Radio: Are The Scott Sisters Really Free, Where Are The U.S. Jobs and Blog Talk Radio’s Future

Most people have heard that the Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys will soon be released from a Mississippi hellhole after Governor Haley Barbour suspended their double life sentences for a robbery that the sisters have always said they where not a part of. What does this mean for sisters and what will they have in common with millions of people labeled felons in incarceration nation also known as the United States of America?


Black Talk Radio spoke to Nancy Lockhart the long time advocate for the Scott Sisters today to get her reaction on the news of the sisters impending release.


The Republican’s are set to take over the House in January after winning a number of seats in the November Elections. It is said that the Democrats and President Obama did not do enough to create jobs in a slumping economy. “It’s the Economy Stupid” was a popular catch phrase coined during the Clinton administration to explain his re-election but are Americans stupid to think that the President and Congress has the power to create jobs? While private corporations have create over one million and a half jobs, just where are those jobs and what can the American people expect on the employment front in the years to come?



Blog Talk Radio has been a major player in online radio and once called a populous force in new media. As the New Year comes in, they are set to go to a mostly paid platform regulating free accounts to 30 minutes of airtime and other restrictions. Over two years ago, Scotty Reid discussed how social networking platform’s entire business models are built on user-generated content.


Now that content users with free accounts have made Blog Talk Radio what it is today, are they risking losing the very people they have relied on to generate traffic to the website enabling them to make advertising revenue off other’s people hard work in exchange for use of the technology? If the content producers pay up, will they be putting the free nature of social media at risk and will other companies follow suit?

Black Talk Radio News & Views, We bring the News, You bring the Views!

Radio: Black Talk Radio News & Views - Headlines for December 30, 2010

Sharing news and views from the world of online Black media and other outlets. All stories can be found posted to our Black Talk Radio Network Facebook Community Page which is accessible through our blog’s toolbar.

Tonight’s Headlines:

Kevin Wooten shot and killed in Jordan Downs Projects Dec.25,2010 by L.A.P.D South East Div.

Sun-Times Columnist Neil Steinberg Under Fire for "Racist" Column Mocking Carol Moseley Braun

Uganda: I Will Force Museveni to Hand Over Power, Says Besigye

Jamie & Gladys Scott Win Their Freedom

"The Mega Church Have Hijack Watch Night!"

Also sharing some of the best in Hip-Hop/R&B music from our favorite indie artists. Got something to say? Call in and share your views on tonight’s topics. We bring the news, you bring the views on Black Talk Radio News & Views!

Jamie & Gladys Scott Win Their Freedom

From the website of Governor Haley Barbour:

Dec. 29, 2010

GOV. BARBOUR'S STATEMENT REGARDING RELEASE OF SCOTT SISTERS

"Today, I have issued two orders indefinitely suspending the sentences of Jamie and Gladys Scott. In 1994, a Scott County jury convicted the sisters of armed robbery and imposed two life sentences for the crime. Their convictions and their sentences were affirmed by the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 1996.

"To date, the sisters have served 16 years of their sentences and are eligible for parole in 2014. Jamie Scott requires regular dialysis, and her sister has offered to donate one of her kidneys to her. The Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society. Their incarceration is no longer necessary for public safety or rehabilitation, and Jamie Scott's medical condition creates a substantial cost to the State of Mississippi.

"The Mississippi Parole Board reviewed the sisters' request for a pardon and recommended that I neither pardon them, nor commute their sentence. At my request, the Parole Board subsequently reviewed whether the sisters should be granted an indefinite suspension of sentence, which is tantamount to parole, and have concurred with my decision to suspend their sentences indefinitely.

"Gladys Scott's release is conditioned on her donating one of her kidneys to her sister, a procedure which should be scheduled with urgency. The release date for Jamie and Gladys Scott is a matter for the Department of Corrections.

"I would like to thank Representative George Flaggs, Senator John Horne, Senator Willie Simmons, and Representative Credell Calhoun for their leadership on this issue. These legislators, along with former Mayor Charles Evers, have been in regular contact with me and my staff while the sisters' petition has been under review."

Remembering Songstress Teena Marie

Soul Songtress Teena Marie passed away of natural causes at her home in Pasadena, California on December 26, 2010. She was 54 years old. There has never been and perhaps never will be another white artist who was truly soulful in her singing and song writing and perhaps this is because she long has had a bond with the Black community growing up in historically Black enclave of Oakwood, California before she went into the music industry. Teena Marie was born Mary Christine Brockert on March 5, 1956.




NPR Interview w/ Teena Marie

Many white artist and bands with white lead singers have had cross over hits among Black music fans like KC and the Sunshine band, the short lived band The Family which was a band produced and affiliated with Prince, the Gibb brothers and their band the Bee Gees had cross over success during the disco era and their younger brother Andy Gibb also had some limited success but no white artist has ever had as wide of a Black fan base as Teena Marie.

