Report: Jobs Keep People from Returning to Prison

Job prospects are bleak for anyone with a criminal record in California, and the current economic downturn makes it even tougher. Nearly eight million residents have criminal records, and the numbers are growing. The need to find gainful employment for this disadvantaged group is urgent: the state could release up to 40,000 prisoners over the next two years, by court order. If trends are any indication, 60 percent to 80 percent of them will be unemployed one year after release. But a new report from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law recommends ways the state can reverse that trend. The law school’s Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice has released “Reaching a Higher Ground: Increasing Employment Opportunities for People with Prior Convictions.” The report is a compilation of the best ideas from police officers, unions, government officials, employers and academics. “Increasing employment opportunities for people with criminal records isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do,” said center Executive Director Andrea Russi. “Communities are stronger when their residents have jobs; recidivism rates drop and costs decrease across the board for police, courts, and prisons.” … Continue Reading

Swanson Hosts “There Ought to Be a Law” Contest

Assemblymember Sandré Swanson is holding a “There ought to be a Law” contest to promote student leadership and community involvement in the legislative process. Students who live within the 16th Assembly District, including Oakland, Alameda and Piedmont, are encouraged to play active roles in the political process by submitting a legislative idea and/or resolution to a problem, issue, or need in the community. At least one winner will be selected, and his or her idea will be introduced as legislation by Swanson. Winners will also have the opportunity to travel to Sacramento, testify in support of the bill, and have lunch with the assembly member. The entry form can be found online, in both the District and Capitol Office and is also available upon request. Submissions will be accepted by e-mail, mail, walk-in, or fax to Swanson’s District Office and must be postmarked by Friday, Jan. 14. The limit is one entry per person. Send entries to: “There Ought to be a Law” Contest, Office of Assemblymember Sandré R. Swanson, 1515 Clay St, Ste. 2204, Oakland. 94612.  Send faxes to (510) 286-1888 or email Assemblymember.swanson@assembly.ca.gov. For information call Tel: (510) 286-1670.

Californian Will Be Michelle Obama’s Communications Chief

Kristina Schake, a co-founder and board member of the group that filed the successful federal challenge to California’s ban on gay marriage, will be first lady Michelle Obama’s new communications director, the White House announced Monday. Schake, 40, a strategist for California first lady Maria Shriver, fills a spot that has been vacant since the end of August, when Mrs. Obama’s first communications chief, Camille Johnston, left for a corporate position. Schake is a co-founder of Griffin Schake, a Los Angeles public affairs and strategic communications firm. Schake has worked in California on obesity issues, Mrs. Obama’s signature policy initiative. “Kristina has done extensive work throughout her career on child nutrition and community health issues, and that paired with her experience as part of a military family will bring invaluable insight to our work on childhood obesity and our efforts to support military families,” Mrs. Obama said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Kristina on these efforts and more in the months and years ahead.” … Continue Reading

Tuskegee Airman, 87, Earns Pilot Wings

By Conway Jones Lt. Colonel James Warren, USAF (Retired), is one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, the Black aviators who were trained as flight officers in the Army Air Corps in World War II. At age 87, he has just earned his private pilot’s certificate. Colonel Warren has always been one of the firsts. He was awarded his navigator wings at Hondo Army Air Field, Texas in 1944. He was a part of the 162 Army Air Corp Negro officers who were arrested for demanding lawful entry into the white officer’s club at Freeman Field, Indiana. He was also on the first C-141 sent to Gia Lam Viet Nam on Feb. 12, 1973, to bring home prisoners of war.  Colonel Warren escorted Colonel Fred Cheery, USAF, a Black fighter pilot who had been held prisoner in Viet Nam for 7 years, five months. Warren is also the author of  “Tuskegee Airmen Mutiny at Freeman Field,” which details the battle to end segregation and discrimination in the 477th Bombardment Group at Freeman Field, Indiana. Nine years before Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks refused to obey the busing laws in Montgomery, Alabama, the 477th BG was the first group to challenge a major department of the U.S. government on civil rights. … Continue Reading

