Fats Domino makes rare appearance at La. concert

By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer Stacey Plaisance, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 40 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS – Fats Domino rarely emerges from his Louisiana home — and many wondered if he'd show up for "The Domino Effect," his namesake concert that raises funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Sure enough, the 81-year-old New Orleans native smiled and waved from his private suite to more than 3,000 cheering people who attended Saturday's concert to see two of his old friends perform — Little Richard and B.B. King. Domino is an icon in New Orleans, known nearly as much for his reclusiveness as for hits like "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't That a Shame."
Little Richard, at the piano in a sparkly white suite, delivered an energetic set that included "Lucille," "Tutti Frutti" and other hits.
Between songs, he reminisced about New Orleans and Domino. Richard's breakout hit "Tutti Frutti" was recorded at Cosimo Matassa's studio in New Orleans in 1955.
"I was right here," Richard said, playing the piano as he talked. "I was right here."
Richard said he remembered being on the road with Domino, who always longed to be back home. Then Richard broke into song: "Every night about this time, I go to sleep to keep from cryin'."
While on stage, Richard was given a plaque inducting him into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He said he was surprised and touched.
Domino and Richard met backstage, where the men hugged, made small talk and posed for pictures. Richard's handlers handed out free inspirational pamphlets to fans during the concert, and backstage, he asked Domino and others to pray with him.
"Bless this life," Richard prayed, his head bowed, "and bless this music."
Domino also met with King after his blues set, which included the hit, "The Thrill is Gone."
As King walked off stage, Domino greeted him with a hug.
"It's good to see you my friend," King told Domino. "Did you bring me some gumbo?"
King said he used to open shows for Domino in the early years of his career. In 2007, King recorded the title track on a tribute album to Domino, called "Goin' Home."
Saturday's concert ran more than four hours and included performances by Chuck Berry, Wyclef Jean, Keb' Mo' and Junior Brown. Comedian-actor Tracy Morgan, best known for his work on the TV shows "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock," also performed.
Proceeds from the event are earmarked for "Operation Kids," a program run through Saints quarterback Drew Brees' foundation to improve the city's parks and schools.
Brees attended the concert with wife, Brittany, and dozens of the couple's closest friends and family. All got to meet Domino.
It wasn't the first time Drew Brees met the music legend. Brees said he got to hang out at Domino's home in the New Orleans suburb of Harvey a few weeks ago. He said Domino showed him his gold record collection and played the piano.
"How many people get to say they got to do that?" he said.
Domino has been living in Harvey since Katrina struck in 2005, flooding his home in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood. Still, Domino enjoys visiting his publishing house, an extension of his old home. The studio is a classic shotgun double built in the 1930s that was rebuilt after Katrina. It is one of a few refurbished structures in the neighborhood, which still has blocks of abandoned homes and overgrown lots.
Brees said he was grateful such pioneering musicians could help his foundation reach its goal of raising $1.8 million in two years to rebuild the city's parks, schools and play spaces — the things needed to bring families back to New Orleans.
"These guys are legends," Brees said. "They helped define an era and build a musical genre. They're the fathers of blues and rock and roll."

