19th Century Church In Northeast Philadelphia To Be Demolished

19th Century Church In Northeast Philadelphia To Be Demolished

A sign hangs of the doors of Saint Laurentius church in Northeast
Philadelphia that reads: “Save Our Church.”
 
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has announced its plan to demolish the city’s oldest Polish Roman Catholic church. The archdiocese acted last fall to de-consecrate St. Laurentius, a church that dates back to the late 19th century. It’s a move that a group of parishioners have appealed to the Vatican to overturn.

St. Laurentius church was erected in the late 1880s. In 2013, it merged with Holy Name of Jesus parish. That’s where the demolition plan was announced over the weekend. Patricia Kinsman, with the group Save St. Laurentius, says the archdiocese is moving without waiting for a decision from the Vatican.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Gunman Shot Dead Inside West Philadelphia Barbershop

Gunman Shot Dead Inside West Philadelphia Barbershop

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Police say the lives of several people were likely saved by a man who shot and killed a gunman inside a West Philadelphia barbershop.

It happened just before 3 p.m. Sunday inside Falah Barbershop Inc. along the 600 block of North Preston Street in the city’s Mantua section.

Police say a 40-year-old man was inside the barbershop when he started fighting with another person inside. The altercation quickly escalated and the man pulled out a gun and opened fire.

At that point, authorities say, another unidentified man took out his own gun and the shot the gunman multiple times in the chest. He was rushed to Presbyterian Hospital where he later died from his injuries.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Black Women Models

Camden School District Partners With Salvation Army on Community Resource Centers

Camden School District Partners With Salvation Army on Community Resource Centers

CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) — The Camden School District and the Salvation Army are teaming up to give parents more resources to help their children succeed in school.

Today, at the Salvation Army’s Kroc Community Center, Camden schools superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard (at lectern in photo) said the idea is to engage the uninvolved.

“We all know that when parents, grandparents, and guardians are more involved in their child’s education, student achievement goes up and behavioral problems go down,” he noted.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Van Stone's Praying Hands Children and Praying Hands Adults; Praying Hands Fable- Talking Animals Collection: Meaning Of Praying Hands

Van Stone's Praying Hands Children and Praying Hands Adults; Praying Hands Fable- Talking Animals Collection: Meaning Of Praying Hands 



























My personal point about the Praying Hands is that the true meaning of the position of Praying Hands cannot be owned by anyone or any being -ANY BEING.

Praying Hands can be a position for plants, humans and animals to mimic.  Most people can only see a positive when there is a child, adult, or even an animal photographed using a Praying Hands mimic position.    

Albrecht Durer, a German, painted a picture of praying hands. However, many make all types of claims as to the true meaning of seeing hands held together and raised toward the sky.

Many say that palms together at the heart are demonstrating as a sign of mimicking veneration and respect. It is also a form of mimicking a greeting. Praying Hands should mean to stop and think about showing deserved respect for the being that is positioning the Praying Hands.

If everyone all at once mimicked Praying Hands and valued its positive demonstration just imagine how few negatives would happen in the world of fiction and non-fiction.

There would be so few people who would end up before a court judge. And the mimicking Praying Hands would have real valuable and lasting purpose.   Of course today, Praying Hands only has purpose to the beholder.  Every beholder doesn’t feel the same about what is seen or even heard.

Today, just as yesterday, and in the future to come, there are just way too many people who refuse to respect life, regardless if the life is a plant, animal, or human being.

Here is the fable about why the painting of praying hands began with Albrecht Durer.  One day, to pay homage to Albert, his brother, for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands," but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love "The Praying Hands."

Demonstrating as a sign of veneration, respect, or a tribute to love is a positive. How about simply, a sign of being thankful?  Or better yet, a sign of being extremely valuable- the being which is rising its Praying Hands, that is, is at least a thinker.

Huge Civic Project Aims To Bring Social Spaces to Several Phila. Neighborhoods

Huge Civic Project Aims To Bring Social Spaces to Several Phila. Neighborhoods

 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Two charitable foundations are making a multimillion-dollar investment in public spaces in five of the city’s most underserved communities, creating what could become a national “test kitchen” of sorts on urban renewal.

