UW-PARKSIDE HONORS DR. KING, COMMUNITY & SCHOOL AWARD WINNERS

KENOSHA, Wis.—The University of Wisconsin-Parkside honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during its 11^th annual campus celebration Friday, Jan. 22. Using the theme “His Real Message,” the university recognized the community service of two area residents and a campus organization and awarded medals to area students for their spoken and written words as well as their artwork.

Held in UW-Parkside’s Communication Arts Theatre, the honorees presented their award-winning essays, videos, and spoken word pieces to an appreciative audience. The program also featured a vocal performance by Ricardo Wynn with piano accompaniment Ryan Thompson.

UW-Parkside’s Community Service Award was given to Bettie Poole and Ola Baiyewu for their ongoing contributions to people in southeastern Wisconsin. The UW-Parkside Community Service honor was given the campus’ Pre-Health Club.

A group of Racine Park High School students swept the essay contest awards with Danae Vinson and Ashley Strausser, respectively, taking first place and runner up in the 11^th and 12^th Grade contest while Alysia Crumpton took first place and Xiucsy Yadira Villarreal runner up in the 9^th and 10^th Grade competition. UW-Parkside students Brittney Jasper and Mark Fleming received plaques in the college spoken word and essay award categories, respectively.

Earlier in the program, UW-Parkside honored middle school students Juana Moreno, 8^th grade, Kenosha Washington; Will Campbell, 7^th grade, Young Leaders Academy; and Zachary Atkins, 6^th grade, Real School for their essay submissions. Essay winners in grades 3 to 5 were Emma Evans, 5^th grade, Curtis Strange Elementary; Rikajah Greer, 4^th grade, Young Leaders Academy; and Gavin White, 3^rd grade, Roosevelt Elementary.

Six second grade students from Janes Elementary School won a spoken word award for their video performance of “Let Us Keep His Dream Alive.” The students were Ahtziri Peralta, Keonia Watson, Ziyah Hanks, Aaliyah J. F. Moss, Ebonie Stinson, and Austin Lelo.

In the K-Second Grade Art category, kindergarten student Daivon Stevenson of EBSOLA earned the overall art prize. Jordyn Jackson, a student at Julian Thomas Elementary School, received the art prize for first-graders.

The audience was welcomed by UW-Parkside representatives Professor Dennis Rome, Office of Multicultural Students Affairs Director Damian Evans, and university Vice Chancellor Dr. Lenny Klaver. UW-Parkside students Sasha Brown and Ashlee Willis hosted the program.

Great Lakes Dermatology offered free clinic for Racine residents

Jaden Stewart, 8, is examined by Great Lakes Dermatology staffer Jerrilyn Johnson, PA-C and Steven L. Armus, MD, at a free clinic held at General Converters and Assembly, Saturday January 23, 2010. The exam would have cost the 50 people who attended it up to $125 at Great Lakes offices.

Candidate for 4th District Alderman wants a better future for a new generation

By Dominica Jaramillo

Every storm starts with just a drop of rain. A fire begins from a single flame. For 4th District Alderman candidate, Sherri Lawson, her vision for change starts with a single step forward. With a desire to see her community take a turn for the better, her aspirations are to create a better place for generations to come.

Running against current 4th District Alderman Jim Kaplan, Lawson’s confidence in her ability to contended sprouts from her grassroots approach to the community she hopes to serve.

A substitute teacher for the Racine Unified school system, Lawson says she knows many families, and their children, within her target district. She has also begun to branch further out into the community, going door-to-door, meeting people and questioning their concerns for their district, concerns she soon hopes to address.

A Racine native, and a resident of the 4th District, Lawson has ideas for what she’d like to see change in her neighborhood. Major issues she would like to address include the integration of desirable economic development within the area and bring an end to the proliferation of crime. She has a desire to create a new park, complete with a playground, picnic tables, and more ‘green space’, next to Julian Thomas Elementary School, where the old Homeward Bound homeless shelter used to be. Lawson also hopes to permanently remove any liquor stores within 100 feet of the school and park, as well.

A mother of two and a grandmother of two, Lawson’s concern for the community runs deep. In a place where she knows her grandchildren are going to experiences bits and pieces of life, she wants to confirm a safe environment, full of opportunities and hope. Moreover, this is her vision for all the 4th district’s children: a better community and a better tomorrow brought about by the single act of stepping out for change.

