News and Opinion on Urban America
Syracuse Post-Standard Endorses Bill Promoted by DBC To Alter How New York’s Prisoners are Counted in Census
The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, has become the most recent in a long list of supporters of a bill supported by the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy to end the so-called prison-based gerrymandering in New York State.
The bill’s prime sponsors are Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, both Democrats. . The bill would allow prisoners to be counted as part of the population of the areas considered to be their home areas, rather than as residents of the locations of the prisons.
Under the current system, New York State’s nearly 70,000 prisoners are counted in the locations where they are incarcerated, often upstate locations far from the urban communities where they reside. As a result, they are counted as part of the population of those rural communities, a practice that has a significant impact on how state funds are allocated and how voting districts are carved.
Roger Green, the executive director of the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy, has offered the center’s enthusiastic support for a bill now before the Legislature in Albany that would change the method of counting prisoners for the collection of census data
Haiti's History as First Black Republic Creates Bond With African-Americans
A terrible earthquake anywhere in the Caribbean would have hit a sympathetic nerve in most Americans. But as the first black republic of the West, born when slaves overthrew white rulers, Haiti holds a unique place in the hearts of many black Americans.
In the Los AngelesTimes
In King’s Last Years, A Broadened Vision Emerged
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. shifted his focus in the dwindling years of his life to an audacious, but achievable goal: ending poverty in the United States. As we pause to celebrate this year’s national holiday in memory of King’s 81st birthday, it’s appropriate to recall the relevance of his final struggle to the contemporary fight toward ending poverty.
In The Root
News and Opinion from the African Diaspora
Cuba’s Treatment of it’s Black Citizens Criticized
A group of prominent African Americans, traditionally sympathetic to the Cuban revolution, have for the first time condemned Cuba, demanding Havana stop its "callous disregard'' for black Cubans and declaring that "racism in Cuba . . . must be confronted."
In the Miami Herald
South Africa Plans to Expand HIV Treatment for Babies
The Administration of South African President Jacob Zuma recently announced ambitious new plans for earlier and expanded treatment for HIV-positive babies and pregnant women, a change that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the nation hardest hit by the virus that causes AIDS.
In The Washington Post
Is Liberia’s Ruling Party Vulnerable After Loss in Local Election?
In a second round of voting, Geraldine Doe-Sheriff won an upset victory Clemenceau B. Urey, the candidate representing the ruling Unity Party, the party of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. And the winner said that the victory by her party, Congress for Democratic Change’s, was a harbinger for the country’s presidential election in 2011.
In Front Page Africa
This Week On Urban Focus
City Council member Council Member Letitia "Tish" James will discuss a host of public policy issues, from the recently formed New York City Charter Revision Commission to issues involving employment and housing, on the next Urban Focus, the weekly broadcast in conjunction with the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy at Medgar Evers College. 