The $11-million investment from the William Penn Foundation and Knight Foundation will help transform several spaces, including the dilapidated former viaduct of the Reading Railroad, languishing for decades atop 20-foot-high masonry walls along the northern edge of Chinatown, into a vibrant green park with walking paths, landscaping, and gathering spaces.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Durst heir faces murder charge after documentary broadcast

Durst heir faces murder charge after documentary broadcast 
 

FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2014 file photo, New York City real estate heir Robert Durst leaves a Houston courtroom. Durst was arrested in New Orleans on an extradition warrant to Los Angeles on Saturday, March 14, 2015.

  

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Robert Durst couldn't explain away similarities between his handwriting and a letter he said "only the killer could have written" that alerted police to his friend's shooting 15 years ago.

Confronted with new evidence by the makers of a documentary about his links to three killings, the troubled millionaire blinked, burped oddly, pulled his ear and briefly put his head in his hands before denying he was the killer.

Then he stepped away from the tense interview and went to the bathroom, still wearing the live microphone that recorded what he said next.

"There it is. You're caught!" Durst whispered before the sound of running water is heard. "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."

That moment didn't just make for a captivating finale to a six-part documentary on the eccentric life of an heir to a New York real estate fortune.

It also may have given police and prosecutors more evidence in the long-cold case of a mobster's daughter. Susan Berman was felled by a bullet to the back of her head as investigators prepared to find out what she knew about the disappearance of Durst's wife in 1982.

Los Angeles prosecutors filed a first-degree murder charge Monday that alleges Durst lay in wait with a gun and killed a witness - special circumstances that could carry a death sentence if prosecutors decide later to pursue it.

Durst, 71, who was arrested at a New Orleans hotel on the eve of Sunday's final episode, agreed Monday to face trial for the murder of Berman, who had vouched for him in public after his wife vanished.

Attorney Dick DeGuerin said outside court that Durst didn't kill Berman, and is "ready to end all the rumor and speculation and have a trial."

The makers of "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" said Durst rejected his lawyer's advice to stay quiet before granting two lengthy interviews. They also said he knew he was being recorded throughout, and that they shared any evidence they gathered with authorities long before broadcasting the film on HBO.

Legal experts said the bathroom tape could become key evidence.

"Any statement that the defendant makes that they want to use against him, they can use against him," said Andrea Roth, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "Even if it's sketchy, and only in context appears to make him look guilty."

Kerry Lawrence, a defense attorney in Westchester County, New York, said Durst's lawyers will have to try to explain away his comments, perhaps dismissing them as a joke.

"Prosecutors would argue it was a candid moment of self-reflection, and he I assume will argue that he knew he was still being recorded, and this was either said in jest or he was being facetious or sarcastic or was being provocative," Lawrence said. "I don't think it's quite the smoking gun."

The bathroom recording was not part of the evidence presented to prosecutors before charges were filed because detectives were still trying to determine if the recording was tampered with in any way, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly because the investigation was ongoing and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the handwriting analysis was the key new evidence in the long investigation.

The documentary showed filmmaker Andrew Jarecki confronting Durst with a copy of an anonymous letter that alerted Beverly Hills police to look for a "cadaver" at Berman's address.

Durst offered that whoever sent it was "taking a big risk. You're sending a letter to police that only the killer could have written."

Then, in the final episode, Jarecki revealed another envelope, which Durst acknowledged mailing to Berman, that has similar writing in block letters and also misspelled the address as "Beverley."

`'I wrote this one but I did not write the cadaver one," Durst said. But when shown an enlargement of both copies, Durst couldn't distinguish them.

Former Westchester County prosecutor Jeanine Pirro seemed stunned when the filmmakers showed her Durst's previously unknown letter to Berman, saying "the jig is up."

She believes it was her reopening of the cold case into Kathleen Durst's 1982 disappearance that provoked the killing of Berman, who had been Durst's confidante.

Now, she said, his own words can convict him.

