VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

CFA principal Asenath Andrews and charter operator Blair Evans at press conference July 13 in school.

CFA wants 400 students, but will not have a “union environment”

Evans Solutions, Inc. management fees = 76% of current schools’ liabilities  

By Diane Bukowski 

DETROIT – Catherine Ferguson Academy Principal (CFA) Asenath Andrews was enthusiastic about the high school’s future, and her new boss, charter school operator Blair Evans, head of the for-profit Evans Solutions, Inc., was full of proposals, during a press conference held July 13.

 CFA is the Detroit Public School for “pregnant and parenting teens” whose students, along with By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), conducted a passionate campaign to keep it open after DPS czar Robert Bobb put it on the chopping block earlier this year, along with 40 others. 

CFA students and supporters at rally celebrating announcement it would not close, June 16.

Over a dozen young mothers were arrested for occupying the school April 15, leading to a national outcry and publicity for CFA’s unique program, including a spot on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show. Teen mothers bring their babies and toddlers to school with them at CFA, and the children receive tutoring as well. Students also run an urban farm complete with crops and a horse, but the school has had a full educational curriculum and says 90 percent of its students graduate and go on to college. 

“Almost 6,000 girls in Detroit and Wayne County are not able to get an education because they become pregnant,” Andrews said. “Most don’t end up completing high school until the age of 29. Poverty kills people, and it starts at the age at which these young women have their first child. We need to start five more CFA’s, and I’m not clear why such schooling is not on the national agenda.” 

Tiny house called "yurta"

Andrews said CFA hopes to recruit 400 students in the fall, and has 100 applications so far. She said current students are passing out fliers in the community and distributing little folding mirrors with the slogan, “See yourself as a student at CFA.”  She said interested students can call 313-596-4771. 

Evans said the curriculum of the new school will include building “tiny houses” in a new economy where low wages are the rule, “permaculture,” a vague concept which appears to focus primarily on urban farming, and “fablabs,” which will be used to build the “tiny houses.” He said his company will also provide a greenhouse and international travel for the students. 

The daily media portrayed Evans as the school’s savior when he and Blanche Kelso Bruce Academy (BKBA), the company which hired Evans Solutions as its management company, came forward at the last minute to take it over. 

CFA summer school babies rolled down the hall July 13; it is not clear if workers with them will still have their jobs in the fall.

But the picture of the school’s future which he and Andrews painted at the press conference was short on confirmed details. 

Evans announced that BKBA is “not a union environment” and will not automatically retain its previous teachers and other staff. BKBA wants to hire 20 teachers and 22 aides to deal with the young children, according to Andrews, who said she has received about 12 resumes so far. Evans gave no specifics on wages, pensions and other conditions of employment. He estimated the school’s budget would run about $2 million.

He said the other schools his company manages through BKBA (click on VOD story http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/07/03/blair-evans-juvenile-prison-school-boss-no-bid-contractor-2/ at  for a list) have had experience with young pregnant women. He did not say his company has experience dealing with educating infants and toddlers. Most of BKBA’s schools are in correctional or involuntary, temporary residential facilities. 

Evans was vague about the history of the newly-incorporated Evans Solutions, which will be in charge as BKBA’s management company. Evans Solutions filed incorporation documents with the State of Michigan just six days before the press conference, on July 7.  VOD reported June 3 that no such papers were on file. They list the date of incorporation as July 7 and do not include a listing of officers. (Click on Evans 7 7 11 to view papers.)

Evans Solutions HQ at 8045 Second, former home of Akwaaba Center

 Evans said BKBA will get state per-pupil aid, federal Title I and other funding for at-risk students, and private foundation grants for CFA. Evans said he will also be looking at Head Start funding. 

The Wayne County administration, which has ties to the Evans brothers, recently bid on 600 federal Head Start positions for children. Dempsey Addison, President of the city’s Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), said at a City Council meeting July 19 that Maor Dave Bing forbid the City of Detroit’s Human Services Department from bidding.