The Chinese and all that Jazz 中國的節奏 zhōng guó de jié zòu

By Gregory Taylor The nightclubs in China rivaled any I had seen in the States only on a larger scale–I mean gymnasium size. The music was contemporary and rhythmic summoning the crowds to the dance floor. I heard R&B tunes from the O’Jays to Michael Jackson.  In more quaint settings, I heard a young man accompanying himself on the keyboard while singing the tunes of Nat King Cole.  The Mainland Chinese have discovered Black America, or should I say its musical art form.  Dare I say their interest seems to be more pervasive and intense than that of the American Born Chinese (ABCs).   It appears that Chinese love the rhythms of R&B and the free-flowing expression of Jazz.  Indeed, the latter might explain the Mainlander’s embracing of Jazz for its unfettered self-expression. While I was studying Chinese I had a classmate named Victor Siu.  Victor was both a Music and Chinese major.  One day I heard him play the piano.  What he played astounded me.  Here was a Chinese person playing Jazz piano.  I was so surprised at what I was hearing that it encouraged me to start playing the piano again.  There was a bit of irony here, in between Chinese classes Victor would show me some jazz licks and I would show him what Chinese characters were what. I recently interviewed Victor, who is now the music teacher at Lincoln Elementary School.  He teaches primarily Chinese music and its varying instruments from the erhu to the moon guitar.  His first love, however, is still Jazz.  When I asked Victor what attracted him to Jazz music he stated it was when he first heard Dee Spencer, a music teacher at SFSU, play the piano.  Victor stated, “I couldn’t believe it was the same instrument that I played; I couldn’t believe it was the same instrument, but with completely different sounds.”  Prior to that Victor had been trained to play classically.  His mother is a well-known music teacher in the Chinese community and his father and grand-father were also musicians.  So, it seems it was inevitable that he would be involved with music. Victor stated that he took jazz theory classes and a lot of African American Studies courses.  He jokingly stated, “I like February, because of Black history month and Chinese New Year.”  His favorite piano player of all-time was Nat King Cole, everybody that performed on the Motown label, and he loves anything by Sam Cooke.  One day Victor will figure out a way to meld Chinese instruments with Jazz music . Send comments to: gregoryktaylor@yahoo.com

The Haves, the Have Nots and the Have Yachts

“And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.” Luke 12:18 As we continue to see soaring unemployment among the rank and file of America’s working class, it is quite clear that corporate America is content with increasing profit margins at the expense of not hiring people who need to work. In spite of the government’s efforts to create capital pipelines to help stimulate job growth, like a recent $600 billion dollar bond auction to help boost employment, October’s jobless rate remained at 9.6 percent. The wealth chasm has become gigantic and almost uncrossable. Data released Nov. 18 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that while layoffs and firings have slowed, hiring hasn’t picked up. Job gains from new or expanding businesses were 6.1 million in the first quarter, the lowest quarterly increase since the recession ended. … Continue Reading

Post, El Mundo, Growing

By Barbara Fluhrer and Maxine Ussery When the Post News Group celebrates its sixth anniversary on December 6 and 7,it will be especially memorable for Publisher Paul Cobb. “Ironically, just one week after the purchase we were hit with a pearl harbor-type Bombshell when Kamala Harris filed criminal charges with a possible fine of $18  million dollars against us for some illegal dumping that occurred under the previous owner, Velda , nearly 2 years before our purchase,” said Cobb as he reflected on the investors that requested their money back. “We lost more than $350,000 in investment capital and incurred more than $250,000 in legal fees. The national publicity caused many advertising agencies to write us off. Some even predicted that we wouldn’t last 3 months.” Cobb prevailed over Harris in court and after three years she finally dropped the charges. Cobb then sued Berkley and their law firm for fraud and negligence and misrepresentation. The jury, with no Blacks, agreed with Cobb and awarded him substantial damages from Berkley and her law firm. … Continue Reading

Church Leaders Urge End to Cuba Travel Restrictions

Religious leaders in the United States and Cuba are hopeful that U.S.-imposed restrictions on religious travel and financial transfers soon will be eased by the Obama administration. In a Nov. 15-16 visit, a delegation of Cuban Protestant church leaders from the Cuban Council of Churches pressed their concerns about the inhibiting effects of the travel restrictions and financial transfers in meetings with officials of the U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council. They also spoke at a briefing for members of Congress and their staff aides, hosted by Representatives Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Jim McGovern (D-MA). One objective of their meetings was to convince the Obama administration to remove severe U.S. restrictions on religious and other `people-to-people` travel, to Cuba. The tightened restrictions, in place since 2005, are an outgrowth of the Bush administration’s new interpretation and application of the U.S. Code governing travel. … Continue Reading