"It was a spontaneous statement, a classical exception to the hearsay rule," Pirro told Fox's "Good Day New York." `'I don't hear it as a muttering. I hear it as a clear, unequivocal `I killed them.' That means he killed his wife, he killed Susan Berman and he killed Morris Black."

Durst - still worth millions despite his estrangement from his family, whose New York real estate empire is worth about $4 billion - has maintained his innocence in three killings in as many states.

He was acquitted by a Texas jury in the 2001 dismemberment killing of his elderly neighbor, whose body parts were found floating in Galveston Bay. Lawyers said Durst - who fled Texas and was brought back to trial after being caught shoplifting in Pennsylvania - killed Morris Black in self-defense.

Durst, however, acknowledged using a paring knife, two saws and an ax to dismember the body, and that may result in a delay of his transfer to Los Angeles, because he was arrested with a revolver on Saturday. 

That's illegal for felons, and Durst did prison time after pleading guilty to evidence tampering and jumping bail.

Louisiana authorities filed weapons charges late Monday charging Durst as a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and with having a small amount of marijuana.

When Durst approached the filmmakers and agreed to go on camera, he was still suspected in the killing of Berman, whose father was a Las Vegas mobster associated with Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and the disappearance of his wife, who was declared dead long after she vanished in New York in 1982.

 

Durst's longtime Houston lawyer Chip Lewis called Jarecki "duplicitous" for not making it clear to Durst that he would be sharing footage with police.

"It's all about Hollywood now," Lewis said.

But Jarecki said Durst signed a contract clearly giving the filmmakers the right to use what they gathered however they wished.

Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Kirk Albanese said the timing of the arrest had nothing to do with the production and that police were concerned Durst might flee the country.

"We do police work based on the facts and evidence," Albanese told the AP on Monday. "I know there's lots of speculation about that. It had nothing to do with the show."

By Monday, the filmmakers - likely witnesses at a trial - said they would make no more comments.

Netanyahu promises no Palestinian state if he is re-elected

Netanyahu promises no Palestinian state if he is re-elected

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks as he visits a construction site in Har Homa, east Jerusalem, Monday March 16, 2015, a day ahead of legislative elections. Netanyahu is seeking his fourth term as prime minister.

  

JERUSALEM (AP) -- In a frenzied last day of campaigning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state and vowed to keep building east Jerusalem settlements as he appealed to hard-line voters on the eve of Israel's closely contested general election.

The moderate opposition, meanwhile, announced a dramatic last-minute machination of its own, removing one of its two joint candidates for prime minister.

Netanyahu, who has governed for the past six years and has long been the most dominant personality in Israeli politics, has watched his standing plummet in recent weeks.

Recent opinion polls show his Likud Party lagging behind Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union. Herzog, who has vowed to revive peace efforts with the Palestinians, repair ties with the U.S. and reduce the growing gaps between rich and poor, confidently predicted an "upheaval" was imminent.

Late Monday night, it was announced that Herzog's main partner, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, had given up an agreement to rotate the prime minister post with him if their alliance wins. It was widely thought that the unusual arrangement was driving away voters.

Tuesday's election caps an acrimonious three-month campaign that is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu.

While his comments Monday appeared to be election rhetoric, they nonetheless put him further at odds with the international community, boding poorly for already strained relations with the U.S. and other key allies if he wins a third consecutive term.

The hard-line leader has portrayed himself as the only politician capable of confronting Israel's numerous security challenges, while his opponents have focused on the country's high cost of living and presented Netanyahu as imperious and out of touch with the common man.

As Netanyahu's poll numbers have dropped in recent days, he has appeared increasingly desperate, stepping up his nationalistic rhetoric in a series of interviews to local media to appeal to his core base. Netanyahu has also complained of an international conspiracy to oust him, funded by wealthy foreigners who dislike him, and on Sunday night, he addressed an outdoor rally before tens of thousands of hard-line supporters in Tel Aviv.

The strategy is aimed at siphoning off voters from nationalistic rivals, but risks alienating centrist voters who are expected to determine the outcome of the race.