According to the 2009 Financial Statements for Blanche Kelso Bruce Academy, 76 percent of its total liabilities and 31.4 percent of its expenses went to its pay-outs to Evans Solutions. Records of how those payments were spent by Evans Solutions are not available since it is a for-profit corporation. (Click on BlancheKelsoBruceAcademy 2009 financial statements to read full documents.)

 Wayne County RESA, BKBA’s charter authorizer, has not responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from VOD for more detailed reports on the amounts of state, federal and other funding that BKBA receives. Click on MDE Charter school rules to see requirements for filing annual reports with state and posting online. IED’s like WRESA receive the state per-pupil funding for their authorized schools, while charters are allowed to apply on their own for other state, federal and private grants.

In its June, 2010 filing, WRSEA itself reported a total of $352.6 million largely in governmental revenues,$356.2 Million largely in expenses from governmental expenses, for a deficit of $3.7 million. 

The company was founded in 1998 by Blair Evans’ brother Warren Evans. It was incorporated in Georgia for unexplained reasons but was dissolved in 2002. (Click on  Evans Solutions Georgia filing for document.) Evans could not say what work it did it Georgia, and termed its failure to incorporate later in Michigan as a “glitch,” although it has been operating here for 10 years. He claimed the company has been paying taxes but produced no evidence of that. 

Warren Evans as police chief with Mayor Dave Bing

Warren Evans was formerly Wayne County Sheriff and Detroit Police Chief.

 “Evans Solutions will handle staffing, program administration, budget, finance, and transportation and food services [for CFA] out of its offices at 8045 Second Avenue,” Blair Evans said. He said his company leases the space from the Pan-African Orthodox Church, in the building  which used to house the Akwaaba Center. 

A biography of Warren Cleage Evans from his mayoral campaign website says he “comes from a very successful and politically active family.” 

“As a teenager, Evans was privileged to meet and hear such important civil rights leaders as Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the height of the Civil Rights Movement as they came to Detroit, often to speak at the church of Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., Evans’ uncle,” says the bio. “Evans says that those experiences instilled in him a passion to fight for social justice and equality that stays with him today.” 

The Pan-African Orthodox Church was founded by Rev. Cleage and is the parent organization of the Shrine of the Black Madonna.

CFA student with baby speaks June 16; at left with back to camera is CFA teacher Nicole Conaway, at right is BAMN organizer Tristan Taylor; they say the struggle will continue for full victory to maintain CFA as a Detroit public school

LIBYA PROTEST: GADDAFI IS A HERO! SOUTH AFRICA July 11, 2011 [libyasos] 

Thousands protest U.S. war on Libya in Washington D.C. July 12 Photo: Askia Muhammad

THOUSANDS PROTEST U.S. MILITARY STRIKES ON LIBYA AS ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT GROWS

FinalCall.com News

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Correspondent-
Updated Jul 12, 2011 – 12:44:13 PM

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) – Buoyed by what they cite as reports from military analysts as well as rebel forces in Libya, hundreds of protestors organized by the International ANSWER Coalition paraded in front of the White House July 9, to protest U.S.-led NATO air attacks on Libya.

“This (demonstration) represents a turning of the tide,” Brian Becker, national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition told The Final Call. “Public opinion is now running 2-to-1 in the United States against the bombing of Libya. We’re now making the transition from a passive opposition, to an active opposition in the streets.

“The next step after this is a massive march in Harlem on Aug. 13, where Minister Farrakhan will be the keynote speaker,” Mr. Becker continued.

STOP BOMBING LIBYA! Protest at White House July 12 Photo: Askia Muhammad

 Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have challenged the lack of legal authority for the bombing campaign and failure to comply with the War Powers Act, and the administration is becoming increasingly vulnerable on the Libyan war issue. The Obama administration responded in June with a lengthy legal report claiming that the U.S. role in Libya does not constitute “hostilities” because no U.S. ground troops are involved, and therefore the War Powers Act does not apply to this so-called “non-war.”