Protesting Neighbors Halt Home Auction

By Talia Ehrlich Dashow Lynette Neidhardt, an Oakland homeowner for the past 23 years, had filled out forms and done everything the bank had told her to do in an attempt to avert foreclosure. Despite her efforts, she was told that her house, where she is still living, would be auctioned off  on the steps of Alameda County Courthouse. Joining with her friends and neighbors Nov. 12, just a few hours before the property was to be sold, she staged a protest at US Bank offices in Oakland, chanting “Stop the auction, stop the sale today!” She and her friends showed up in person ask for more time, to make sure that the bank could not avoid listening.  Providing support were members of the Oakland chapter of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), which is working to resist foreclosures. There was no manager at the bank and no mortgage office. So far, no one at US Bank had sat down with her to discuss renegotiating her mortgage, she said, although she says that federal law requires someone at the bank to meet with her face to face. … Continue Reading

Black Historian Margaret Burroughs, 93

Margaret Burroughs, founder of Chicago’s famed DuSable Museum of African American History, died in her sleep this weekend at the age of 93. Burroughs, who earned a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1948, was a political activist, artist, community activist, poet and author of children’s books who helped shape the lives of Chicago residents for decades in large ways and small. Burroughs gained her greatest notoriety in 1961 when she, with her second husband Charles, founded the DuSable Museum of African American History, which gained fame for exhibits dedicated to the civil rights movement. After serving as museum director until 1985, Burroughs was appointed Commissioner of the Chicago Park District in 1985. Burroughs spent her life exposing Black people to Black and African culture. Her work has inspired younger generations to follow in her steps.

James Fowler Pleads Guilty to Killing Jimmie Lee Jackson 45 Years Later

Forty-five years after he was killed by an Alabama State Trooper Jimmie Lee Jackson, whose death lead to the first civil rights march on Selma, he is finally getting a small measure of justice. James Bonard Fowler, 77, a former state trooper, pled guilty to shooting Jackson and will serve six months in prison. He also apologized for his actions but still claimed the shooting was in self-defense: “I was coming over here to save lives,” said Fowler. “I didn’t mean to take lives. I wish I could redo it.” It is the conclusion of a court case that has lingered since the 1960s, but the conclusion still seems to not value Jackson’s life. Albert Turner Jr., Perry County commissioner, called the verdict “a slap in the face of the people of this county.” “I understand District Attorney Michael Jackson’s reasoning as to why he accepted Fowler’s plea of misdemeanor manslaughter,” Turner said. … Continue Reading

Little Rock Central High School Desegregation Silver Dollar Program

On the fiftieth anniversary of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, AR, the United States Mint introduced commemorative coin in 2007. These 500,000 silver dollars recognize and pay tribute to the strength, the determination and the courage displayed by African-American high school students in the fall of 1957. In the landmark 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the United States Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools  to be unconstitutional. The events in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, was an important step in the country’s quest for racial equality in public education. So important was the successful integration of this school to the American Civil Rights movement that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. personally attended the 1958 commencement for the school’s first African American graduate. The obverse of this coin features a simple, yet powerful design depicting students, accompanied by an armed United States soldier, walking to school. The design includes nine stars, each symbolic of those who faced  violence and hatred of a segregated society unwilling to live by the words of its most important declaration, that “all men are created equal.” … Continue Reading