Speaking to the nrg news website, Netanyahu said that turning over captured territory to the Palestinians would clear the way for Islamic extremists to take control and attack Israel.

"Whoever ignores that is burying his head in the sand. The left is doing that, burying its head in the sand time after time," he said in the video interview.

When asked if that means a Palestinian state will not be established if he is elected, Netanyahu replied, "Indeed."

It was the latest - and clearest - attempt by Netanyahu to disavow his earlier support for Palestinian independence, which he first laid out in a landmark 2009 speech.

"If we get this guarantee for demilitarization and necessary security arrangements for Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, we will be willing in a real peace agreement to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," he said at the time.

Despite that pledge, two rounds of peace talks have failed and Netanyahu has continued to expand Jewish settlements.

Reaching a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict has been a top foreign policy priority for President Obama.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki would only say on Monday that the U.S. will work with whoever wins the Israeli election.

The international community overwhelmingly supports the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in 1967, and opposes settlement construction. Netanyahu's tough new position is likely to worsen his already strained ties with his western allies if he is re-elected.

It also raises questions about what kind of vision he has for solving the conflict with the Palestinians. Most demographers agree that if Israel continues to control millions of Palestinians, the country will not be able to remain both Jewish and democratic.

Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said Netanyahu's comments were "dangerous" and could plunge the region into violence.

"This is the real Netanyahu," she said. "From the beginning, he was attempting to carry out a grand deception by pretending to be in favor of the two-state solution. But what he was actually doing on the ground is destroying the chances of peace."

Earlier, Netanyahu paid a last-minute visit to Har Homa, a Jewish development in east Jerusalem that Netanyahu helped build during his first term as prime minister in 1997. The sprawling district now houses more than 20,000 residents.

While Israel considers the area a part of its capital, the international community considers it an illegal settlement on occupied land. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as their capital.

"We will preserve Jerusalem's unity in all its parts. We will continue to build and fortify Jerusalem so that its division won't be possible and it will stay united forever," Netanyahu said, explaining that Har Homa was built to contain Palestinian development in the nearby West Bank town of Bethlehem.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials.

Netanyahu dissolved his government in December and ordered the new election, two years ahead of schedule, in the belief that he would cruise to a new term.

On Monday, it was Herzog, Netanyahu's chief rival, who appeared confident and upbeat.

Visiting his party headquarters, Herzog, a trained lawyer and scion of a prominent political family, talked about a "crucial" vote for the country and warned against splitting the anti-Netanyahu vote among the various centrist parties.

"Whoever wants an upheaval has to vote for us," Herzog said.

Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, which has also focused on the plight of Israel's middle class, received a warm welcome at a campaign stop in the coastal city of Netanya. Supporters warmly embraced him and stopped him to take selfies.

He accused both Netanyahu and Herzog of working outside deals with special interest groups and said that only he was tackling the real issues facing the Israeli middle class.

Lapid has so far refused to commit to either Herzog or Netanyahu, though he is widely seen as a natural ally of Herzog's in a future coalition.

Exit polls are expected immediately after voting stops at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) Tuesday night. But the true victor may not be known for several weeks.

Under Israel's electoral system, no party has ever won an outright majority in the 120-member parliament. Instead, the party with the best chance of forming a coalition - usually the largest party - is given the chance to form a coalition. That decision is taken by the country's president, Reuven Rivlin.

Since neither Likud nor the Zionist Union is expected to earn more than a quarter of the votes, Rivlin will meet with party leaders to determine who should be prime minister, followed by a lengthy period of negotiations to assemble a coalition.

A potential kingmaker could be found in the new centrist party of Moshe Kahlon, who is running on an economic platform that deals almost exclusively with bread-and-butter issues while putting Israel's diplomatic challenges on the back burner.

Kahlon, who broke off from Netanyahu's Likud, is demanding to become finance minister in the next government and has given no indication as to whom he would prefer as prime minister.

The son of Libyan immigrants, Kahlon is popular with working class Israelis, thanks to his Middle Eastern background, his modest upbringing and for reforming the local mobile-phone market.

