Trial starts in alleged Obama-inspired church fire

Trial starts in alleged Obama-inspired church fire
By Associated Press  |   Sunday, March 20, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

This Oct. 20, 2009 photograph shows Michael Jacques during a hearing on arson-related charges in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield, Mass.
Photo by AP

Federal prosecutors portray Michael Jacques as a racist who was so upset when Barack Obama was elected president that he and two other white men burned down a predominantly black church in western Massachusetts.

Jacques insists through his lawyer that he’s innocent and was coerced into signing a confession after more than six hours of interrogation as he suffered through painkiller and nicotine withdrawal.

A U.S. District Court jury in Springfield will hear both sides of the story Monday during opening arguments in Jacques’ trial. Judge Michael Ponsor has set aside six weeks for the jury trial.

Prosecutors say Jacques and the other defendants burned down the under-construction Macedonia Church of God in Christ early on Nov. 5, 2008, just hours after Obama was elected the nation’s first black president.

The church was to serve the congregation’s 300 members, 90 percent of whom were black, and the head pastor says the faithful are rebuilding.

"It’s been a test of our faith," said Bishop Bryant Robinson. "If not for our faith, we might have folded our tents and slipped away into the night. But we refused to let that site become a monument to hatred, violence and racism."

Prosecutors say the suspects poured gas inside and outside the church and lit it ablaze. The building was destroyed; some firefighters were injured but recovered.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Regan, one of several prosecutors on the case, declined to comment about the upcoming trial. Jacques’ attorney, Lori Levinson said, "He didn’t do it. He wasn’t there."

Jacques, 26, of Springfield, is charged with conspiracy against civil rights, damage to religious property, use of fire to commit a felony and aiding and abetting. The charges carry up to 60 years in prison.

Benjamin Haskell, 24, of Springfield, pleaded guilty to civil rights charges and was sentenced in November to nine years in prison.

Thomas Gleason, 23, who lived on the same street as the church, pleaded guilty last year to charges similar to the ones against Jacques. He awaits sentencing and is expected to testify against Jacques.

A grand jury indictment alleges that the co-conspirators "used racial slurs and expressed anger about the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States" and that they discussed burning the church because its members were African-American.

Levinson wrote in court documents that Jacques maintained his innocence through most of the six-plus hours of interrogation, only to end up breaking down and signing a confession because he thought he could leave afterward and satisfy his cravings for Percocet and cigarettes.

"He would have signed anything in order to possibly obtain the opportunity to leave the premises," Levinson wrote.

Levinson tried to have the confession excluded from the trial, but the judge rejected the request.

Robinson said the new church was about 75 percent completed when it burned. Afterward, the church got insurance money and a $1.8 million construction loan to start construction all over again, he said.

The building is now nearly 90 percent finished, and Robinson is hoping it will be open this summer.

Robinson said he may attend parts of Jacques’ trial. But he said he’s more focused on completing the new church, which he said will help the congregation grow, have better facilities for programs and solve some handicap access problems.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1324760

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President Obama pushes education revival

President Obama pushes education revival
By Hillary Chabot  |   Tuesday, March 8, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

Photo by Angela Rowlings

President Obama told a rambunctious crowd in Dorchester this afternoon that he would push to make America’s education system tops in the world — and told the crowd at TechBoston Academy to honor their teachers.

Obama’s urging comes as Wisconsin teachers continue to protest a controversial push to eliminate collective bargaining.

“You know, in South Korea teachers are known as nation builders,” Obama told a crowd of roughly 400 people crammed into the pilot school’s auditorium. “It’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. We have to reward good teachers.”

Obama made no mention of the continuing struggle in Wisconsin, but he has expressed support of the teachers in the past. The president, who is also in town for a fundraiser, said he visited TechBoston “so that the rest of America can see how it’s done. You guys are a model.”

The pilot school, created partly by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has a higher attendance rate and graduation rate than other schools in the community, said Obama. He vowed to continue to spend on education during his roughly 20 minute speech despite tipping his hat to Republican cries of overspending.

