Kennedy’s character and resolve in standing firm on electing the board majority. I urge the board of aldermen, mayor and police chief to embrace board bill 69 and endorse Alderman Kennedy’s legislation. Creating a civilian review board in St. Louis with an elected majority, investigative powers and proper funding is long overdue.”
UPN/WB announced merger was a shock to the Roberts brothers
By Antonio D. French
PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE
CBS Corp, the parent company of UPN, and Warner Bros., which owns the WB network, surprised many this morning when they announced that they will be joining their two struggling networks to form a new one called The CW. The news came as a shock to the Roberts Brothers, who own St. Louis' UPN 46.
In a phone interview with PUB DEF, Mike Roberts, who was in Las Vegas at the annual NATPE convention, said that no one knew of the plans before the announcement. As a matter of fact, it was a call from PUB DEF that first alerted Kay Gabbert, VP of The Roberts Companies. She then called Roberts.
"I'm in the middle of everybody that owns TV stations," said Roberts. "Nobody knew."
The announcement today also revealed that the new CW network would be carried on stations owned by the Tribune Co., a minority owner of the WB. Locally, KPLR's WB-11 is owned by Tribune. Roberts said that it is likely that KPLR would be chosen for the new station, leaving the black-owned Channel 46 without a network.
But Roberts described today's announcement as an opportunity. He said his company will become St. Louis' only independent, full-power television station. He said they will carry family-friendly programing and possibly introduce more sports into the market.
"We have three television stations -- in St. Louis, Columbia (SC), Jackson (MS) -- all three are UPN," said Roberts. "We are obviously going to experience a great opportunity to evaluate the programming for each of those."
Director says northsiders should embrace new downtown Annie Malone parade
By Antonio D. French
The director of the Annie Malone Children & Family Services Center said that the vote to move the Annie Malone parade was not controversial and north St. Louis should embrace the parade's move to downtown.
In a phone interview with PUB DEF on Monday, Richard King, said that Annie Malone's board of directors voted "overwhelmingly" to relocate the parade. He said that the vote, which took place on Thursday, Jan. 19, was 16-1, with only one board member abstaining. Three members were not present.
King said that recommendation to move the Annie Malone parade from north St. Louis came from the May Day committee, of which he is also a member. He said that turnout for the parade has grown in recent years. But he and his board members felt it was best to "get a more centralized location, giving us the opportunity to make it a community-wide celebration."
"We serve children in this whole community," said King. "Whether it's south, north, east, or west... We simply wanted to be a more community-wide celebration and more inclusive."
He said that moving the parade downtown made it more accessible to everybody in the community.
To those in north St. Louis who have attended the parade for generations, Mr. King said, "Still take pride in the parade. It's still an Annie Malone parade. It still will be one of the largest African-American parades in the country. "
Mr. King, who said he lives in north St. Louis County, said he would like to see northsiders embrace the new parade with enthusiasm. "The parade's location is really the only things that's changed," he said.
At Friday's meeting of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, the controversial bill to create a civilian review board to oversee reports of police abuse got its second reading after making it out of committee the day before.
The Public Safety Committee, chaired by Alderman Terry Kennedy, the chief backer of Board Bill #69, voted on Thursday 5-2 in favor of the bill. According to supporters of the bill, voting in favor were Aldermen Bosley, Boyd, Carter, Kennedy, and Williamson (all of whom are black). Opposed were Aldermen Wessels and Vollmer (both of whom are white).
John Chasnoff, a member of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression (CAPCR), the group credited with leading the current push for such a board, said in a press release that the group sees last week's events as a positive step.
"Its relatively easy approval shows the committee heard the many citizens and national experts who spoke at several hearings on the need for Civilian Review," said Chasnoff. "We are wary that opponents may try to weaken the bill through amendments which remove the requirement for elected members, starve the CRB through inadequate funding, or reduce its effectiveness through understaffing.”
The sticking point with discussions on BB #69 has been the selection of its members. Supporters have demanded that at least some members are elected by the voters. Opponents, including Mayor Francis Slay, have pushed for appointed members only.
PUB DEF has been following BB #69 for months. Here is a video we first published in December. It was taken at one of the meetings of the Public Safety Committee.
NBC has said that the show's creators, Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme, will not be involved in the series finale, which will air on May 14 after a one-hour retrospective.
