President and First Lady Host White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility

Today, President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and the White House Council on Women and Girls are hosting the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility to discuss the importance of creating workplace practices that allow America’s working men and women to meet the demands of their jobs without sacrificing the needs of their families.

Small business owners, business leaders, policy experts, workers and labor leaders are joining with senior administration officials today to share their ideas and strategies for making the workplace more flexible for American workers and families. The opening and closing sessions, as well as five breakout sessions focused on best practices and benefits for the American workplace and workforce, are streaming live on www.WhiteHouse.gov/live. In addition, much of the event is streaming on Facebook and Ustream, and the White House will include comments taken through these social networks in the feedback collected through the forum.
more »

French President Visit’s Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C.

In remarks made at a press conference in the White House with Nicolas Sarkozy, President Obama made light of the French president’s visit earlier in the day to the legendary Ben’s Chili Bowl with his wife, Carla Bruni.

“Now, I have to point out that the French are properly famous for their cuisine, and so the fact that Nicolas went to Ben’s Chili Bowl for lunch — (laughter) — I think knows — shows his discriminating palate. My understanding is he had a half-smoke, so he was sampling the local wares. And we appreciate that very much.”

Sarkozyby responded: “Insofar as the president has revealed a secret — namely, where I had lunch today — I should say that I have a good friend in Washington who had actually recommended that restaurant,” he said. “When I walked in, I saw a huge photograph of President Obama. And I’m afraid that when you go back to that restaurant, you may see a smaller photograph of the French president.”

On Aug. 22, 1958, Ben’s Chili Bowl opened along the U Street corridor, which was then known as “Black Broadway.” Top performers could be found playing sets in clubs along the corridor, as well as eating and just “hanging out” at Ben’s. It was not uncommon to see such luminaries as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King Jr., or Bill Cosby at “The Bowl.”

White House Comments on Summer Jobs Program

The Obama Administration applauded the inclusion of federal funding for summer youth employment activities across the country and encouraged the Senate to pass the legislation.

“As we continue the work of rebuilding our economy and encouraging job creation, investing in summer youth employment is an important way to teach our young people the value of hard work and prepare them for careers in the future,” President Obama said.

President Obama and members of the Congressional Black Caucus recently discussed the importance of supporting a program that would provide young people with work experience, job skills and supplement their family’s incomes during the summer months.
The $600 million passed by the House this week would create 200,000 jobs this summer.  In 2009, more than 300,000 jobs were created through the program through investments from the Recovery Act.  More than 40 percent of the summer youth program participants were African-American and nearly one-quarter were Latino.

An evaluation of last summer’s program conducted by an independent policy research firm concluded that youth valued both the employment opportunities and gaining exposure in high-growth employment areas such as health care and green industries, among others.  The evaluation also found that nearly all participating employers expressed a desire to participate in future programs.

The bill is now being considered in the Senate, where the leadership is working to secure resources for the program.  Individuals interested in participating in a summer job program in their community should visit their local employment office or contact the Department of Labor for more information at www.dol.gov.

House Passes Summer Jobs Legislation

The White House held a conference call to discuss the provisions for a summer youth jobs program that would create 200,000 jobs across the nation this summer.  White House Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes, Secy. of Labor Hilda Solis, and U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, took part in the call.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which is expected to pass the legislation.

National Medical Association Names Kweisi Mfume New Executive Director

Civil rights leader and former U.S. Congressman Kweisi Mfume will take the helm of the nation’s oldest and largest medical association representing the interests of more than 30,000 African-American physicians and their patients, effective March 29, 2010.

Mfume will lead the NMA’s charge to tackle health disparities, as well as promote the association’s health policy priorities.