Black Talk Radio remembers Teena Marie with some her classic hits in chronological order.

I'm a Sucker For Your Love - Wild and Peaceful (1979)


Behind The Groove - Lady T (1980)


I Need Your Lovin - Irons in the Fire (1980)


Square Biz - It Must Be Magic (1981)


Fire and Desire (duet with Teena Marie) - Street Songs (1981)


Lovergirl - Starchild (1984)


Shangri-La - Emerald City (1986)


Ooo La La La - Naked to the World (1988)


How Can You Resist It - Ivory (1990)


Hypnotized - Passion Play (1994)


I'm Still in Love - La Doña (2004)


You Blow Me Away - Sapphire (2006)


Congo Square (featuring George Duke) - Congo Square (2009)

WikiLeaks: Dyncorp Throws Child Sex Party For Afghan Police

The Houston Press is reporting the military contractor Dyncorp has been implicated in yet another scandal involving child sex.

John Nova Lomax writes, "Another international conflict, another horrific taxpayer-funded sex scandal for DynCorp, the private security contractor tasked with training the Afghan police'.

And in Kunduz province, according to the leaked cable, that money was flowing to drug dealers and pimps. Pimps of children, to be more precise. (The exact type of drug was never specified.) Since this is Afghanistan, you probably already knew this wasn't a kegger. Instead, this DynCorp soiree was a bacha bazi ("boy-play") party, much like the ones uncovered earlier this year by Frontline.

For those that can't or won't click the link, bacha bazi is a pre-Islamic Afghan tradition that was banned by the Taliban. Bacha boys are eight- to 15-years-old. They put on make-up, tie bells to their feet and slip into scanty women's clothing, and then, to the whine of a harmonium and wailing vocals, they dance seductively to smoky roomfuls of leering older men.

After the show is over, their services are auctioned off to the highest bidder, who will sometimes purchase a boy outright. And by services, we mean anal sex: The State Department has called bacha bazi a "widespread, culturally accepted form of male rape." (While it may be culturally accepted, it violates both Sharia law and Afghan civil code.)" Read more..

Lets see if Congress moves as quickly to Defund Dyncorp as they did in Defunding ACORN. Call or email your Representative Now!

The Green Party: Several Reasons to Defend Wikileaks

The Green Party has taken a stand on the WikiLeaks controversy and while standing for truth should never be controversial, WikiHaters certainly have made their positions clear.The press release further states that "Green Party leaders called the attacks on Wikileaks by the US government a direct and deliberate assault on the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press.

They press release further states that "Green Party leaders called the attacks on Wikileaks by the US government a direct and deliberate assault on the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press.

"The war on Wikileaks may set a precedent for the treatment of journalists who expose government wrong-doing," said Carl Romanelli of the Pennsylvania Green Party. "While the US government has increasingly operated outside of US constitutional and international law, Wikileaks' actions would not be called a crime in a free and open society."

Scotty Reid speaks with Green Party spokesman Scott McLarty who further share why those wh ovalue truth, justice and transparency should support WikiLeaks and recognize it as a news media entity and as such deserves the protections that are afforded members of a free press.

Wikileaks: Obama's Mexican Drug War w/ Jack Cole

Jack Cole is a former New Jersey State Police Officer who worked as an undercover narcotics officer for 14 of his 26 year career. He approaches the War on Drugs from several perspectives and one of those is that it is steeped in racism. While the African American population in the United States is a minority, the majority of drug convictions are African Americans even though they constitute a minority of drug users in the United States.

After retiring from law enforcement, Jack Cole as one of the five founding members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, helped to grow it into an organization that has over 30,000 supporters calling for an end to the War on Drugs.



Today Jack will discuss revelations from recently released diplomatic cables disputing President Obama's assertion that Mexico is not turning into another Colombia which is contrary to what Hillary Clinton told a Washington Think Tank citing the loss of civilian lives and the loss of government control of huge land areas within the country to drug traffickers.

Media reports about some of the documents recently released by Wikileaks paint a grim picture of the loss of life and land due to the escalation of the Drug War in Mexico in the past four years at a cost of over 1.5 Billion dollars to the U.S. taxpayers.

WikiLeaks: Obama Lied About the US-Mexican Drug War

Sarah Palin may want to see Julian Assange assassinated, but if anything, he should awarded the Times Man of the Year Award. WikiLeaks latest releases exposes the dirty laundry of the US Government and while Hillary Clinton who was recently exposed as a criminal running the State Department as if it were a wing of the CIA, claims that WikiLeaks is an attack on America’s foreign policy interests. What WikiLeaks is doing in reality is attacking the credibility of the government of the United States.