“We need to come up with a budget that forces government to live within its means,” said Obama. “A budget that sacrifices our commitment to education is a budget that sacrifices our children’s future and I will not let it happen.”

Obama will be speaking at a fundraiser dinner at the Museum of Fine Arts later tonight.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1321929

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Guest commentary: Reexamine Henry Louis Gates’ arrest

Guest commentary: Reexamine Henry Louis Gates’ arrest

By Nancy Murray, Brigitt Keller, King Downing, Bishop Filipe C. Teixeira and Jamarhl Crawford
Wicked Local Cambridge
Posted Feb 24, 2011 @ 10:28 AM

Cambridge — As advocates who have closely monitored and participated in community oversight of the Cambridge police department, we were pleased to read that City Councilors Denise Simmons and Ken Reeves have called on the city to take a closer look at the Henry Louis Gates arrest in 2009 (“Cambridge city councilor calls for deeper look into Henry Louis Gates arrest,” Cambridge Chronicle, Feb. 8, 2011).

We support the councilors’ suggestion that the Cambridge Civic Unity Advisory Committee review the report “Missed Opportunities, Shared Responsibilities” by the Cambridge Review Committee.  The CRC is the committee, which was specially appointed by the City to review the arrest of Professor Gates in his own home.  We agree with Councilor Reeves’ assessment that the CRC report presents a missed opportunity of its own, as it fails to address the two critical issues: 1) the racial implications of the incident, even though race and racial profiling were issues that ranged prominently in the national and local conversation; and 2) the issue of police abuse of authority, by falsely suggesting that the Gates arrest may have been justified and that civilians bear the same responsibilities as police officers to de-escalate an encounter.

These are astonishing propositions.  The First Amendment protects even angry speech, and the Fourth Amendment requires probable cause for arrest.  As the police reports themselves show, Prof. Gates did not do anything that would have justified an arrest.

Considering the composition of the CRC, these faulty premises may not be surprising.  The committee did not include a single civil rights advocate and the majority of its members represented the law enforcement perspective.  The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a membership organization of law enforcement chiefs, took a prominent role: its Executive Director Chuck Wexler chaired the committee and PERF was paid to author its final report.

Impartiality of the committee was further compromised by the presence of current Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and US Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer. Ramsey and Gainer previously served as Police Chief and Executive Assistant Chief in Washington, D.C. and their tenure was marred by police misconduct and mass false arrests related to free speech activities.  Consequently, both men were named defendants in two civil rights class actions, which recently settled for several million dollars – hardly a qualification to serve on this committee.

In its review, the Civic Unity Advisory Committee and the City Council should further pay close attention to the financial implications of this ad-hoc committee.  While we believe that the severity of the incident justified an investigation, city manager Robert Healy should have to explain to Cambridge taxpayers why a separate entity was created at their expense instead of charging the already existing Police Review and Advisory Board (PRAB) with the task.

It seems that neither Healy nor police commissioner Haas had any confidence in the capability of the PRAB to look into an incident of national magnitude.  This is particularly ironic given that information we gathered through an open records requests and by regularly attending monthly PRAB meetings suggests that the work of the PRAB has been systematically undermined by the city manager.
We support Councilors Reeves and Simmons in their efforts to finally turn this missed opportunity into a “teachable moment,” put an end to speech- and race-based arrests and bring transparency to the city of Cambridge.

The authors are Nancy Murray, Cambridge resident and education director of the ACLU of Massachusetts; Brigitt Keller, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project; King Downing of the New York-based Human Rights-Racial Justice Center; Bishop Filipe C. Teixeira, Diocese of Saint Francis of Assisi, Brockton; Jamarhl Crawford, Boston Black Men’s Leadership Group.

Read more: Guest commentary: Reexamine Henry Louis Gates’ arrest - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/archive/x1623571855/Guest-commentary-Reexamine-Henry-Louis-Gates-arrest#ixzz1EzGCtan1

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MassBay Community College African-American Professor Honored by President Obama for Outstanding Mentoring

MassBay Community College African-American Professor Honored by President Obama for Outstanding Mentoring

January 27, 2011
from:  http://urbanmecca.net/news/?p=16224

African-American MassBay Community College Professor Dr. Bruce A. Jackson will travel to Washington, D.C. this week to receive a prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentor from President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday January 27th.  Dr. Jackson was one of 11 individuals and four organizations that were named, and the only representative of a community college to earn the Award.