My guess is that the Republican presidential candidate, played by Alan Alda, will win in one of the final episodes.
But no matter what, I'm not watching "Commander in Chief" until they get a better writing staff.
[UPDATE] I got a little Tivo time last night and finally watched Sunday's episode. After the little "nuclear accident" in Vinick's home state, it might be less likely that the series will end with a Republican win. Then again, American voters have done dumber things.
The organizers of the nearly 100 year-old Annie Malone Parade have decided to take the annual event from its north St. Louis home and move it downtown.
Richard L. King, the director of the Annie Malone Children & Family Services Center, said the organization is "growing and we want to position ourselves as a community-wide celebration, open to all who want to support children and families." King just took his position last year after Jean Patterson-Neal retired after more than 30 years of leading the center.
The parade has always been in north St. Louis' Ville neighborhood since the organization first started there in the late 19th Century. Besides being a northside tradition, it is one of the biggest black parades in all of America. But no longer.
The City of St. Louis and Mr. King have given up on the idea of inviting white city residents to share in the annual northside event which drew more than 100,000 people last year. Instead, northsiders are forced to give up our largest annual event so that others can feel more welcome.
Perhaps the Soulard Mardi Gras organizers will do the same thing and opt to move their celebration further north? Maybe they've noticed that, for some reason or another, black St. Louisans don't seem to feel welcome in the crowd of 100,000 drunk white partiers.
Mr. King and those that he is seeking to attract to his new parade should know that others were always invited to our Natural Bridge parade. They've just chosen not to come.
What can you do? Call Annie Malone at (314) 531-0120.
Then call the city's northside aldermen and ask them what they think about their largest annual gathering being taken away. Reach the Board of Aldermen at (314) 622-3287.
Then call Mayor Francis Slay and ask him why he thinks it's a good idea to ask northsiders to give up their parade and what he ever did to invite others to come to it? Call (314) 622-3201 or send a fax to (314) 622-4061.
The City of St. Louis' lawsuit against seven manufacturers of lead paint is dead (for now). This week the judge in the nearly six year-old case issued a summary judgement for the paint companies.
In his 42-page ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Steven R. Ohmer said that the City failed to meet the burden of proving certain necessary facts. He wrote, "some significant level of proof of location-specific product identification is a necessary element of the City's claim. Since there is no genuine dispute of fact that the City cannot meet the burden of establishing that element, Defendents are entitled to summary judgement."
But it's not completely over. The City could appeal the case to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Missouri Republicans have forced State Auditor and U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill into a tough political situation.
Sen. Jim Talent sent out an email today drawing attention to comments made by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. "If Claire McCaskill were in the Senate, there would be one less vote for Judge Alito," the former presidential candidate is quoted in a graphic (see below).
According to the AP, Dean made the comments after pointing out McCaskill in the audience at St. Stephen Baptist Church in Kansas City this week.
Since then, the McCaskill campaign has been distancing their candidate from the chairman's remarks.
"Dean certainly doesn't speak for Claire McCaskill and did not speak to her prior to making any comments," a spokesman told the AP. McCaskill is still weighing her opinion of Alito and has not come to any decision yet on whether to support his nomination, he added.
It's a tough position for McCaskill to be in. Her base of traditional Democratic supporters, including those fearful of Alito's remarks on Roe v. Wade, want her to speak out against the Bush nominee. But in doing so, she would play into the Republicans hands by linking herself with Dean, who is increasingly being portrayed as a "radical liberal."
Flier depicts school board members as racist caricatures
By Antonio D. French
The following flier is making its way through the city. It depicts St. Louis school board president Darnetta Clinkscale as "Aunt Jemima" and newly appointed board member James Buford as "Uncle Tom".
The leaflet says it is paid for by an organization called "St. Louis for Kids Too!", but there is no such committee registered with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
A controversy continues in southwest Missouri. Apparently, the Democratic response to Gov. Matt Blunt's Jan. 11 State of the State speech was not heard in some parts of the state. Viewers of Ozarks Public Television and listeners of KSMU (SW Missouri's public radio station) missed out on hearing Sen. Maida Coleman's speech.
The reason, says the stations' general manager, is that the Gov ended his speech early and the Dems were slow to deliver.
