City Council Asks Kwame Kilpatrick to Resign

The Detroit City Council is expressing its disdain for disgraced Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. This week, the council moved for a resolution asking for Kilpatrick to resign voluntarily. However, Mayor Kilpatrick has refused to do so.

"This is what I was born to do," said Kilpatrick.

A formal vote by the council is set for Tuesday. If the resolution passes, the council will seek a voluntary resignation. If Mayor Kilpatrick refuses to resign, the city then resorts to other options available to force his removal from office.

"The city has basically been paralyzed since all this information has come out," said Councilwoman Brenda Jones. "We can't just sit here and act like we are moving forward."

Jones and the other council members unanimously passed the resolution against Kilpatrick.

Kwame Kilpatrick, known as "The Hip Hop Mayor", has had a troubled administration from the start. Most recently, he found himself in the middle of a whistle-blower case, in which two Detroit Police Officers sued, citing that they were fired for revealing details of the Mayor's extracurricular activities.

Mayor Kilpatrick, who is the son of Congress Woman Carolyn Kilpatrick, has been accused of perjury after he and his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, lied under oath about having an affair. If found guilty of felony perjury, Kilpatrick could be disbarred, forced to resign as mayor and given up to 15 years in prison.

Kilpatrick had little to say about possibly being forced out by the City Council. "I don't want to get into that," he said. "I'm not resigning."

The Detroit City Council also had some disparaging remarks about the national attention that the case has drawn.

"Detroit has received embarrassing coverage nationally and internationally, which has caused the mayor to be absent from his duties for a prolonged period of time and absent from the public," the resolution stated.

Whether the council can remove Kilpatrick from the Mayor's Office is yet to be determined. Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. stated that he doesn't believe Kilpatrick can be removed without being convicted of a felony.

"I think at this point he's dug his heels in pretty well," Cockrel said.

Kwame Kilpatrick, an attorney, was the youngest Mayor ever elected in the city of Detroit. His troubles began as Mayor in 2002, when rumors of a wild party at his mansion surfaced. It is alleged that the party involved strippers, and that Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, came home unexpectedly and got into a fight with one of the strippers.

But Kilpatrick's problems with strippers did not stop there. Tamara Greene, a stripper with the nickname "Strawberry", allegedly performed at Kilpatrick's home. Greene was shot over a dozen times by the same .40 caliber pistol offered for use by the Detroit Police Department. Her family is claiming that her murder (which came shortly after another failed attempt on her life) was committed to keep her from testifying.

Tamara Greene's family is suing the city of Detroit for $150 Million.

More Kwame Kilpatrick Commentary:

Dr. Boyce Watkins: Why the World Hates Kwame Kilpatrick

Mother Murders Children: Fathers Had Tried to Get Custody

Three children, ages 6, 5 and 1, were found either drowned or poisoned, with one having her throat cut on Monday.

Leatrice Brewer called the 911 operator and said coldly "I killed my babies."

The three children, a girl 6 and two boys, 5 and 1, were found wearing their night clothes.

"They almost looked as though they were sleeping," Lt. Michael Fleming said. "It almost looked like they were cuddled up together for the night."

Ms. Brewer, 27, called police herself. She also jumped out of a second story window and was hospitalized with a back injury. She lived in the New Cassel section of Long Island, a relatively poor neighborhood. She had an arrest record going back to 2000.

Brewer's case brings up the larger issue of child custody and whether the courts favor the mother too much in such cases. The father of Brewer's daughter, as well as the father of her two sons, said they'd been fighting family court to take possession of the children. However, each of them said that the court would not hear them out.

"Whenever I tried to get my daughter, Family Court wouldn't let me," said Ricky Ward, the little girl's father. "The courts wouldn't hear me out. I blame this on Leatrice Brewer and Family Court."

Many fathers throughout America are fighting the same issue. Mathew Smith, a doctor and father of one, said that he tried for years to take possession of his child, who was living in unfit circumstances.

