Know Your Rights Anti-Bullying Unite

COURTFIGHTER MISSION: Phila. Front Page News Blames Media Delco County Courts For Fire Disaster Likeness And Bullycide (Suicide)

2010-01-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

COURTFIGHTER MISSION: Phila. Front Page News Blames Media Delco County Courts For Fire Disaster Likeness And Bullycide (Suicide)

COURTFIGHTER MISSION: to prevent small court injustices from growing into large ones. And its mission it to unite against bullying in courts, schools, towns, and neighborhoods. It is a Foundation for individual rights in courts. Engaged by the Van Stone Productions (VSP) Foundation, courtfighters have been fighting court since 2002.

The group calls Media Delco County Court Injustices a forest court institution for having many guidelines that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech, freedom of liberty, and freedom of having a normal life. And the group calls Court Injustices bullying that equal depression that can equal bullycide (suicide).

Courtfighter motto: "Court cases don't kill people unfair judges and bullying do!"

To Email Courtfighter and to support uniting Anti-Bullying send your e-mail to: frontpagenews1@yahoo.com. Please write in the Subject Bar -Courtfighter Inquirer/Anti-Bullying Unite.

To Submit your issue to Courtfighter representatives at this website please see Submitting Supporting Documents below.

When appropriate, COURTFIGHTER contacts court administrators and judicial conduct boards to remind them of their moral and legal obligations to uphold the First Amendment rights of individuals and groups at county courts or the corresponding rights of individuals and groups at county courthouses. COURTFIGHTER also may seek public exposure of an individual's plight, a process that encourages legal aid to fulfill their responsibility to respect the individual rights of individuals, groups, and family members. COURTFIGHTER also may direct members of courtfighter to legal aid representatives when requested to do so as support of members of courtfighter. COURTFIGHTER also may provide support by appearances at conferences, hearings when requested to appear as support by members of courtfighter.

COURTFIGHTER involves its support in all litigation that may occur in state level authority. Why? COURTFIGHTER respects the understanding that judges at the state level are not a part of the city or state government. Judges are elected to a seat by the American people who live under the process of Liberty and Justice for all. The government has put in place immunities for judges. However if and when judges do things they are not permitted to do the government removes its immunity because the governmental system will not tolerate illegal activity against its citizens -regardless. Judges need to be remined that they are ordinary citizens who must obey all laws and not prevent police from protecting and serving citizens.

COURTFIGHTER does not take cases that are not a state level tribunal that is presided over by a magistrate or by one or more judges who administer justice according to the laws, cover the costs of ongoing litigation nor represent individuals in lawsuits. COURTFIGHTER also does not take cases that are from the staff of courts or attorneys, involve lawsuits against schools grades pre-k to 12, or involve lawsuits against colleges, have interpersonal disputes as the primary issue, are from outside the United States, or are submitted by phone or fax.

Submitting Supporting Documents
Please list your supporting documents. (Please describe the documents only. Do not submit whole documents via this field.)
Representation
If you currently are represented by counsel in this matter, please provide the name, address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of your attorney

How to submit Supporting Documents here
Please Click on the Courtfighter justice image below COURTFIGHTER: Foundation For Individual Rights In Courts at the top right of this page. You will go to WVSR/FPN/VSP Courtfighter® Group Register page. Fill out all information as best you can and click send email at the very bottom of the page after you are done. Join the Courtfighter Group today!

Please do not call or fax us. A representative from COURTFIGHTER will contact you via e-mail regarding your case submission. Before you submit this form, we recommend that you type your case details into a new document outside your Web browser, which will save your information in the event of an error. Please edit your submission for clarity before submitting it.

How to submit Supporting Documents to join both Courtfigher and Radio Station here
Please copy case info from your own computer and paste it in the Your Message box at WVSR 1360.1AM Philadelphia Internet Education and Community Outreach Radio page at www.wvsr1360.com and continue to complete the entire Station Manager Contact Us registration form boxes.

Use the Station Manager (Your Message) Directive Box to submit all info about your court case. When you finish registering and click submit you will become a member of both Courtfighter and the wvsr1360.1AM radio station fan club.

If you are having trouble submitting the form, please try using a different Web browser.

Click the justice image at the top right if you had a problem in court, any court, especially in Media Courthouse, and feel something should be done about it… take action. Support Courtfighters. Submit a case. Volunteer to become a Courtfighter friend. Thank you.

Sincerely,

From Courtfighter Founder Van Stone,
Philadelphia Front Page News, Editor & Publisher.

Google Phila. Front Page News History

2009-07-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

The Philadelphia Front Page News

The Philadelphia Front Page News is an American newspaper, headquartered at 3901 Market Street (Samuel Oshiver Hall) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that primarily targets the Black American, Bangladesh American, Greek American, and Latino community. Published online daily at www.frontpagenews.us, it is the fresh continually running Black American newspaper, being created in 2000 by Samuel Van Stone Downing. The Philadelphia Front Page News also publishes the WVSR-AM Newsletter at www.wvsr1360.com for its reader/viewers/listeners. The Front Page News has a readership of about 190,000 and is mostly read by people living in the Philadelphia, PA, Camden NJ, Delaware County, Wilmington, Delaware, Chester, PA, Bucks County, New York City, NY, Jersey City, NJ, California state, Harrisburg, Hopewell, VA, as well as the Rhode Island area.

The Front Page News is a private founded organization. The Front Page News is one of the first located online newspapers and television and radio station combinations that allows viewers to read the newspaper, watch video television format and tune to the independent live radio over the Internet. Key people that help publish the Philadelphia Front Page News are Van Stone and James Sullivan, Tracey Elaine "Baittank Downing" Walker, John Butt, Jerome Maida, and Diane White. Past names of newspaper is the Van Stone’s Digest.

