It's becoming a nightmare for Caribbean youth, a headache that begins with youth gang criminal activity on neighborhood streets but usually ends with a stint in state prison.

VIDEO :: Students traded a day off from school on President's Day for a day of brainstorming about how to take back their neighborhoods from gangs, which have turned them into battlefields. NY1's Natasha Ghoneim reported. more>

Haitian earthquake refugees in New York City are now facing another emergency: getting their children into school. more>

In 1827, West Indian John Russwurm and Rev. Samuel Cornish, an African American, launched the first Black newspaper in the United States. It was called Freedom Journal and it made its appearance in Manhattan. The purpose was clear: "We wish to plead our case," the founders stated.

VIDEO :: This is an excerpt of "Soldiers Without Swords", the first documentary to chronicle the history of the Black press, including its central role in the construction of modern African American identity more>

A mobile trauma unit was dispatched to help Flatbush Avenue's Caribbean store owners – Haitian, Jamaican, Guyanese, Trinidadian, Grenadian and other West Indian vendors – who were left traumatized by the tragic events in the Caribbean country. more>

As many as 107 immigrants from around the world, including men and women from the Caribbean, Africa and Latin American have died in privately run U.S. government immigration jails since October 2003.

VIDEO :: Democracy Now reports on a scathing report in the New York Times that revealed federal officials have used their role as overseers to prevent media from reporting deaths and abuses inside the nation's immigration prisons.

As the policy fight over the budget continues, Paterson has decided to use his executive authority to prevent the state from running out of cash. more>

When Dr. Milton Haynes, one of the few Blacks to head the Medical Society of New York County, came out early in the game for comprehensive health care reform, it was clear he was calling for radical surgery to a system that was badly broken.

VIDEO :: In its new podcast, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) presented a discussion on health care reform with Michele Lew. more>

The need for change was apparent as many believe that access to health care is a right and not a privilege. more>

"The leaders are being targeted. They have always been targeted," declared Hazel Dukes, head of the NY chapter of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization.

VIDEO :: Journalist Gwen Ifill speaks about the future of American democracy and the Black political structure in the age of Obama. more>

VIDEO :: Earlier this year, Brooklyn D.A. Charles Joe Hynes and New York Senator Chuck Schumer held a press conference to announce the formation of a task force to tackle mortgage fraud.

  more>

Thompson supporter Councilmember Charles Barron listed some key factors behind what is repeatedly described as Bloomberg's vulnerability. At the top of the list is the term limit issue.

VIDEO :: Campaign video--Bill Thompson for Mayor more>

Ask any Black Democrats who sits in the New York State Senate about the cham­ber's portrayal in the media and the answer is simple enough: biased and without merit. more>

The hand of State Senator John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) is seen in the promotions Black and Hispanic judges and women moving up the courts' ladder. more>

AUDIO :: WNYC's Beth Fertig reports on the establishment of the Black Male Initiative at Medgar Evers College. more>

The barrier to TPS for Haitians has remained in force despite the fact that civil strife, which forced tens of thousands to flee the country, can be traced directly to U.S. policy in Port-au-Prince. more>

Expecting to get sound financial advice from their countrymen, some immigrants have been shocked to find their problems worsened. more>

Impending cuts in education and health services will be made with a surgeon’s precision, says New York State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. more>

According to the new study, each immigrant, on average, contributes $2,305 more in government taxes and fees than they use in social services. more>

“We have to be very careful so we don’t jeopardize the church’s status but, yes, we talk to them about the Christ who transforms and about our need to be transformers,” said the Rev. Kirton, a Trinidadian. “We speak of the need to be supporters of those who are pursuing change for the better, better for the community and better for their families.” more>

Haitian Diapora in N.Y.C. voiced their support to the first female prime minister of Haiti. more>

Younger West Indian immigrants are fairing better than their parents, with the women outperforming the males especially in the classroom, often showing the kind of discipline and focus that are hallmarks of their lives in the Caribbean. more>