Group That Helps Kids Think Critically Puts Final Touches On First Bilingual Center

Group That Helps Kids Think Critically Puts Final Touches On First Bilingual Center

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Mighty Writers, a group that promotes critical thinking and creativity through after-school and weekend programming, is opening its first bilingual center on Monday

Located in the heart of the Italian Market on 9th Street near Christian, the Mighty Writers El Futuro Center will be the first of its type to serve South Philadelphia’s Spanish-speaking population.

“They speak Spanish all the time at home, but when it comes to reading and writing at school they do it in English.”

Laura Karabell is the program director at the new center. Fluent in Spanish, she’s worked with the largely Mexican community in South Philadelphia and hopes to teach writing and reading in multiple languages.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Final Farewell To Hero Philadelphia Police Officer

Final Farewell To Hero Philadelphia Police Officer

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Thousand turned out in West Philadelphia Saturday morning to say goodbye to a fallen hero.

Police departments from across the country filed into the Palestra in University City to pay their respects to Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III who was shot and killed in the line of duty during an attempted robbery at a video game store in North Philadelphia on March 5.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Hundreds Attend Viewing For Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III

Hundreds Attend Viewing For Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III

 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Hundreds of police from Philadelphia and across the country formed a long blue line outside the funeral home at 52nd and Whitby Avenues in West Philadelphia where a viewing was held for murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III.

Escorted by a Highway Patrol Motorcycle Honor Guard, family members arrived around 2 p.m., hugging and consoling each other outside, then gathering as officers, in procession, filed past them.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

‘Net Abuzz With Philadelphia Subletters and Visitors Hoping To See Pope Francis Here

‘Net Abuzz With Philadelphia Subletters and Visitors Hoping To See Pope Francis Here

(Some Craigslist images for apartment sublets in Philadelphia during the papal visit in September.)
 
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Many people hoping to sublet their homes during September’s visit of Pope Francis to Philadelphia are turning to one of the most widely recognized free web sites to advertise what they have to offer.

Dozens of pages of listings have already been posted to the web site known as “Craig’s List.”

Alex Blynn is one of hundreds of people advertising on craigslist.org that his apartment is available for sublet when the pope comes to Philadelphia this September.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

In North Philadelphia, ‘Pi Day’ Celebrated With Schoolwork — and Real Pies

In North Philadelphia, ‘Pi Day’ Celebrated With Schoolwork — and Real Pies

(Students at Truebright Science Academy measure the diameter of
a giant cookie. Pi (3.14159…) is the mathematical ratio of a circle’s
diameter to its circumference.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Tomorrow, March 14th (3/14), is International Pi (3.14…) Day, a day to celebrate all things mathematical.

Today, at a North Philadelphia charter school, that celebration of math was being made both fun and delicious.

Students in an eighth-grade math class at the Truebright Science Academy Charter School were measuring edible pies and other round baked goods to demonstrate how pi applies to the circumference of a circle.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Alleged Cosby victim testifies before Nevada Legislature

Alleged Cosby victim testifies before Nevada Legislature 
 

Attorney Gloria Allred, right, listens as Lise-Lotte Lublin testifies in a hearing at the Legislative Building, Friday, March 13, 2015, in Carson City, Nev. Lublin, who says she was a victim of sexual assault by Bill Cosby in 1989, urged lawmakers to support a bill that would remove the criminal statue of limitations for sexual assault cases in Nevada.

  

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- A woman who says Bill Cosby victimized her decades ago asked Nevada lawmakers on Friday to support a bill removing the state's statute of limitations on sexual assault - a provision that prevented her from pursuing a criminal case against the comedian.

Lise-Lotte Lublin, 48, fought through tears while telling lawmakers she passed out in the Las Vegas Hilton in 1989 after Cosby gave her two alcoholic drinks. The former model said she remembers Cosby stroking her hair, and then she woke up at home.

It was only after hearing similar allegations from other women that she concluded something happened to her while she was unconscious. She said she filed a police report on the incident in January, but was told Cosby couldn't be charged because too much time had passed. So she and her husband went to the bill's sponsor and urged her to draft the legislation.

