Upcoming Episodes Author interview with Shawna Hill

Upcoming Episodes Author interview with Shawna Hill
Claudia Mosley (BTP)
Date / Time: 1/9/2010 1:00 PM

Category: Entertainment

Call-in Number: (646) 716-9091




In Between Lies-After a devestating break up with her cheating fiance, Savannah Summers delves into her work as the Assistant to the VP of Production in a marketing/production company. Finding refuge in work and her best friends, she finally decides to try her hand at love one more time. This time around she vows to not give her whole self as before and keep her heart closer and guarded more than ever before. Kevin Styles is a smooth, handsome Meterologist at a local news station and is somewhat a local celebrity in his own right. When it comes to women, playing his cards right is his forte and he is just the man to wine and dine her. However, a known player to his heart, he's looking for the right woman to "tame" his wild ways. Just when things are going perfect, Naomi Sanders, a blast from Kevin's past blows through and the drama and lies begin. Shattered trust and betrayal is inevitable. Can their blooming relationship withstand Naomi's tactics, or should Savannah cut her losses and run?

What's Your Pocket Feeling Like Now?

Okay - so, Christmas is past, kids are happy and grateful. Or not. Most of us have either returned to work or will return on tomorrow. How is your pocket feeling?

I am wondering because I read a Reuters report that said 4 million Britons are still repaying last years Christmas debt. That is 1 in 10 Britons. I also heard a similar report on CNN regarding Americans. We continue to go into debt in November and December, and then begin to try and dig out in January and February - and are still digging the following year.

In addition to the crummy economy, Americans were spending this Christmas holiday - but not as much as the media would like us to believe. You wanna know what I base this comment on? Alley Observance. Drive down any alley in your neighborhood and I bet you will have the same report as I - not nearly as many empty boxes and overflowing big greens as last Christmas or the one before. That is the real report on Christmas spending.

But, spend we did. We still, even in this day and age, have to buy expensive material items at Christmas time to prove to our children and loved ones that we will go into debt because of our love for them. Or to prove to our neighbors that we 'got it like that'. I want my neighbors to know that they win that game. Because in January of this year and next - I want to be planning a quality time vacation with my kids in the Spring and Summer, not how I can pay 40-400% on loan shark credit cards, quick cash loans, and bank fees because I had to show my kids the newest gadget with love on December 25th.

We really have to stop playing possum at our own economic lynching party.

Yes, our economy is 2/3 dependent on consumer spending. But, believe it or not, as economist will tell you, right now, our economy is dependent on healthy consumers. So, we need to save and be economically healthy enough to spend, more than we need to spend back into debt crisis.

Here are a few phenomenon that gave me pause for thought:

Bank Fees - When a check is returned for NSF - the bank charges you one hefty fee; and then after a certain number of days, a daily fee until the account is restored to a positive balance. However, the set-up is that when you use your debit card, which is like writing an electronic check, unless you are forced to enter your pin code in the transaction, the processing is not immediate. In this way, all of the processing can be done at one time, and the order of processing is determined by the bank. This leads to a processing routine that allows the bank to push through the transactions in a manner to collect the highest number of fees from the consumer. Legal Loan Sharking.

Credit Card Fees - We know that federal regulation is already in place, and probably more is coming, to regulate credit card fees. The reason is that these fees are out of control. This is another capitalist unregulated venture that is financially raping Americans, and is part of the reason we are in the economic pit right now. Easy credit at insane rates. Legal Loan Sharking.

IRS - Right now, you are apt to recieve a letter from the IRS concerning taxes from 2-4 years ago, and a slight error you may have made in your calculation (or whomever compiled your tax return). That error could potentially cost you from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. The IRS has the right to go back and 'review' your taxes for errors and possible unreported income and then harrass you for supposed owed funds and interest on those funds, since you should have caught that error back then. This is not even legal loan sharking. This is a legal shakedown and harrasment of the American citizen.

I don't know if any of this causes you to stop and say woooah! But I think I am saving my money and using the old fashioned system of checks, check register, checks and balances, and entering that pin code at every transaction.

And as far as proving my love with material gifts in December? I have learned - and learning is a process - that I show my peoples love all year long. I told my children that Jesus was gifted thrice upon His humble arrival in a stable. He saved my life - which they cannot do - be happy about those three gifts they are allowed to request, and lets make Christmas about loving each other and giving hope to somebody else. So far, we have enjoyed that immensely.

This money thing? Let's blog about it.....

Percy Sutton, Monumental Attorney, Dies at age 89

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581203,00.html

Sunday, December 27, 2009

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AP

Percy Sutton, who rescued the Apollo Theater in New York City from extinction eight years ago, poses under the Marquee in this file photo.

NEW YORK — Percy Sutton, the pioneering civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X before launching successful careers as a political power broker and media mogul, died Saturday at age 89.

Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for Gov. David Paterson, confirmed Sutton's death. She did not know the cause. His daughter, Cheryl Sutton, declined to comment when reached by phone at her New York City home on Saturday before midnight.

The son of a slave, Percy Sutton became a fixture on 125th Street in Harlem after moving to New York City following his service with the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. His Harlem law office, founded in 1953, represented Malcolm X and the slain activist's family for decades.

The consummate politician, Sutton served in the New York State Assembly before taking over as Manhattan borough president in 1966, becoming the highest-ranking black elected official in the state.

Sutton also mounted unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate and mayor of New York, and served as political mentor for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's two presidential races.

"The godfather," Jackson once called him.

In a statement released Saturday night, Gov. David Paterson called Sutton a mentor and "one of New York's and this nation's most influential African-American leaders."

"Percy was fiercely loyal, compassionate and a truly kind soul," Paterson continued. "He will be missed but his legacy lives on through the next generations of African-Americans he inspired to pursue and fulfill their own dreams and ambitions."