Introduction

Philadelphia Front Page News online is a popular and pioneering daily newspaper and Internet television concept that defines itself as the nonprofit peoples news 7 days a week year long. It provides newspaper features and television presentations that address issues pertaining to education, politics, solar energy, economical development, and community interest such as Ex-offenders, the wrongfully imprisoned, and the economically challenged. Live Radio broadcasting is made available by the compliment web radio component, the West Philadelphia Van Stone Radio, “WVSR 1360.1 AM Philadelphia Internet Radio” found also on the web site.

The Front Page News Group, formally the Van Stone’s Digest, is a small American multimedia nonprofit incorporation based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It express is that it's Philadelphia's fifth-largest newspaper publisher online, responsible for the Philadelphia Front Page News, and the WVSR-AM Newsletter. The Front Page News, under the auspicious of the Van Stone Productions Foundation Inc., also owns Front Page News Philly VSP/TV Radio Youth News Broadcasting. It competes with nonprofits and for profit economic and education groups for funding to create jobs and community development.

Front Page News History

Front Page News is a media industry leader reaching U.S. households through newspaper publishing, television and radio broadcasting and the Internet. Operations are concentrated in the nation’s minor markets, including Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey City, Los Angeles, Hopewell, VA and Harrisburg.

The company was founded in 2000. That year, on May 19 2000, the Philadelphia Front Page News published its first online edition in a 3-bedroom apartment located at 5029 Walnut Street. The original press run consisted of stories about the first African-American Professional Wrestling Entertainment Company lead by former Philadelphia Eagles football player Skip Hamilton in the year 1998. Hamilton who played briefly for the Philadelphia Eagles under coach Buddy Ryan during the player strike era, later worked with Samuel Van Stone Downing sharing volunteer time with needy children. In 1998 Van Stone, who was writing for years on a localwide and citywide level, began to organize solo the first edition of the Philadelphia Front Page News featuring Soul City Wrestling as the lead story. But, Stone’s newspaper was not a full newspaper just yet. Stone branched out on his own creating a magazine called Van Stone’s Digest. Van Stone’s Digest ran for two years ending up as a transformation from hard copy print to the first Black American published online newspaper about the people of Philadelphia, PA and Yeadon, PA and East Lansdowne, PA, and Camden, NJ, and Harrisburg, PA, and Lancaster, PA. The Philadelphia Front Page News located at 5029 Walnut Street began.

In 2000, the Front Page News moved from West Philadelphia to a new office located at 509 Pembroke Avenue East Lansdowne, PA. Therein, Gerald McNeil, who was doing independent radio news and TV news, joined up with Van Stone Downing to manage Web Master production of the newspaper. The Front Page News was slowed down in 2002, when the alleged Great Judge Corruption raged through the Media Delaware County Courthouse, overseeing hearings in both East Lansdowne and Media city, the Front Page News was almost destroyed, due to Van Stone’s estranged spouse and Media Delaware County District Board of Judges Honorable Barry C. Dozor, Honorable Maureen F. Fitzpatrick and Honorable Michael F.X. Coll legal issues. In 2003 the Front Page News mixed community news with talk radio introducing the Van Stone Productions Foundation, Inc. Philly VSP TV/Radio Youth News. VSP TV/Radio represented West Philadelphia Van Stone Radio Station at the Front Page News. A full Internet powered radio station began to discuss Ex-offenders, the unjust imprisoned and civil rights.

However, WVSR and The Front Page News came to a complete stop in September 27, 2004 when Van Stone was wrongfully imprisoned to Delaware County Prison, George Hill Prison, by both Judges Dozor and Fitzpartick. After Gerald McNeil and a few family friends of Stone frantically tried to bail Stone out of jail but to no success Stone was ordered to return to Delaware County Prison for 6 consecutive weekends followed by legal eviction from the East Lansdowne home/office. He was ordered to never see his 2 children from the marriage, daughter and son, Cheyenne Samara Downing, Samson Dakota Downing, again or else be imprisoned. Stone, then became the unknown soldier, a courtfighter, who went into battle on the court grounds even though he had no clue about the dangers that would never cease to being at the Media Delaware County courts.

The Front Page News reappeared 18 days later from Stone’s September 27, 2004 wrongful imprisonment with an editorial declaring Media Delaware County Courthouse as allegedly corrupt. The newspaper’s founder, editor, publisher and owner, Van Stone, was exonerated by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Family Court and led the city’s awareness on Judge Brutality, Anti-Domestic Violence and Lowering the Murder Rate in big cities interest. The Front Page News lead Van Stone to become an Icon dealing with political analyst stories. A native Philadlephian who first acquired an interest in newspaper companies in 1988, Stone gained full control of the newspaper in 2007 and guided it into social-welfare, educational and economical fighting tools for the under privileged and abused. Newspaper Reporter, Editor, and Community Activist Diane White, who is from Harrisburg, PA, came aboard the Front Page News during the strong restart in the same year of 2007. James Sullivan, Baittank Downing, and John Butt, all aged volunteers, became publishers and editors in the same year. In 2009 Jerome Maida, a Philadelphia Daily News freelance writer, became Chief Editor.

Philadelphia’s WVSR-AM Radio (1360.com) went on the air as its call letters reflecting the Philadelphia Front Page News’ renowned slogan, "Hear Yourself. Neediness and Freedom Must Be Heard.” The newspaper was an innovator from the start. It was first to feature the West Philadelphia Housing Authority West Park After School and Summer Program Future Investment newsletter insert, the Soul City Wrestling and the WVSR 90.5 pirate radio station Philadelphia. Braking new ground by introducing stories from the courtroom during the infamous 2002 through 2009 “Protection From Abuse “ and “Custody" trial" in Media Delaware County Courthouse.