“The NATO-U.S. bombing of Libya is not succeeding in overturning the Libyan government. In the United States, it is becoming more difficult for the Obama administration to maintain support for the effort, which is also costing U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars as jobless numbers rise,” the ANSWER Coalition said in a statement. Continue reading →

Rep. Hansen Clarke Cuts Up Credit Cards on House Floor: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Updated: Wednesday, 20 Jul 2011, 9:54 AM EDT

By myFOXDetroit.com Staff

(WJBK) – U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit became animated Tuesday in an attempt to articulate his point about reckless spending in Washington and all over America.

The freshman congressman even pulled out his scissors and began cutting up credit cards on the House floor.

Clarke was upset with the bill approved by the Republican-controlled House that makes massive cuts without raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

(VOD ed.: if everyone followed suit and cut up their credit cards, the banking system in this country, which is profiting off trillions in interest on debt from individuals and governmental agencies, along with trillions in taxpayer bail-outs, would either grind to a screeching halt or be forced to come to the table to enact debt payment moratoriums.
BAILOUT THE PEOPLE, NOT THE BANKS!!)

THURSDAY, JULY 21: 5 PM – 7 PM 

ALAMEDA COUNTY COURTHOUSE  

1225 FALLON STREET

(near Lake Merritt BART Station)

San Francisco, CA 

Please join us as we continue to support the California Prisoners on Hunger Strike by holding a protest vigil in their honor this Thursday at the Alameda County Courthouse in San Francisco from 5pm to 7pm. We welcome anyone to come with candles and a good spirit. There will be an open mic for anyone who chooses to speak.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187593497968610

 Click on http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194722523914909 for info on TWO DAYS OF MASS CALL-INS FOR PRISONERS IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT INCLUDING CALIFORNIA HUNGER STRIKERS; Thurs. July 21, 12 a.m. to Friday, July 22 at 12 a.m.

Deborah Dupre

Human Rights Examiner

July 18, 2011 – Like this? Subscribe to get instant updates.

Crisis stage, media silence in mass hunger strike California prisons

On Day 18 of America’s historical, human rights-based, Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike, a mass suicide being committed due to what The New York Times described Sunday as “Barbarous Confinement,” Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity notes that, after unanimously rejecting an “insulting” offer by CDCR on Saturday, the prisoners are continuing their strike for meaningful changes in Security Housing Unit (SHU) conditions and policies. Despite prisoners now in critical condition due to rejecting food and water, rights defender Michael Novick noted Monday that press coverage of this monumental United States human rights abuse event has been inadequate.

The less sympathetic public might believe prisoners deserve the abuse inflicted. This is partially due to a lack of unawareness that it is not the most violent, the “worst of the worst,” being tortured in prisons reported veteran human rights defenders Jean Casella and James Ridgeway of the lockdown watchdog group, Solidarity Watch on Monday.

“Officials at Pelican Bay, in Northern California, claim that those incarcerated in the Security Housing Unit [SHU] are ‘“the worst of the worst,’” reported Colin Dayan in an Op Ed piece in The New York Times. “Yet often it is the most vulnerable, especially the mentally ill, not the most violent, who end up in indefinite isolation.”

To raise awareness without mainstream media coverage, on Friday, as prison authorities refused negotiating even while hunger striker inmates are dying in prison clinics, human rights defenders marched through downtown San Francisco in heavy 5:00 pm traffic to the UN Plaza in protest of United State human rights abuses in California prisons described as worse than hell. 