Portion from Southeastern Wisconsin Baptist Pastor's Fellowship in Dr. King's Celebration

A Day of Action: Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration In Racine

Here's a few photos from MLK Day in Racine (more to come later this afternoon). The event drew 200 kids and 30 chaperones for a day of volunteering and workshops. The community celebration was created after Racine Unified decided to give students the day off to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was designed as an alternative to a just a "day off" of school for students.

read more…

VIDEO: St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church 19th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast

Bishop Elliott Cohen will receive the 2010 Gateway Technical College Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award

Bishop Elliott Cohen, pastor of Abundant Life Christian Center, and an executive director of Project New Life, may have failed recently in convincing members of the City's Community Block Grant Committee of his success in improving the lives and contributions to the well-being of people, but his works have caught the eyes of Gateway's Annual Humanitarian Award selection committee.

Cohen and Jim Drescher of Lake Geneva are the recipients of the 2010 Gateway Technical College Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.

Both Cohen and Drescher will be honored at the 16th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at noon Monday in the Madrigano Auditorium on Gateway Technical College's Kenosha Campus, 3520 30th Ave. Recipients of the award demonstrate commitment to the protection and advancement of human rights and social justice and have improved lives and contributed to the well-being of people.

Cohen is the pastor and founder of Abundant Life Christian Center and executive director of Project New Life, CDC, in Racine. Drescher is the owner of the Drescher Charitable Family Foundation of Lake Geneva.

Cohen was also selected this year as the Insider News Man of the Year. The Man of the Year honor is made annual by the newspaper to someone who has made a visible and active improvement in Racine's minority community.

The celebration's keynote speaker will be Jeremy D. Ponds, the youngest member on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference national board of directors and the SCLC collegiate organizer.

Doors to the event open at 11:15 a.m. and a short reception will follow. The program is free and open to the public.

Audio and video of the event will be streamed at Gateway Technical College's Web site http://www.gtc.edu. The program will be carried on WGTD radio 91.1 FM in Racine and Kenosha, 101.7 in Elkhorn, and 103.3 in Lake Geneva

Beloved Soul Star Teddy Pendergrass Dead at 59

PHILADELHIA, PA - The world of R&B has lost yet another musical icon. Singer/performer Teddy Pendergrass died Wednesday night in the aftermath of colon cancer surgery. The Grammy-nominated singer was pronounced dead at 9:50 p.m. at Bryn Mawr Hospital near his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

…read more

Foundation of Life Director explains her program to the public

The Foundation of Life is nonprofit project headed by Tessa Brown, and it is designed to provide intensive family-centered services to the entire family, the teen mothers (ages 13-19) being the nucleus of the program. Our program promotes positive parent and child interaction by supporting, strengthening and reinforcing teen parents with child development and child management information.

In an effort to reduce family isolation with the teen father, case management and group meetings are conducted with the teen mother, baby, her parent (or support person) and the father of the baby. Group meetings and case management reflect independent living, employment, education, child development and family dynamic skills.

Brown’s Foundation of Life program was one of three that was first funded by the City of Racine. Under pressure from the mayor according to inside sources were made to change their earlier approval to cut the three. (Read more: City committee reverses itself, votes to give money to Racine homeless shelter, literacy council)

We wanted our readers to know about the group that was cut. Watch for our three part series on these groups.

Lumpkin upset over funds pulled by Mayor

by Kenneth Lumpkin

I openly apologize to the members of Racine's inner-city for the loss of funds that would have improved the Flat Iron Mall for public use and other programs that would have helped unwed teen mothers and recovering drug addicts.

The removal of the $50,000 that had been set aside for the Flat Iron Mall on Douglas Avenue, $20,000 for the Foundation of Life nonprofit organization and $15,000 for Project New Life Nehemiah program was direct retaliation for my criticism of our new Mayor John Dickert. In the Insider News, as well as publicly, I have strongly suggested that the mayor and his selective cronies are anti-growth and improvement of the inner-city.

The first example is his capping of the multi-million dollar Corrine Owens Project that would have led to jobs and drastic improvement to the State Street corridor near the transportation center. Then in an effort to make community folks happy, he formed a committee to name something after Corrine Owens, anything, and as quick as possible. Now the Mayor wants $5,000 more for a plaque to mark the Underground Railroad in Racine. How many jobs will these appeasements generate for African Americans that are number two on the list as the highest unemployed in the state.