The Front Page News –Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was is one of the largest and most diverse content publication operations in the nation, managing and delivering content to a broad range of media, business, and community customers. Front Page News readers/viewers can choose from hundreds of different topics, including classic to cutting-edge comic strips, columns from top columnist and other specialty features products. In addition, the Front Page News produces and promotes independent television programming data; it’s online Museum and theater listings and a Harrisburg Pennsylvania station.

Front Page News entered the video/television/photo/encyclopedic museum industry in 2008, when it established James Sullivan’s Research Center online in Philadelphia, followed by WVSR-AM in Philadelphia and The Thoughts of Black Men in New York and SpeaktoMe in Philadelphia. These groups, became affiliates of The Front Page News Television Network, for a year. Today FPN is one of the country’s largest independent TV news groups. You can find mentions about the FPN on facebook.com.

In 2009 Courtfighter organization for anyone in need of support was established at FPN, www.frontpagenews.us.

The Van Stone Productions Foundation –Front Page News was established as a charitable 501c3 trust.

The formation of Front Page News online Company signaled the growing importance of news, radio and television in the at-risk communities business mix.

Front Page News was created to develop, produce and distributes video television programming for Front Page News stations and non-Front Page News stations nationwide.

Several affiliations served to accelerate Front Page News’ growth. Most significant was the Office of Dr. Michael Pollard, Chiropractic Care in East Lansdowne, PA, Stefan Umstead, Actor in Los Angeles, California, the Student Legal Aid for Entrepreneurs of University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pavlos Michaels, Professor in Hopewell, Virginia.

Front Page news grew dramatically during the feature stories about alleged corruption, evil acts, and courts orders by Media Delaware County Courthouse and Philadelphia Support Enforcement, Family Court Judges, who seemed to have a lot in common with fire erupting. Stories were covered very closely by the Investigative Reporter Team, (a Front Page News I-Team) uncovering alleged unfair treatment of African-Americans, women and children by Judges Dozor, Fitzpatrick and Coll and in addition Judge Joel Johnson, Phila. Support Enforcement, based on classism and separatist. This resulted in rapid partnerships within the news community and Front Page News played the role corruption watchdog in a way that citizens can understand. By expanding its interest the Front Page News provide a place for analysis, explanation, and public dialogue about the city’s family court.

In what would prove a wise investment, Front Page News acquired an interest in Internet Television Network upon its discovery that youth and low-income neighborhoods were at high risk of economic implosion. The move ensured that Front Page News stories would have original and high-quality news profiles to help improve literacy. Soon, The Front Page News would prove to be a haven for teenage and young-adult readers.

Soon thereafter, the sister station of the Philadelphia Front Page News TV, WVSR-AM quickly became a model for multimedia contents sharing and cross promotion throughout Front Page News.

Educational and Economical Producing Empowerment

Front Page News soon began a column about educational and economical producing empowerment at the online Newspaper, the James Sullivan's Research Center online, it’s online museum, WVSR-AM, and the SCOOP USA newspaper. PFPN made available the SCOOP Newspaper for its readers online at www.scoopusanewspaper.com. At SCOOP you will see the entire hard copy newspaper that is circulated to 90,000.00 people weekly.

Focusing on just tires and how recycling tires in Philadelphia would be something to better community education and economic improvement for Black Americans, Greek Americans, Bangladesh Americans, Irish Americans, Jewish Americans and Latino Americans.

Front Page News participation in production of Just Tires (Trash) into jobs also became good for youth in the community service and the school environment. PFPN used this idea about tire transformation involved in solar energy to help School dropout students. PFPN goal is to work with energy related companies in Philadelphia such as Gulf, Sunoco, GP, etc. PFPN seeks out small energy companies that produce or sell gas. PFPN introduces ways for cities to produce solar energy involving cars, real estate, schools and political advancements.

PFPN feature articles about using solar energy to improve the new Youth Study Center Project in West Philadelphia. PFPN produces weekly, lessons for students, and city council and businesses dealing with the problem of Philadelphia tire trash.

PFPN was the first Black American newspaper online to discuss how tire trash can be, the car, the bicycle, the toy, the shopping carts, the skate boards and whatever else that involves tires. PFPN made rubber a key word to the Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, advising the Mayor to produce rubber recycling as a Philadelphia staple.

PFPN showed how rubber tires are so hard to get rid of. Many folks in Philadelphia dump tires in the streets, lots, and even business areas because they don't know what else to do with tires. PFPN showed how there are tire repair businesses that need help with this problem. PFPN was praised for articles showing how small businesses dumped used and useless tires instead of destroy them properly. PFPN discussed how the Philadelphia highways are full of tires dumped by the “little guy” called the Tire RepairMan.

PFPN pledged that it wanted to help the “little guy” and not put all the blame on them to hurt their business. PFPN questioned its readers and the city of Philadelphia and universities, where does all those tires go when the tire repair man dump them from his station? PFPN demonstrated that the “little guy” does not only do tire dumping but the average good citizen does it too.

PFPN produced further stories showing Mayor Nutter that their stories on tire repair shops and the average citizen was help toward supporting clean energy as a way for proper trash removal. Recycling tire trash can be done using any type of clean energy.

Stone’s Incorruptible Icon Status Helping Victims

The story of Nancy Glover and Honorable Judge Maureen Fitzpatrick, Honorable Judge Barry C. Dozor, and Honorable Judge Michael F.X. Coll is one of almost unbelievable family court abuse and judge cruelty. In fact, the testimony of the defendant Mrs.Glover incriminates many others. Allegedly the others are certain Pennsylvania Justices at Media Delaware County Family Courthouse. Although there are currently 24 Delaware County Board of Judges, 19 District Court Judges 5 Senior District Court Judges, not to be confused with Delaware County Magistrate Justices.

