April D. Ryan

Life in Haiti is not normal or will it be for decades as the country works to rebuild back to the status of where it was before the fatal earthquake two years ago.  Before the devastation Haiti was considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.   Since the quake the United States government has helped financially with over 3 billion dollars.  Of the total $3.1 billion dollars of U.S. funds for Haiti,  $1.3 billion dollars has been provided for relief immediately after the earthquake.  Most of the monies have been disbursed and those programs are coming to an end.  Of the additional $1.8B for recovery and reconstruction,  The Obama administration is providing roughly 25% each for health, infrastructure, and rule of law.  The remaining 25% is split between food and economic security and debt relief with over $800 million dollars dispersed in that area.    U.S Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice contends the country needs private sector investment at this point.

President Barack Obama became the Public Singer and Chief in at the famed Apollo Theater during a fundraiser featuring Al Green.  The fundraiser was one of several he attended in New York Wednesday night. Another one of the appearances was at Spike Lee’s Joint, at the film maker’s Upper East Side home.  The President addressed about 60 people there.   But the Apollo is where President Obama entertained the crowd with something we have not heard before.

Newt Gingrich has been both ally and foe to key black leaders

the griot

by April Ryan

When the NAACP released a report earlier this year called “Misplaced Priorities” that urged policymakers to explore alternatives to sending more people to prison, the group found an unlikely ally: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich not only sent a letter praising the report, but dubbed the high incarceration rates in cities like Detroit “a tragedy.”

“Newt Gingrich was one of a small number of noted conservatives… to come out and endorse the report and say it is time to shift from failed quote unquote tough on crime policies to smart on crime policies,” NAACP President Ben Jealous said in an interview last month. He added, “we have fought with Newt Gingrich many times, but on this issue he was courageous.”

Gingrich confronted by black New Hampshire resident for ‘food stamps’ remark

A month later, Gingrich has found himself under fire by civil rights groups, including the NAACP, for saying that if he is the GOP presidential nominee he will go to the NAACP’s annual convention and talk about why “the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.” Thecomment was viewed by many as suggesting blacks are overly reliant on food stamps and other federal assistance.

But Jealous’s words last month illustrate the complicated relationship between Gingrich and key black leaders. While the former House Speaker has disagreed with the NAACP and other groups and black leaders on key issues, he has also built some alliances at times.

He spent much of 2009 campaigning around the country for education reform with the Reverend Al Sharpton. The pair also met with President Obama on the issue.

“I had such a great time going around America with you,” Gingrich said when he called intoSharpton’s MSNBC show PoliticsNation to wish Sharpton a happy birthday in October. (Sharpton has also sharply criticized the food stamp remarks.)

Former Oklahoma congressman J.C. Watts, one of the few African-Americans ever to hold a leadership slot in the House Republican Conference over the last few decades, endorsed the former speaker last month.

But some prominent African-Americans say Gingrich’s work with Sharpton and the NAACP were moves to help the former House Speaker appear more bi-partisan at the time, and the food stamp remarks are more reflective of his true views.

“He has not changed one iota,” said Mary Francis Berry, the former head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. “What he was doing was strategic image building, which politicians do all the time… don’t be shocked and surprised when he does something that is consistent with the reality of how he is.”

Since the controversy over his remarks, Gingrich has repeatedly defended himself as someone who has sought to build alliances across both partisan and racial lines.

“I mean clearly somebody who’s served with Colin Powell, who has served with Condoleezza Rice, I have a fairly good sense of the fact that African-Americans have made many contributions to America,” he told an audience in New Hampshire on Sunday at a campaign stop.

Follow April Ryan on Twitter at @AprilDRyan

For the 35th straight month the United States unemployment rate has been above 8 percent and the White House wants to cut into that statistic by bringing jobs back to the America. President Obama Wednesday hosted a forum called Insourcing American jobs. President Obama is offering tax incentives to companies that bring their business back home.  The overall unemployment rate is 8.5% and the black rate stands at 15.8 %.   Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed attended the event and discussed the impact on the black job market in Atlanta with the Presidents efforts.

Wii games and bones for the First Dog made up just part of President Obama’s Christmas shopping list.

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

The Obama Administration released the November 2011 unemployment stats showing the overall rate dropped to 8.6 percent with 1.9 million jobs added to the private sector, according to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney at White House Briefing said the overall unemployment rate was “way too high” and said of the increased black rate is “way too high.”  The black unemployment rate rose in November from 15.1 percent to 15.6 percent.  The White House is still not quantifying what is an acceptable unemployment rate if the current numbers are “way too high.”

Mary Francis Berry the former head of the Civil rights commission does not foresee America going beyond a 9% overall unemployment rate and a 16 percent black unemployment rate. But she contends the black unemployment rate is “affected overall by the layoffs in government and the layoffs in the manufacturing sector”. Meanwhile she acknowledge the best places to search for a job could be in the states with the lowest unemployment rates: North Dakota and Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Berry contends they are areas where energy fuels the employment there. Summing up American’s economic outlook was former President Bill Clinton Friday morning.  He stood with President Obama and called the national fiscal picture, the “lousy economy!”