The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, awarded by the White House each year to individuals or organizations, recognizes the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science or engineering—particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in those fields.  By offering their expertise and encouragement, mentors help prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers while ensuring that tomorrow’s innovators reflect the full diversity of the United States.

“These individuals and organizations have gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that the United States remains on the cutting edge of science and engineering for years to come,” President Obama said.  ”Their devotion to the educational enrichment and personal growth of their students is remarkable, and these awards represent just a small token of our enormous gratitude.”

Dr. Jackson has long been a standout of MassBay’s accomplished Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) academic division.  Through his visionary Forensic DNA Science program, the only associate degree of its kind in the world, Dr. Jackson has reached unparalleled success.  Due in large part to his leadership, MassBay has produced 17 Barry M. Goldwater Scholars, the most prestigious undergraduate honor in math, science and engineering.  No other community college in America has produced more than two.  He has also been honored as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence, a highly prestigious and competitive award which has allowed him to replicate his Forensic DNA program at the Catholic University of Portugal.

Dr. Carole Berotte Joseph, president of MassBay, said, “MassBay showcases the potential of two-year colleges. Here at a community college level, we are able to offer the superb faculty, state-of-the-art laboratories and cutting-edge equipment equivalent to a four-year college at a fraction of the price. We are proud to be a steppingstone for some of our nation’s distinguished scholars and productive citizens.”

Just last year, MassBay announced the discovery of a new bacteria made possible by another brilliant professor, Interim STEM Division Dean Dr. Sarmad Saman, in conjunction with the work of a student utilizing MassBay’s high tech equipment and laboratory.  The bacteria, submitted to the Gene Bank at the National Institutes of Health is named Bacillus samanii in honor of Dr. Saman, who said, “Although bacteria are discovered every year, the fact that the discovery was made at a community college without a cadre of graduate research students makes this discovery all the more meaningful.”

Dr. Saman acknowledged how fortunate MassBay is to have its own DNA Sequencer, Gas Chromatography and other sophisticated equipment, purchased with Dr. Joseph’s blessing. “Normally students would have to go to Harvard or MIT to have this equipment available to them.”

With Dr. Saman and Dr. Jackson as part of its faculty, and state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment, MassBay boasts as strong a STEM education as any community college in the nation.

Candidates for the Presidential Mentoring Awards are nominated by colleagues, administrators, and students in their home institutions.  The mentoring can involve students at any grade level from elementary through graduate school. In addition to being honored at the White House, recipients receive awards of $10,000 to advance their mentoring efforts.

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Church arsonist pleads guilty in Springfield case

Church arsonist pleads guilty in Springfield case

By Associated Press  |   Wednesday, November 17, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

SPRINGFIELD - A Springfield man serving a federal prison sentence for burning down a mostly-black church to protest the election of President Barack Obama has been sentenced to six years in a case brought by state prosecutors.

The sentence is concurrent with the nine-year federal term Benjamin Haskell received for arson in the fire that destroyed the Macedonia Church of God in Christ hours after Obama’s 2008 election. That means the 25-year-old Haskell won’t have to serve additional time.

He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a 10-count state indictment that included drug distribution charges and a charge that he set fire to a vacant house back in 2003.

Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty nearly rejected the plea bargain with prosecutors as too leniant, calling Haskell a "one-man crime wave."

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1297018

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A racial benchmark, with race not a factor

A racial benchmark, with race not a factor
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist

AFTER ROILING the nation’s political waters in January with Scott Brown’s election, Massachusetts made history in the midterms with barely a ripple. Governor Deval Patrick, the nation’s second-ever elected African-American governor, became the first such governor in US politics ever to be re-elected.

