If the opening night of the Democratic National Convention is a harbinger, then it will not only be a festive occasion, but one of singular significance—one for the ages. Most rewardingly, and in sharp distinction to the Republican confab, was the extent to which it was a reflection of American race, class, gender, and diversity. Sure, the political notables were present, but so were a number of ordinary people, none more powerful than the women talking about reproductive rights.
To have Hillary Clinton’s always-insightful voice merged with Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Rep. Grace Meng of NY, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a confection of ideas rarely heard at past conventions.
One of the real surprises was the appearance of Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors—when he called out Trump with Steph Curry’s meme of clasped hands beside his face and “Night, night” to Trump; the gesture was worth 1,000 words, and probably unprintable ones ones from the Trump camp.
Slated to follow these illustrious commentators are Bill Clinton, and Barack and Michelle Obama. This tag team on day two doesn’t need much bolstering, but Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth will also speak, and heaven only knows what surprises the coordinators will pull out of the hat.
No matter the presenters, the DNC has done a remarkable job thus far. All of this will lead to a resounding conclusion on Thursday, when Kamala Harris commands the stage as the first Black woman to accept the presidential nomination.
Even having accomplished this historical moment, though, the race is by no means over. It is to be hoped that the momentum to date is enough to propel Harris and Walz to the finish line so they can finish the work President Biden often promised to do.
Daniel Jones’s readiness to capably command the offense is suspect after his performance on Saturday against the Houston Texans on the road in the Giants’ second preseason game. Conversely, the Jets have no trepidations regarding their starting QB’s abilities.
Aaron Rodgers is one of the sport’s all-time great talents. But at 40-years-old and missing all but two minutes and four snaps of the 2023 campaign after tearing his left Achilles tendon in the Jets’ season opener, durability is what’s most in question.
The Jets and Giants will match up this Saturday (7:30 p.m.) at MetLife Stadium, their shared home, for their final preseason game ahead of Week 1 of the schedule when the Jets play away in San Francisco versus the 49ers on Monday night, September 9. The Giants, meanwhile, will begin their season by hosting the Minnesota Vikings on September 8 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The 27-year-old Jones, now in his sixth season with the Giants after they drafted him No. 6 overall in 2019, missed 11 of the team’s 17 games last season, first due to a neck injury and then a torn ACL in his right knee sustained on November 5 in Week 9. He exhibited anxiety, uncertainty and unsteady timing in the pocket against the Texans in the 28-10 loss.
Jones was 11 for 18 for 138 yards, but continued to exhibit his turnover issues that have plagued him and frustrated the Giants fanbase for much of his pro career, throwing two interceptions, one while being sacked—ultimately returned for a 5-yard touchdown by Jalen Pitre of the Texans in the first quarter. Jones, in his first game since the knee injury, played the entire first half.
“That’s what these games are for too. Some evaluation part of it, but, obviously you have a plan going into it,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll. “Again, there [were] some good things. Good to get him out here and then a couple things we’ll learn from and that’s what these things are for.”
Jones struck a positive chord on his return. “I feel good physically. Yeah, the knee felt good … grateful for all the people who’ve helped me get to this point, all the doctors and trainers and staff we have here who have helped me.
“It was fun to be out there. Didn’t start perfect, like I said, but we got going and I felt good.” The Giants’ offense is still establishing its identity under assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka after the departure of two-time Pro-Bowler Saquon Barkley in free-agency this past winter. Barkley inked a three-year, $37.75 million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants’ longtime NFC East rival.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but also a multi-billion dollar industry. So Tenika Foster-Jones hopes to usher in the next generation of estheticians as she develops her own business empire, Harlem’s Opulence Waxing Spa.
Originally from Mount Vernon, Foster-Jones began her journey in high school, where multiple trade courses were offered. But New York State’s 1,000-hour cosmetology education largely focuses on doing hair, not removing it. And her passion was in waxing.
“Of our 1,000 hours, we spend 700 of our hours on hair,” Foster-Jones said. “So you mostly learn hair. Skin is there, nails [are] there. Everything else, you learn a little bit. Just enough to pass your state exam.”
As a result, she ended up working in a full-service spa after high school. Thirty years later, Foster-Jones does everything from skin facials to teeth whitening to of course, waxing. Two years ago, she moved into her location on Adam Clayton Boulevard.