Allegations of blatant inconsiderateness in the blood of Judges Maureen F. Fitzpatrick, Barry C. Dozor, and Michael F.X. Coll are the norm. But according to a story covered by PFPN’s Van Stone, Gerald McNeil, James Sullivan, Special Investigator John H. Coleman, Jr Mrs. Glover about Fitzpatrick, putting it as respectfully as PFPN could, Judge Fitzpatrick’s behavior was inconsistent with fair citizenship.

Newspaper Icon Van Stone met Judge Fitzpatrick. In several PFPN reports Van Stone wrote about how if someone told Fitzpatrick that she would be inconsistent to decide for the plan after attacking it, most likely she would attack any way. An article showed while a family plan is to save families, according to Glover, Fitzpatrick’s decision is most often a report full of inconsistencies ending in fear.

Front Page News, with Van Stone Downing, reported how Glover was terrified from the memories of a 9MM automatic to her head and threats to kill the children. According to Nancy, her Judge, estranged husband and his girlfriend were allegedly systematically mentally torturing her. According to Nancy, her abuser stopped paying 5 months of bills & destroyed their heater. Fitzpatrick allowed an appraisal presented by estranged husband as factual during divorce proceedings based on a ride by from the street after the complete appraisal. Overlooked was an engineers report concerning the structural damage caused allegedly by her husband during domestic violence incidents reported to police into consideration worth $150,000.00. This too happened according to Glover. Cashed were all of Glover’s insurance checks and reimbursement checks since 2000. These included doctors’ checks deposited in the girlfriend’s account. There was obstruction of evidence about an attempt to get the deed to the additional property & sell it out from under Nancy with the help of a friend.

PFPN with Van Stone Downing reported that in the end, Nancy alleges that Judge Fitzpatrick would not permit Nancy to speak or present any facts. And Nancy is to be removed from her home; she is disabled and uses a wheelchair, in less than two months. Nancy’s was on her way to being homeless and accompanied by her grandchild (Malia) and daughter (Amanda) who also has chronic medical conditions.

Van Stone reported that when such unjust things like this happen, as is the normal in Media Delaware County Courthouse, Glover should have been allowed to file an expedition to the next level of the court where the hearing would be put back before a Judge that would allow her to fairly present here testimony.

PFPN with Van Stone won praise for telling the story about Nancy’s complaints of having problems swallowing and that she was in pain from a broken collarbone were ignored by Judge Fitzpatrick.

PFPN with Van Stone gained even more praise as the article continued telling about the next morning Judge Fitzpatrick seemed more concerned with watching TV then getting Mrs. Glover help. There was no more pleasure for Fitzpatrick to get from abusing the defendant so Nancy was ordered to come up with thousands of dollars to pay or else be evicted and see the house sold. Nancy could not get the loan so desperately needed to save her home. Mrs. Glover called Van Stone with the very credible story and so Stone offered not only to help her in any way that he could, making her story plain to the public. Van Stone soon made an offering to Glover to act as a co-signer on a loan, putting up my own house for her, if there is any legit lender that can help Nancy borrow up to $250,000.00 thousand dollars or else Glover would be homeless in one month. Furthermore, PFPN supported Glover’s push to become founder of an organization that fought for fair rights of families forced to enter family court in the U.S.

Front Page News daily newspapers targeting urban commuters represent yet another growth initiative. The Philadelphia Front Page News launched its Radio SCOOP edition collaboration in 2008. The SCOOP USA Newspaper, in Philadelphia, PA, circulation 90,000, a Front Page News affiliate, tabloids are distributed free of charge and geared to young adults and businesses that want their news in an informative and entertaining format.

The Front Page News online newspaper/TV, www.frontpagenews.us and Radio Stations, www.wvsr1360.com is a national License/Market Philadelphia newspaper.

VAN STONE PRODUCTIONS FOUNDATION, INC.

For twenty-seven years the Van Stone Productions Foundation, Inc., has reinforced the safety, health and wellness of children and their families in the Pennsylvania area through social change, social service, and children’s guidance development. Today the Van Stone Productions Foundation is at the forefront of endeavors to stop street crime, school nutrition ignorance, environmental pollution, school underachievement, and youth violence, and we offer an array of programs and services designed to support children in their efforts to create crime free lives for themselves and their families. Van Stone Productions Foundation, Inc. Philadelphia, PA.

VAN STONE PRODUCTIONS FOUNDATION, INC.

YOUTH SAFETY PROGRAM & CHILD WELFARE PROGRAM

VAN STONE PRODUCTIONS FOUNDATION, INC.

Telephone Number:
(610) 931-8810

PO Box 395

E. Lansdowne, PA 19050
E-Mail Address: vspfoundation@yahoo.com

Fax: (866) 675-3449

Visit at: www.frontpagenews.us

Non Profit Organization 501 (c) (3)

DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATION AND PROGRAM

Van Stone Productions Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization established and implemented in 1980 by President/CEO Mr. Samuel Van Stone Downing, Inspector along with 25 volunteer staff members consisting of parents and youth. The youth/senior safety center and child welfare program was created to help at risk youth and disabled adults from poor living conditions establish a means by which they can become educated in behavioral health activity, youth safety, and community safety officers activities; the result will lead to youth/education/bible support systems fulfilled; And it will accommodate the need for physical and intellectual expression of youth who are athletically as well as academically underachieving in school.

Under this organization, we have established a domestic abuse target campaign, stop the bullying education campaign, warring against indecency and it's effect on children campaign, health and safety summer camp, child and safety crisis lab, computer lab, traffic control lab and broadcast radio and senior lab which started out as a 15 member youth public housing and neighborhood resident social clubs; today, we patrol citywide to maintain a presence in the community and help prevent carjacking, youth violence and other related offences that endanger kids. Weekly, participants engage in community news writing, net TV/Radio programming, maintenance exhibits, computers, youth sports; later, we have developed into a 1,000 kid member program to support youth/seniors in the west, northwest and southwest Philadelphia areas.