The next example of his anti-growth and improvement of the central city is his vote to remove $50,000 from the nonprofit Flat Iron Mall which serves as an incubator for primarily African-American and Hispanic businesses. In addition, the mall is frequently used by Hispanics and African-Americans to host weddings, anniversaries, and baptism events. It is estimated that the mall is visited by over 100,000 people annually. It is the central point of development needed in this city plan to revitalize Douglas Avenue as a gateway to downtown Racine.

What also is surprising is the lack of support by Ald. Jim Kaplan who is alderman for the district where the Flat Iron Mall is located. Each of the three projects that the CDBG Committee originally funds were snatched from being funded and they are programs and projects that I have close ties to and have openly suppored. What upsets me the most is the Mayor's willingness to punish a large segment of the minority community in order to put me on notice that I am to keep my mouth shut about his lack of support for the needs of the minority community.

I wonder if Dickert's cuts are a part of his invisible ten-year plan.

RIC Meets with Congressman Paul Ryan on Immigration

Lumpkin pulls out of Racine race for Alderman

Kenneth Lumpkin, who recently retired as publisher of the Insider News and had planned to be a candidate for 4th District Alderman and Racine's 4th District County Board Supervisor, says he will purposely miss today's five o'clock deadline at city hall to turn in his economic interests paperwork in order to avoid a costly primary election for the residents of Racine.

If Lumpkin was not willing to pull out of the three way competition in the fourth District Alderman race, the city would hold a February 16 runoff election between the incumbent Jim Kaplan, Lumpkin, and a newcomer, Sherrie Lawson.

If he does not turn in his economic interests statements, he cannot be certified and his name will not appear on the city ballot for Alderman, according to Janice Martin, Racine City Clerk.

Lumpkin did on Thursday file his paperwork with the County and will challenge Kaplan for his Racine County Supervisor position. He said that the needs in the city and county are too vast for one individual to tackle. "I feel that I can best serve the constituents of the fourth District by being on the County Board where I have gathered my most experience." Lumpkin served eight years as a Racine County Board Supervisor until he was defeated in 2008 by only a few votes.

Insider News Man of the Year: Pastor Cohen: Dedicated to a lifetime of helping others achieve

There are so many titles one may walk away with as we leave 2009. Magazines, TV shows, even newspapers account for the top 1, 10 or even 100 people grouped into categories according to frivolous interests: Hottest women of 2009 or weirdest celebrities of the year. But, the Insider News awards an esteemed title yearly. This title does not magnify the meaningless or intensify the foolish; instead, it brings light to the meaningful, the impactful and the valuable. Bestowing the title of the Insider News’ 2009 Man of the Year is not an act to be taken lightly. It involves great consideration; and, in light of consideration taken, without doubt, this year’s title goes to Pastor Elliott K. Cohen, of Abundant Life Christian Center.

Through his influential leadership skills and his heart for the true Gospel, Pastor Cohen has succeeded in touching many lives in 2009. Shepherding a continuously growing church of over 400 members, he knows what positive change can mean for an individual, and, in cooperation with his church and affiliations, he works to bring about that much needed change. Read more…

Three African-Americans Vie for County and City Positions

Sherrie Lawson, Dwight Mosby, and Ken Lumpkin

Three African-Americans are expected to be candidates in the upcoming Spring Election to be held in April.

The trio of candidates are anticipated to turn in their necessary paperwork to have their names placed on the ballot before 5:00 pm tonight.

Kenneth Lumpkin, Dwight Mosby, and Sherrie Lawson, will seek to unseat incumbents in the fourth and sixth Aldermanic District, as well as the 4^th Racine County Supervisor District.

Lumpkin, who lost two years ago to Jim Kaplan by a few votes, said that he will be meeting this weekend with his campaign committee to determine which direction his candidacy will go. “At this point I am not ruling anything out or anything in. I am viewing my options.”

If Lumpkin decides to stay in the 4^th District Alderman race, the three would have a primary run-off election between Lumpkin, Lawson, and Kaplan, sometime in February.

Dwight Mosby, a former member of the Racine County Board, is expected to challenge 6^th District Alderman Sandy Weidner.

Lawson is a newcomer to politics and is a teacher at Horlick High School. Mosby is a realestate broker who owns Mosby Realty. Lumpkin is a community activist, who recently retired as publisher of the Insider News.

Read more: Ghuari taking on Marcus in Racine City Council's second district