In 1971, with his brother Oliver, Sutton purchased WLIB-AM, making it the first black-owned radio station in New York City. His Inner City Broadcasting Corp. eventually picked up WBLS-FM, which reigned for years as New York's top-rated radio station, before buying stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit and San Antonio between 1978-85.

The Texas purchase marked a homecoming for the suave and sophisticated Sutton, born in San Antonio on Nov. 24, 1920, the youngest of 15 children.

Among Sutton's other endeavors was his purchase and renovation of the famed Apollo Theater when the Harlem landmark's demise appeared imminent.

Sutton's father, Samuel, was born into slavery just before the Civil War. The elder Sutton became principal at a segregated San Antonio high school, and he made education a family priority: All 12 of his surviving children attended college.

When he was 13, Percy Sutton endured a traumatic experience that drove him inexorably into the fight for racial equality. A police officer approached Sutton as the teen handed out NAACP pamphlets. "N——-, what are you doing out of your neighborhood?" he asked before beating the youth.

When World War II arrived, Sutton's enlistment attempts were rebuffed by Southern white recruiters. The young man went to New York, where he was accepted and joined the Tuskegee Airmen.

After the war, Sutton earned a law degree in New York while working as a post office clerk and a subway conductor. He served again as an Air Force intelligence officer during the Korean War before returning to Harlem in 1953 and establishing his law office with brother Oliver and a third partner, George Covington.

In addition to representing Malcolm X for a decade until his 1965 assassination, the Sutton firm handled the cases of more than 200 defendants arrested in the South during the 1963-64 civil rights marches. Sutton was also elected to two terms as president of the New York office of the NAACP.

After Malcolm's assassination, Sutton worked as lawyer for Malcolm's widow, Betty Shabazz. He represented her grandson, 12-year-old Malcolm Shabazz, when the youth was accused of setting a 1997 fire that caused her death.

Sutton was elected to the state Legislature in 1965, and quickly emerged as spokesman for its 13 black members. His charisma and eloquence led to his selection as Manhattan borough president in 1966, completing the term of Constance Baker Motley, who was appointed federal judge.

Two years later, Sutton announced a run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Jacob Javits, although he pulled out of the Democratic primary to back Paul O'Dwyer.

Sutton remained in his Manhattan job through 1977, the same year he launched a doomed campaign for mayor that ended with Edward I. Koch defeating six competitors for the Democratic nomination.

Sutton was among the first voices raised against the Vietnam War, surrendering his delegate's seat at the 1968 Democratic convention in protest and supporting anti-war candidate George McGovern four years later against incumbent President Richard Nixon.

In addition to his radio holdings, Sutton also headed a group that owned The Amsterdam News, the second largest black weekly newspaper in the country. The paper was later sold.

Sutton's devotion to Harlem and its people was rarely more evident than when he spent $250,000 to purchase the shuttered Apollo Theater in 1981. The Apollo turned 70 in 2004, a milestone that was unthinkable until Sutton stepped in to save the landmark.

Sutton "retired" in 1991, but his work as an adviser, mentor and confidante to politicians and businessmen never abated. He was among a group of American businessmen selected during the Clinton administration to attend meetings with the Group of Seven (G-7) Nations in 1995-96.

The Rev. Al Sharpton planned a news conference Sunday to talk about Sutton's life and legacy.

It's Elemental

Welcome to 'It's Elemental', the blog! If you know me already, you know I tend to know a little bit about a lot - but I make sure that bit I know is concrete. Can I blog? Yes, I can. Right here, we are gonna talk about everything from the latest local author - what's hot and what's not, to the latest local event I attended. I might have even seen you there.

For instance, this past Thursday, December 17th, I stopped by Vino's in Short North, to visit with Danielle Benson(http://www.nontlejewelry.com/) of Nontle Jewelry - which, by the way, provides WAYYY more than just hotttt jewelry, and met some of the hottest female entrepreneurs in Columbus.

One of them, Norma J Gripper of Soul Purpose (http://www.empowered2prosper.soulpurpose.net/), was a recent acquaintence from the previuos weeks event 'The Klatch' with the ladies of BLAKStar (www.blakstartalk.com), at Urban Spirits Method Gallery (http://www.urban-spirit.com/).

So, we will blog about events, ideas, happenings, and - well, questions....like this one:

Do you think that what Donnie McClurkin is doing by taking a full frontal approach to a ban on homosexuality in Christianity is persecution? Is he the modern day disciple Matthew, who persecuted Christians, even to torture, until God recruited him? Then Matthew ran just as hard for God? Does He hold more influence speaking from his confession and deliverance from homosexuality?

Both the gospel (?) singer Tonéx and Donnie McClurkin are tied financially into the gospel community, and both have taken a stand on this issue - Tonéx has allegedly declared his alternative lifestyle, and Donnie has declared his deliverance and abstinence from such, and some would say, is persecuting other homosexuals as not being willing to be delivered from “the perversion of homosexuality.”

What do you think?

Or, how about this? At the recent Town Hall on Youth Violence at the Lincoln Center, where SoDebNair from Fresh Face Radio (http://www.UnderGroundColumbus.com) kept Urban Elements updated on the happenings, Mayor Colemen stated that the community recreation centers would reopen. He stated that he had to make a decision on whether to close the recreation centers, or hire more police officers to provide protection to the community. The 'community' questioned why he didnt retire or fire some of the older police officer who create an atmosphere of harrassment and fear for black community residents, which would free up money to both hire new/younger police officers AND keep the recreation centers open. The Mayor never directly responded to this question. Actually, he left before the event ended....

What are your thoughts?

So, let's blog about it............................