"I want to empower victims, period," Lublin said, "regardless of what happens for me."

Cosby's publicist, David Brokaw, did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment on Friday. More than 20 women have stepped forward in recent months to level various accusations against Cosby, ranging from unwanted advances to sexual assault and rape. Cosby has not been charged with a crime and has denied some of the allegations through his attorneys.

Las Vegas police have investigated "more than one" complaint against Cosby, but couldn't confirm if Lublin filed a police report due to department policy, said department spokeswoman Officer Laura Meltzer. None of the complaints have led to criminal charges, she said.

Nevada law dictates that sexual assault charges cannot be filed more than four years after the alleged incident. The bill would remove that restriction and bring sexual assault in line with murder and terrorism as crimes without a statute of limitations.

Democratic Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams, who is sponsoring the bill, said the legislation would help sexual assault victims who often face severe emotional and social trauma and can take years to feel comfortable before filing a report with police.

Vanessa Spinazola, a lobbyist for the ACLU of Nevada, said statutes of limitations help ensure cases are reviewed before witnesses die and memories fade.

"They permit both the prosecution and the defense to try the case before evidence is stale," Spinazola said. 

"As more time lapses, it becomes increasingly difficult for the accused to prepare a meaningful defense."

Attorney Lisa Rasmussen said there's an unlimited statute of limitations for prosecuting a sexual assault when a police report is filed within four years of the incident.

"You also have to think about whether or not you would want to be in a position where someone is saying `35 years ago, someone did this to me,'" Rasmussen said.

The bill wouldn't apply retroactively due to constitutional concerns.

The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault as a matter of policy, but Lublin went public with her allegations. Despite Lublin identifying Cosby as her attacker, committee chair Ira Hansen asked that witnesses not use names during their public testimony and refer to him as "the perpetrator."

Funeral Arrangements Announced For Officer Robert Wilson III

Funeral Arrangements Announced For Officer Robert Wilson III

Officer Robert Wilson was slain during an attempted robbery at a
North Philadelphia video game store on March 5, 2015.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Police announced official funeral arrangements have been set for Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III, who was shot and killed last Thursday inside of a GameStop in North Philadelphia.

Authorities say the first viewing will be held Friday, March 13, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at Francis Funeral Home, located at 5201 Whitby Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19143.

The second viewing will be held Saturday, March 14, 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., at the University of Pennsylvania Palestra located at 235 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Execution Dates Set For Two Pa. Men, Unlikely To Be Carried Out

Execution Dates Set For Two Pa. Men, Unlikely To Be Carried Out

HARRISBURG, Pa., (CBS) — The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has issued a notice of execution for two inmates – including a Philadelphia man. But a spokesman says Governor Wolf’s death penalty moratorium remains in effect.

The Department of Corrections has set a mid-April execution date for two men, including Lance Arrington, who was convicted by a Philadelphia court of first degree murder in 2000. But Jeff Sheridan, a spokesman for Governor Wolf, says it is simply a matter of procedure. Sheridan says if the governor does not sign an execution warrant, by state law, the Corrections secretary must set a date. Sheridan says if necessary, the governor will issue reprieves in these two cases, though Sheridan can’t say exactly when.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Van Stone's Beautiful Dominican Republic Children Models

Police Athletic League Of Philadelphia Provides Hundreds Of Local Teens With Free Prom Dresses

Police Athletic League Of Philadelphia Provides Hundreds Of Local Teens With Free Prom Dresses

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Police Athletic League is helping young girls from around the area get ready for their high school prom.

The prom boutique let more than 200 girls take their pick of new and gently used dresses.

Tache Green, a junior at Upper Moreland High School, says she’s very appreciative for this event.

“I actually feel great coming out here because it’s actually hard to find a prom dress,” said Green.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

2 More Pa. State Reps, 1 Former State Rep Surrender on Corruption Charges

2 More Pa. State Reps, 1 Former State Rep Surrender on Corruption Charges

 

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) — Three more Pennsylvania state lawmakers from Philadelphia have been charged in a political corruption investigation that was dropped by the state attorney general’s office but picked up by the Philadelphia DA.