"I loved my child, but she didn't like the discipline I imposed because her mother did not discipline her," said Smith, who was also denied partial custody because his daughter did not want to live with him. "She was a teenager and sharing a room with her teenage brother, which was clearly inappropriate because I gave her mother thousands per month in child support, which she spent on her boyfriend. But the courts refused to even listen to my case."

This is a nation-wide problem, as many fathers are victims of alienation by mothers who deny them the right to see their children. Groups like Fathersrights.org and others are designed to protect the rights of fathers in child custody and child support cases.

The issue is especially strong in the black community, where many fathers are accused of abandoning their children. However, this is not always the case, as many fathers are simply denied access to their kids.

"People accused me of being a bad father for not marrying the mother of my kids and for not living with my children," said Dr. Smith. "But the honest truth was that her mother did not want to marry me and she denied me the right to spend time with my kids, even when I tried. I never did anything but love her."

Hillary Clinton, Tavis Smiley Work to Repair their Images

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the only Presidential candidate from either party to attend The State of the Black Union Conference held by Tavis Smiley of PBS, worked hard to use the appearance as a chance to regain lost black voters. Critics have charged that Clinton attended the conference because she is so far out of the presidential race that she could spare the time.

During the conference, event organizer Tavis Smiley gave Mrs. Clinton a chance to regain affinity with black voters. She acknowledged that there were "painful moments" during the race, and that she regrets them.

Hillary Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, was once so popular with black voters that he'd been called "The First Black President". The title was offensive to some people of color, but many embraced the idea. However, during the election, Former President Clinton made several mistakes, such as presuming that Barack Obama won in South Carolina because both he and many of the voters were black.

Since that day, Mrs. Clinton has lost most of her primaries by a huge margin, and Obama has regularly exceeded her in black votes by 40 or 50%. The State of the Black Union, the venue in which Clinton appeared, but Obama did not, was her chance to appeal directly to African-Americans to regain their support.

Last week, Black America was in an uproar over Tavis Smiley's public attacks on Senator Barack Obama for not attending The State of the Black Union event. Obama offered to send his wife, Michelle, but she was rebuffed. While Smiley argued that no spouse of a Presidential candidate would be acceptable, many were concerned about the fact that many of the panelists invited were also not running for President.

Since that time, both Smiley and Clinton has seen a tremendous slide in their popularity in the black community.

Hillary Clinton claimed that her husband made racial reconciliation part of his public life. However, she stopped short of fully explaining why he refused to apologize for slavery.

"Most of my African-American friends and advisors don't believe that we should get into what was essentially a press story about whether there should be an apology for slavery in America," Bill Clinton stated in a magazine in 1998. "They think that that's what the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment was; they think that's what the civil rights legislation was, and they think we need to be looking toward the future."

To this day, neither of the Clintons have backed legislation to publicly apologize for slavery.

Dr. Boyce Speaks on Tavis Smiley and Barack Obama Feud

by Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

I received alot of mainstream media requests about the situation between Senator Barack Obama and Tavis Smiley. Some interpreted my commentary to imply that I somehow wanted to take sides on this issue. I also received calls from some close friends of Tavis Smiley (but nothing personally from Tavis, who may be angry with me right now), who were concerned that I felt that Tavis was wrong for doing what he did.

I will now set the record straight.

I make it my primary objective to speak with complete honesty. I also found the situation between Barack Obama and Tavis Smiley to be disturbing. However, I do not consider either individual to be worthy of any form of persecution from the American public. I refused to do any mainstream media appearances to discuss this issue, because there are some things that black people need to discuss among themselves. I have a good relationship with the people at The Tom Joyner Morning Show and Black America Web, and it is my goal to keep it that way.

Tavis Smiley is a good man and a respectable brother. I want to see Barack Obama win this election, and Mr. Smiley has stated that he too celebrates Obama's success. It would never be in my plans to disrupt Obama's path to the White House, nor is it to add to the stress Tavis Smiley is clearly feeling right now. Did I take Tavis Smiley to task on what he said? A little bit, yes. But I only made my comments because I felt that some things needed to be said.

