More than 50 odd years ago, I was privileged to meet a Black man who at the first meeting demonstrated by words and action that he was a very special person. Over the years we had many conversations about all the factors that involved the well- being of the community and particularly the Black community. We never had a confrontational conversation and that is extremely rare for me, because as most of you know I can be opinionated. It is apparent to most readers that I am writing about Robert R. Lavelle.

He was a rarity—Christian and a successful businessman, first a multi-list Realtor, civil rights warrior, devoted and loving husband, father, grandfather and someone who truly loved his neighbors. You did not have live where he lived to be in that category.

(NNPA)—In an effort to depict Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan as an activist judge, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele have made misleading and unwarranted attacks on Thurgood Marshall, for whom Kagan served as a clerk for one year.

During the first day of hearings on the Kagan nomination, Marshall ’s name was mentioned 35 times, compared to only 14 for President Barack Obama.

(NNPA)—There have only been six African-Americans in the United States Senate in history, and two—Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce—served Mississippi during Reconstruction as appointed senators.

In modern times, four African-Americans have served, and each has been the lone African-American senator serving Edward Brooke (1967-1979) of Massachusetts, Carol Mosley Braun of Illinois (1993-1999), Barack Obama (2005-2008) of Illinois, and Roland Burris (2009-2010) of Illinois. Braun, Obama and Burris all held the same seat, with Braun winning it during the “Year of the Woman” in 1992, Obama winning it in 2004 before winning the presidency in 2008, and Roland Burris currently holding it as an appointed senator who will not run for re-election.

(REAL TIMES MEDIA)—During the Great Depression you had literally millions of Americans across the country out of work for years. With the industrial base of the nation located in a few major metropolitan centers, those who lived in the midwest and the south, hit with droughts and archaic land usage laws that dated back to slavery, were hard pressed to make a living for themselves, let alone hire others.

With the nation in financial ruin for years in the 1930s, many Americans still had the skills to turn back to good ol’ Mother Earth for subsistence, and it might be time to re-learn those old skills. There is a quiet drumbeat out there suggesting that we might be headed for a food crisis on top of the financial crisis in America, and taking the time to start up your own “recession garden” might be your best chance to combat what is coming ahead.