World Condemns North Korea Nuclear Test

By VOA News 25 May 2009
The international community responded swiftly with outrage and condemnation on Monday to reports of North Korea's nuclear test and firing of three short-range missiles.
President Barack Obama (file photo)U.S. President Barack Obama said North Korea's actions are violations of international law that constitute a "threat to international peace and security." Mr. Obama said North Korea's activities warrant action by the international community. The top U.S. military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, said the North Korean tests were not a surprise and are part of what he called growing belligerence on the part of Pyongyang. Mullen told CNN that it could take a couple of days to verify the test, but he had no reason to doubt North Korea's claims.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is deeply worried and that any nuclear test would be a clear violation of a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution banning North Korea from such acts. He said he plans to consult with the Council when it meets in a special session later Monday.North Korea says it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test that was more powerful than the country's first test two-and-a-half years ago. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also reports that North Korea test-fired three short-range missiles in the hours after the nuclear test. Seismologists from around the world reported a tremor in northeast North Korea, near where Pyongyang conducted its first test in October 2006.Russia's Defense Ministry said the nuclear explosion had a force of up to 20 kilotons, the same size as the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. South Korean officials called Pyongyang's actions a "serious threat to peace and stability" in the region. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session immediately after news broke of the nuclear test. The Chinese government said it is "resolutely opposed" to its communist neighbor and ally's actions. It also urged Pyongyang to avoid actions that sharpen tensions.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (file)The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that six-party talks on North Korea are the only solution to the crisis.European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana threatened a "firm response" to what he called "irresponsible acts" by North Korea.The Japanese government said it has set up a task force at the crisis management center of Prime Minister Taro Aso's office.Last month, North Korea threatened to restart reprocessing work at its once closed Yongbyon nuclear complex. The move was a response to international criticism of its April launch of a rocket it says was fired to put a satellite into space. The United States and other countries believe the rocket was a test launch for a ballistic missile.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
By VOA News 25 May 2009
The international community responded swiftly with outrage and condemnation on Monday to reports of North Korea's nuclear test and firing of three short-range missiles.
President Barack Obama (file photo)U.S. President Barack Obama said North Korea's actions are violations of international law that constitute a "threat to international peace and security." Mr. Obama said North Korea's activities warrant action by the international community. The top U.S. military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, said the North Korean tests were not a surprise and are part of what he called growing belligerence on the part of Pyongyang. Mullen told CNN that it could take a couple of days to verify the test, but he had no reason to doubt North Korea's claims.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is deeply worried and that any nuclear test would be a clear violation of a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution banning North Korea from such acts. He said he plans to consult with the Council when it meets in a special session later Monday.North Korea says it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test that was more powerful than the country's first test two-and-a-half years ago. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also reports that North Korea test-fired three short-range missiles in the hours after the nuclear test. Seismologists from around the world reported a tremor in northeast North Korea, near where Pyongyang conducted its first test in October 2006.Russia's Defense Ministry said the nuclear explosion had a force of up to 20 kilotons, the same size as the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. South Korean officials called Pyongyang's actions a "serious threat to peace and stability" in the region. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session immediately after news broke of the nuclear test. The Chinese government said it is "resolutely opposed" to its communist neighbor and ally's actions. It also urged Pyongyang to avoid actions that sharpen tensions.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (file)The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that six-party talks on North Korea are the only solution to the crisis.European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana threatened a "firm response" to what he called "irresponsible acts" by North Korea.The Japanese government said it has set up a task force at the crisis management center of Prime Minister Taro Aso's office.Last month, North Korea threatened to restart reprocessing work at its once closed Yongbyon nuclear complex. The move was a response to international criticism of its April launch of a rocket it says was fired to put a satellite into space. The United States and other countries believe the rocket was a test launch for a ballistic missile.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

4 Arrested in New York Terror Plot

May 20, 2009, 10:55 pm
By Sewell Chan
Federal authorities arrested four men on Wednesday night on charges of plotting to bomb a synagogue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and to use antiaircraft missiles to shoot down military planes at a military base in Newburgh, N.Y., 60 miles north of New York City.
The charges, which include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, represent some of the most significant allegations of domestic terrorism in some time, and come months into a new presidential administration, as President Obama grapples with the question of how to handle detainees at the Guantánamo camp in Cuba.
The four defendants — whom federal authorities identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, in Orange County — are expected to appear in Federal District Court in White Plains, in Westchester County, on Thursday morning.
(See related criminal complaint and the United States attorney’s press release, both in PDF form.)
Lev L. Dassin, the acting United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement on Wednesday night that “the defendants wanted to engage in terrorist attacks.”
He added: “They selected targets and sought the weapons necessary to carry out their plans. Fortunately, the defendants sought the assistance of a witness cooperating with the government. While the weapons provided to the defendants by the cooperating witness were fake, the defendants thought they were absolutely real.”
Political leaders responded to the news of the arrests with statements expressing relief.
“While the bombs these terrorists attempted to plant tonight were – unbeknownst to them – fake, this latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement that he had spoken with the New York office of the F.B.I. and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.
“They have told me they have been monitoring this group for sometime and that the men arrested did not have any connection to other terrorists,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “This incident shows that we must always be vigilant against terrorism foreign or domestic.”
See---http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com

Sudan President al-Bashir defies arrest warrant with trip to Eritrea

Sudan's president travelled to Eritrea on Monday, choosing one of Africa's most politically isolated nations for his first trip abroad since an international court sought his arrest on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

Last Updated: 8:44AM GMT 24 Mar 2009

The ICC charged al-Bashir on March 4 of leading a counter-insurgency against Darfur rebels that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities Photo: AFP
The one-day visit followed Eritrea's official invitation to Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, who faces an arrest warrant by the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.
Eritrean television showed live coverage of al-Bashir being greeted at the airport in the Eritrean capital Asmara by his counterpart President Isaias Afwerki, along with drummers and dancers. Sudanese state television later showed live images of al-Bashir returning to Khartoum.