NAACP Returns to Roots of Activism Daisy Bates Education Summit

The NAACP will be hosting its annual Daisy Bates Education Summit Dec. 2-4 at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in Raleigh, NC. The summit will convene grassroots organizers from across the country to train them on how to move the NAACP’s education agenda forward with a combination of traditional and innovative education organizing techniques conducted in concert with local allies. The late Daisy Bates was president of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP and the advisor to the Little Rock Nine.  NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous will deliver the keynote address and call for leaders to emulate the work of Daisy Bates. The Daisy Bates plan was implemented in 1957, called for the NAACP to register nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High. They were selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance. The “Little Rock Nine” consisted of Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed and Melba Beals. “Despite mob threats and intimidation and cross burnings on her property, Daisy Bates persisted because of her strong beliefs of a quality education system for America’s children,” said Jealous. “This nation needs comprehensive education reform from pre-kindergarten to college, and now is not the time to sit on the sidelines,” he said. “The only way that we can pull this country out of the great recession is to educate the next generation to compete in a global economy, and that starts with access to a quality, equitable and fair education system. “Throughout this summit the NAACP will address the current problems within our education system, the attempt to re-segregate schools across the country and roll back the clock on the children of this nation.” The NAACP has over 2200 branches, and units and each has an education committee.

Food Safety Tips for Holiday Feasts

As the holiday season ramps up, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is reminding Californians about the importance of safe food handling to prevent foodborne illness. “Thorough cooking, adequate refrigeration, good hand washing and work area hygiene are the key practices to prevent foodborne illness,” said CDPH Director Dr. Mark Horton. “Properly prepared and handled foods ensure not only a safe holiday meal, but a safe meal every day.” The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths annually in the United States are related to foodborne diseases. … Continue Reading

World AIDS Day Will Keep Light on Human Rights

By Jesse Brooks On World AIDS Day, which is observed Dec.1 of each year, it is common to hold memorials to honor people who have died from HIV/AIDS. Informative and educational events are being held on every continent. The theme for 2010 is Lights for Rights, a campaign that focuses on human rights and HIV by encouraging people around the world to dim their lights in remembrance of the devastating effects AIDS has on the world. Turning the lights back on expresses the will to help keep the spotlight on human rights and HIV. … Continue Reading

Comcast Children’s Holiday Parade in Oakland

More than 100,00 spectators on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 2 p.m., will celebrate the 11th Annual Comcast America’s Children’s Holiday Parade along Broadway and 20th Street in downtown Oakland. Joining the parade this year for the first time as Honorary Grand Marshal is Mr. Steve from Mornings on PBS KIDS. Parent’s Choice Gold Award-winning music sensation Steve Songs joined PBS KIDS as Mr. Steve in 2008. With his winsome smile, melodic voice and guitar, Mr. Steve delights preschoolers every day. Miss Rosa, also of Mornings on PBS KIDS, will be returning to the parade as Honorary Grand Marshal with Mr. Steve. Miss Rosa is a lovable, bubbly, preschool teacher of Costa Rican and Puerto Rican descent. She is bilingual and switches back and forth between English and Spanish. There will be a full lineup of PBS KIDS favorite stars including: “Cat in the Hat,” “Buddy the Dinosaur,” the cast of “Super Why,” “Sid the Science Kid” and “Hooper.”

County Accepts Nominations for Annual Women’s Hall Of Fame

Alameda County is now accepting applications for the 18th Annual Women’s Hall of Fame, which will honor outstanding local women in 12 different categories. Organizers of the Hall of Fame have decided to expand the program in 2011 by adding the 12th category, Philanthropy.  Women in this category will be honored for “efforts to increase the well-being of humankind by promoting and championing charitable aid.’’ Other categories are: Business and Professions; Community Service; Culture and Art; Education; Environment; Health; Justice; Non-Traditional Careers; Science; Sports and Athletics and Youth. The inductees for 2011 will be honored at a luncheon and awards ceremony Saturday, March 19, at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Lincoln Avenue in Oakland.  The event will be hosted by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women. The deadline to submit nominations is Dec. 3.   To submit an online nomination or to obtain more information, go to http://www.acgov.org/cao/halloffame/, or call (510) 272-3884 or (510) 259-3871. “Last year, we had our largest-ever event with nearly 500 people in attendance,’’ said Susan S. Muranishi, Alameda County Administrator and co-chair of the Women’s Hall of Fame Planning Committee. “We hope the event is even bigger in 2011 – with more people in attendance to honor some very special women and more donations available to give to some very deserving charities in Alameda County,’’ she said. The program raises money for local charities addressing issues affecting women and children. In 2011, the Women’s Hall of Fame will also sponsor a Youth Scholarship to help an 11th or 12th grade female student further her education. “We are very excited about the 2011 Women’s Hall of Fame because, as this program grows, we are bringing new levels of recognition to outstanding local women who make vital contributions to our communities,’’ said Shirley M. Bordelon, chair of the commission. The 2011 Women’s Hall of Fame inductees will be announced in January. Tickets to the March 19 luncheon and awards ceremony are $75.