Nit-pickers could say this was not the most difficult distinction to achieve. The other elected governor, Doug Wilder of Virginia (1990-94), could not run again because that state does not allow consecutive terms. Only two other African Americans have ever held the office. P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana was appointed to fill out the final month of a disgraced predecessor during Reconstruction. David Paterson rose from lieutenant governor in New York to the top office in 2008 when Governor Eliot Spitzer was felled by a prostitution scandal. Paterson, wounded by miscues and ethics questions, chose not to run for a full term.

That should not take away from what happened here. The beauty of Patrick’s reelection was that this racial progress was not mentioned in election-night newspaper or wire coverage. Race played no controversial role in the conduct of the campaigns. The tone of the contest was about which candidate offered the most palatable management style for the Commonwealth. In a four-person field, in a state that has not, in general, fared as badly as many other states during the recession, Patrick won with a 49-percent plurality. This was in a nation where Republicans took governorships away from Democrats in seven swing states that were won in 2008 by President Obama: Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The degree to which the acrid midterms did not infect our governor’s race was reflected by its top loser. In his concession speech, Republican Charlie Baker silenced his supporters when they booed at the mention of his congratulatory phone call to Patrick. “Hey, hey, he won fair and square, OK?’’ Baker said. “We fought the good fight folks, we did. We did. But it’s important that all of us get behind the governor and do all that we can to make sure that he succeeds in pulling our economy out of the doldrums and getting us back on the right track. We are all still the people of the great state of Massachusetts.’’

That represented a polar opposite of the national GOP animus toward President Obama, as crudely expressed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He told the National Journal, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.’’ That was quite a display of partisanship, declaring Obama’s defeat as the top Republican goal in a nation wracked with almost 10 percent unemployment and with the loss of nearly 5,800 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and at a time when the country is falling behind much of the world in the industries that make the world go ’round. Does anyone remember a ranking Democrat saying during 9/11 that the single most important goal for the Democrats was to get rid of President Bush?

In contrast to Baker’s graciousness, Patrick fumbled the olive branch. Patrick said, “I haven’t been at this business so long that it doesn’t humble me beyond measure that people set aside what they’re doing to take up your cause, our cause.’’ He could have set aside a humble moment to congratulate his defeated opponents by name. He did not, referring to them only as “the other candidates.’’

In other races besides the governor’s, Massachusetts resisted the Tea Party undertow. While many Republican victories around the nation were fueled by promises to cut social spending and make tax cuts permanent, voters here resoundingly rejected slashing the state sales tax, which would have blown a $2.5 billion hole in the state budget.

Voters did repeal the state sales tax on alcohol, which will force Patrick and the Legislature to find $110 million in funds for substance treatment programs. But keeping the general sales tax marked Massachusetts as a rational state in midterm voting. Baker asked his supporters to get behind the governor. In voting to keep the sales tax, the voters of Massachusetts got behind themselves.

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.

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Baracka Flacka Flames - Head of The State

They is a fool for this... LOL....

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Stimulus money game Critics of the $787 billion package show their hypocrisy by going after the funds

DERRICK Z. JACKSON
Globe Columnist

MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR Scott Brown is well known for claiming that the $787 billion stimulus package “hasn’t created one new job.’’ It turned out that Brown was wrong, as the Congressional Budget Office estimated in August that the stimulus increased employment by as many as 3.3 million people in the second quarter of this year.

It also turns out that he was a hypocrite. Brown is one of a host of prominent Republicans who has trashed the stimulus and fanned a toxic anti-government fervor among Americans and groups such as the Tea Party. Yet they made it their private business to net jobs out of the stimulus.

The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative journalism organization, reported this week that it has obtained about 2,000 letters from members of Congress supporting stimulus grant applications, primarily for the departments of transportation, energy, and commerce. One was from Brown in support of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute’s effort to expand broadband access, particularly in Western Massachusetts. Despite his declarations that stimulus funds create no new jobs, Brown wrote, “Broadband coverage is essential to the economic well-being and recovery of Western Massachusetts . . . Broadband coverage is also crucial in bringing together educators and students at our community colleges in order to help prepare our next generation of entrepreneurs and job creators.’’

