<em>Voices That Must Be Heard</em>: The Gateway to Ethnic Media

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City cracks down on illegal hotels

Hotel 99 is a building that was illegally converted into a hotel. As a Single Resident Occupany building, it is rent stabilized and meant for low-income New Yorkers. It is just one part of a complex web of illegal hotels throughout the city. more>

Facing 70 years in prison for clothing

 

 

VIDEO :: RT reports that the Obama Administration is using torture tactics on terror suspects held in U.S. prisons. more>

Recipe for change: Food groups ready to remake school meals program

The federal government currently spends $11 billion per year on school meals. A growing movement is looking to shift money away from processed foods and towards local agriculture.

 

VIDEO :: As Congress began debate on school lunch legislation in November, Senator Gillibrand discussed proposals to expand access to school meals, and improve the quality and safety of food served at schools. more>

NYC school closings draw heated protests

The Department of Education plans to close 21 more schools in 2010, primarily in areas occupied predominantly by people of color. Many have expressed concern that the school closings are deliberate and might be part of an attempt to facilitate expansion of privately-run charter schools. more>

Message to homeless: Pay to stay

With the New York City shelter system at virtually full capacity and the economy in turmoil, working homeless families may now have yet another thing to worry about: paying the city rent to keep a roof over their heads. more>

It’s no walk in the park for day laborers

On Tuesday mornings, jobs or no jobs, day laborers gather nearby in Hart Park to chow down on a free hot meal provided by St. John's Bread and Life program.  But on Sept. 22, according to witnesses, their meal was interrupted when the NYPD arrived to sweep the more than 80 laborers out of the local public park.

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VIDEO :: Four years after the city created a commission to deal with the issue of day laborers, the group has issued its final report on how to protect those workers and hopefully get them off the streets. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.

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Fragmented Families

Human Rights Watch reported that more than 1.6 million families have been separated due to deportations since the passage of the 1996 immigration laws.  more>


When the parents of U.S.-born children are deported, the kids often have two choices: go with their parents or remain here in foster care.

A win for independent media: NYPD hands over previously denied press credentials

Three independent journalists are suing the New York Police Department and the city over the NYPD’s system for granting press credentials. more>

Indy Interview: talking about the Democrats, the 2008 Elections and Immigrant Rights with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

It’s about time there was some fairness and some justice when it came to workers. You see these CEOs bailing out of bankrupt companies with golden parachutes and leaving behind wiped-out pension systems. That’s not America. more>

Convention countdowns

During the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, police arrested more than 1,800 people, illegally fingerprinted massive numbers of detainees in a single day and crammed other demonstrators into restrictive “free speech zones.” Four years later, civil liberties lawyers and activists are laboring to ensure that NYPD tactics aren’t employed in Denver. more>

Bushwick teens resist recruiting

Military recruiters are a familiar sight in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a predominately Black and Hispanic immigrant neighborhood where nearly 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line. The area is serviced by two recruiting stations, one on Myrtle Avenue and one in neighboring East New York. Recruiters approach students after school in major shopping thoroughfares like Knickerbocker Avenue, while high schools students receive visits from former students who have joined the military. more>

Bush is coming! Why is the GOP having its convention here in New York City?

We don’t know. But we have our suspicions. The GOP is holding the latest-timed convention in election history and it seems hardly coincidental that it falls just before the third anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks and right after the groundbreaking for the “Freedom Tower.” New York City reacts. more>

The military solution: Can Junior Cadets save troubled kids?

Founded three years ago by the Rev. Craig Williams of St. Stephens Church and funded by the community, the Junior Cadets in Bed-Stuy seek to instill discipline and structure in the lives of the neighborhood teens. While some parents express satisfaction with the program, others question the militarization of their youth. more>