OUR POLICY

The organization does not discriminate in any manner against any person by reason of race, color, sex, national origin or religious or political affiliation.

DEMOGRAPHICS

The organization services low-income and at risk youth between ages of 3-18; disabled seniors.

VAN STONE PRODUCTIONS FOUNDATION, INC.

YOUTH SAFETY PROGRAM AND CHILD WELFARE PROGRAM

NEED FOR PROGRAM

Youth and disabled adults alike are located in an area that has few programs and are very limited in engaging in opportunities geared to help youth/seniors with job readiness skills and recreational activities; Safety is most often an immediate firsthand concern for them due to lack of security presence and resources in their community; lack of funding; and a majority of student/senior minorities are underachieving in their school education levels citywide. Youth violence, verbal violence, bullying; lack of new ideal situations to fix gun violence is a common issue that these teens/seniors are forced to cope with daily. Hope and work usually goes unfulfilled in their community.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

All youth/seniors will gain developmental skills and proper training which will allow them to learn trades that they can pursue as a career in their future; also youth/seniors will acquire motivational skills through the mentor program which supplies their needs with the proper guidance and counseling. To help youth/seniors cope with the transition from disabled to functional; to provide an atmosphere which supports self-confidence and self-esteem; to involve youth/seniors in sports and education that will induce healthy living and positive energy; to provide scholarships for students and or after school grade points to students, to further their education toward college.

FACILITIES TO BE USED TO CONDUCT ACTIVITIES

Activities will be conducted at one or more of the following sites: University Square; Dept. of Rec. Lee Cultural Center/Playground; Alain Locke Elementary School; Millcreek Playground; Mantua Playground and/or Belmont Playground; Belmont & Parkside Healthcare Center; Huey Elementary; Sayre Recreation Center; Malcolm X Park; any and all School(s) and Playground site(s) that invite our participation at their center.

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS TO BE SERVED AND LENGTH OF PROGRAM

The program (i.e. youth boxing, labs, safety patrolling, traffic control, school guidance counseling, domestic advocate support, senior praise-activities program) serves an average of 1,000 participants or more on a year to year basis starting approximately January 1^st (for a 9 week completion period(s)) and ending approximately December 31^st.

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED PROGRAM

The after-school program operates Monday through Friday, 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on school days and from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. during the summer. The program provides recreational activities such as basketball, tennis, football, kickball and soccer; as well as these particular classes: School Behavioral Health/Anger Management Education, Loss Management and Safety Education, School Education, Nutrition Education, Tutoring, Youth Safety Crisis Management, Traffic Control, Comm. Safety Patrol Officers Education.

Domestic Violence Issues, Legal Child Advocacy, Divorce, Counseling Network, Computers, School Guidance Counseling and Child Welfare; other topics of interest are, OUTREACH PROGRAM: home maintenance, car repair, landscaping, sewing, cosmetology, art and design, daycare, net broadcasting (i.e. talk radio, music radio, film, TV, video-photography) and catering. The purpose of these activities are to help keep kids from dying in the streets; comfort disabled seniors; and to keep communities safe.

Our mission and goal is to provide skilled teachers and educators for youth/seniors who are coping with drugs, violence, bullies, guns, gangs, teen issues (i.e. pregnancy, smoking) and school drop outs; we desire to create a successful program that supports high quality service learning and engages students/seniors in meeting community needs and achieving school academic levels.

Our curriculums consist of conducting a program that include mentoring which will link at risk youth/seniors with responsible adults to provide guidance and counseling that result in - youth/education/nutrition support systems fulfilled.

Illegal Party Goers Reach $2 Million Settlement; Deborah Curcillo Continues Prosecution of Neighborhood Block Party Organizer and Community Activist

2009-05-12T00:54:00.000-07:00

Special Report: Brutality Of Diane White, Associate, Managing Writer & Editor, Webmaster, Philadelphia Front Page News, VSP Foundation Harrisburg City Chapter President, DLighte House Ministry

Harrisburg -The insurance company for Dauphin County has agreed to settle a federal class-action lawsuit prompted by the arrests of about 50 people following a 2007 Labor Day party in Harrisburg. Parties goers were alleged to have been engaging in illegal drug use and underage drinking on property owned by the City of Harrisburg without a securing the required permit from the city. Police broke up the party on McCormick's Island after a man who was reported to be intoxicated drowned while trying to swim across the Susquehanna River. Most party-goers were released and mailed citations, but some out-of-state attendees ended up in the county prison. Three people who filed the lawsuit claimed prison employees strip-searched them, even though they were held on minor charges.

Meanwhile on that same Labor Day Weekend Diane White and the mostly women and children attending the block party in their neighborhood were cleaning up after a day of fun and games. The kids were helping and the music had been turned down. When out of nowhere a Harrisburg Police Officer began shouting obscenities in the middle of the street. According to several witnesses, White was about a block away from the Officer when he arrived and starting screaming at whoever was closest to him. These same witnesses say that White went over to show the Officer the permit and to find out what he wanted. The Officer led White away from the crowd and brutally assaulted her.

The Harrisburg News reported that according to the police report White spit in the Officer's face 2 times which White has consistently denied. White was charged with Assault on a Police Officer with Intent to Do Bodily Harm which carries a 2-5 year prison term. That charged was dropped at the Preliminary Hearing when the Police Officer changed his story on the stand.

