When Annise Parker ran for mayor of Houston, she had an agenda. She was driven by personal motives. She says she wanted anyone to be able to look at Houston and know it was a well run city. She wanted to make Houston the best it could possibly be. This was personally important to her.

Newly installed pastor David Allen Jr., shown with his wife Regina, says when it comes to helping his real estate customers, “My experience has blessed me with the ability to think outside of the box.”
 

At a town hall meeting last week in Henderson, Nevada, President Barack Obama talked about his administration’s new efforts to stabilize the housing market by buying vacant homes and converting them into affordable housing.  The program will not only help the housing crisis, but it will create jobs and grow the local economy for the states of Nevada, California, Michigan, Florida and Arizona. 

He also talked about the loan modification initiative that allows homeowners who are struggling with their mortgages by giving them lower monthly payments. This initiative will help homeowners in all states.
The $1.5 billion fund for housing finance agencies in Nevada and other hard-hit states was designed to help unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosures. The money that had been initially reserved for the bank bailout will be instead sent to Nevada and other states that have seen housing prices drop more than 20% in the last four years.

FORTH WORTH- Leaders of Fort Worth’s SCLC, NAACP and LULAC joined forces with the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service to develop a memorandum of agreement to form a civil/human rights coalition.

The purpose of the coalition is to support each other’s initiatives and those of other likeminded organizations.
The coalition will address alleged discriminatory actions against minorities in Forth Worth. The organizations assert discrimination is still very much alive in the metroplex and hope that by combining forces, they will improve race relations between minority communities, school districts, and law enforcement in Tarrant County.

“This is a new day and a new way. We will not rest, we will not sway, we will not tire until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Our ultimate desire and goal is to find ‘meaningful ways’ to work together to solve our common concerns and issues,” said Pastor Kyev Tatum, president of the Fort Worth SCLC.

According to leaders, this is an unprecedented coalition and the details are still being worked out. Each organization will continue to operate independently, but leaders are confident that this historic union will strengthen their ability to aggressively address issues of discrimination in Fort Worth and help to bridge the gap currently existing within minority populations.

The African American News&Issues endorses Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee for re-election to the 18th Congressional District.  Jackson Lee has been good for our community for many reasons and we need to return her as our voice in Washington.    Congresswoman Jackson Lee has been at the forefront of bringing jobs and federal funds to her district and the general Houston area.  Jackson Lee has won 125 grants totaling $351,000 from the federal stimulus bill for Congressional District 18.  This is the fourth-largest amount of funds brought to a district by a Texas Member of Congress.

Fort Worth SCLC cries foul in taser
death of Michael P. Jacobs, Jr.

FT. WORTH- Currently, Pastor Kyev Tatum, president of the Fort Worth SCLC, is leading the charge amid cries of wrongful death in the matter of Michael Patrick Jacobs, Jr., 24. According to reports, on April 18, 2009, Jacobs, who suffered from bi-polar disorder, had stopped taking his medication because it was making him ill. As is common for individuals with mental health issues, he began having difficulties within the home of his parents in southeast Fort Worth.

They placed a call to 911 around 10:30 a.m., alerting them of his condition and requesting MedStar ambulance transport him to John Peter Smith Hospital. But his parents did not receive the kind of help they were seeking.


Officers subdue suspects in  a typical arrest scene using tasers.
The Ft. Worth Medical Examiner’s report states that despite the
fact that officers observed that Michael Patrick Jacobs, Jr., was
unresponsive and had stopped breathing, after tasering him for
54 seconds, they failed to render aid by performing CPR, which
may have saved the victim’s life.

JENNIFER AUSTIN...
“Just days before I was walking around feeling fine,
taking care of my family, going to the gym daily, and
working professionally as an advocate for children and
families living in poverty.  I had no medical history of
health problems.  Things were good.”

For nearly two decades, Jennifer Jones Austin dedicated herself to her career as an attorney in the private and public sectors. Although the lure of big money as a corporate attorney danced in her head, social issues concerning children and families tugged at her heart. Her passion allowed her to enhance the lives of thousands of the disenfranchised across New York State, and even today at 41-years-old, she embodies enough beauty and grace that she could easily be mistaken for a former America’s Next Top Model pageant winner.

Looking into her doe-shaped eyes and becoming mesmerized by her infectious smile, it’s easy to forget that she no longer has the long, brown locks of hair, the “crown and glory” that most women would die for. And ironically, the reason she has embraced the Sinead O’Conner look is indeed a matter of life and death.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
is best remembered for helping
Black Americans rise up from
the economic slavery that held
them down long after they were
legally free citizens.

Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 on the Burroughs tobacco farm. His mother, a slave, was a cook, and his father a White man from a nearby farm. He went to school in Franklin County but could only carry books for one of James Burroughs's daughters. In April 1865, when the Emancipation Proclamation was read in front of the Burroughs home, Booker's family left to join his stepfather in Malden, West Virginia.

Annie McClenton stands with her 79-year-old father James McClenton at the Hudson
Manor Health Care Center. Last year, McClenton, suffering from Alzheimers’s disease
gave his family a scare when he walked out of a gated nursing home and got more than
a mile away before being stopped.             
                                                                  Photo by Conner Jay Jersey Journal Photo         

Five years ago, Janice Billingsley of HealthDay, wrote in an article “Blacks more prone to Alzheimer’s,” that  “Alzheimer’s disease is a silent epidemic striking Black Americans, who seem more susceptible to the brain-wasting condition than any other group of Americans.” She went on to state, “One possible explanation: Black Americans are at greater risk of vascular disease, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. And studies have found that people with a history of either high blood pressure or high cholesterol are twice as likely to succumb to Alzheimer’s disease.”

The news is not any better this year as Netwellness.com says medical researchers are investigatiing why it is that the incidence of alzheimer’s disease is higher in Blacks than Whites. A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society reports that at 80-years-old, incidences per 100 people are: White, 3.5; Black, males 5.3; and Black females, 5.9.

Roy Douglas Malonson, chairman of the African-American
Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston, greets then City-Controller
Annise Parker at a chamber-sponsored event. 
Mayor Parker has agreed to be the guest speaker at the chamber’s annual awards banquet.   

This year, the African-American Chamber of Greater Houston celebrates 21 years of service to the African-American community. More than 400 people will gather at the annual banquet, where Houston Mayor Annise Parker will be the guest speaker.

The chamber, organized in 1989, was originally named the Acres Homes Citizens Chamber of Commerce, came as the result of a desire to create a better place for the seemingly forgotten residents of Acres Homes community in the city of Houston. In fact, it was birthed out of a movement.

“It was a culmination of a lot of things. The Acres Homes chamber of commerce was the second or third thing. Acres Homes had become nationally known as one of the drug capitols of the world. It was so bold out here that there was total disrespect with the drug dealers. They were everywhere,” said Roy Douglas Malonson, chairman and co-founder of the chamber. Other founders were the late Thelma Lastrap, Rep. Sylvester Turner and Atty. Thomas Jones, Jr.

Frederick Douglass was born in February, 1818, near the town of Easton, Maryland. Separated from his mother when only a few weeks old he was raised by his grandparents. At about the age of six, his grandmother left him on his master’s plantation.

Later, he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master. His new mistress taught him the alphabet. When her husband forbade her to continue, he made the neighborhood boys his teachers, by giving away his food in exchange for lessons in reading and writing.