But as Foster-Jones keeps Harlem looking good, she also desires paying it forward. It runs in the family.
“I was a very young little girl, my mom was a community activist,” she said. “She was very involved with the community. But I’ve always loved teaching and sharing. Yeah with the younger youth, you know, so I would talk to groups whether it’s in the church or whether you’re at a community center.”
Through such conversations, she met young people doing makeup or nails as a side hustle. Foster-Jones always asked if they were licensed, and if not, would offer to help them “take their work to the next level.” A few years ago, she partnered with Department of Education students.
“I go through [the] breakdown [of] each part of the appearance of [the] enhancement license to show them what it would take and how long they can get there,” she said. “Then once they get there, [I ask them] what’s a realistic goal of how they can make money.”
Deed theft cases continue to plague New York City’s Black community as many long-neglected neighborhoods slowly transform into trendy districts.
Homeowners say they’re finding themselves having to fend off rapacious developers who might first ask if an owner’s willing to sell, but later insist that it’s now time for them to sell.
AmNews readers have been coming forward to detail the continued harassment, badgering, and mental torture they face while trying to fight off real estate speculators eager to take their homes.
Carmella Charrington said her father’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, home at 212 Jefferson Avenue was sold out from under him by an out-of-state conservator. Her father, Allman Charrington, has been a partial owner of the house with his sister since the 1980s.
“My father has a conservator,” Carmella said, explaining he had someone appointed by a court to help him take care of his finances. She and her sister filed to be declared his legal guardians, but the court would not allow it.
Meanwhile, she claims their father’s Georgia-based conservator began liquidating his assets—including his Jefferson Avenue home.
“My father’s conservator allowed plaintiffs to file documents: There were plaintiffs who went to court and submitted whatever documents, whatever fake index, to make it look proper to say that they were going to sell this property,” she said. “That’s how it ended up being sold—because my father’s conservator signed off…If you look at the deed, they just signed off with a whole bunch of people saying they were heirs of the property, and this had never even [gone] in front of a probate court at all.”
Carmella claims the 12 people listed alongside the name for her father’s conservator on the January 12, 2024, sale transaction did not go to probate court to prove they had legitimate rights to the property—yet they are listed as sellers of the property in a deal that records the transfer of 212 Jefferson Avenue to the Long Island City-based company 227 Group LLC for a total of $1.4 million.
The owners of 227 Group LLC are Etai Vardi and the brothers Elliot and Joseph Ambalo. These three have become infamous property flippers who were profiled by The City just last year as “Speculator Bros Ripping Off Heirs and Evicting Tenants Across NYC.” Allegations are that they use their company to contact distant heirs of deceased property owners and get them to claim a partial ownership status, which they can then sell to the Ambalos and Vardi.
The suspicion of fraudulent activity during the sale of 212 Jefferson Avenue prompted an examination in court. Carmella said she has also brought her case to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who recently disclosed that her office can now prosecute anyone who fraudulently steals a property owner’s home title or deed. These kinds of crimes now qualify as larceny and could lead to prison time for perpetrators.
Even though the case has not been decided yet, Carmella and her family say they were terrorized on January 24 this year when their home was broken into in broad daylight by speculators wielding hammers and chisels who used a range of tools to chip away at the front door with New York City police standing by and watching from the sidewalk. The speculators had told the police that they owned the property, so even though they could hear Carmella and her father screaming inside the house, the police somehow believed the speculators were doing nothing wrong.
Since she started fighting to keep the property, Carmella Charrington has begun working with other property owners suffering some of the same problems. “The system is failing us,” she said. “If you don’t know, and if these people are coming to you and they’re telling you your property’s sold, you think that [it’s the truth].” Charrington and other owners have formed a coalition they’ve named Hands Off of Bed Stuy/East New York Land Trust that aims to help owners join together to support each other.
Rachel Cyprien, who is among those who have joined the coalition, has been in a battle to get back the title to the multi-family home she purchased in Canarsie, Brooklyn, in 1998 with her father, Mecene Cyprien. Cyprien was a few months behind on her mortgage, in a deep depression and suffering from insomnia after the breakup of a 10-year relationship. A trusted friend told her she should contact Francklin Etienne, who was in the business of helping people when they faced the possibility of a foreclosure.