“Many of you know someone whose parents came and invested their money from their hard-earned seat after coming from Barbados,” Congresswoman Yvette Clarke told representatives of Barbadian organizations in the City. “Now, the grandchildren can’t manage the properties. Barbadians were some of the first landowners in some of the communities that we reside in today, and the children are in foreclosure.” more>

In an effort to stem the tide of home foreclosures in their communities, elected officials and local community leaders in Brooklyn are looking to establish a local bank. more>

Immigration advocates say that the backlog is so severe that as many as a million people who have not been able to vote for at least five years, some as long as 10 to12 years because of their status as green-card holders, are unlikely to be sworn in as U.S. citizens in time to vote in next November’s presidential elections. more>

“Fat for so.” And the longer they live in the Big Apple, the fatter they become. That was the picture that the New York City Department of Health painted of some Caribbean and Central American immigrants. more>

It is as insulting and morally indefensible as knowingly spreading dangerous lies on a colleague or partner. That’s what Republicans in the state government and elected Democrats in Albany and elsewhere in the state are doing to Gov. Eliot Spitzer as they wage an unsavory fight over his decision to order the DMV to issue licenses to undocumented immigrants. more>

Governor Eliot Spitzer recently revealed his position on the issue of emergency medical care for illegal immigrants by calling a new federal directive to limit coverage “morally, clinically and legally wrong.” more>

Health care advocates and experts have reacted negatively to a Bush Administration decision that Washington wouldn’t provide matching funds needed to finance health care to as many as 500,000 undocumented immigrants in New York State who are cancer victims and need chemotherapy and other forms of treatment to prolong their lives. more>

Domestic violence is at epidemic proportions in the Caribbean communities in the City. It isn’t difficult to see why. Immigrants from almost every nation in the region have grown up in an atmosphere in which men feel it is OK to beat women. more>

"...it is exciting to know that at one time in this country, 22 states allowed legal permanent residents voting rights. Now, they have none. Let’s just remember that America used to be a land of opportunity. We can bring it back,” Lt. Gov. Paterson said at the West Indian Day parade. more>

“When the authorities informed me that my sister had died in the immigration detention center, I told them they hadn’t heard the last of it,” said June Everett. “I wasn’t going to rest until I found out what really happened. I want to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen to anyone else.” more>

Having rejected the idea of ending or limiting the steady flow of criminal deportees to the Caribbean, the Bush administration has come up with an alternative: Give Caribbean nations a high-tech capability to track convicted felons even before they are released from U.S. jails and sent back to their respective birthplaces. more>

The West Indians are responding to the campaigns and suggestions of their countries’ consular officials in the United States who believe that U.S. citizenship opens up opportunities and protection to immigrants. more>

Federal authorities are accused of not providing immigrant detainees with adequate healthcare and access to legal assistance, of failing to deal with suicidal individuals, and of trying to conceal the accurate numbers of deaths of immigrant detainees. more>

According to court documents, two members of the Guyanese community in Queens allegedly concocted and carried out a scam in which policies were written on down-and-out Caribbean men who were then killed, enabling the defendants to collect large sums of money from their deaths. more>

When the U.S. State Department released its annual human rights report on conditions in more than 180 nations, it was clear that Washington was paying close attention to how other countries were interfering in their people's private lives, ignoring the same kinds of abuse right on its own soil. more>

Real estate agents and some mortgage finance companies are taking advantage of the desire among West Indians to acquire a piece of property. more>

The unconscionable jumps are just another obstacle that Washington is placing in the path of hardworking foreign-born residents, in a deliberate effort to prevent them from regularizing their status, according to the author. more>

While immigration is a federal matter, driver’s licenses are a state responsibility. Most of the other 49 states are said to be watching how New York handles the thorny problem before moving on their own. more>

Caribbean nations rely heavily on their tourism industry and U.S. visitors to earn valuable foreign exchange and generate considerable employment. But they failed to lobby United States congress members before passage of a bill that will force Americans visiting the Caribbean by air to have their passports in order by January 8, 2007. more>