Today, at a press conference, Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams says state representatives Michelle Brownlee and Louise Williams Bishop and former represenative Harold James are accused of taking cash payments from a lobbyist working undercover for investigators.  They are charged with conspiracy, bribery, and other crimes.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Video of racist chant threatens Univ. of Oklahoma's progress

Video of racist chant threatens Univ. of Oklahoma's progress

Two men load a couch from the now closed University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house into a moving truck, in Norman, Okla., Tuesday, March 10, 2015. University President David Boren expelled two students Tuesday after he said they were identified as leaders of a racist chant captured on video during a fraternity event.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Almost a generation ago, the University of Oklahoma set out to raise its profile, seeking to build a regional school that served mostly students from the Southwest into a leading institution that attracted top scholars.

President David Boren made striking progress, achieving a reputation that now extends well beyond the Sooners football team that once defined the campus. But those improvements seem in peril after members of a fraternity were caught on video chanting a racial slur. The chant referenced lynching and indicated black students would never be admitted to OU's chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Boren, a former Oklahoma governor and U.S. senator, acted swiftly. He immediately severed ties with the fraternity and ordered members to vacate their house. On Tuesday, he expelled the two students who appeared to be leading the chant for creating a hostile educational environment and promised others involved would face discipline.

"I have emphasized that there is zero tolerance for this kind of threatening racist behavior at the University of Oklahoma," Boren said in a statement.

Since taking the helm of the state's flagship university more than 20 years ago, Boren has made ambitious efforts to recruit top students and faculty.

The school offers generous scholarships to all National Merit scholars and currently enrolls more of them than any other public university in the nation. It has produced 29 Rhodes scholars.

Boren also expanded the honors program and raised large amounts of money for endowed chairs - so much, in fact, that the state had to scale back an offer to match the donations.

The video was taken on a bus going to a Founder's Day event at a country club. The person who recorded it has cooperated with the investigation, Boren said Tuesday ahead of a Board of Regents meeting.

Some students at OU, particularly African-Americans who make up about 5 percent of the campus population, said racism is alive and well and that a mostly segregated fraternity and sorority system is at least partially to blame for creating an environment where racism can thrive.

"It's too segregated," said Markeshia Lyon, a junior from Oklahoma City who is black. "That's something that's passed down, and that's something that needs to change."

Lyon recalled trying to attend a fraternity party her freshman year with several friends, all of whom were African-American, and being told they were not welcome.

"It was very hurtful," she said. "I would never set foot on that street again."

But fraternity members say chapters at Oklahoma have taken steps to diversify, recruiting more African-American, Asian and Hispanic students.

"We've always fostered a community where anyone who is qualified can enter. We don't look at your race," said Jordan Bell, an African-American senior from Washington, D.C., who joined a mostly white fraternity. He said more than 10 percent of the roughly 100 members of his Phi Kappa Psi fraternity now are African-American.

Bell said some fraternities and sororities are more diverse than others, and Boren acknowledged at a news conference Monday that more needs to be done to attract minority students to the university and the fraternity-sorority system.

"Some are doing quite well. They're making progress," Boren said. "Others are still locked in the past, and they need to realize that it enriches the experience and the friendships that are involved if they become more diverse as organizations.

"I don't think we can paint the whole Greek system with a broad brush."

The university has succeeded in breaking down some racial barriers, mainly through its athletics programs, which is why the video reopens old wounds.

Running back Prentice Gautt, for example, became the first black football player at the school in the late 1950s, long before many universities had integrated collegiate athletics. Yet today, members of the school's predominantly black football and basketball programs play before overwhelmingly white crowds.

While the school made strides on the playing field, it seemed to be losing ground elsewhere. The enrollment of black students declined. Ten years ago, roughly 6 percent of students at the Norman campus were black, according to university statistics. Last year, the figure hovered just above 5 percent.

The video also revived painful memories of the state's history of racial violence.