But instead of helping, Cyprien claims Etienne worked with a now-disbarred attorney, Andrien J. Wooley, to convince her to put her property in Etienne’s name while he supposedly worked to pay off the house debt. Although she initially agreed to do so and gave mortgage payments totaling $25,000 to Etienne for some nine months, Cyprien ultimately thought better of the plan and told Etienne she no longer wanted to do it. She stopped giving him the funds to pay her mortgage, but has not been able to get the deed to her property back.
Cyprien is currently suing Wooley and Etienne in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court.
Cyprien was in attendance when AG James held a community event this past June at Bed-Stuy’s Restoration Plaza to educate homeowners about deed theft ploys. “It was standing room only,” Cyprien said. “There were so many people in there!
“You know, no one talks about this; I know I didn’t talk. Here I am, an educated—fairly educated—Black woman. I’m a broker, right? And still I was embarrassed—too embarrassed to talk about what was happening to me. But when they had this, so many people came out, and what astonished me out of everything was the fact that out of everyone in there––the room was full, filled to capacity––everyone was Black. Latisha James was saying this is happening to Black and Brown people, but I didn’t see any Brown people in there. What I saw were Black people.
“The room was filled with Black people whose homes are being taken away or were taken away already. It’s really disgusting. And this woman who’s from my alma mater, Medgar Evers, spoke. She said the worst part about all of this is the amount of money—the generational wealth—we’ve lost. I mean it adds up to billions.”
New Yorkers who believe they may be a victim of deed theft can contact the attorney general by phone at 800-771-7755, by emailing deedtheft@ag.ny.gov, or by filing a confidential complaint. Homeowners who need free housing counseling and legal assistance can contact the Homeowner Protection Program at HOPP online or call 855-466-3456 to get help.
For one of the final events for the 50th anniversary of Harlem Week, community members came out in droves on Thursday for the second annual Health Summit at the Alhambra Ballroom, a partnership between the annual event and Black Health Matters (BHM) geared toward sharing health and wellness information addressing health disparities of Black Americans.
“It’s bigger and better than ever,” said Rosalyn Y. Daniels, founder and CEO of BHM. “I think that’s because [attendees] were in the Harlem Week state of mind which meant they were up for fun, information and entertainment.”
Long lines wrapped around 125th Street to enter the Alhambra for the event with some even leaving once they heard it was at capacity. In the Grand Ballroom main hall, a packed audience listened to sessions featuring discussions on issues like voting and health, early detection, cancer, HIV, sickle cell, and kidneys from different medical experts, community leaders, and influencers.
Mona Richardson, 64, made it into the building but said she was unable to make it into the main hall and opted to watch the livestream. She also said she wished more resources were also given in the brochures they were provided.
The lineup of hosts included news anchor and host of WABC’s “Here and Now” Sandra Bookman, model and reality show star Cynthia Bailey and actor Malik Yoba. Multiple guests said they learned of the event after watching Bookman preview it on an episode of her news program. One of them is Alfred Evans, 63, a poet who came all the way from Brooklyn and said he felt at home with Harlem Week.
“I realized I have to be responsible for my own health,” Evans said. “I was glad to see that they had a forum like this. So I made it my business to come.”
Yoba, a Harlem native, shared that after having heart surgery, he felt it was important to be involved in the Summit. He also has fond memories of growing up and experiencing Harlem Week and is glad to have been a part of the 50th anniversary.
“It’s beautiful that it’s still going so I’m happy to be here to support,” Yoba told the AmNews.
Guests were also informed about illnesses that may be harder to detect including peripheral artery disease and food allergies. The Crystal Ballroom featured tabling of medical services from companies like Genentech and NYC Health Hospitals, as well as screenings for prostate cancer and other blood testing from Mount Sinai.
Maria Davis, an AIDS survivor, advocate and music industry insider, spoke on the panel discussing the virus’ impact on Black community. “It’s like the forgotten virus now because people are not talking about it,” Davis explained. Davis uses her platform “Mad Wednesday’s” to talk with community members about pressing issues including health and wellness. She emphasized the importance of keeping community members educated about HIV because African Americans make up the highest number of new infections.
“I think that community education has fallen off the grid,” Davis said. “HIV and AIDS is not over. People are still getting infected with HIV, which is a preventable disease.”
More than 500 protesters marched on City Hall advocating for a bill package to strengthen protections, access and opportunity for street vendors. Organizers say it was the largest demonstration in decades over the long-standing issue.
