clipped from thedailyvoice.com

From niggers, to ragheads, back to niggers

Tolu Olorunda | Posted December 29, 2009 12:26 PM

It didn't take long. 8 years--tops. Thanks to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Niggers are back to being bogeymen of the world. That's right: Back to Black. What a relief it was for many Niggers--post Sept. 11, 2001: In one fell swoop, 19 hijackers had radically lifted the red-dot from the heads of Niggers and planted it on anyone with a middle-eastern accent--especially those donning kufis. For a while, speaking Arabic was in and of itself a terrorism predilection. Reading the Qu'ran? Why, that was downright a tell-tale detailing a terrorist mind at work.

Well, the grace period is over. Operation "Niggers Are Potential Terrorists" is back in full effect. And not just any kind of Niggers--the African-Jungle-Banana-Niggers.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

In Between Holidays, Nothing Happens but Magic

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Visitors filled the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue despite the cold. Even ducks in Central Park had the capacity to inspire wonder.

By MANNY FERNANDEZ

On Tuesday morning, tourists from around the world and across the country trained their eyes and their cameras on a group of loudmouthed New Yorkers, some of the rare locals left behind this holiday season: the ducks at a Central Park pond.

This is a week of suspended animation in the city, in between holidays, when the great systems of New York — the schools, the courts, the communications media, Wall Street, City Hall, the bodegas in Queens — slow to an administrative crawl or shut down altogether, when New York City belongs not to New Yorkers, but to Spaniards, Italians, Canadians, Germans, Californians. Tens of thousands of people have left town to go back home, while tens of thousands of others have left home to come to town.

Damon Winter/The New York Times

clipped from www.nydailynews.com

Robber kills Harlem parking-garage attendant who couldn't open cash box

BY Kerry Burke and John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Wednesday, December 30th 2009, 4:00 AM

Ip for News

Jose Lazala was killed in a botched robbery in a park garage on W. 132nd Street.

A Harlem parking-garage attendant was shot to death by an armed robber when he couldn't open a cash-deposit box, police said.

A chilling security video shows the robber leading Jose Lazala, 30, at gunpoint into the glass-enclosed office at the W. 132nd St. garage sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 11p.m. Monday, sources said.

Moments after the robber and Lazala pass out of view, the footage shows blood splattering on the window.

The murder was not reported until a worker showed up to relieve Lazala around 12:30a.m. Tuesday, sources said.

Cops believe the robber demanded Lazala cough up the key to the locked deposit box.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Night Workers Lament Bus Cuts

One night next summer, after the last reel unwinds and the time ticks past 2 a.m., Elaine Beverly might clock out of her job at the AMC Loews multiplex near Lincoln Center, head up Broadway and, as she has for months, wait to catch the crosstown bus that carries her home to the Upper East Side.

If all goes as planned, it will never arrive.

There are four buses that currently cross Central Park in the early morning hours, a longitudinal link that acts as the sole option for east-west transportation in the 50 blocks north of 59th Street. Starting in July, only one will remain.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Paterson Pardon Aids Soldier in Bid to Join Police Dept.

By AL BAKER

A soldier whose gun possession conviction barred him from joining the New York Police Department was given a second chance on Tuesday when Gov. David A. Paterson announced that he had pardoned him.

The pardon, the governor’s first this year, means that the soldier, Specialist Osvaldo Hernandez, a former paratrooper in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, can fulfill his dream of joining the Police Department or another law enforcement agency once he is released from active duty, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

In Harlem, Reflections on the Life of Percy Sutton

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

The Apollo Theater paid its respects to Percy E. Sutton on Sunday. Mr. Sutton, an eminent politician, died on Saturday at 89. More Photos >

By KAREEM FAHIM and STACEY SOLIE

He was hailed as Harlem’s king or its chairman, the eloquent author of some of its prouder moments, the dapper mentor to its sons and daughters. As news of Percy E. Sutton’s death spread on Sunday, the sadness spanned generations and city blocks, from Mr. Sutton’s home on 135th Street to the doorstep of the Apollo, that cultural heart of Harlem that Mr. Sutton jolted to life.

“He was a renaissance black man,” said Philip Bulgar, 45, an assistant manager at Manna’s Soul Food Restaurant, summing up a life too rich for anyone to fully recall. That did not stop everyone from trying. “They don’t make too many brothers like that anymore,” Mr. Bulgar said.

Mr. Sutton died on Saturday at age 89.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

New Randalls Island Deal With Private Schools Is Rejected

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

The Bloomberg administration’s attempt to revive a deal to allow 20 private schools to pay for exclusive use of public athletic fields on Randalls Island has been rejected by a State Supreme Court justice, who characterized the city’s position as “audacious.”

Skip to next paragraph

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

The Dalton School’s soccer practice at Randall’s Island in 2006.

A coalition of public school parents and students, community groups and park advocates had sued the city, arguing that allowing the private schools, which include Buckley, Chapin and Dalton, to pay $45 million to use some of the fields would essentially turn public parkland into a private domain.

It was the second time in two years that the courts have rejected the city’s arrangement, and both rulings used particularly critical language.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

A Quiet End for Boys Choir of Harlem

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

The Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble performed at the Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church.

By SHARON OTTERMAN

For more than three decades, they sang Mozart in Latin, Bach in German, and Cole Porter and Stevie Wonder in English, from Alice Tully Hall in New York to Royal Albert Hall in London.

December was always a busy month, as the choir toured the country’s premier concert halls and appeared on television Christmas specials.

But this year, the boys are nowhere to be found. Last week, Terrance Wright, a 39-year-old choir alumnus, picked up a microphone in front of the altar of Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in Harlem, the choir’s last home, and delivered news that surprised few people but saddened many.

“Tell the people. Let it be known,” Mr. Wright said,

“There is no Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem.”

he choir’s last official performance was in 2007

clipped from www.nypost.com

Pols save 5-minute 'grace'

By SALLY GOLDENBERG and TOM NAMAKO

Drivers and traffic agents now have a whole new reason to square off on city streets.

Cars parked at Muni-Meters and along streets with alternate-side rules will be allowed to stay an extra five minutes beyond their allotted time -- after the City Council overruled Mayor Bloomberg's veto of the grace period yesterday.

Hizzoner slammed the move, saying it would lead to "nothing but chaos" as drivers and traffic-enforcement officers argue over who has the accurate time.

But City Council Speaker Christine Quinn defended the override, calling it appropriate especially in light of the weak economy.

"It is something that is actually very implementable and will not create chaos," she said. "And it just gives people a little bit of a break in tough times."

In another veto override, the council relaxed parking rules for clergy members.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Sugar Ray Robinson, Ultimate Fighter

George Karger/Time & Life Pictures — Getty Images

Sugar Ray Robinson in front of his club and restaurant on 124th Street in Harlem, 1950.