“I have dedicated my life to ending the economic and social barriers that continue to confront people of color all across our nation,” Mr. Mfume said. “The National Medical Association has been the conscience of the medical profession by making sure that African Americans and the underserved have a voice in their health and health care.” He continued, “We have a long way to go to truly eliminate health disparities, but now is the time to work with, political, medical and community leaders to make that vision real.”

more »

EbonyJet Online Exclusive: National Urban League CEO Marc Morial says, “Civil Rights Organizations ARE United”

Seemingly in response to Washington chatter that a recent White House meeting between President Barack Obama and only three civil rights groups (National Urban League, NAACP, and National Political Action Network) has caused a riff, NUL CEO Marc Morial emphatically dismissed the notion to EbonyJet Online. At the release of NUL’s annual “State of Black America” report, Morial made it a point to note that the Rev. Al Sharpton, who heads the National Political Action Network, and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who leads the Rainbow Push Coalition, were in the audience. He also defended his meeting with the president, as well as the actions that Obama has taken so far in an attempt to create jobs in the Black community. “The president is very sensitive to how the jobless situation is affecting minority communities…,” Morial said. “Since our meeting, concrete steps have been taken, and i don’t think that you’ve seen the last of it.”

“You don’t go to a meeting with the president and come out and give a verbatim report to the press what was said. We’d never get back in…,” he said. “I don’t have any problems with the fact that I went to the meeting, and didn’t take anyone with me. I was representing the Urban League. I wasn’t representing everybody and every group.”

NUL’s Marc Morial Advances Interesting Notion

National Urban League CEO Marc Morial advanced the notion that, perhaps more important than targeted programs, Black America needs targeted vehicles to help bridge people with programs. “We have to not yield on the idea that targeting is a very important part of policy, but we don’t want to get caught in the trap where people distort what we mean…,” he said during the release of the NUL’s “State of Black America” report in Washington, D.C. “One of the key ways to target the chronically unemployed is to get community-based organizations like Urban League affiliates in the middle of connecting the chronically unemployed to work and training them. Because community-based organizations do a better job that traditional job-training organizations.”

National Urban League’s State of Black America report: ‘African-Americans Need Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’

With Black unemployment numbers nearly double that of whites, the National Urban League released it’s State of Black America report, saying “without jobs there can be no economic equality.”

The annual report predicts that, without focused programs to get jobs to African-Americans, the recession will continue to ravage the Black community. “Our voices have to not only be about a plan, but about priorities,” NUL CEO Marc Morial said. “And our priority has to be putting people back to work…We must not shirk from the conversation of priorities.”

In many of the categories in the report, Blacks either made no progress or lost ground. Small gains made in median household income in last year’s report decreased in this time around. Less than half of Black families owned homes and  were more than three times as likely as Whites to live below the poverty line. The report also shows a big difference in 2009 real median household income between Whites and Blacks. Median income for Whites was $34,218 for Blacks and $55,530 for Whites. In education, Whites over the age of 25 were more than one and a half times as likely as Blacks to hold a bachelor’s degree.
more »

Urban League Releases Report Tomorrow

The National Urban League’s annual State of Black America report shows chronic unemployment in minority communities that is almost twice that of whites and fuels wider equality gaps in areas of education, housing and social justice. The Urban League suggests that if there is not a jobs surge in the nation to address the unemployment crisis in urban America, minorities will fall even further behind or totally get left out of recession recovery efforts. And if recovery misses the communities that are hurting the worst, there can be no real economic recovery for the nation.

The Urban League will hold a press conference to discuss the findings in the report which for the first time also includes a measure of the disparities between Hispanics and Whites. The League will also propose a solution to the crisis – a six-point jobs plan that will invest $168 billion over two years for job creation, job training, greater access to credit for small businesses, additional counseling for those in the foreclosure crisis and tax incentives for clean energy equipment manufacturers who employ individuals in targeted communities. The Urban League will also share personal stories of the effects of the unemployment that have been uploaded to the League’s I AM EMPOWERED web site at www.iamempowered.com.
Following the press conference there will be a State of Black America luncheon with panelists that include Donna Brazile, Democratic political strategist; Karen Finney, political consultant; David A. Wilson, founder and managing editor of The GRIO.com; Forest Harper, Pfizer senior executive; and Robert Traynham, host of Roll Call with Robert Traynham.

African-Americans and Health Care Reform

Following a conference call with White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, the White House issued a release estimating that seven million African-Americans who are currently uninsured will now have access to health care.