White was arraigned at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg back in January 24, 2008. She pleaded not guilty to all charges and requested a jury trial. The charges were now Resisting Arrest and Other Unlawful Acts. According to several eye witnesses, the Officer was standing in the middle of the street shouting profanity before he walked away with White and a few minutes later was verbally and physically assaulting her. White had organized the party. There was no record of a complaint being called in and there is no police report from the night of the incident. There are no other witnesses for the prosecution and there is no transcript from the preliminary hearing.

This past January Judge Klienfelter ruled against White's "Motion to Dismiss Under Rule 600", when ADA Debra Curcillo, currently running for Judge in Dauphin County responded to White's motion by citing an exception under the “Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act” notwithstanding the fact that the Officer was ordered to active duty 365 days after the alleged charges were filed against White. Curcillo, was granted the “Continuance” after being reprimanded by Judge Klienfelter for not providing explanations for the numerous Continuances previously requested by the DA's Office. Curcillo has been prosecuting the case for the past 20 months, the Officer is on active duty in Iraq allegedly not due back to work until September 14, 2009.

In the meantime, The Harrisburg Police Department still as not acknowledged a formal complaint filed by White after being instructed by the District Attorney's Office to do so on September 5, 2007 before their office would touch it. The Internal Affairs Officer who initiated the investigation of White's complaint was abruptly pulled off the case after a televised report to the city counsel on the status of all complaints filed against Harrisburg Police Officers by the citizens of Harrisburg in 2007. The same Internal Affairs Officer who gave that televised report had contacted several of White's witnesses and scheduled appointments for their sworn testimony, only to make herself unavailable when White's witnesses arrived for the appointments. According to reliable sources. the internal affairs officer has since been reassigned.

To no one's surprise the Harrisburg City Council has never held public hearings on the numerous complaints of police abuse nor have they ever followed up on a promise made to NAACP President, Stanley Lawson and the ACLU to engage in discussions with the community surrounding the set-up of a Community Review Board as promised by Councilwoman Patty Kim during her term as Chair of the Public Safety Committee. Gloria Martin-Roberts is now the chair of the Public Safety Committee and has also vowed to address many issues of police abuse and misconduct by surrounding the Harrisburg Police Department. We are still waiting for Mrs Robert to pursue the police abuse issues with as much diligence has she has shown in dealing with other inequities in the City of Harrisburg during her tenure on City Council.

White's trial date has been set for September 14, 2009 @ 8:00 am at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg. Two years after the illegal arrest and vicious assault on her person and her privacy by an out of control, misguided police officer. Twenty months of attempted cover ups by the DA's Office and the Harrisburg Police Department all because of the irrational behavior of one misguided police officer who provided false testimony on police documents and under oath.

White will have to wait and see if Curcillo's only witness who may or may or may not return from Iraq with a whole new story another story to tell, if he shows up at all. According to the court documents the Officer left for Iraq on September 1, 2008. The assault occur on September 1, 2007. Curcillo the trial date is set for September 2009. Two years after the fact. Two years of justice denied.

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2009-04-08T09:47:00.001-07:00

Hello, what's new!

Democracy Now! | Former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney Seeks Presidency as Green Party Nominee

2008-02-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now! | Former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney Seeks Presidency as Green Party Nominee

Not Barred

2007-06-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

A new voter-registration effort is targeting locals with a felony record. Many believe they can't vote -- even when they can.

By Katy Reckdahl

All over New Orleans, people answer the same way. "Oh no, I can't vote -- I have a little felony record," says one woman, walking home from work in the French Quarter.

"I didn't think we could vote for five years," says a young man, standing on Orleans Avenue, waiting for the Super Sunday Mardi Gras Indian parade to pass by.

"I've never voted. I'm a felon," says a 35-year-old man who's waiting for his probation officer downtown, at the Division of Probation and Parole office. New Orleans has two such offices, currently supervising a total caseload of more than 7,000 people between them. A Jefferson Parish office oversees about 5,500 more.

The office's district manager, David Lindsey, walks out to say hello, then gets into the discussion about voting rights. "It's my understanding that, in Louisiana, if you have more than one felony, you're unable to vote," he says. He picks up the telephone and checks with an attorney at the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. "I stand corrected," he says, putting down the receiver. "And if I'm vague about it, certainly our clients are going to be even more vague."

Even the voting-registration offices are not in sync. An informal Gambit Weekly survey of metro-area voting registrars found a range of answers. Some knew the policy exactly; others said that it depended on what level of felony offense had been committed -- or that someone who had been convicted recently might still be able to vote because the computer system isn't updated promptly.

Norris Henderson hears confusion from, he estimates, 9 out of 10 people on the street. "It comes from years and years of misinformation," he says. "But it's not true."

Henderson gives an explanation -- one that's confirmed by the Louisiana Department of Elections. Before 1974 in Louisiana, people convicted of a felony couldn't vote again unless they got a pardon from the governor. But for the last 30 years, felons have lost their voting rights only while they're in prison or on probation or parole. After that, they can re-register by presenting their discharge papers at the voting registrar's office.

Last Wednesday, Henderson took yet another step in combating this confusion, as he drove to Baton Rouge to file the incorporation papers for VOTE -- Voice Of The Ex-offender. His focus is the 15,000 people released from this state's prisons each year -- 1 in 3 from Orleans and Jefferson parishes alone. The non-partisan VOTE's first focus is registration and turnout for the upcoming presidential election.

The confusion Henderson sees here is mirrored in other places, mainly because laws vary so wildly from state to state. Maine and Vermont allow prisoners to vote and no felons are disenfranchised (prohibited from voting). But in seven states -- Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska and Iowa -- felons are disenfranchised for life. The Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project estimates that 4.7 million Americans, or one in 43 adults, are currently or permanently unable to vote.