It is my personal opinion that while Tavis Smiley has no problem seeing Senator Obama jeopardize his race to The White House in order to appear at the State of the Black Union, I wouldn't expect Tavis to be willing to jeopardize one of his many corporate sponsorship deals to appear at someone else's forum. Also, if people were to accuse him of being anti-black for refusing to give up his sponsors, that would be wrong. While Smiley has proclaimed himself to be a tireless freedom fighter for the black community, I have never once seen him take Walmart to task for the way this company has consistently pillaged poor people and those of color. It would not be in Mr. Smiley's interest to do so, but yet the broader community would certainly benefit from such a commentary. Thus, like the rest of us, Tavis does sacrifice a little freedom for a little "me-dom" every now and then.

So, for those who are fans of Tavis Smiley, Tom Joyner or Barack Obama, please understand that my goal is to be fair, not to take sides. Tavis should have invited Barack to his conference, but for him to assume that anyone who is anyone in Black America should be attending the State of the Black Union.....well, that's just wrong. There are many forums in Black America that allow individuals to express their blackness, and his convention is just one of them.

Sorry to be honest brother, but I've got to tell the truth. I've had alot of people compare me to Tavis and we have alot of mutual friends. I will always respect you.

My video statement is below. A special thanks to the production crew for putting it together. For those who don't like the hip hop in the commentary, I'm sorry, but that's just me being Dr. Boyce.

Respect and Love:

Boyce Watkins

Obama Lands a Key Endorsement

This week in Milwaukee, Senator Barack Obama gathered a key labor endorsement that once belonged to Hillary Clinton. He also criticized Senator Clinton for signing off on labor bills that he felt were harmful to American workers.

Many have criticized Hillary Clinton for being on the board of Walmart, one of the companies that has most benefited from such laws.

"Her supporting NAFTA didn't give jobs to the American people," Obama said. "Her supporting a bankruptcy bill made it harder for people to get out of debt that didn't help them with the bills that were stacking up on their desks."

Obama needs the labor endorsements, especially since polls show that Hillary Clinton has a large lead in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two states that contain a large number of delegates. His most recent endorsement came from the Service Employees International Union, an organization with 1.9 million workers.

He was also endorsed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, a group with 69,000 members in Ohio and another 26,000 in Texas.

In Wisconsin, Obama claimed that Clinton was attacking him as a cheap ploy to gain votes. He also claimed that she was so divisive that she was not able to get her health care reform bill passed.

"Hollering at Republicans and engaging in petty partisan politics didn't help health care get done," he said. "The American people don't want to play the same games. They don't want the cheap shots. They don't want the negative ads. What they are looking for are solutions and bringing people together."

Clinton's campaign appears to be in trouble. She has had 8 straight losses to Obama, her funds are not as strong, and her staff has lost key members. However, in spite of all this, Obama only has a small edge in Wisconsin.

Clinton has released a spate of negative ads in Wisconsin, accusing Obama of refusing to debate her in the state. She also claims that she can still win. The Obama camp agrees that Hillary Clinton should not be underestimated.

Obama Dominates Clinton Once Again

Barack Obama is now the frontrunner.

Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama slammed Hillary Clinton once again, winning 3 more primaries in relative landslides. Obama's wins in DC, Maryland and Virginia pushed him past Senator Clinton and into the lead in the race for the Democratic nomination.

According to estimates by CNN and other networks, Obama now has 1,215 delegates and Clinton has 1,190. One needs 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination.

This is the eighth straight primary that Obama has won. This result is a far cry from just one month ago, when Clinton was the strongest candidate.

"The change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac," said Obama.

"We won the state of Maryland. We won the commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington, D.C., this movement won't stop until there is change in Washington, D.C., and tonight we're on our way."

While Bill Clinton had once mentioned Obama as being similar to Jesse Jackson, this has not shown itself to be the case. While stealing a large number of African-American votes from Clinton, Obama has also taken many of her white and Hispanic supporters. He has also eaten into her female support.

According to exit polls in Virginia and Maryland, Obama walked away with 60% of the female vote. He also had as much as 90% of the black vote in all three states. The white vote was split down the middle.