Most participants at the Aug. 15 event were street vendors themselves, like the Street Vendor Project’s Calvin Baker. Baker sells general merchandise on Harlem’s 125th Street, an age-old corridor for Black street vendors in New York City.
“We have a 9-to-5 just the way [everyone does],” he told the AmNews. “We go to the store and we pay taxes on whatever we buy—most of us pay taxes. We pay rent. We buy clothes, we buy food for our kids, clothes for our kids. We want what you want.”
The city’s enforcement against the sidewalk market has been well-documented by the AmNews over the decades.
An article from Dec. 8, 1990 described the block between 7th and 8th Avenue with “the smell of incense mingled with that of fried plantains, and vendors dressed in colorful African clothing.” But the author noted such sights and smells were under attack after then-Mayor David Dinkins signed two bills strengthening the NYPD’s enforcement confiscating goods from unlicensed vendors, supported by “business owners, who are mostly whites and Asians living outside of the community.”
In 1993, Karen Juanita Carrillo of the Amsterdam News reported Black street vendors began organizing regular rallies and printing their own newsletter to “maintain their right to a presence on Harlem’s most famous commercial block, 125th Street.”
Three decades later, enforcement and confiscation continues to be a challenge for vendors, according to Baker. He noted the Department of Sanitation’s issuance of $1,000 fines, both civil and criminal, for selling without a license or permit can wipe out weeks’ worth of earnings. Earlier this summer, the AmNews reported vendor Edgar Telesford was ticketed while hawking water bottles and chips on 125th Street. His merchandise was seized.
Yet legal vending remains limited despite past reforms under the de Blasio administration due to caps on food vendor supervisory licenses and general vendor licenses. The previous legislation led to the rollout of 4,450 new supervisory licenses over a decade.
One of the bills called for by the protesters would increase the vendor license cap each year over five years before totally lifting the cap. Sponsoring councilmember Pierina Sanchez, the daughter and granddaughter of street vendors herself, estimates around 80% of street vendors in her Bronx district operate unlicensed.
“I’ve got 20 co-sponsors on my piece of legislation. This bill is data supported and this fall, we’re kicking off conversations to bring everybody to the table,” Sanchez said during the rally. “We know the system is broken, we know we have to increase the number of permits and we have to improve the way we do enforcement.”
Three other city council bills accompany Sanchez’s in the “Street Vendor Reform Package.” If passed, they would remove criminal charges for unlicensed vending (making all fines civil penalties), allow carts to park further from the curb, and establish an office within the Department of Small Business Services to help street vendors comply with licensing requirements.
The NYC Street Vendors Justice Coalition organized last Thursday’s rally. Multiple languages were spoken during the demonstration including Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Shawn Garcia, the director of advocacy at member organization Transportation Alternatives, said rights for street vendors impact all New Yorkers.
“We’re a transit equity organization, and where we find the intersection with street vendor justice and transit equity is about how our streetscape in New York City really should be designed to support how people move, how people live [and] how our neighborhoods operate culturally,” he said over the phone. “Street vendors are a critical part of the New York City streetscape, and creating a more conducive way for street vendors to operate safely and without harassment, goes to strengthen how our streetscape looks generally.
“We’re always pushing for safer conditions for pedestrians, users of our streets, and street vendors are included in that equation for us.” Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visitinghttps://bit.ly/amnews1.
The Democratic National Convention’s (DNC) nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris for president and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the next vice president commenced with a wave of endorsements from the nation’s largest labor unions.
On the very first night of the convention, an impressive gathering of union presidents took the stage. AFSCME’s Lee Saunders, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) President April Verrett, LIUNA (Laborer’s International Union of North America) President Brent Booker, Ken Cooper of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Claude Cummings Jr. of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), and Liz Shuler of the AFL-CIO stood on stage together, they displayed the power of unions.
They also made it clear that because the Biden-Harris administration supported labor for four years, unions are planning to help get the Harris-Walz team elected.
Members of the crowd welcomed the labor leaders with cheers of “Union Yes! Union Yes!” as they lined up center stage to speak about what it means to have a government that cares about everyday workers and how their lives function, versus living in a nation where the federal government allows the worst aspects of capitalism to assault workers.