Take the United States Drug war for an example. President Obama claimed in September of 2010 that the level of violence seen in Mexico attributed to that country’s U.S. backed war against drug cartels did not resemble the violence seen in Columbia during the Reagan Administration where scores of citizens and politicians were killed because of U.S. foreign policy interest. Obama was seeking to ease concerns over Hillary Clinton’s statement to a Washington think-tank that Mexico is "looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago, where the narco-traffickers control certain parts of the country,"

Obama told a Spanish language newspaper that "Mexico is vast and progressive democracy, with a growing economy, and as a result you cannot compare what is happening in Mexico with what happened in Colombia 20 years ago”. However, according to Mexican officials, their government was losing control of parts of its national territory and time was "running out" to rein in drug violence.

The United States Drug War Produces Dirty Cops, One Officer At A Time

In Maywood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, a police officer who worked on a drug task force stands accused of robbing suspects of money found on their persons when he searched them.In other news out of the Chicago area, a retired narcotics officer, 54-year-old Glenn Lewellen, has been nabbed in an FBI sting and stands accused of working with his former drug informant in assisting a drug gang that used kidnapping and torture to keep their drug profits flowing.

Black Farmer Settlement Approved By Senate, Now Goes To Lame Duck House

The U.S. Senate has finally approved a measure that will fund a $1.15 billion dollar settlement to pay Black Farmers who were discriminated against by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. CNN is reporting that The 1997 Pigford v. Glickman case against the U.S.D.A which was settled out of court 11 years ago under a federal judge's terms would pay qualified farmers up to $50,000 dollars each to settle claims of racial bias.

However, the measure now must go back to the House of Representatives and many hope it will be approved in a lame duck session so it can then be signed into law by President Obama. A number of seats were picked up in the House by self described Tea Party Republicans and it is feared that the measure will not receive the support it needs when the New Congress assume power in January.

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Why We Should End The Death Penalty In The USA

Scotty Reid spoke with Mark Clements of Campaign to End Death Penalty. Tonight is the CEDP's 10th Annual Convention and Mr. Clements among others will be speaking on a variety of issues concerning criminal justice and wrongful convictions. Mr. Clements was tortured by Chicago police when he was just a teenager forcing him to confess to crimes he did not commit for which he spent 28 years in prison before winning his release.

Sharing criminal justice stories from around the nation.

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Michael Richardson Seeks Justice For Mitrice Richardson

From the beginning Michael Richardson has been suspicious of the circumstances surronding the dissapearance of his daughter Mitrice Richardson who was arrested and released in the middle of the night by deputies at the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff's Station in 2009.

In August of 2010, Mitirce Richardson's remains were found in a remote area of Malibu Canyon not far from the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff's Station. It was reported that the coroners office explictly ordered deputies not to disturb the remains as they were sending a forensic evidence team to document the scene and the recover the remains. The deputies removed the remains and many say that their inappropiate actions that ran afoul of standard protocols and may have played a role in the coroner not being able to determine a cause of death.



Michael Richardson speaks to Black Talk Radio News & View's Scotty Reid about the developments in his daughter's case and his quest for justice on her behalf. Visit Bring Mitrice Justice!

Black Voter Post Election Analysis w/ Cleo Manago & Scotty Reid

Political/Social analyst and commentator spoke with Scotty Reid about the results of the recent elections in the United States. The political maturity of the Black voter was addressed as well as the difficulties President Obama faces in trying to energize a demoralized Black voting base.

As founder and CEO of the African, American Advocacy, Support-Services & Survival Institute (AmASSI), a national non-profit organization, Cleo Manago has provided leadership regarding African American health concerns nationally for two decades. Mr. Manago was one of the first innovators in the AIDS movement to reveal that psychosocial concerns were a major determinant to assure treatment adherence and preventative behavior modification. He founded the AmASSI National Centers for Wellness and Health in order to provide HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention services utilizing a psychosocial, mental health model that was culturally specific to African American identity. Visit http://www.amassigroup.com

Black Talk Radio News Brief, Music and Your Calls

Black Talk Radio News Brief covers some of the recent news articles of the day pertaining to a number of issues revolving around the criminal justice system and other social/political content.

Conservative Win Case To Deny Felony Voting

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a state can prohibit felons from voting even if the ban disproportionately harms minorities, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday in a Washington state case that supports a similar law in California. A six-judge majority noted that other appeals courts have concluded that federal civil rights laws do not apply to a state's disqualification of felons from voting.



The Pacific Legal Foundation, a non profit law firm based in Sacramento, California filed arguments in the case supporting the voting disenfranchisement of felons in the state of Washington. It is described as the oldest conservative law firm in the United States and it’s staff was originally composed mainly of individuals who had been a part of then-Governor Ronald Reagan’s welfare reform team.