Arlen Diamond, general manager of OPT and Director of Broadcast Services at KSMU, told The Joplin Independent, "Broadcast audiences listening to [the] address on public TV and radio in the Springfield area did not hear the Democrats' planned response because it was not fed from studios in Jefferson City at the end of the governor's 7 p.m. address."
"It was a very awkward situation. We didn't want to just ask people to stick around and wait until 8 to hear the response," he said.
Jake Wagman is reporting that Francis Slay is out of town -- in Israel, actually. "In Slay’s absence, veteran Alderman Fred Wessels is acting mayor, at least for now. The two city officials ahead of Wessels in the line of succession --- Board of Aldermen President James Shrewsbury and Alderman Phyllis Young –- are also out of town."
Jake beat me in pointing out that Francis Slay paid hired gun Richard Callow $2,000 a month for his work on the mayor's blog. Though I did report this relationship back in October. (I thought the idea of a blog was personal expression. I wonder if Callow writes in the mayor's diary for him too?). So let me point out that some of that money made it to other campaigns I've been following.
Callow donated $600 to Amber Boykin's state senate campaign ($300 on Nov. 23 and $300 on Dec. 1) and $500 to Maida Coleman's doomed state auditor campaign. And I can only estimate from their rate card, that Callow gives at least $400 a month to support Dave Drebes' newspaper.
If her campaign finance reports are any indication, the Clay political machine may have a horse in the 4th district senate race.
Darryl Piggee and Pearlie Evans, longtime aides to both Congressmen Clay Sr. and Jr. donated to the campaign of Yaphett El-Amin. On the same day, Dec. 30, the last day of the reporting period, Piggee donated $500 and Evans gave $400.
Other standouts include former Mayor Freeman Bosley, Jr's combined donation of $1,200 (half through his Bosley and Assoc. firm), former Comptroller Virvus Jones' gift of $150, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd and his wife's combined donations of $900, Ald. Frank Williamson's donation of $350, St. Louis American publisher Donald Suggs' gift of $600, state rep candidate Jamilah Nasheed's $600, and a loan from the candidate's husband Talibdin El-Amin for $1,000.
El-Amin virtually tied with Boykins and Gambaro in fundraising, still trails Smith
By Antonio D. French
State Rep. Yaphett El-Amin raised $31,685 during the last three months of 2005. Add that to the roughly $5,000 she raised during the previous quarter and the $11,000 in loans to her campaign, she now has just over $43,000 in the bank.
El-Amin is seeking the Democratic nomination to replace term-limited Pat Dougherty in the state senate. Her other opponents are fellow northsider State Rep. Amber Boykins, former state rep and St. Louis City election official Derio Gambaro, and former Congressional candidate Jeff Smith.
According to campaign finance reports published this week, Boykins had $44,543.35 on hand at the end of December. Gambaro had $40,027.05. And Jeff Smith claimed to lead all with more than $100,000 in the bank, although that could not be verified yet because his campaign's reports have not yet been published on the state's website.
On Monday, I was on KDHX's "Collateral Damage" with hosts D.J. Wilson and Fred Hessel, along with Steve Patterson from Urban Review - St. Louis. D.J. made a comment about how he couldn't find anything King-related on Black Entertainment Television (BET), the once-black-owned network founded by Bob Johnson that was purchased by Viacom in 2000 (Viacom also owns MTV, VH1 and CBS).
I noted that on the last episode of "The Boondocks", the show's creators imagined that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't die. Instead, he had been in a coma since being shot in Memphis in 1968. But shortly before 9/11 he awoke. And he was not pleased with what he saw -- including so-called Black Entertainment Television. Equally, America was no longer in love with Dr. King.
The episode culminates with a MLK speech unlike any you've heard...
Thanks to Weezcake for the video. And Watch "The Boondocks" every Sunday night at 10 on Cartoon Network.
Jeff Smith, the university professor who nearly beatRuss Carnahan to succeed Dick Gephardt in Congress in 2004, is claiming today to be the clear frontrunner in his campaign for state senate.
Smith's campaign sent out a press release last night boasting of raising over $41,000 in the last three months of 2005. (That figure could not be verified at this time because the state has not yet posted Smith's finance reports, though they are expected to do so very soon.) That would bring Smith's total cash on hand to over $100,000.