Among other human rights rallies being conducted across the nation in solidarity with the suiciding prisoners, approximately 100 marchers in San Francisco loudly chanted in peak hour traffic Friday, “Support! The hunger strikers! At Pelican Bay!” (See: Indymedia video, “San Franciscans rallied and marched to show their solidarity with hunger strikers at Pelican Bay State Prison,” on this page above.)   Continue reading →

 SF police kill teen, Kenneth Harding, as he ran from them at T-train stop; crowds protest, rallies planned

Updates on protests against police murder of Kenneth Harding at:  http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_8028.shtml

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/20/BAUR1KCGBA.DTL and http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/07/about-half-arrested-muni-shooting-protesters-live-outside-san-francisco

Kenneth Harding, Jr.. 19

By Willie Ratcliff  

San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper

June 18, 2011

When police stopped a teenager stepping off the T-train yesterday to show his transfer as proof he’d paid his fare – $2 at most – he ran from them. They shot him as many as 10 times in the back and neck, according to witnesses. For many long minutes, as a crowd watched in horror, the boy, who had fallen to the sidewalk a block away, lay in a quickly growing pool of blood writhing in pain and trying to lift himself up as the cops trained their guns on him and threatened bystanders.

This frame from a video shot by a bystander shows the teenager struggling to lift himself out of a pool of his own blood as a San Francisco police officer – one of several – aims his gun at the boy rather than trying to save his life. – Video frame: TheOneNonly457. The teen, Kenneth Harding, is loudly moaning in pain and crying out for help.

Having killed the boy [Kenneth Harding] at 4:44 p.m., according to the San Francisco Chronicle, ^[1] in broad daylight at the main intersection – Third Street between Palou and Oakdale – in Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco’s last largely Black neighborhood, the police seemed eager to terrorize the community. They waited and waited and waited as the teenager stopped moving but continued breathing before eventually setting him on a gurney and taking him to the hospital, where the Chronicle reports he died at 7:01 p.m.

“Why should you die for a transfer?” asked a witness known as Tiptoe in the crowd of hundreds of residents that soon gathered in the plaza at the Oakdale/Palou light rail stop. “Justice will be brought!” hollered one man repeatedly in a booming voice as the crowd shouted at the long line of police in riot gear standing between them and the dying youngster. “I saw the riot squad fly by me on Palou yesterday – five trucks in all,” wrote Bayview resident Sherry Bryson on Facebook.

As night fell, firefighters washed the teenager's blood off the sidewalk and police and reporters talked. Rick Hauptman, who posted this photo on Facebook, noted: "The police seemed almost jolly. I saw many handshakes among them; I couldn't figure that out. Were they solely being respectful to their colleagues and to senior officers, or was it something else?”

As usual following police murders, the San Francisco Police Department came up with an excuse. The Chronicle ^[1] relayed it: “As the officers tried to detain the man, he took off running and drew a gun, police said,” according to staff writer Joe Garofoli. “When the suspect shot at the officers, they returned fire, fatally wounding him,” he continued, quoting SFPD Sgt. Michael Andraychak.

None of the many witnesses I spoke with yesterday saw the young victim either holding or shooting a gun and firmly believe he was unarmed. ABC7’s Carolyn Tyler balanced the police claim that they shot the youngster in self-defense by interviewing Trivon Dixon, who said: “He was running. How could he be a threat in retreat? And he wasn’t running backwards, turning around shooting. He was in full throttle, running away from the police. I don’t see in any way how he could be a threat to the police.”

On Sunday, KTVU.com reported ^[2] an announcement by San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr that a gun had been found which he said belonged to the victim. That police have also kicked off the usual campaign to demonize the victim is evident in KTVU noting that “the suspect had an extensive criminal record out of state.” And in another standard response to a police murder, KTVU reported, “Police patrolled the Third Street corridor Sunday with an additional 10 officers due to an increase in gun violence in the past three weeks.”

“How come a Black man can get shot for not having a transfer? How come a Black man has to be so terrorized that he feels that he has to run for not having a transfer?” ponders activist and graduate student Malaika Kambon. “These kinds of killings have not, would not, do not ever happen in white communities anywhere in the world,” she notes in a Facebook discussion.