As the highly controversial election for the Eleventh Congressional district races closer with each passing day, the election funds rise higher, and people have begun to wonder if the seat can be bought. more>

Business leaders want the Senate’s immigration reform proposal to lower the level of earnings for immigrants with guest worker status. more>

David Yassky, a Jewish elected official, and Yvette Clark, a Black representative, are vying for the same seat designed specifically for African-American politicians in the 1960s. more>

“While it is clear the election of Preval was free and fair, it is not altogether clear that the opposition forces accept that and wouldn’t seek to mount some kind of challenge on the spurious grounds that Preval was given the presidency by the international community.” said Ricot Dupuy, manger of Radio Soleil, a Creole radio station in Brooklyn. more>

“We need tighter gun control legislation to restrict the manufacture and sale of weapons. In a sense, they are weapons of mass destruction in our communities and should be treated as such,” says New York Assemblyman Nick Perry. more>

Giving President Bush’s comprehensive immigration reform a thumbs-down, Caribbean elected officials and immigration advocates say that his proposals have nothing new, no help and no hope to offer for millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. more>

While in the United States, conservatives are gearing up for a fierce battle with many elected officials who are working to ease immigration restrictions, the Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin government said it would loosen the immigration rules because of shortages in the labor market. more>

Although Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica don’t have a vast array of media outlets, they enjoyed a higher level of press freedom than the United States and many European nations in the past year, according to Reporters Without Borders. more>

It’s coming down to the wire and hundreds of thousands West Indian illegal immigrants across the United States may find themselves caught in the political crosshairs of the U.S. Congress and the White House. more>

Caribbean immigrants turn to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission in increasing numbers for relief from U.S. immigration authorities, who are determined to send them back to their homelands because they are considered criminal aliens. more>

“We are talking about people with an ability to think, who have and continue to take control of their lives, have tremendous buying power, and have a point of view, which is not being ventilated in the mainstream media.” more>

Graduates with MBAs are common place in the evangelical churches, bringing skills in marketing, management and financial planning to church administrative affairs. more>

Mayor Bloomberg told Caribbean and African leaders that undocumented immigrants already in New York should be allowed to remain and that he supports federal immigration proposals such the McCain-Kennedy bill, which would give them a way to legalize their status. more>

In a major story a few days ago, the Times quoted several prominent native-born Blacks as supporting the use of the term African-American, instead of “Black” to define themselves, because they wanted to distinguish themselves from Blacks who are recent immigrants. Many see this as a divisive campaign designed to split Blacks in the United States into separate camps. more>

Poor countries walk away from U.S. Europe and Japan more>

Legal experts are concerned that one West Indian’s case is part of a disturbing trend: the Justice Department in general and Ashcroft in particular are ordering local federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in cases involving Blacks and Hispanics. more>

The Caribbean community expects a dramatic rise in the number of criminal deportees from the U.S. next year, which would have disruptive effects on families in Caribbean countries and in the United States. A proposal to reduce this number, and use U.S. funds to help resettle deportees, was sent to the Bush administration. Its answer: Forget about it. more>

Some influential people in New York City see the dollar vans, a predominately West Indian-owned business, as a threat to regular bus service. As a result, dollar van operators have been heavily ticketed by police in an effort to force them out of business. It’s time that unions, and their supporters on city council, face the reality of the legitimate need for this service. more>

The government in Ottawa is charging that the Bush Administration’s new security requirements to screen Canadian immigrants from many countries but not those from white Dominion areas are blatant racism and class warfare. Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Guyanese, Bajans, Grenadians, Antiguans and others are wondering about outcomes that can affect West Indians and Africans who have made Canada their home away from home. more>

Michael Singh, 35, came to the United States from Jamaica when he was one year old. But apparently, neither he nor his parents sought U.S. citizenship for him, forcing him 34 years later to resign from an elected government position in Stratford, Conn. more>

No one is saying that at this time when fiscal problems are commonplace around the country, that some people shouldn’t be called upon to pay more and to operate with less. But to place the burden on the poor while allowing the rich to get off scott-free is both wrong and thoughtless. more>