Detroit Mayor Kwame R. Kilpatrick to keynote African American Chamber of Commerce dinner September 23

Detroit Mayor Kwame R. Kilpatrick will be the keynote speaker at the African American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) of Greater Milwaukee's first annual dinner. The event will be held September 23 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 333 West Kilbourn Avenue, downtown.

The dinner is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. The reception will start at 2 p.m.

Kwame’s speech will focus on the economic development plans that he initiated for the city of Detroit, one of America’s largest city’s and still the center of the nation’s automotive industry.

The chamber has also invited New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. The confirmation of his attendance is in process.

Both Kilpatrick and Nagin symbolize the effort needed in the community as it attempts to champion the emergence of African American businesses in Greater Milwaukee.

This is the foremost mission of the AACC and has been for more than 14 years.

In a news statement, the AACC said the time has come to change the paradigm facing African American business and the community in general.

The dinner will also be a backdrop for the launching of the organization’s Strategic/Succession Plan, which will officially begin on October 1, with the hiring of long-time community business advocate and entrepreneur Curtiss E. Harris, who will become the new interim executive director of the AACC.

As director, Harris will handle the day-to-day operations of the chamber, which will undergo a restructuring and possible realignment of its board of directors, as well as the outline of new duties for outgoing chair of the executive committee, Dester Martin.

Several awards will also be handed-out to local Black businesses in the community. Legacy Bank, Power Supplies and Soche’ will receive the Progressive Business Award.

The Pioneer Business Award will go to Joe Nevels Landscaping, General Converters and Assemblers, V&J Foods, North Milwaukee State Bank, Columbia Savings & Loan and Lena’s Food Market.

The Community Service Award will be given to Creative Marketing and Prism Technology.

WE Energies and Johnson Controls, Inc. are the sponsors of the event. For ticket information, contact the AACC at 462-9450.

FEMA contacting 27,000 Wisconsin disaster applicants about court order to release personal information

Washington--The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in the process of making telephone calls and sending letters to 27,667 Wisconsin applicants for disaster assistance. The calls and letters are to inform them that a recent court order has directed the agency to send the addresses of their disaster-damaged homes to certain newspapers in Florida that sued FEMA to get the information.

FEMA is complying with the court order; however, the agency will continue to protect the names and addresses and other personally identifiable information on disaster victims in the future under both the Privacy Act and the personal privacy exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The federal appellate court order affects residents of Wisconsin who applied for assistance following severe storms and flooding in 2004; storms, flooding and tornadoes in 2000; and severe storms and flooding in 1998.

No charges against New Orleans nursing home in Katrina deaths

by Mary Foster, Associated Press Writer
New Orleans (AP)--Days after a jury acquitted two nursing-home owners in dozens of Hurricane Katrina-related patient deaths, a prosecutor said that no charges would be filed in a similar case involving a nursing home run by an order of Roman Catholic nuns.

Nineteen elderly residents of Lafon nursing home, run by the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, died in the days after Katrina hit August 29, 2005. Flooding destroyed much of the food, drinking water and medicine inside the sweltering building, and it took days for help to arrive.

In a statement issued late Monday, District Attorney Eddie Jordan said he determined that, after a thorough review, no criminal conduct had occurred.

"The sisters are very gratified and relieved," said attorney Evans Schmidt, who represents the religious order. "It has been a long, hard two years."

It was the last case in which workers responsible for caring for patients who died in Katrina’s chaotic aftermath had been investigated for possible criminal wrongdoing. No one was convicted in any of the cases.

State Attorney General Charles Foti had investigated the Lafon deaths and turned over the results to Jordan a year ago without making a recommendation on whether to seek criminal charges.

Jordan’s statement did not refer to Friday’s acquittals of the owners of a nursing home in neighboring St. Bernard Parish on charges of negligent homicide and cruelty. His staff said he would have no further comment.

State prosecutors alleged that Sal and Mabel Mangano, owners of St. Rita’s Nursing Home, were criminally responsible for 35 patient deaths, but the jury disagreed.

Like St. Rita’s owners, the operators at Lafon decided that keeping their frail residents at the home was safer than trying to move them. However, two days before Katrina made landfall, the Sisters of the Holy Family evacuated elderly nuns living on the second floor of the nursing home but not the lay residents on the first floor. All 60 nuns living in the motherhouse across the street also were evacuated.

About 20 staff members, including a half-dozen nuns, rode out the hurricane at the nursing home with more than 100 residents.

Although flooding was about 3 feet deep in the first floor of the building, the staff was able to evacuate residents to the second floor. But much of the food, drinking water and medicine was destroyed by the flooding. Conditions deteriorated further when the generator failed, causing temperatures inside the home to soar.

Staff members flagged down emergency vehicles to try to get help, but none arrived until the fourth day when a staff member's relative found a bus. Three dozen residents were taken to a nursing home in Houma.

The next day, two FEMA workers arranged for a squadron of Black Hawk helicopters to take the remaining residents to a makeshift hospital at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport.

Administrators with the Sisters of the Holy Family, an African-American religious order founded in 1842 by a free woman of African descent, have declined interviews, citing the unresolved criminal investigation and wrongful-death lawsuits filed by relatives of victims.

The order plans to reopen the nursing home when renovations are completed, Schmidt said.

"It’s a very important ministry to the sisters," Schmidt said. "Before Katrina it was the oldest continuously operating nursing home in the United States."

Several lawsuits are pending against the sisters, the Manganos and in another Hurricane Katrina case in which Foti had sought criminal charges.

Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses had been accused of killing patients at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center, but charges were dropped against the nurses and a grand jury declined to indict Pou.

Juanita Bynum files for divorce from preacher husband who beat her

by The Associated Press
Atlanta--Televangelist Juanita Bynum has filed for divorce from her husband, who is accused of beating her, her lawyer said.

The divorce filing cites cruel treatment, Bynum’s attorney, Karla Walker, told "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution."

The divorce filing also says the marriage between Bynum, 48, and Thomas W. Weeks III, 40, has been "irretrievably broken," Walker said. It was officially filed Monday in Ware County, where Bynum has a home.

Weeks, known to his followers as Bishop Weeks, is accused of beating, stomping, choking and threatening to kill Bynum during an August 21 argument outside an Atlanta hotel.

He has been indicted on felony and misdemeanor charges that could send him to prison for up to 27 years.

"She loved her husband," Walker said. "But she does feel it is necessary to stop the domestic violence and go on with the divorce."

A statement issued Friday by Weeks’ lawyers said he still holds out hope that he and Bynum can reconcile.

Weeks also said last week he would provide his account of what happened at the appropriate time.

Bynum is a former hairdresser and flight attendant who became a Pentecostal evangelist, author and gospel singer.

Her ministry blossomed after she preached at a singles event about breaking free of sexual promiscuity. Among her books are "No More Sheets: The Truth About Sex" and "Matters of the Heart."

Her album "A Piece of My Passion" had been listed in the top 10 gospel albums by "Billboard" magazine for several months. She also preaches through televised sermons.

The couple married in 2002. Together, they wrote "Teach Me How to Love You: The Beginnings."