Related Articles
US threatens Eritrea over support for al-Qaeda-linked terrorists
Darfur hostages: kidnapped western aid workers freed
Richard Branson to take over as Mia Farrow ends hunger strike
Darfur hostages: kidnapped western aid workers still held in Sudan
Kidnapped western aid workers freed in Darfur
Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor said the visit was "important" and reflected Eritrean "solidarity ... with Sudan against the ICC." Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told The Associated Press that al-Bashir was accompanied by heads of security and intelligence and was there to discuss regional security.
The ICC charged al-Bashir on March 4 of leading a counter-insurgency against Darfur rebels that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities against civilians. His government has been accused of unleashing Arab militiamen against Darfur civilians in a drive to put down a revolt by ethnic Africans in the region.
Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the conflict since 2003, according to the U.N.
Under the ICC charter, member states are bound to arrest those indicted when they enter their territory. Eritrea is not a signatory, however, and has vehemently condemned the indictment, making it a safe haven for al-Bashir to visit.
"It's unjustifiable and illegal and illogical and futile, the so-called ICC decision," said Mr Abdu. "We believe it's an extension and symptom of the ongoing world hegemony and domination by a few powers in this world."

The Harlem Miracle

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: May 7, 2009
The fight against poverty produces great programs but disappointing results. You go visit an inner-city school, job-training program or community youth center and you meet incredible people doing wonderful things. Then you look at the results from the serious evaluations and you find that these inspiring places are only producing incremental gains.
That’s why I was startled when I received an e-mail message from Roland Fryer, a meticulous Harvard economist. It included this sentence: “The attached study has changed my life as a scientist.”
Fryer and his colleague Will Dobbie have just finished a rigorous assessment of the charter schools operated by the Harlem Children’s Zone. They compared students in these schools to students in New York City as a whole and to comparable students who entered the lottery to get into the Harlem Children’s Zone schools, but weren’t selected.
They found that the Harlem Children’s Zone schools produced “enormous” gains. The typical student entered the charter middle school, Promise Academy, in sixth grade and scored in the 39th percentile among New York City students in math. By the eighth grade, the typical student in the school was in the 74th percentile. The typical student entered the school scoring in the 39th percentile in English Language Arts (verbal ability). By eighth grade, the typical student was in the 53rd percentile.
Forgive some academic jargon, but the most common education reform ideas — reducing class size, raising teacher pay, enrolling kids in Head Start — produce gains of about 0.1 or 0.2 or 0.3 standard deviations. If you study policy, those are the sorts of improvements you live with every day. Promise Academy produced gains of 1.3 and 1.4 standard deviations. That’s off the charts. In math, Promise Academy eliminated the achievement gap between its black students and the city average for white students.

Let me repeat that. It eliminated the black-white achievement gap. “The results changed my life as a researcher because I am no longer interested in marginal changes,” Fryer wrote in a subsequent e-mail. What Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children’s Zone’s founder and president, has done is “the equivalent of curing cancer for these kids. It’s amazing. It should be celebrated. But it almost doesn’t matter if we stop there. We don’t have a way to replicate his cure, and we need one since so many of our kids are dying — literally and figuratively.”
These results are powerful evidence in a long-running debate. Some experts, mostly surrounding the education establishment, argue that schools alone can’t produce big changes. The problems are in society, and you have to work on broader issues like economic inequality. Reformers, on the other hand, have argued that school-based approaches can produce big results. The Harlem Children’s Zone results suggest the reformers are right. The Promise Academy does provide health and psychological services, but it helps kids who aren’t even involved in the other programs the organization offers.
To my mind, the results also vindicate an emerging model for low-income students. Over the past decade, dozens of charter and independent schools, like Promise Academy, have become no excuses schools. The basic theory is that middle-class kids enter adolescence with certain working models in their heads: what I can achieve; how to control impulses; how to work hard. Many kids from poorer, disorganized homes don’t have these internalized models. The schools create a disciplined, orderly and demanding counterculture to inculcate middle-class values.
To understand the culture in these schools, I’d recommend “Whatever It Takes,” a gripping account of Harlem Children’s Zone by my Times colleague Paul Tough, and “Sweating the Small Stuff,” a superb survey of these sorts of schools by David Whitman.
Basically, the no excuses schools pay meticulous attention to behavior and attitudes. They teach students how to look at the person who is talking, how to shake hands. These schools are academically rigorous and college-focused. Promise Academy students who are performing below grade level spent twice as much time in school as other students in New York City. Students who are performing at grade level spend 50 percent more time in school.

They also smash the normal bureaucratic strictures that bind leaders in regular schools. Promise Academy went through a tumultuous period as Canada searched for the right teachers. Nearly half of the teachers did not return for the 2005-2006 school year. A third didn’t return for the 2006-2007 year. Assessments are rigorous. Standardized tests are woven into the fabric of school life.
The approach works. Ever since welfare reform, we have had success with intrusive government programs that combine paternalistic leadership, sufficient funding and a ferocious commitment to traditional, middle-class values. We may have found a remedy for the achievement gap. Which city is going to take up the challenge? Omaha? Chicago? Yours?