Smith's opponents in the race, state representatives Amber Boykins and Yaphett El-Amin, and former state rep. Derio Gambaro, each have reported less than half that amount.
Gambaro, who just announced his candidacy in mid-November, now has $40,000 in the bank, according to his campaign's reports posted online yesterday.
Boykins reported this week just over $44,000 on hand. That amount includes a $15,000 loan the candidate made to her campaign last year.
El-Amin's campaign reports have also not yet been posted.
Senate President Pro Tem Michael R. Gibbons (R-Kirkwood) is welcoming Newt Gingrich, former United States House of Representatives Speaker and founder of the Center for Health Transformation, to speak to the Missouri Senate during regular session in the Senate chamber at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, January 18, 2006.
Senator Coleman's looking for a new job -- any job!
By Antonio D. French
Sen. Maida Coleman, who last week delivered the Democrats' statewide response to Gov. Matt Blunt's State of the State address and who in November formed a committee to run for state auditor, is now thinking about running for license collector.
The city's longtime collector of revenue, Ron Leggett, is expected to retire. Current License Collector Gregory F.X. Daly has said that he will be running for Leggett's post. That leaves Daly's post up for grabs. And if Coleman is elected to another post before the end of her senate term, the city's Democratic leaders (mostly from the south side of the city) will likely choose her successor.
Coleman, who because of term limits is serving her last term in the senate, may believe she has a better shot at the lower profile city job after her chances of winning the statewide auditor post were severly damaged in recent weeks with reports of her personal financial troubles which resulted in her filing for bancruptcy several years ago.
But the lowering of goals is not enough to ensure Coleman will have a job in 2008. Should she decide to run for license collector, she will likely face Ald. Mike McMillan (19th Ward) in the primary. McMillan had nearly $150,000 on hand at the time of his October filing report.
Former 22nd Ward Ald. Kenny Jones is accusing the ward's current alderman of conspiracy and fraud. But it is Jones, along with another former 22nd Ward alderman, Jay Ozier, that many suspect in the failed recall attempt that is now in the hands of Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce.
Officials with the St. Louis City election board recently announced that numerous fraudulent signatures were found on a petition submitted to seek the recall of Ald. Jeffrey Boyd. Last week, the Circuit Attorney's office subpoenaed the election board's records on the matter. Jones and Ozier, longtime foes of Boyd, were the central figures behind the recall attempt and suspicion had quickly turned to them as possible targets of future indictment.
But this week, Jones told reporter Denise Hill (a pseudonym), of The St. Louis Argus, that it is Boyd who is the criminal.
"Jeffrey Boyd [and others] conspired to violate state chapter 115.631, which is a Class 1 election offense," said Jones. He said that Boyd and his supporters "misrepresented themselves as notary publics and convinced people to sign the affidavits [saying that they never signed the recall petition] when they're not legally notary publics."
Jones said Boyd committed a felony and should resign from his office.
He also said Mayor Francis Slay is part of the "conspiracy" to cover up these alleged acts. "Slay is utilizing crooked public relations firms to place a distorted illusion before the community," said Jones.
The print edition of The St. Louis Argus has reported that Ald. Charles Quincy Troupe has buried the hatchet with his committeewoman and state rep to support her in her race for state senate.
Yaphett El-Amin is quoted in the Argus, which is published by her father, saying that the two northside politicians have "set aside our differences to work for the greater good of our community."
MLK Support Group to host Greek social, honor former state rep
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Friday, January 13 at 9:00 AM
This week is marks the anniversaries of the founding of several black fraternities and sororities. Phi Beta Sigma fraternity was founded on Jan 9, 1914. Delta Sigma Theta sorority was founded on Jan 13, 1913. Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority was founded on Jan 15, 1908. Zeta Phi Beta sorority was born on Jan 16, 1920. All were founded at Howard University, in Washington D.C.
The St. Louis Dr. Martin Luther King Support Group will be hosting a social for area black fraternity and sorority members. "Greek Meet Greek" will be at The Formula, 1204 Washington Ave., in downtown, on Sunday, Jan. 15. Doors open at 9 p.m. Admission is just $5 for Greeks. $10 for non-conformists.
Earlier that day, Former Missouri State Representative Betty L. Thompson, one of the founders and organizers of the MLK Support Group, will receive the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award from University City.