“This is insane! They are shooting people over transfers?” exclaimed Renaldo Ricketts on Facebook. “Over a transfer – a piece of paper? That is just so wrong!” wrote Sherry Bryson. Continue reading →

Davontae Sanford was imprisoned at 14 for life for four homicides to which another man has confessed

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Susan Chandler

Wobbly Warrior’s blog

 Self-proclaimed “hit man” Vincent Smothers authorized his attorney to testify on Davontae Sanford’s behalf, to apprise the courts that Smothers and an accomplice had committed Detroit’s infamous Runyon Street quadruple homicide, not Davontae. Smothers had admitted to twelve homicides, but was only prosecuted for eight, so that Detroit police and prosecutors could hide their having coerced a confession out of blind-in-one-eye, developmentally disabled, 14-year-old Davontae. The judge wouldn’t allow Smother’s attorney to testify.  

Subject: False imprisonment of Davontae Sanford – Citizen Inquiry AG# 2010-0026914

The Honorable Bill Schuette, Attorney General
State of Michigan
G. Mennen Williams Building, 7th Floor
Lansing, MI 48909 

Mich. Atty. General Bill Schuette

Dear Attorney General Schuette: 

I am writing again to ask that you personally intervene in the ongoing persecution of Davontae Sanford. 

Allowing a judge to ignore a client-authorized exception to attorney/client privilege does not serve justice; it instead furthers a four-year fraud on Michigan taxpayers.

I also ask you to personally intervene in Governor Rick Snyder’s lawlessness.  For all you know, you may be the next elected public servant whom Snyder deems too inefficient to retain elected office. 

After it, it is fiscally irresponsible to incarcerate innocent young Davontae Sandford while guilty, self-proclaimed “hit man” Vincent Smothers is already behind bars and has named an accomplice who remains free to commit additional homicides. 

Sincerely,

Susan Chandler 

Judge in Davontae Sanford hearings bars testimony from hit man’s former lawyer – Detroit Crime | Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-detroit/judge-davontae-sanford-hearings-bars-testimony-from-hit-man-s-former-lawyer  Continue reading →

(L to R) Cathryn Bachus, Robin Brooks, Robert Wagner, (unknown), and Robert Hart protest rate hikes for calls to their loved ones in prison at MDOC HQ, Lansing, July 7, 2011

By Diane Bukowski

 July 16, 2011 

LANSING – Family members and friends of Michigan prisoners came from as far away as Holland to march outside the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) headquarters here July 12. They said recent prison phone rate hikes of 80 percent have prevented their loved ones from calling them as often as needed to stay sane and rehabilitate themselves. 

The rate hike resulted from a contract with Public Communications Services, Inc.. It is a subsidiary of Global Tel-Link.

Global Tel Link is also connected with DSI-ITI.

Gov. Rick Snyder

On July 13, the day after the protest, Governor Rick Snyder signed an MDOC appropriations bill with the clause, “Any contract for prisoner telephone services shall impose fee schedules for prisoner telephone calls that are no greater than the fee schedules for standard calls placed by residential users in the area surrounding the correctional facility.” 

It is yet unclear what this will mean, but prisoner advocates say they hope it is a victory. The protest was well-covered in the state’s capitol by print and television media. 

Mitchell Pugh, incarcerated since 1988 at the age of 16, is one of 800 parolable lifers kept behind bars far beyond what their sentencing judges intended, despite evidence of rehabilitation

“We used to talk half an hour a day,” said Cathryn Bachus of her boyfriend Mitchell Pugh, who has been incarcerated since 1988, when he was 16, and is serving a parolable life sentence. “Now we can only afford twice a week. I travel to see him, but it’s a long way from Holland to Carson City.” 

Bachus organized the protest. 

A federal class-action lawsuit, Foster-Bey v. Rubitschun, filed on behalf of over 800 parolable lifers, who have been imprisoned under Gov. John Engler’s parole board mandates long beyond what their sentencing judges intended, resulted at least indirectly in the release of some, she said. 