Brooklyn bodega owner Salah Ahmed found guilty of attacking teen with hammer

BY Scott Shifrel AND Dave Goldiner DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Brooklyn bodega owner was found guilty Wednesday of attacking a teen with a hammer in a wild fracas inside the East New York corner store.
Salah Ahmed, 36, faces up to 25 years behind bars for pounding Bunkless Bovian, 16, unconscious in a fight with another store clerk on April 14, 2008.
Ahmed, who prayed to himself moments before the jury read its verdict, looked stunned as he was taken into custody.
"We're obviously disappointed," defense lawyer David Epstein said.
"The verdict was against the weight of the evidence."
The panel of eight men and four women took just five hours to convict Ahmed of first-degree assault, which carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison.
A videotape of the fight showed Bovian and a pal fighting with a clerk, whom they accused of insulting them.
The argument woke up Ahmed, who was napping in a back room. He came out and whacked Bovian once in the head with a hammer.
The teen was placed in a medically-induced coma, but has mostly recovered.
He testified that his speech is still slurred, he suffers from headaches and he is no longer a star basketball player.
Ahmed was ordered held without bail until a May 28 sentencing.
The conviction was the latest stunning setback for Ahmed.
He confidently believed he would be cleared in the case because the video showed he was coming to the aid of the clerk.

See--http://harlemvoiceblogs.blogspot.com

I started fight, sez pal of hammer vic

By Scott Shifrel
Tuesday, April 28th 2009, 4:00 AM
Related News
Articles
Charged in attack with hammer on teen, deli worker points to recent bodega murders
A teen whose pal was critically injured when a Brooklyn bodega clerk hit him in the head with a hammer last year admitted to jurors Monday that he helped sparked the melee.
Joshua Bloomfield, 16, went behind the counter to confront another clerk who said something about his mother, he told jurors in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
"I went back there and said what I had to say to him," said Bloomfield, later adding that he pleaded guilty in family court to assault in connection with the April 13, 2008, fracas.
"He put his hands on me - I grabbed him back."
The clerk then punched him, Bloomfield punched back and within seconds the clerk was threatening him with a knife and a 2-foot long stick, the youth testified. Another clerk, Salah Ahmed, 36, is charged with running out of a backroom of the East New York bodega and hitting Bloomfield's friend Bunkless Bovian in the head with a hammer.
"I heard Bunkless get hit, I heard him make a sound," Bloomfield said, adding that his friend walked outside before collapsing

Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 26, 7:59 pm ET
GENEVA – Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.
Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases, and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
The six Canadian cases in Nova Scotia and British Columbia all had links to people who had traveled to Mexico, and all are the same swine flu strain. The six people have recovered, said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer.
But "these are probably not the last cases we'll see in Canada," he said.
The news follows the World Health Organization's decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a "public health emergency of international concern."
A senior World Health Organization official said the agency's emergency committee will meet for a second time Tuesday to examine the spread of the virus before deciding whether to increase the alert for a possible pandemic, or global epidemic.
The same strain of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in several locations in Mexico and the United States, and it appears to be spreading directly from human to human, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of health security.
Mexico's health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but no fatalities have been reported.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine.
Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.
See-.http://harlemvoiceblogs.blogspot.com/

US-POLITICS Summary

Reuters Friday, April 17, 2009; 11:04 PM
Obama reaches out to Cuba in new pitch to Americas
PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Friday to seek a "new beginning" in ties with communist-ruled Cuba as part of a new era of U.S. partnership and engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean. Before addressing his counterparts in the hemisphere at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, Obama also initiated a handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's most virulent critics in the region.

Clinton says U.S. welcomes Cuba's "overtures"
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that Washington welcomed "overtures" from Cuban President Raul Castro, hours after he said his country was open for talks with the United States about "everything." "We have seen Raul Castro's comments and we welcome his overtures," Clinton told reporters in the Dominican Republic.

Obama stands next to Mexico in war on drugs
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama stood alongside Mexico's Felipe Calderon on Thursday and promised to help his "courageous" fight against ruthless drug cartels waging turf wars along the joint border. In his first trip to Latin America as U.S. president and fresh from his first big foray onto the global stage in Europe last month, Obama said Mexico and the United States both needed to strengthen and coordinate their drug war efforts.
From washingtonpost.com

Boon for tenants bane for landlords

BY Barbara Ross DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 5th 2009, 4:00 AM

More than 300,000 New York tenants could reap the rewards of a major court ruling that bars landlords who got special tax breaks from pushing apartments out of rent control.
The ruling found thousands of tenants have been overpaying for years and may be entitled to huge refunds.
Landlords, who are appealing the case, worry that if the ruling stands, they could face bankruptcy while shelling out refunds and lowering rents.

