It seems only yesterday that we were celebrating David Paterson becoming New York State's first black governor and Charlie Rangel becom­ing the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee at the same time of Barack Obama's presidency. There was reason to believe that we were on the eve of tremendous progress on a whole host of economic and social issues, partic­ularly urban issues, which have been ignored in the public arena for decades. more>

The Census Bureau allows inmates to be counted as residents of communities where their prisons are located rather than their home communities, inflating some upstate legislative districts and affecting the distribution of public resources

VIDEO :: At least two state lawmakers are pushing a plan to change how the state's 60,000 prisoners are counted by the Census Bureau when it comes to drawing state and local legislative districts. more>

Will the president’s stimulus package reach the nearly 200,000 New Yorkers, 70 percent of who are Black and Latino males, currently neither in school nor in the labor force? more>

While overall unemployment stood at 7.2 percent in December 2008, Black unemployment was 11.9 percent and Latino unemployment was 9.2 percent, a disheartening situation with potential to become dangerous. more>