Some have stated that Clinton's loss of Latino voters stemmed from the firing of her campaign manager, a Latino woman. Clinton did, however, win among white women, who gave her a 10 point edge over Obama.

Clinton, who appears to be struggling both financially and politically, has started to turn her focus on Texas and Ohio.

"We're going to sweep across Texas in the next three weeks, bringing our message about what we need in America ... I'm tested, I'm ready. Let's make it happen," she said.

She now has an uphill battle.

Barack Obama Has Hillary Clinton on Her Heels

After a weekend sweep, Senator Barack Obama has Hillary Clinton back peddling and looking like an underdog. Visibly shaken, the Clinton campaign made major changes over the weekend, with Clinton firing her Campaign Manager, Patti Solis Doyle and replaced her with Maggie Williams, an African-American.

Making a change so late in the process further heightens rumors that the Clinton Campaign is in real trouble. Last week, speculation was fueled by the fact that Clinton was forced to loan $5 million to her own campaign, while Obama was setting fund-raising records.

Things are expected to get worse for Clinton in the near future. Obama may also sweep the contests in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC. The voting is set to take place on Tuesday.

The delegate count between Clinton and Obama is now 1,139 to 1,135, in favor of Obama. Some see this as a symbolic shift, as Obama's momentum is currently quite strong. A candidate would need 2,025 delegates in order to clinch the Democratic nomination.


David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, has not yet rested.

"The Clintons are far better-known and have a political machine that's been honed over two decades," Plouffe said.

"But the more voters get to know Obama and his message of change, the more they support him, which bodes well for the upcoming primaries."

Obama also won a Grammy this weekend for the audiobook version of "Audacity of Hope", his best-selling book.

The race is not over, as Clinton is expected to have the advantage over Obama in the March 4 votes in Texas and Ohio. Wisconsin would also be a strong victory, with voters coming together on February 19.

"I have the ability to bring people together," Obama stated this weekend in Alexandria, Virginia. "If you will vote for me on Tuesday ... we will transform this country."

Obama Has Money, Clinton Has Much Less

In an odd mixture of fortunes, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton find themselves in very different financial situations. Senator Obama raised $7.2 million since Super Tuesday balloting, including $3 million in a 24 hour period. Meanwhile, Senator Clinton had to loan her campaign $5 million and is not paying her senior staff.

Obama's fundraising prowess, via extensive use of the Internet, has worried Hillary Clinton and her supporters. Both have done a remarkable job raising money during the past year, but Obama continues to raise the mark. In addition to the recent $7.2 million raised in the two days after Super Tuesday, Obama raised $32 million during the month of January. This amount exceeded that of any Presidential candidate in American history.

Hillary Clinton has asked Barack Obama to debate once a week, something that Obama has refused to do.

Clinton is not completely out of the fundraising excitement to recently hit the Democratic party. She raised $4 million from 35,000 new contributors since Super Tuesday.

Obama is planning to use his funds to engage in a major sprint across the country. He will appear in many states this weekend that plan to hold political contests between he and Senator Clinton.

Clinton plans to focus heavily on Ohio and Texas, two large states that hold primaries March 4. She already has strong leads in those places. She also believes that the senior citizens of Pennsylvania are going to provide strong support on their April 22 primary.

Some say that the letter sent by Clinton's Campaign Manager, Patti Solis, inviting Senator Obama to weekly debates is a clear sign that her camp is worried.

"I'm sure we can find a suitable place to meet on the campaign trail," Solis stated in the letter. "There's too much at stake and the issues facing the country are too grave to deny voters the opportunity to see the candidates up close."

Obama's camp rejected the debates.

Super Tuesday Results Do Little to Separate Clinton and Obama

According to the media, Super Tuesday results were interesting, but did not declare clear front runners. Senator Hillary Clinton only has 41% of the delegates needed for the nomination, while Senator Barack Obama has 36%. The results in California and New Mexico have not yet been finalized.

There are big races to be had in Texas and Ohio that will put Obama and Clinton head to head in their fight for the Democratic nomination. Both the Obama and Clinton camps acknowledge that Senator Obama has an advantage in both races.