“We are all in for Kamala Harris because Kamala Harris has always been all-in for us,” explained SEIU’s Verrett: “Vice President Harris joined fast food workers on the picket line, and she walked a day in the shoes of a home care worker. She shares our vision for a modern-day labor movement. A movement that meets the needs of workers in the 21st century. And an economy that is ready for the future.”
“Four years ago, we faced a pandemic and a recession, with a president who didn’t care one bit what working people were going through: Enter Joe Biden and Kamala Harris!” AFSCME’s Saunders told the crowd. “Within weeks, they passed the American Rescue Plan, pulling the economy back from the brink and putting us back to work. They’re guided by a basic principle — more freedom for working people, including the freedom to join a union.”
“Every step of the way, Kamala Harris has been there for us,” declared IBEW’s Ken Cooper: “She’s bringing back American manufacturing to forgotten places throughout our country. She cast the deciding vote to save our pension plans. She’s lifted our apprentices up all over the nation. And guess what? She’s not afraid to use the word ‘union.’
“She has come through for all of us and it’s our turn to come through for her.”
“We all saw the digital divide during the pandemic,” said the CWA’s Cummings. “Millions of American families didn’t have access to high-speed internet at home. Too many kids were forced to go to online class in McDonalds’ parking lots. But as vice president, Kamala Harris helped pass the largest investment in broadband ever, she gave CWA members a seat at the table so we could work to connect every household to the internet, while creating good union jobs.”
“This election is about two economic visions,” reflected Liz Shuler of the AFL-CIO. “One where families live paycheck-to-paycheck, where people have no right to join a union––a CEO’s dream, but a worker’s nightmare––or, an opportunity economy where we lower the costs of groceries, prescriptions and housing. Where we go after big pharma, corporate landlords and price gougers. Where there’s no such thing as a man’s job or a woman’s job––or, like Donald Trump would say, a ‘Black job,’ just a good union job. That’s the future our president Joe Biden has fought for. And that’s the future Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will keep fighting for. Let’s build it together.”
Union leaders were bound to be featured at this year’s DNC convention. Chicago had competed against the cities of Atlanta and New York for the chance to host this convention. They won their opportunity by pointing to Chicago’s long and storied union organizing history.
President Joe Biden’s pro-union administration and the basic math which shows that winning over blue-collar union votes in battleground states will help the Democrats win the Oval Office along with down ballot tickets, made having a show of force with labor leaders highly important. “Endorsements are much more than words on a press release,” Harris-Walz Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in an August 8 note regarding the importance of winning over union voters. “In a fragmented media environment, union leadership is uniquely effective at breaking through to their members and [is] one of the most trusted institutions among their members. There are 2.7 million union members in the battleground states. That means something when roughly 45,000 votes in key states decided the election four years ago.”
The one major union leader not present at the DNC was International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. The Teamsters have yet to endorse any candidate for the presidency and O’Brien was a featured guest at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Members of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) though, made it a point to come out with an endorsement of Vice President Harris. In an August 13 press release, the TNBC praised the Harris-Walz team for “advancing labor rights and supporting working-class Americans” and pointed to Trump’s anti-worker and anti-Black policies. The Democrats still want to court the Teamsters’ entire 1.3 million members though, and Vice President Harris is due to sit down for a roundtable discussion with union members soon.
On top of the other union endorsements, the DNC saw a fiery speech from the president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), Shawn Fain. The strategic head of the UAW famously led workers in a trilateral strike against General Motors, Stellantis, and the Ford Motor Company last year. This was the strike which saw Pres. Biden become the first sitting president to walk a picket line.
Fain’s UAW recently filed an unfair labor practice FCC complaint against former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk after the two giggled during an X/Twitter interview about their ability to fire any workers who even talked about going out on a strike. Fain showed up at the DNC to endorse Kamala Harris’s presidency because, he said, “Kamala Harris is one of us: she’s a fighter for the working class. Donald Trump is a scab!”
After pointing to all the times Trump promised to do more for workers but consistently did nothing, Fain said, “In the words of the Great American poet Nelly: ‘It’s getting hot in here!’” The UAW leader peeled off his jacket to reveal that he was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words: “Trump is a scab. Vote Harris.”
“It’s hot in here,” Fain said to hoots and applause from the audience, “it’s hot in here because you’re fired up and you’re fed up and the American working class is fired up and fed up. The American working class is in a fight for our lives.”
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