The ruling is rippling across major apartment complexes citywide from the Riverton Houses in Harlem to Peter Cooper/Stuyvesant Town below midtown.
The exact figure is not known, but officials estimate 350,000 rent stabilized units exist in developments that get tax breaks called J-51.
Those breaks, meant to encourage landlords to pay for necessary repairs, have been in effect for 54 years. Officals estimate that tens of thousands of such units have been deregulated.
Since 2005, tenants of Independence Plaza in Tribeca have battled in court to overturn rent hikes after discovering their landlord was receiving those tax breaks.
In that time, senior citizens like Elizabeth and David Harris watched the rent on their one-bedroom rise steadily. When they recently began receiving Social Security checks, the added income pushed them out of eligibility for a housing subsidy.
"It was frightening. I thought I was going to be out in the street," Elizabeth Harris, 84, said.

"Overnight, it went up by $800 a month. We weren't qualified for anything. I felt so terrible that I couldn't pay my rent," said David Harris, 70.
After the Daily News made calls, the owner, Larry Gluck, agreed to return the elderly couple to rent control-level payments.
But thousands of other tenants in similar circumstances across the city must wait to see if the recent decision stands.
Joseph Strasburg, president of the landlord group, the Rent Stabilization Association, called the ruling "a seismic and unprecedented shift in the New York rent regulatory landscape."
The unanimous March 5 decision by the Manhattan Appellate Division directly involves tenants living in 4,400 deregulated apartments in Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town.
Owner Tishman Speyer Properties L.P. and deregulated tenants there have agreed to put all extra rent they pay above the stabilized level into an escrow account until the appeal is resolved.

If the ruling survives, Tishman Speyer will have to roll back rents for deregulated tenants, refund some $200 million in rent overcharges, and abandon plans to deregulate thousands more apartments until the tax abatements expire.
As word of the ruling spreads, tenants and landlords across the city have started calling around to ask what it means for them.
"People are very worried. They're concerned about potential overcharge liabilities, foreclosure," said RSA general counsel Mitch Posilkin.
The RSA tells landlords to "consult with their own attorneys, take stock of potential exposure" and consider following the Tishman Speyer plan of putting excess rents into escrow accounts.
Meanwhile, a group of 15 city and state lawmakers urged the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal to notify every tenant in a tax break building of the court decision.
And they urged the agency to temporarily freeze all applications to deregulate more rent stabilized apartments when rents reach $2,000 and household income is $175,000 or more.

"Tenants may lose their homes because they don't know the ramifications of this," state Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan) said. "It's DHCR's responsibility to protect the rights of tenants, not just landlords."
The RSA's Posilkin called the ruling "an enormous Pandora's box" and said that if owners must roll back rents and reimburse tenants, he said, the city's housing stock will deteriorate and its tax revenues will drop.
The case returns to the Appellate Division, which will decide whether it can move to the highest court, the Court of Appeals

At last! iPhone 3.0 software to introduce ... copy and paste!

BY Matt Marrone DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Tuesday, March 17th 2009, 5:38 PM
Warga/News
Apple unveiled its 3.0 software for iPhone and iPod Touch on Tuesday.
Related News
Articles
Apple unveils new iPod Shuffle
Is Google evil?
Google now 'reads' your voicemail
Baseball cards go 3D
For nearly two years, the iPhone was a must-have device with one very conspicuous missing feature: copy and paste.
Not anymore.
Apple unveiled the next generation iPhone and iPod Touch software - version 3.0 - at its Cupertino, Calif., campus Tuesday - and, proving the rumor mill true, announced that the sought-after function will at last appear on the groundbreaking gadget.
Copy and paste - long a baffling omission from the iPhone's operating system - wasn't the only highlight of Tuesday's event, though. Here's just some of what iPhone owners also have to look forward to:
• MMS support: In 3.0, iPhone users can finally send and receive multimedia messages instead of just standard text messages. Up until now, users were limited to emailing photos or uploading them via the Web.
• Homescreen search: A new secondary homescreen that allows users to search for keywords in contacts, emails, calendars and more in one simple interface.
• Push notification: In previous versions of the iPhone software, if users closed an application - other than built-in apps like Mail or iPod - the apps would stop running. Now, through push notification, apps can alert users to updates, new messages, etc., even when the app isn't open.
• Turn-by-turn apps: Another long-awaited feature, Apple will now allow developers to create map features that provide turn-by-turn directions.
• "In-App" purchases: Users can now download features from inside of applications - like additional game levels or eBooks.
• Peer-to-peer connectivity: Using Bluetooth, iPhone users can link up to play games - or pass along their business cards.
Unfortunately, iPhone 3.0 software won't be available until the summer - but you've waited this long, what's another few months?