"There are a lot of working-class whites [in Ohio] and she feels she does extraordinarily well with that demographic," VandeHei said on CNN's "American Morning."

However, Pennsylvania is a state that Senator Clinton strongly feels that she can win.

"I look forward to continuing our campaign and our debates about how to leave this country better off for the next generation, because that is the work of my life," Clinton said.

Even though Hillary Clinton won the larger states such as California, New York and New Jersey, Senator Obama won more states in total, 13 to 8. Some argue that this shows that Obama has a tremendous amount of momentum in his campaign.

"There is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know," Obama said. "Our time has come. Our movement is real. And change is coming to America."

Dr Boyce Watkins Motivates Black Students to succeed

Syracuse Prof. speaks about Dr. King's message

Posted: Jan 17, 2008 06:45 PM EST

Updated: Jan 17, 2008 06:45 PM EST






More News Headlines

Don't Forget to Vote!

Man killed after parking car on busy road

Voting? Here's the list of voting precincts

Busy Monday before Super Tuesday

Will ATI partner with ADICA?

Workforce Investment Act

Zoning Ordinance gets update

Fitzgerald woman charged with credit fraud

Georgia voters have big expectations for next president

Man Killed in Brooks County Highway Crash





January 17, 2008

Albany- A renowned Syracuse University finance professor motivated students at Albany State Thursday as part of the Martin Luther King Day Celebrations.

Dr. Boyce Watkins spoke to ASU first and second year experience program students, encouraging them to finish their education. Watkins was the only African American in the nation to earn a Ph.D. in finance in 2002. He told students King's desire for education and his courage should inspire everyone.

"Because one without the other really minimizes you ability to impact the world. There are a lot of educated people who just want to get in line and follow suit and do what they're told, but Dr. King was a person who said I'm going to do what's right," said Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University Professor.

Watkins is author of the book, "What if George Bush were a black man?" and is national director of the Step Up and Go to College Program.

Tiger Woods: Black Golfer on a Mission

Tiger Woods was unstoppable....again. In a dramatic come from behind win, Woods won the Dubai Desert Classic this week by one stroke. This is the 7th win in his last 8 starts, something almost no golfer in history has ever done before.....except Woods.

Last week, Woods crushed the field at the Buick Invitational by 8 strokes, a huge margin of victory in professional golf. He has won both of his tournaments this year, and says that he is playing better than he did during his 2000 season, during which he broke records that were set before golf even became a sport in the United States.

The win this week was even more amazing after Woods revealed that his equipment was faulty. On the first day of competition, Woods broke his driver and had to use his backup to defeat the competition.

"I broke my driver and had to use my backup which I don't like very much," he said. "I spun it too much, It was fine on Thursday because the wind didn't blow, but as soon as the wind started blowing, I had a hard time controlling the driver because it kept spinning too much.

"I was on the periphery most of the day and somehow got into it late in the back nine."

Tiger Woods started the final round of the tournament four strokes behind Ernie Els, the closest thing he has to a rival in professional golf. However, this isn't much of a rivalry, as Woods has defeated Els time and time again. This event was no different, as Woods caught Els and the rest of the field with birdies on 5 of the last 6 holes. One of the birdies was a 25-foot downhill putt that had Woods pumping his fist, leading the crowd into a frenzy.

Tiger Woods, the only African-American golfer in most tournaments in which he participates, has been nothing short of phenomenal. His world golf ranking score is 20.43, which is astounding, since no other golfer in the world has a score above 10. Only the top 10 golfers in the world have a score above 5. In 2000, Woods World Golf Ranking score almost reached 30, a feat considered impossible before Woods came onto the scene.

The late Earl Woods, Tiger's father, once bragged that his black teenage son would become the "Muhammad Ali of golf". Considered insane by sports journalists who believed that domination of professional golf would be impossible, Earl Woods and Tiger Woods proved the American sports media wrong. Woods has also transcended the sport by increasing the involvement of African-Americans and other people of color. He also became the first black golfer to win a major. Currently, he is on pace to eclipse all major golf records and has broken many of them already.