"Four million actually can't vote. Probably another four think they can't vote," says Malik Aziz, who heads up the Philadelphia Ex-Offenders Task Force out of that city's mayor's office. While he was on parole, Aziz was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that prompted the return of the vote to anyone on probation or parole. Recently, his Task Force's nonpartisan efforts registered 20,000 ex-offenders before a Philadelphia city election.

Felony disenfranchisement was brought to the fore in 2000 in Florida, where the Bush-Gore race was decided by a mere 535 votes. News reports noted that 600,000 ex-felons in Florida were disqualified for life, with even more wrongly disqualified because of error-ridden voting rolls.

In Texas and four other states, a new coalition called Right to Vote is focusing efforts on what they call FIPs -- formerly incarcerated people. The Texas group alone hopes to register 10,000 FIPs before the election.

In New Orleans, Henderson is gearing up for registration, then get-out-the vote. He totals prison-release data and then begins to calculate, out loud, what the numbers might look like if VOTE energizes even a portion of ex-offenders statewide. The number is in the hundreds of thousands.

"This is a sleeping giant, believe me," he says.

It was his first assignment for ninth-grade homeroom, and Henderson can still recite the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution today: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice Š. " He was always an avid student -- "I cried to go to school," he says -- and he grew up Uptown playing marbles, flying kites, masking with the Wild Magnolias, and playing sousaphone in the Carter G. Woodson Junior High School marching band. But as he reached voting age, he got caught up with the wrong crowd. By age 20, he'd been arrested for murder. At 21, he was convicted and sentenced to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

There, he returned to his studies. "Angola was a place that bred activism, because the conditions were so bad," says Henderson. He started to learn that successes could come through "pushing the pencil at them" -- writing letters and filing complaints.

During the 1970s, after well-publicized riots at some of the nation's other prisons, Henderson and some others decided to examine the unrest. "We have to focus on our plight," they told other inmates, and soon a group of people were working together, doing research. "We decided we need to draw more attention to us," he says. "So we became politicians." At the time, people were predicting a hotly contested gubernatorial primary between Edwin Edwards and Buddy Roemer, and the inmates decided to get involved in that race -- even though they couldn't vote. They launched something they called the Angola Special Civics Project and recruited Ted Quant, director of the Twomey Center for Peace Through Justice at Loyola University, to be one of the people who would help them organize from the outside.

Quant drove to the prison in 1987 for the initial Civics Project presentation and recalls walking into a room with all four walls covered with charts. "They had these magnificent graphs -- how much money it costs to incarcerate, how many people in prison, how many family members, what it would mean if a certain number of those people voted, how many were illiterate. They'd done a detailed analysis, like a corporation would do." The inmates designed a two-prong project, says Quant, first giving themselves a political education and then using that knowledge to organize their families to become registered and vote.

The project prompted activity in all parts of the prison, says Henderson. Some inmates would watch the TV news and write down pertinent quotes. Others would clip articles out of the newspapers. They created voter-information packets, explained their ideas to all their visitors, talked about it on the phone, wrote letters to the Louisiana Weekly.

This sort of outreach may be especially crucial in neighborhoods with high incarceration rates, says Marc Mauer, director of the Sentencing Project. Studies have shown that fewer eligible voters turn out in those areas than other places. "It may be that some ex-felons incorrectly believe that they've lost the right to vote forever," he says. Or it may be something else -- that voting is ultimately a communal, community experience. And so, when a large number of people in one neighborhood are disenfranchised, their wives, parents, cousins and neighbors also may become less interested in voting. "This kind of ripple effect goes beyond the people who are actually disenfranchised," says Mauer.

The community aspect of voting may be the true power behind the ballot box, says political scientist Alec Ewald, who teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and recently wrote Punishing at the Polls, a hefty report about voter disenfranchisement laws that was released last fall by the New York-based advocacy group Demos.

In reality, one vote is rarely powerful enough to influence entire elections, explains Ewald. But to the people pulling the lever, it feels like a powerful act. He explains what he hears from young students about their first voting experiences: "When I talk to them, they don't necessarily remember who they voted for a year ago, but they can tell me all about the feeling of voting." The students tell Ewald that they felt pride, a sense of membership and civic accomplishment, a feeling that a duty had been done, a sense of belonging.

Henderson too believes in this idea. "Voting makes a guy feel a part of a community again," he says. This is especially true, he believes, in a political town like New Orleans where, when election day rolls around, "everybody is working on somebody's campaign."

Ewald's report for Demos dissects at length the two main arguments supporting disenfranchisement policies -- that taking away the vote is a punishment and that to have felons vote would ruin the purity of our political system. But Ewald thinks it may come down to something more simple. "I really think that people today who support disenfranchisement often do so because of the community dimension of voting, because of the feeling that they don't want a rapist in the voting booth with them."

On the face of it, that may seem to make sense, says Ewald. "But we don't say, 'I don't want bigoted people voting, so people who are in the Ku Klux Klan can't vote.'" Plenty of lazy or greedy or offensive people are voting today, says Ewald. "Any attempt to weed them out would be seen as anti-American."

Fifteen years ago, Henderson discovered that the vote wasn't lost to him forever. He was at Angola, with his nose in a lawbook, reading about the 1974 constitution. "I said, 'Lo and behold, we -- ex-offenders -- can vote.'" It was something he hadn't known, and he found out that almost no one else knew it either. "I said, 'That's it -- that is the key,'" he says.

Quant remembers Henderson telling him about the issue, years ago. "In Louisiana, most ex-offenders assume that they can't vote. Norris is the one who discovered that."

Henderson tried to make that point from Angola. "What's your excuse?" he wrote in a letter published in the Louisiana Weekly in the early 1990s. "I'm disenfranchised because I can't vote. You're disenfranchised because you don't." Cutting yourself out of the process hampers the whole community, he wrote.