That happens at 3:00 p.m. in the University City High School Auditorium, 7401 Balson Ave.
St. Louis Schools Watch is reporting that a teacher from Beaumont High School was taken to the hospital to get stitches yesterday after he was assaulted by a student.
A teacher at Stevens Middle School was said to have suffered a concussion as a result of being attacked by a student there on Tuesday. In December, a special education teacher at Shaw Elementary School was hospitalized after one of her students assaulted her.
"Violence in St. Louis Public Schools has been on the rise since the school board majority closed the district's alternative school more than two years ago," said the SLSW report. "Teachers say that larger class sizes, especially larger, mixed special education classes have aggravated the problem this year."
The Watch is a widely read newsletter produced by Peter Downs, a parent of students in SLPS. Downs is one of five declared candidates currently running for a seat on the school board. This is Downs third attempt. He was narrowly defeated last April by Flint Fowler, who was backed by Mayor Francis Slay.
Downs went on to say in his latest report that Superintendent Creg Williams, who "belittled the violence problem in St. Louis Public Schools last Spring, lately has tried to show more attentiveness to the problem. One of his solutions, moving the ninth grade out of Vashon High School to the previously closed Williams Middle Schools, will go into affect on January 17.
"Parents still have questions about transportation and about the physical state of Williams School, including whether it has the science labs and other facilities required for high school students."
An interesting article appeared in today's Post-Dispatch. Aisha Sultan's A-1 story on the city's effort to shut down a makeshift Muslim place of worship was interesting, not just for highlighting our local government's continued effort to squash anything the less-than-rich try to do to change the culture of this city, and not just because the article fails to mention the location of the prayer house (the address of the southside house is included in the caption of the photo).
The most interesting part of the story comes in the last graph when Ald. Phyllis Young (7th Ward) tries to explain why the city picked Nov. 3 to sent the Muslim group a letter notifying them that they had to shut down the house of prayer. That date just happens to be the day of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.
"No one is familiar enough with their religious holidays to purposely send a letter at that time," said the alderman, apparently taking a page from the Bush Administration's playbook and counting on ignorance as the best defense of stupidity.
Another interesting thing is that over on Page c-1, the Post has a story on how Muslim-bashing is in fashion now.
Missouri Republicans scrambled yesterday to try to distance themselves from Jack Abramoff and the corrupt lobbyist's donations after he pleaded guilty mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges.
Governor Matt Blunt announced Wednesday that he was giving away the $1,125 Abramoff gave him in March 2000 for his secretary of state campaign. The Governor's father, Congressman Roy Blunt, also announced he would be donating cash given to him. The acting House majority leader said that he would be giving all the money Abramoff gave him ($8,500) and his "Rely On Your Beliefs" (ROYB) political leadership fund to an as-yet-unnamed charity. According to earlier reports, Roy Blunt signed a letter to President Bush in 2003, along with 33 other lawmakers, urging him to reject a Louisiana Indian casino after receiving donations from Abramoff or his associates or rival tribes.
Sen. Kit Bond said he would donate the $12,500 that he received between 2002 and 2004 to the Salvation Army. Sen. Jim Talent returned $3,000 of contributions connected to Abramoff last year.
Congressman Sam Graves also received $3,000 from Abramoff in the past few years but hasn't yet said what he plans to do with it.
ACLU to arm northsiders with cameras to catch police abuse
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Sunday, January 1 at 9:18 PM
The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is planning to help north St. Louis residents protect themselves from the police.
Starting this summer, the ACLU will be training residents of Fairground Park neighborhood in the 21st Ward to use video cameras to capture instances of police abuse.
This story was first reported Saturday on the Post-Dispatch's website. This first of its kind program is getting national notice though. On Sunday, the high-traffic Drudge Report had a link to the story. The story has also been discussed on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.
It is worth noting that in the Post's story, while SLPD Chief Joe Mokwa and Sgt. Kevin Ahlbrand, president of the St. Louis Police Officers Association, represented the view of the police, and Brenda Jones and Redditt Hudson represented the view of the ACLU (described as an "activist group"), the view of residents of Fairground Park was not represented -- despite apparently being so routinely victimized by St. Louis police officers to warrant such a program of citizen activism.
