by Corey Williams

DETROIT (AP)—After only about a month as top boss of Detroit Public Schools, Roy Roberts, a 72-year-old former General Motors executive and private equity firm founder, is well aware that some people already want him gone.

The district’s new financial manager said he’s OK with that reality, adding that differing opinions have value. His only request: Stay out of the way as he tries to turn around one of the nation’s worst public school systems.

ROY ROBERTS

“I don’t care what people think about me, really ... because I know what parents are going to think,” Roberts told The Associated Press during an interview in his Detroit Midtown office. “They’re going to love it because I’m trying to do the right thing for their children, and you won’t find a parent that doesn’t want that. I’m simply going to look at a system and say ‘What is the best system we can put in place to educate these kids?’ I don’t care about the politics.”

by Dwight Ott

(NNPA)—The flashbacks to Vietnam for Lorenzo “Jamaica” Banks were coming fast. They were mixing with the horrors of the reality of being back home.

So Banks decided to do something about it.

MCKEESPORT VETERANS PARADE 2007 (Courier Photo/J.L. Martello)

He stepped off the Ben Franklin Bridge.

His near death turned into a resurrection. He ended up getting physical treatment in a nice warm hospital bed along with mental health treatment.

by Errin Haines

ATLANTA (AP)—As American colleges and universities gear up to meet a presidential goal to deepen the nation’s pool of college grads, historically Black institutions face extra pressure from threats to the financial support that many of their students depend on, the presidents of some colleges said June 23.

PROTEST—Tennessee State University supporter Kwame Lillard speaks outside a meeting of the Tennessee Board of Regents at Nashville State Community College June 24. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo)

About 100 presidents of historically Black colleges met in Atlanta and discussed their role in President Barack Obama’s call for America to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

Meanwhile, Pell Grants are under fire as some members of Congress look at cutting such programs to trim the budget. Many minority students depend on the needs-based grants to stay in school.

by Chanelle Bell

For nearly four years the world has restlessly waited for justice to be served for the killing of outspoken Oakland Post Editor Chauncey W. Bailey, a tireless advocate for the Black community.

On June 9, just 2 months shy of four years after Bailey was mercilessly gunned down as he pled for his life, in downtown Oakland, Aug. 2, 2007, while walking to work to meet with Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb, who was also walking to work from the opposite direction to meet with him, the jury released their verdict.

Chauncey W. Bailey

Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, Antoine Mackey, a follower and driver of the car used by the shooter, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with a mistrial on the third murder charge.