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>

As a senior at Townsend Harris High School, Bari Nadworny had choices. With a 97 percent grade point average and a 1950 SAT score, the 18-year-old from Fresh Meadows was eagerly sought by Boston University, SUNY-Binghamton and Macaulay Honors College at Queens College. more>

Haitian President René Préval and immigration advocates in the United States had appealed to Washington to permit tens of thousands of undocumented Haitians living in the United States to remain in the country. more>

Mayor Bloomberg may just have bought a new torrid term in office while the Council ignored and rendered irrelevant the “will of the voters,” opines the author. He adds, however, there is still a way to reverse what he deems are the unfortunate outcomes. 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>

UNCF – the United Negro College Fund – the nation’s oldest and most successful minority education assistance organization, called for national action to guarantee that minority and low-income students get to go to college and graduate. more>

At least 20 percent of New Jersey public school districts are breaking the law by asking for information that would reveal a parent or child’s Social Security number or immigration status, as a prerequisite for enrollment. more>

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

The actions of George Bush in the Michigan case is one powerful reason why the majority of Blacks do not support the war, why many Blacks do not engage as much as whites in flag-waving, decal-wearing and chest-thumping exercises of Americanism. They are not sure they are full Americans because, while we always have been willing to fight and die for this country—and to prove that we were worthy citizens—this country was not always willing to exhibit the full measure of devotion to us. more>

Every year around this time, Washington issues an assessment of human rights conditions around the world, usually making some harsh judgments, without giving a nation or people a chance to reply. Though the United States does not write about itself, Amnesty International covers it. The group’s report gives find evidence that the United States is a chronic and serious abuser of many of the rights it complains about in other countries. more>

The growing fiscal crises in New York City and New York State spell hard times for the poor. 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>

Harry Belafonte voiced deeply a held feeling among whites and Blacks about Powell when he called the Secretary of State a “house” slave. Belafonte’s action may not have been the politically correct thing to do in today’s environment, but he must be applauded for his courage in speaking out. more>

Consular representatives must show compassion as they interpret the new anti-terrorism rules and regulations, and allow students, politcal asylees, those seeking medical treatment and others who legitimately visit the United States their visas. more>

The Vienna Convention requires authorities tell foreign government representives when their citizens are taken into custody. But law enforcement officials at the state and local levels in New York, New Jersey and across the country routinely ignore this right. 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>

When the news broke last Tuesday that Americans had secured a process patent for the steelpan, an instrument that originates in Trinidad & Tobago, the president of the United States Steel Band Association (USSA) did not rant and rave. He simply logged on to the Internet and read the patent. And now he wants legal action to reverse this decision. more>

The immigration agenda has become a casualty of September 11th. Immigrants are collateral damage in the war against terrorism as draconian anti-immigrant regulatory and legislative measures proliferate 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>