U.S. District Court Judge Marianne Battani ruled in their favor in 2007, but in 2010, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered her to grant the state’s motion for summary disposition. At least three lead plaintiffs, Kenneth Foster-Bey, John Alexander, and Waymon Kincaid, are still imprisoned after 30 years and more, while one, William Sleeper, was paroled in 2009. 

Kenneth Foster-Bey is lead plaintiff in parolable lifers lawsuit, but still behind bars

Bachus said a request for commutation of Pugh’s sentence, endorsed by the Carson City Correctional Facility warden based on Pugh’s progress in rehabilitation, including his assistance to other prisoners, was denied after Snyder took office. 

“I just think that being able to communicate with your loved one aids in their rehabilitation,” said Robin Brooks of West Bloomfield, whose son is incarcerated. “For the state to hinder that shows they are not truly into ‘correcting.’ The money they are spending on additional equipment supposedly to keep prisoners from getting cell phones can be used for more rehabilitation and education, as well as pensions for state workers like the guards.”

She said aside from problems with rates, the PCS system requires that each person the prisoner calls must set up their own account. She said that is very difficult for elderly people like her son’s grandparents, for whom she had to set up account herself.  Continue reading →

 More on Medical Crisis, Need Support Pressuring Immediate Negotiations

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com    

July 14, 2011 

A mother with two sons on hunger strike in Pelican Bay speaks to the media in front of the California State Building in San Francisco on July 13 surrounded by members of the Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity (PHSS) is “a coalition based in the Bay Area made up of grassroots organizations committed to amplifying the voices of and supporting the prisoners at Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) in their hunger strike to end tortuous conditions.”

Legal representatives made visits to Pelican Bay SHU Tuesday and interviewed a number of hunger strikers. Each prisoner explained how medical conditions of hundreds of hunger strikers in the SHU are worsening. Many prisoners are experiencing irregular heartbeats and palpitations, some are suffering from diagnosed cardiac arrhythmia. Many are also experiencing dizziness and constantly feel light-headed. Many struggle with shortness of breath and other lung and respiratory problems. 

Dozens of prisoners have fainted and been taken to either the infirmary and/or outside hospitals. Some prisoners also have Crohn’s disease, which leads to extreme loss of fluids and electrolytes and needs to be treated by adequate nutrition and hydration. 

Pelican Bay is a living hell media.spcr.org

At least 200 prisoners continue the strike in solidarity with the prisoners at Pelican Bay at Calipatria State Prison, where summer heat has reached to 110 degrees F, even hotter inside the SHUs. Some people have experienced heat stroke due to severe dehydration. 

Prisoners at Corcoran have also notified us that hunger strikers there are struggling with the same symptoms of severe dehydration. After mild seizures and severe diabetic shock, some people have been taken to the infirmary. 

Many doctors outside of prison, some of whom have experience working with prisoners, have explained to us that adequate hydration is paramount to preventing fatal starvation. The fact that the prisoners are showing symptoms of such extreme dehydration shows the prisoners are approaching a medical crisis. 

Thirteen years ago Pelican Bay State Prison was cut out of a dense forest near Crescent City, CA. The highlight of the new super-max prison was the Security Housing Unit (SHU), the X-shaped builing at front, where 1,300 prisoners are kept in near isolation.

Dr. Corey Weinstein, a private correctional medical consultant and human rights investigator with 40 years experience providing health care to CA prisoners, explains: 

“The strikers’ claims of substandard and prejudicial medical care at Pelican Bay are certainly true. As well the medical staff refuses to take on their responsibilities as health professionals to advocate for their patients in matters of daily life related to food, nutrition, exercise and mental hygiene. Those who should be providing care act the jailer instead. Given my long history of working with California prisoners, I have grave doubts about the Department of Corrections’ ability to adequately carry out their own guidelines and protocols even during this urgent and public moment. Reports such as prisoners with very low blood sugar levels and lack of urination for 3 days should not be coming from the prison. These are men who require hospital care under prison protocols. We should ask why do they remain at the prison?”   Continue reading →