Jobs and Youth Mentoring Are Priorities for Mayor Jean Quan

By Ken A. Epstein While most of our neighbors are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, Oakland’s  Mayor elect Jean Quan is working furiously to prepare to step into her new role as chief executive of the city. On top of her busy schedule of meetings and meeting with community leaders are the large numbers of requests for media interviews, some coming from reporters as far away as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai who are fascinated by Quan’s status as a pioneering Chinese American  mayor of a major U.S. city. To come to grips with Oakland’s still catastrophic unemployment rate, Quan says she believes that the city’s upcoming development projects, including the Oak to 9th Street, the airport connector and the Oakland Army Base projects, can provide many Oakland residents with jobs for six to 10 years, if local hiring rules are strictly enforced and companies are not allowed to avoid, sidetrack or dead-end the new workers “I want to make sure it is tracked, and (the newly hired workers) get all the way through the program to get their union cards, guaranteeing compliance of the city and unions,”said Quan in an interview with the Post. “They have to be able get through the apprenticeship get their union cards. … Continue Reading

Sobrante Park Resident Ken Houston Gives Back

Local Sobrante Park resident and neighborhood advocate Ken Houston organized a charitable turkey giveaway this week in the Woodland and Sobrante Park neighborhoods of East Oakland. Houston, a second generation Sobrante Park resident, felt compelled to give back during this holiday season, “I see despair and poverty every time I walk out my door,” he said.“Being in the position to help neighborhood families like this is something I couldn’t ignore.” Connected to the Turner Construction Group, he recently completed renovating a portion of Sobrante Park Elementary School and felt the best way to use those profits would be to immediately reinvest them in the community. “Sobrante Park has been stricken with murders for years, and just last week a close friend who I grew up and went to school with fell victim to this violence,” he said.  “I love my community and my neighbors and wanted to give them a little something extra to be thankful for, and hopefully brighten their holiday.” A long time neighborhood advocate, Houston has leveraged his personal relationships to pull together a vibrant coalition of holiday sponsors, including District 7 City Councilmember Larry Reid, and Broadway Mechanical Contractors. Inc., which will provide transportation for the project., helping distribute  500 free turkeys at churches and schools in neighborhoods during the week leading up to Thanksgiving.

Emeryville Ravens Heading to Florida Youth Super Bowl Championship

The Emeryville Ravens of the American Youth Football Nor Cal league won their division as Bay Area champions and are planning to go Orlando Florida to participate in the Jr. American Youth Football Super Bowl Championship Game. The team has dedicated its current season to a young athlete who lost his life in the streets. Young people from group homes, foster children and kids from single parent homes compete on the Ravens team. There are actually two teams.  The Cadets are children ages 7 through 10.  Older competitors, aged 13 through 15, play for the Midgets. The players come from Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley and Emeryville Minister Mustafa Muhyee, pastor of the newly founded BASIC Ministry Church of East Oakland, serves as the team’s general manager. He is also one of the head coaches. “This football team offers so much more than athletic competition,” he said.  “Young people learn discipline, anger management, goal setting and life skills from caring adults.  We have all the components here that serve to redirect a person’s life away from the pitfalls of the streets to the promise of purposeful life and higher education.”   … Continue Reading

UC Berkeley Gets $16.5 Million for Children’s Health Studies

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health are getting $16.5 million to support three research centers as part of a federal initiative to examine the environmental factors influencing children’s health. The grants to UC Berkeley are among $54 million recently awarded to 12 university-based centers across the country by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). UC Berkeley is the only institution to have received awards for multiple centers. The new grants are part of a program that began in 1998 with eight centers funded by the NIEHS and the EPA. The newest funding incorporates the latest biomonitoring tools and advances in epigenetics, or the study of inheritable genetic changes linked to exposure to chemical and environmental agents. “This research will address the environmental health risks of some of the state’s most vulnerable populations, and the knowledge gained will lead to new polices and practices that will help mitigate these risks,” said Stephen Shortell, dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Of the 12 new centers, six will each receive an average of $7.5 million over five years. An additional six, charged with studying less-established environmental determinants of children’s health, will each receive an average of $1.5 million over three years. … Continue Reading