This was repeated all over the nation by stimulus naysayers. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said the stimulus was going to “squander an enormous amount of money on things that won’t make much of a difference.’’ Yet he wrote five letters to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood supporting various projects that sounded downright Democrat, including bike paths in the Bowling Green area. In a letter supporting funding to rehab rail lines, McConnell wrote, “supporting Appalachian railroads has the potential to attract industry, create jobs and move goods through areas underserved by national highways.’’

Arizona Senator John McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential race to Barack Obama, said of the stimulus, “I don’t see this legislation doing anything good.’’ But he wrote letters trying to make sure his state received a cut of stimulus dollars for broadband and improvements to Phoenix’s international airport.

House Republican conference leader Mike Pence of Indiana gave the Republican weekly address last weekend, touting the party’s “Pledge to America.’’ The “Pledge’’ vilifies the stimulus package as a top “job-killing’’ policy of President Obama and the Democrats. Pence has also declared the Democrats’ proposals on climate change a “declaration of war on the Midwest by liberals.’’ The same Pence wrote letters on behalf of a bio-fuel initiative that would reduce greenhouse gases and promote “broad-based green job creation.’’

Pence also wrote letters for stimulus projects that would reduce train noise in urban areas and build bike and pedestrian trails to link cultural zones and greenways in the Muncie area. Pence wrote that train noise is “a major hurdle in attracting new business and job creation opportunities.’’ He said linking cultural zones and greenways would “spur economic growth and greatly enhance livability and quality of life.’’

To be sure, the Center for Public Integrity’s investigation raises bipartisan questions of hypocrisy. President Obama and the Democrats, who promised us transparency, passed the stimulus saying it came without the “earmarks’’ that legislators tack on for their districts and balloon the federal budget. Instead, scores of lawmakers of both parties employed backroom “lettermarking’’ for stimulus funds, a practice that the center could expose only after employing the Freedom of Information Act.

Besides Brown’s request, the center so far has published 66 pages of letters signed by Senator John Kerry, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, his appointed replacement Paul Kirk, and House members Michael Capuano, Jim McGovern, Barney Frank, Bill Delahunt, John Tierney, Stephen Lynch, Ed Markey, John Olver, Richard Neal, and Niki Tsongas.

But the cynical way in which the Republicans manipulated and whipped up American anger against the Democrats, yet wrote stimulus letters indistinguishable from those written by Democrats, unnecessarily divided the country and further distracted Americans from uniting on long-term solutions on communications, transportation, and energy.

Scott Brown and the Republicans moan how the stimulus did not create a single job. There is no evidence of moaning as they mine the stimulus.

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.

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Deval Patrick Speech in Boston Oct. 16 2010 - Move Massachusetts Forward

Deval Patrick Speech in Boston Oct. 16 2010 - Move Massachusetts Forward

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President Obama Speech in Boston - Moving Massachusetts Forward

President Obama's speech from Boston, MA Saturday October 16, 2010

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Obama rallys Patrick’s base

BOSTON

17 October 2010 08:51

SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

President Barack Obama greets Gov. Deval Patrick at a rally for Patrick at the Hynes Convention Center.

The Patrick campaign is declaring President Obama’s stump speech on Saturday more affective than the one he gave for Martha Coakley before she lost her U.S. Senate bid to Scott Brown.

The campaign said yesterday that their get-out-the-vote effort surged after Obama’s visit. The campaign claims more than 7,500 new volunteers signed up after the event, which they called the largest grassroots get-out-the-vote effort in state history.

A crowd of 15,000 gathered at the Hynes Convention Center 17 days before voters choose between Patrick, Republican Charlie Baker, independent Tim Cahill and Green Rainbow candidate Jill Stein.

“The reason this is important is because all of you got involved in 2006 and 2008 because you believed that we’re at a defining moment in our history,” Obama said on Saturday. “You believed this is a time when the decisions we make about the challenges we face, they’re not just going to affect us. They’re going to affect the lives of our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.”

METRO

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