The United Nations Tries to Fix the Kenyan Crisis

The President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, recently held a series of meetings with African Heads of State during the 10th summit of the African Union, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

During the meetings, Mr. Kaberuka stressed the importance of ending the crisis in Kenya and not losing the gains made over the past several years.

During his meetings with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Mr. Kaberuka suggested ways the bank could help end the crisis. In a joint statement with the World Bank, The African Development Bank stated the following:

"By our early estimates, the current situation could drive 2 million Kenyans into poverty, reversing the gains made over the last few years".

Both institutions went further, saying that they "support efforts by Mr. Kofi Annan and his team, under the African Union initiative, to bring all parties together to make credible and visible progress toward quick and peaceful reconciliation."

Additionally, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, was in Kenya this week to put energy behind the efforts of Kofi Annan and his mediation talks.

Mr Ban made his appearance as France called for the UN Security Council to get more deeply involved in the Kenyan Crisis. Thus far, the crisis has left 850 dead and over 300,000 homeless.

Mr. Ban's message to Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga and the Kenyan people was simple: "It has to stop." His message was delivered in Nairobi and repeated several times.

At the same time Mr. Ban was speaking in Nairobi, Canadian High Commissioner to Kenya, Ross Hynes, was also getting involved Mr. Hynes stated that Canada can no longer engage in "business as usual" with the Kenyan government. He claimed that Canada would refuse contact with Kenyan leaders accused of disabling democratic institutions. He also said that they may even deny them visas to his country.

Black Female Bloggers Taking the World by Storm

Tech savvy African American blogger takes to Internet airwaves With incredible results


Los Angeles, CA – After only four shows since its January launch, the hugely popular Internet radio program, The Content Black Woman Show, has grabbed the #1 spot for current events programming on BlogTalkRadio.

Hosted by new media entrepreneur and blogger Valencia Roner, a.k.a. the “Content Black Woman,” the zenith rise of this web sensation is currently averaging around 15,000 downloads per week. A spin-off of the highest ranking site relating to Black women by Google, Why Black Women Are Angry, the program provides news, views and insights from a “content black woman’s” perspective as oppose to a perspective of an “angry black woman.” Whyblackwomenareangry.blogspot.com is the highest ranking site when inputting the search terms “black women” in Google’s search engine. The blog was also recently recognized by Ebony/Jet.com as one of the Ten Most Important Blog Posts for 2007 for Roner’s in-depth coverage of Prophetess Juanita Bynum and the controversy surrounding the popular ecumenical leader’s pending divorce and criminal case involving estranged husband Bishop Thomas Weeks.

“These are exciting times in our nation’s history,” said Roner, a featured panelist at the 2007 BlogHer Conference. “With white men ruling talk radio for so long, I think the success of my show demonstrates that a market exists that is hungry for a more diverse perspective on everything from news to pop culture to politics. It’s my goal to provide such a perspective.”

With the exponential growth of the Internet by way of YouTube, MySpace, blogs and other social networking sites, audio programs such The Content Black Woman Show on the fast growing BlogTalkRadio.com are providing a platform for those with something to say and to an audience to whom to say it.

The only African American woman in BlogTalkRadio.com’s top 10 out of the over 51,000 shows and over 7,500 hosts, The Content Black Woman Show is clearly meeting a unique market-based demand.

Valencia Roner has specialized in marketing and public relations for over 15 years. She owns and writes for the popular blog Why Black Women Are Angry (http://whyblackwomenareangry.blogspot.com). She began this platform with the intent of addressing the less than favorable stereotype of Black women as being angry in order to demonstrate Black women as beautiful and content with a perspective.



BlogTalkRadio is an interactive, media 2.0 platform that allows users to connect quickly and directly with their audience. Using an ordinary telephone and computer, (no software downloads or MP3 players required) hosts can create live call-in shows with unlimited participants that are instantly archived and made available as subscribable podcasts. The network has signed up more than 7,500 hosts in less than 16 months.



For additional press information, call 310-230-5381 or contact via e-mail at contentblackwoman@yahoo.com