Henderson still can't vote, even though he was released last year after doing nearly 30 years. That's because he's still on parole.

He has, however, been working on campaigns -- putting out yard signs, organizing, and talking to people in the community. During last fall's election, he gave a speech in Baton Rouge right before Buddy Leach took the podium to endorse Kathleen Blanco. Henderson talked about a widespread phone boycott he'd spearheaded at Angola more than a decade ago, in response to allegations of high rates and corruption. At the time, Blanco was on the state Public Service Commission. She had taken a keen interest, Henderson said, and as a result of her work, the Public Service Commission put restrictions on the company and ran it out of the state. "Unbeknownst to her, she became near and dear to us," he says. "She had helped a bunch of helpless people and I thought if I was ever in a position to help her, I would."

In November, Henderson hopes to, at age 51, vote for the first time in his life. Like many other ex-offenders, he says, he wants to feel that sense of responsibility that comes from voting in your community. He wants to voice his opinion like everyone else -- through the ballot box.

"Jim Brown is a case in point," he says. "He gets out of prison and what's the first thing he wants to do? Vote."

"I've always taken voting seriously," says Jim Brown. During the 1980s, when he served two terms as Louisiana's secretary of state, Brown needed to be in Baton Rouge on Election Day to oversee state elections. But he made extraordinary efforts to vote where he lived, in Ferriday.

"I would often charter a plane at my own expense and fly back to Ferriday to vote," he says. "One year, I got up at 4 in the morning and drove to Ferriday, voted at Ward 1 outside of town and then drove back and was in my office at 8:30 so that I could do my job as chief elections officer."

As secretary of state, Brown didn't have much occasion to think about voting rights for ex-felons. "It didn't hit home to me then," he says. But last year, Brown -- who also served in both houses of the Louisiana legislature and three terms as Louisiana's insurance commissioner -- spent six months at the federal prison in Oakdale on seven counts of lying to an FBI agent. Because he's on supervised parole until 2005, he can't currently vote -- unless he gets a pardon signed by the governor. Earlier this month, he appeared before the Pardon Board to ask for just that.

"I treasure my right to vote," he says. "If you take that away, I become muzzled; I become a second-class citizen. I pay taxes, but I have no say-so in how those taxes are spent." If he had it to do over again, he would advocate restoring voting rights for those on probation or parole, he says. "Unless it happens to you, you don't care," he says.

Brown's disenfranchisement carries an irony not only because he was secretary of state, but also because he was a delegate to the 1972-73 constitutional convention, which gave broader voting rights to felons.

As a result of that convention, Louisiana's laws became more progressive than many other Southern states. To understand why that happened, Brown suggests phoning a fellow constitutional delegate, legendary attorney Camille Gravel, who's now in his late 80s. "There was a real desire on the part of the delegates," Gravel recalls, "to permit the convicted felon the right to vote once he had satisfied the sanctions imposed upon him by the court. We thought it was the fair thing to do."

Gravel looks through his Rolodex for the phone number for attorney Chris Roy, Sr., head of the committee that discussed that particular issue in detail. It was about fairness and second chances, Roy agrees, but, in the floor debate, he had also raised another issue -- only the poor were being penalized by the then-existing law. "Only the wealthy could afford to get back in and vote, because they had enough money to hire a lawyer and then get the governor to sign the pardon."

There were other concerns about lifetime disenfranchisement laws, says Gravel. "A lot of those statutes, especially in the South, have civil rights implications -- it's a study in itself, I'm sure."

In 1998, the Sentencing Project released that very study -- the first large report that calculated disenfranchisement numbers, by impact and race, for each state. The Project continues to keep those tallies current, and the results are still as startling as they were when the study first made headlines. In six states, one in four black men were permanently disenfranchised. Nationwide, 1.4 million black men -- 13 percent of the population -- has lost voting rights.

Currently, Louisiana's state prison system disenfranchises 96,421 people -- 3 out of every 100 adult residents. Inmates in federal prisons and local jails would increase that number. Because more than 9 out of 10 state prisoners are male and 3 out of 4 are black, there's no doubt that black men make up most of the disenfranchised voters in this state.

In the end, it's futile to look at voter disenfranchisement without discussing its race effects, says Ewald. That's because disenfranchisement is at the intersection of two institutions with shameful racial histories -- the criminal justice system and electoral politics. "Both, for most of our history, had explicitly, purposely, racially discriminatory policies," Ewald says.

In a way, that makes the vote even more important for anyone who's black, says Goodwille Pierre, from the Houston-based People for the American Way, partner in the Texas Right to Vote project. "African Americans were killed because they thought the literacy test was unfair. And for you not to vote is a slap in their faces."

But voting is not just about the past -- it's about hope for the future, says Pierre. "I disdain criminal behavior, but I believe in rehabilitation," he says. "And you cannot rehabilitate someone who doesn't feel like they're part of the system." Most people coming out of prison are facing lots of disappointments -- their record causes landlords to turn them down for apartments, employers to reject them for positions. "When you're an FIP, success keeps you going, failure makes you go back in," Pierre says.

At Angola, Henderson was the winningest football coach in the history of corrections. When he left, the guys from his team said, "Coach -- you got to get a Little League team when you get home."

When he returned to New Orleans, he found that many of the local coaching positions barred felons. He hasn't given up hope, he says. "I still have my playbook." But he's also including youth in his other love -- civics.

"As I was canvassing over the weekend," he says, "we ran into two girls from St. Mary's Academy. I told them, 'I know you're too young, but encourage your parents to vote.'"

Then he stopped to talk to two young men. "I can't vote, man, because I've been to prison," said the first one. "No, you're still in the loop," Henderson said, going on to explain the voting law he discovered in a lawbook when these guys were still in elementary school.