Google Inc. launches new 'Undo Send' email feature for Gmail users

Google Inc. launches new 'Undo Send' email feature for Gmail users
by Catey Hill daily news staff writer
Friday, March 20th 2009, 5:58 PM
Sabo/News
Ever cranked out an email in a fit of rage, only to regret it later? Hit 'reply all' when you only meant to hit 'reply'? Sent an email to a VIP only to realize seconds later that you didn't attach the file?
These and myriad other email 'situations' can be extradinarily unpleasant. But for Gmail users, many of them can now be a thing of the past.
So those of you who tend to get yourselves into unpleasant email 'situations' every now and then, take note: Gmail has launched an 'undo send' feature.

But there's a catch - you only get five seconds to hit 'undo send.' After that time window, well, you're on your own.
To enable this feature, Turn on 'Undo Send' option in 'Gmail Labs' under 'Settings.'
Now, if the geniuses at Google could only create an 'Undo Send' for all those times you say something that doesn't quite come out right

Immigration crackdown written into the new stimulus law will damage New York's financial sector

ahjo4 Feb 23, 2009 7:01:51 AM Report Offensive Post Let me get this straight Americans are at unemployment levels that are a record they say in decades. The President has signed a Stimulus Bill to put AMERICAN CITIZENS back to work, in the bill is a provision that states any company taking this money must hire Americans first and this paper which is supported by Americans citizens says that hiring H1-B foreign workers before should be acceptable. You people still have NOT GOTTEN IT, this is America if any company claims they cannot find qualified workers here, shouldn't be in business here. It's not surprising that the people on this Editorial Board still wish to put their self-interest and the best interest of the wealthy before the taxpayers who are footing this bill.Shame on you, I can wait for your editorial defending illegal aliens. You people never fail to bite and disappoint the hand that feeds you. I hope you can sell you papers in countries like India, when Americans can't purchase it because they're broke.Shame on you people! From--nydailynews.com ----------

Monday, February 23rd 2009, 4:00 AM
Immigration crackdown written into the new stimulus law will damage New York's financial sectorwill damage New York's financial sector - and must be repealed immediately

Government’s New Online Cancer Risk Tool Omits Minorities

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: February 12, 2009
A new interactive online tool can help older Americans assess their risk for developing colon cancer. The catch is that it only works for whites.
That’s too bad, since blacks are at higher risk than whites for colorectal cancer, developing it and dying of it at higher rates, and recent reports suggest the racial gap is widening.
The new screening tool, developed by the National Cancer Institute and available at www.cancer.gov/colorectalcancerrisk, asks roughly 20 questions, the first two about race and ethnic background.
If the user answers “Hispanic” or “Black or African-American,” a box of red text pops up that says, “At this time the risk calculations and results provided by this tool are only accurate for non-Hispanic white men and women ages 50 to 85.” The text refers readers to another Web site for more information.
“I’m frankly a bit taken aback,” said Gail Christopher, vice president for programs at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, after being referred to the site by a reporter. “This is not acceptable. N.C.I. can do better.”
N.C.I. officials said they are modifying the risk assessment tool so it will be applicable to blacks, Hispanics and Asians, but said the data they used to test the model’s precision were drawn from studies with mostly older white participants. As a result, they weren’t able to estimate relative risks for people from other racial and ethnic groups, or for those younger than 50.
“It will be more difficult to validate this model in other ethnicities, because data is more difficult to come by,” said Dr. Andrew Freedman, the N.C.I. epidemiologist who authored the risk assessment tool.
But Dr. Christopher said that even if there were insufficient data to develop a tool applicable to all ethnic and racial groups based on existing information, N.C.I. officials “should have at least been more forthright in the opening paragraph and acknowledged the racial disparity with this disease up front, and offered some advice to people who face a greater risk, to perhaps seek out a different form of examination.”
"This was a major faux pas," she added.
After questions of race and ethnic background are settled, the risk assessment tool turns to questions about lifestyle, including how often one gets physical exercise and how many fruits and vegetables one eats (not counting French fries). There are questions about how often one takes aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (with the exception of Tylenol, they reduce the risk of colon cancer), whether there’s any colon cancer in the family, and whether one has been in for a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy, which reduces risk.
Men are asked if they smoke, since smoking increases their risk. Women are asked whether they still menstruate or take estrogen, since estrogen is associated with a lower risk.
The risk assessment tool isn’t appropriate for people with Crohn’s disease and some other inherited conditions. A good explanation of the risk factors and protective behaviors can be found at http://www.cancer.gov/colorectalcancerrisk/about-tool.aspx.