Delta Sigma Theta’s Scholarship Breakfast

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. San Francisco Alumnae Delta Community Foundation held its first Annual Prayer Breakfast fundraiser in Oakland,  “A Day To Be Thankful,” to raise money for student scholarships The event was held last Saturday at Allen Baptist Temple Church, Family Life Center Auditorium. The scholarships will support students who are residents of San Francisco and Marin Counties, high school seniors accepted for admission to a four-year college or university. Applicants must be able to demonstrate community volunteerism within their school or community and have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.5.  In addition, the Chapter awards scholarships to an African-American student accepted in the San Francisco Merola Opera Program. Scholarship awards total about $12,000. The special guest speaker at last Saturday’s fundraiser was Reverend Gwendolyn E. Boyd, an ordained itinerant elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She serves as the Executive Minister for Church Operations at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Fort Washington, Maryland. … Continue Reading

Ethel Melba Mouton, 99

Ethel Melba Mouton, the matriarch of the Mouton family, died Saturday Nov. 20. She was 99. Born Feb. 15, 1911, she raised six children in Oakland, two of whom preceded her in death. She will be laid to rest Friday, Dec. 3. The funeral service and mass begins at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church 1023 Peralta St. in Oakland. The burial service will follow. A reception will also be held at St. Patrick’s.

Howard Ransom, 83, Golfing Pioneer, Entrepreneur

Howard Ransom, Sr., 83, died Monday in his sleep of natural causes. He had lived in Oakland for 50 years before moving to his family farms in Oklahoma. He and his daughter Sheila Medina, who lives in Los Angeles, were visiting the Bay Area for their relatives’ Thanksgiving celebrations. Ransom became the first African American to manage a major metropolitan golf course when he took over the Galbraith Golf Course near the Oakland Airport. He also was the U.S. Army Golf Champion while serving during the Korean War. He had operated many businesses and franchises in Oakland including Creamcrest Dairy, a Jack in the Box restaurant and a shoe store. In 1966, he and Johnnie Lacy, Dr. Norvel Smith, Paul Cobb, Beatrice Slider, Booker Emery, Lillian Love and Ralph Williams started the West Oakland Economic Development Corporation, which was the forerunner of the Oakland Model Cities Program. As a member of OCHI and OCCUR he helped establish and acquire numerous properties for seniors, low-income and homeless populations. Ransom was born Feb. 27, 1927 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. His mother Isadore Cobb, his brother Stanley Delance Cobb and his late wife, LaRita Cooper Ransom all predeceased him in Oakland. His son Howard Ransom, Jr., died in 2009 in Los Angeles. He is survived by is daughter Sheila Medina, granddaughter LaRita Medina and his son Phillip Ransom in Okalahoma City. A memorial service will be held at Evergreen Baptist Church in December.

Jay-Z Says When He Was 12 He Shot His Brother

By Mac Montandon In an interview with The Guardian newspaper the rap star and entrepreneur said that when he was 12 years old he shot his brother, Eric. The brothers were living in the notoriously rough Marcy housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn at the time. Eric was addicted to crack, Jay-Z says, and had stolen one of Jay’s rings to help finance his addiction. So the future multi-millionaire shot him. “Jay-Z Reveals Secrets to New Book “Decoded” Ultimately Eric never pressed charges and later apologized for the theft when Jay-Z visited him in the hospital. “I thought my life was over,” Jay-Z said. “I thought I’d go to jail forever.” He didn’t, of course, and instead went on to amass a fortune pegged at $450 million from his musical career as a performer and label founder, as well as savvy investments in everything from fashion to the Broadway hit, “Fela!” In a manner, the mic master has already discussed the chilling event — in his 1997 song “You Must Love Me” Jay-Z raps: “Saw the devil in your eyes, high off more than weed, confused, I just closed my young eyes and squeezed. What a sound,  opened my eyes just in time to see ya stumbling to the groun.”