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Mississippi Death Row - The Frederick Bell Story

In May 1991, 19-year-old Bell was charged for the robbery and murder of store clerk Bert Bell (no relation). He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 1993, largely because his trial attorneys failed to even investigate the case or conduct DNA testing beforehand.

Since 1993, Bell has sat caged in a prison cell on Mississippi's death row, denied access to the courts, despite newly discovered evidence that strongly suggests he is completely innocent in this case. Tonight we are joined by Frederick Bell's sister Tonja and Carol Leonard of Prison Reform Movement. They will share her Mr. Bell's story with you our listening audience.

Pennsylvania Arrests & Sentencing Disparities - Diop Olugbala Sentencing Hearing

The Pittsburg Tribune Review is reporting that Allegheny County councilman William Russell Robinson said on Wednesday that he wants to meet with the county's president judge to discuss whether racial inequity needs to be addressed in the court system, a day after a judge claimed whites get better deals from prosecutors.



Also out of the State of Pennsylvania, Diop Olugbala who is the President of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement was a guest on Black Talk Radio News & Views on Wednesday to discuss racial profiling and other issues of concern in the Black community in Philadelphia. Olugbala faces up to years in prison when he is sentenced on October 13th after a felony assault on a police officer conviction that stems from a protest he and others staged at Philadelphia city council meeting in 2009.

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Black Non Profits Sell Out, Again - Mental Health & Criminal Justice

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a number of non profit organizations that serve Latinos and African Americans are selling out to the big Telecommunication corporations which donate millions of dollars and in kind services to the organizations in question. At issue is Net Neutrality and whether or not the FCC can prevent the telecoms from censoring content on the Internet by making content providers pay large fees in order for customers using their ISP services to access the content of providers.



The State Bar of Wisconsin reports that the state of Wisconsin was selected to participate in the Criminal Justice Mental Health Leadership Initiative, a national project designed to address the issues that surround mental illness and the criminal justice system.

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Diop Olugbala President of International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement Faces Ten Years

Diop Olugbala is the President of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement and was convicted on August 24, 2010 of aggravated assault on a police officer. Olugbala along with others were holding a protest in the gallery of Philadelphia City Hall during a City Council meeting. The entire incident was caught on tape.



Today we will speak to Mr. Olugbala about a number of issues afecting the Black community and about his upcoming snetencing hearing and the campagin to Free Diop Campaign. Read more

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NYC Gives Up $300,000.00 & Health Care Exchanges For California

New York Daily News is reporting that two Queens men cleared by a security video of bogus drug charges are settling with the city of New York for $300,000. The two cops accused of setting them up, Detective Stephen Anderson and Officer Henry Tavarez have resigned and face a number of corruption charges related to setting up brothers Jose Colon and Maximo Colon who lost their grocery store business and incurred substantial debt directly resulting from the criminal drug case fabricated against them by the NYPD narcotics officers.



New America Media is reporting that California is the first state setting up a health insurance market. Individuals and small businesses can now buy affordable health coverage through an online exchange which is a component of the new health care reform act enacted by Congress earlier this year. The insurance exchange will allow consumers to compare and buy plans from five different categories ranging from so-called “Cadillac” plans to more modest policies.

Marijuana Reduced To Civil Infraction, Detroit Lost $200 Million, Rev Sharpton Says No To Homophobia

California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signed Senate Bill 1449 into State Law which reduces adult marijuana possession charges from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil infraction.



People are asking if Racism and incompetence by former Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick caused Detroit schoolchildren to lose out on a $200 million dollar gift to build a network of 15 high-performing charter high schools.



In an editorial piece written for Kathy Hughes News One website, the Reverend Al Sharpton said that the Black Church like the Catholic Church is in the midst of crisis concerning pedophilia and abuse of power referencing the recently emerged scandal involving Bishop Eddie Long, a staunch anti-gay activist.

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Stolen Land, Stolen Legacy - The Story of Harris Neck Georgia

Harris Neck is described as a stunningly beautiful 2,687 acres of meadows, woodlands, freshwater ponds and marsh. It has been a national wildlife refuge since 1961 and was once the home of proud hardworking former slaves.

These former slaves built a prosperous and self-reliant community comprised of about 75 African American families. In the summer of 1942 everything changed when the Federal Government condemned their property and took it out from under their feet.



The Gullah/Geechee people are the descendants of West African slaves who through hard work and determination became self reliant. They had their own seafood processing plants, schoolhouse, general store and firehouse and were living the American dream until America once again proved to be a nightmare that continues to this day.



Tonight we are joined by members of the Harris Neck Land Trust, Wilson Moran and David Kelly who are attempting to reclaim their stolen property and bring this nightmare to an end.