Obama's Brain Trust

Obama's Brain Trust

Interactive
Your key to the Cabinet
Meet the Cabinet members and key players in the Obama Administration

Interactive
Your key to the Cabinet
Meet the Cabinet members and key players in the Obama Administration

Conflicts overshadow talks on African Union's future

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - The African Union opened a summit Sunday officially devoted to developing transport and energy systems, but dominated by conflicts across the region and division over the bloc's future.
View: Headlines Only Include Summaries Include Photos
Al-Qaeda figure surrenders in Algeria: reports AFP - 57 minutes ago
ALGIERS (AFP) - A leading member of Al-Qaeda's North African branch has surrendered to Algerian authorities, several newspapers reported Sunday, citing security sources.
Africa delays moves towards federal government Reuters - 1 hour, 33 minutes ago
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - African leaders on Sunday again delayed concrete moves toward creating a United States of Africa, despite a long campaign by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
Zimbabwe bust brings boom to SAfrican border town AFP - 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
MUSINA, South Africa (AFP) - The Popular Cheap Shop, the Musina Cheap Price Shop and the Bargain Centre: the signboards in South Africa's border town with Zimbabwe don't mince words. Or marketing themes.

Blacks and Latinos make up about 80% stopped and questioned by NYPD, study finds

BY CHRISTINA BOYLE and TINA MOORE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, January 16th 2009, 10:38 AM
Kyte/Getty/Getty Images
As the stats come in for 2008, the NYPD is on pace to have stopped and frisked 500,000 people - 80% of them black or Latino.
The NYPD is on pace to stop and question a record half a million citizens this year - about 80% of them black or Latino, a new report says.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, citing NYPD data obtained in a suit, said the vast majority of those stopped and questioned in 2005 through June 2008 weren't charged with any crime.
In 2007, for instance, the last complete year of data, cops arrested only 5.8% of the 472,096 people they stopped (27,632).
"The New York City Police Department continues to prey on African-American and Latino communities in New York City," Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said.
The center obtained half of the 2008 data but projected that 543,982 people will be stopped in the entire year if the NYPD maintained its pace.
Cops made fewer than 400,000 stops in 2005.
"The problem actually is getting worse," CCR lawyer Darius Charney said.
Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman, said the number of minorities who were singled out under the policy is consistent with overall descriptions by race provided by victims and surviving witnesses of crime.
He pointed to a RAND Corp. study that found no racial profiling in its examination, "and warned against the kind of simplistic comparisons made by the center."
"Their assertions do not constitute a study of the data, but a restatement of accusations in its lawsuit," he added.
St. John's University student David Ourlicht, 21, sees it differently. He was stopped on the street three times by cops - once at gunpoint - and never charged with a crime.
The Manhattanite, who is half black and half white, was among 1 million people snagged in the NYPD's stop-and-frisk net since 2005, data released Thursday show.
"It's something that I have to deal with every day," Ourlicht said. "I can't trust the people that are supposed to protect me and that's scary." With Benjamin Lesser
tmoore@nydailynews.

Limbaugh: 'Segregationist' Sen. Reid Barred Burris

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 6:37 PMBy: David A. Patten
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday compared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to infamous Southern segregationists Lester Maddox and George Wallace, because he is blocking the appointment of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate.
Bristling over how the media has covered the Senate’s refusal to seat Burris, Limbaugh blamed “a few extremist liberal racists and others” for questioning whether President-elect Barack Obama and Burris are “authentically black enough.”
Conservatives, he said, do not think in such terms.
“You’ve got a guy who’s legit, he’s qualified, and according to the Chicago Tribune today he’s ‘authentically black,’” Limbaugh told listeners. “And a bunch of white people would not let him in the door, would not let him use the restroom or the drinking water. Now what are we to make of this?”
Had Republicans refused to seat a legally qualified African-American appointee, Limbaugh said, the media coverage would have been much different.
“If Harry Reid were a Republican … he would have been stoned and pilloried, they would have demanded his ouster for his lack of sensitivity,” Limbaugh charged.