In 1921, a race riot in Tulsa left some 300 blacks dead and an entire section of town in economic turmoil - scars that remain today in the state's second-largest city.

Only two years ago, the Tulsa City Council voted to rename the city's glitzy arts district, which had been named after Wyatt Tate Brady, the son of a Confederate veteran and Ku Klux Klan member. But the change was vehemently opposed by some locals.

An entire swath of southeastern Oklahoma is still called Little Dixie today.

JeffriAnne Wilder, associate professor of sociology at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville - where a school board decided in 2013 to rename a high school named after an honorary Ku Klux Klan leader - said the incident at OU is a quick reminder of how far the state, and the U.S., has to go in dealing with racial issues.

"It's saddening and unfortunate that just a few days ago, we were commemorating Selma," Wilder said, referring to the 1965 civil rights march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery. "We have to pause and on one hand, we can look back and see how far we've gone and on the other hand, how far we have to go."

"The millennial generation," she added, "is supposed to be both colorblind and post-racial, but that's not true."

Black History 2015: Religions And Slave Trade Killings In The 1800’s Part 4d of 9

Black History 2015: Religions And Slave Trade Killings In The 1800’s Part 4d of 9

Up until 1866 through 1868 many prominent religions in the United States, both in the South and North, pushed for the belief that all Black Peoples were only three-fifths of a person. Therefore, persons of the Negro race, regardless if they were a slave, free-man, or a descendant of an imported African slave, are not citizens of the U.S. and cannot be a "citizen" of any State. 

 

Because of this the thought was that if the Black Peoples could not be a citizen of any State for certain they could not be a fellow believer of any religion backed by God’s grace.  

As late as 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Dred Scott (a free-man) v. John Sanford (a slave owner) was handed down to let anyone who is a black person know then and today, that people of color will always be nothing but property for slave trading in the 1800’s and beyond. 

In part, one lead U.S. Supreme Court Judge, Chief Justice Taney, documented for both the North and the South to know that his opinion was that “the authors of the Constitution had viewed all blacks as "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Clearly, many white people who were positively inclined religious individuals disagreed with Chief Justice Taney to practice his racism and extreme prejudice in his courtroom or his church. However, there were lots of white people who were religious persons believing completely in their minds and hearts that to practice Chief Justice Taney’s racism and prejudice in their church was right for them.    

Nevertheless, the Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1868 in five sections including several clauses.  It is the Citizen Clause in particular which provides a broad definition of citizenship, overruling the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which had held that Americans descended from African slaves could not be citizens of the United States.

The deeply rooted hatred of Americans who descended from African slaves was so very troubling and dangerous in the U.S. because it is almost impossible to know which race, black, white, or any other, actually descends from African slavery and or the particular religion that was practiced before African slaves were brought to the United States. 

Why even, Charles Darwin, a white man, also a man of religious convictions, who was born in England, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory recognized that there actually is evil in believing that the Bible supports so-called belief in a one natural separate race selected to dominate other races.    

However, many white devout religious men, women, and children absolutely refused to agree with Darwin or the 14^th Amendment, feeling different about the Black race in kind.

And  Charles Taze Russell, the pre-founder of the Christian Jehovah’s Witnesses religion, was in fact one of the religious whites during 1868 forward who refused to accept Black peoples into a status of having grace with Almighty God.   

Therefore, Russell, in1868, abruptly left any church organization that believed in unity amongst all races. 

According to Russell’s religious belief system of the Bible, since there would be but one great genre of negative classism slavery, the blacks, there ought to be but one great genre of positive classism slavery.   

Regardless of what was occurring in the world, Russell’s believed that his biblical destiny would be to become Pastor Russell, a spiritual slave amongst a group of people who were considered to be the faithful and discreet slave class hierarchy authority chosen by God, as Jesus spoke of. 

He would lead and prosper over church members and all mankind as a Zionist leader.  Almighty God would call for him to be a spiritual slave with a special future. Meanwhile, blacks and their ties to those who were physical slaves would have no future but to depend on him for their salvation.  To be continued…