Limbaugh continued his broadside against progressive hypocrisy on matters of race: “They are compassionate and feeling, and they love minorities and they want minorities to excel -- except, except when the minorities get too uppity. And then it’s time to revert to Bull Connor, or, in this case, Lester Maddox.
“What’s the difference in dingy Harry and Lester Maddox? George Wallace? Remember, all these great segregationists of the past are Democrats. It’s in the blood, and it’s showing up on the steps of the United States Senate,” Limbaugh said.
Lester Maddox is the late Georgia governor who defended states’ rights and was considered an advocate for segregation during the Civil Rights era. Bull Connor was the public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Ala., who used fire hoses to attack civil-rights marchers. Wallace, a former governor of Alabama, was an opponent of desegregation who ran for the presidency on four occasions.
Limbaugh said that Democrats, by their treatment of Burris, are “in the process of delegitimizing themselves.”
Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to fill the seat vacated by Obama. Limbaugh warned Democrats are on “thin Constitutional ice” in their refusal to accept Burris as a member of the Senate. From Newsmax.com

BAD CHOICE FOR CHANGE

By Melvin Redman

OBAMA CHOICE FOR


SECRETARY OF HOUSING UNDERMINES CHANGE

President elect Obama selected Shaun Donovan for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He is a disciple of Harvard Professor Howard Husock who wrote, America’s Trillion Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of America’s Housing Policy. Once Mayor Bloomberg, who is no friend of the poor, appointed him Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner, he sabotaged affordable housing in New York and masqueraded as its friend. Shaun Donovan’s history of destroying affordable homes, bodes ill for the majority of Americans.

As Mayor Bloomberg’s Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development he destroyed affordable housing. He acted as an ice breaker to open “frozen” poor and lower middle class communities in New York City. Provincial politicians created economic undeveloped frozen zones nationwide. They built public housing, or vertical slums, to isolate, not house the poor. Their decisions stifled development and cooled neighborhoods. He and other bureaucrats blamed the poor for destroying neighborhoods and conspired to remove them.

He also cooperated with deceptive landlords and managers to illegally remove tenants. Instead of using his agency to protect the weak, he closed help that centers other H P D commissioners opened to defend tenant rights. An honest cooperative under his department’s supervision is rarer than hens’ teeth. HUD officials exposed corruption at Lenox Terrace, Coop City, and other developments that they investigated before Alfonso Jackson and other corrupt reactionaries took over the agency.

New York State Attorney General Cuomo, Manhattan District Attorney Morgenthau, The Department of Investigation, The Department of Housing and Community Renewal, and black politicians refuse to protect tenants. They sell out their constituents for a trifle. Harlem residents re-elected Charles Rangel eighteen times but he did nothing to protect residents from avaricious landlords.

New York City Housing Court judges also abandoned housing residents during the Bloomberg years. The landlords/tenants court has become completely one sided under the jurisdiction of Administrative Judge Fern Fisher. She refused to post a Bill of Rights in courts. She rationalized that posting it took sides in landlord-tenant cases and denied the posting of any information to help tenants.

I appeared before housing court Judge Marcia Sikowitz after I implored Commissioner Donovan to adhere to the law. She never listened to my case, illegally charged me lawyer fees, and allowed the management at Franklin Plaza to steal my late father’s apartment which could have been prevented if Commissioner Donovan, or Attorney General Cuomo properly protected the public’s interest. Instead, they conspired to rid New York of undesirables and exposed thousands of tenants to intolerant judges.

As the Secretary of HUD, Donovan will push the poor into the streets throughout America in order to build shining cities on hills and create decaying slums in hidden valleys.



mlvnrdmn@yahoo.com

Sen. Malcolm Smith makes Albany history

Sen. Malcolm Smith makes Albany history
BY KENNETH LOVETT and GLENN BLAIN DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU
Wednesday, January 7th 2009, 2:42 AM
ALBANY - After two months of political bickering, Queens Sen. Malcolm Smith is set Wednesday to become the state's first black Senate majority leader.
Three dissident Democrats who held back their support for Smith since Election Day agreed Tuesday to a deal that makes them committee chairmen in exchange for backing Smith.
"We went through a difficult process," Smith said after a closed-door meeting with most of his members.
"This was not easy. Everybody was very passionate about their concerns."
Dissidents Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx), Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) and Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) said they were satisified.
Diaz wouldn't say if he got a commitment he sought that legislation to legalize gay marriage would not be brought to the floor this year for a vote.
"This clearly is a historic day for all of us," said Smith, who'll be the first Senate Democratic majority leader in 43 years.
As for the dissidents, Kruger will head the Finance Committee and Diaz will head the Aging Committee.
Espada Jr. will be vice president of urban policy for the Senate and head of the Housing Committee, among other things.
New Sen. Hiram Monserrate, the Queens Democrat facing a felony assault charge, was named head of the Consumer Protection Committee, though Smith said he will make a decision on his role within a day or two.
klovett@nydailynews.com