Colin Flaherty: New Orleans Strip Mall Mass Shooting Black Crime - Chicken & Watermelon Colin Flaherty reviews and gives commentary on news with the headlines "‘It’s like he took a knee to Putin’: Mitch Landrieu on Helsinki, race, Democrats’ identity crisis" and "New Orleans shooting: 3 dead, 7 injured after gunmen open fire at strip mall" and "New Hampshire, 94 Percent White, Asks: How Do You Diversify a Whole State?" By Jonathan Capehart July 24, 2018 “It’s like he took a knee to Putin.” “He” is President Trump. The person who made this blunt comment about Trump’s disgraceful press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16 was Mitch Landrieu. “It really is a national embarrassment,” said the recently departed two-term mayor of New Orleans. “Russia’s attempt to completely destabilize our democracy is an attack on the country, and I think the president’s response is unbelievably weak.” Ever since Landrieu delivered an equally blunt speech on race and the removal of Confederate statues and monuments from his city, folks see him as a no-nonsense leader who should run to replace Trump. “It really is humbling for people to think that I could do that,” said Landrieu during a live-event recording of the latest episode of “Cape Up” at the “Opportunity 2020” conference, organized by the center-left think tank Third Way. “I’m not planning on running right now. I’m not saying that I’m [not] running and trying to run. I’m not doing that. I hear it, but what I attribute that to is the public being really thirsty for change.” Published: 9:07 PM CDT July 28, 2018 Updated: 3:39 PM CDT July 29, 2018 NEW ORLEANS – Two people wearing hooded-style clothing approached a large crowd in a strip mall on South Claiborne Avenue Saturday night firing shots “indiscriminately,” killing 3 people and injuring another 7 before getting away on foot. New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Michael Harrison said that the suspects apparently stood over one of the victims and fired several shots into that person at close range. The New Orleans Advocate said the shooting marks the fifth time that 10 or more people have been shot in a single incident in the city since 2013. The incident occurred in the 3400 block of South Claiborne Avenue around 8:30 p.m. in a mall that included a daiquiri shop, a cell phone store, the Chicken & Watermelon restaurant, and other retailers. The Advocate's Matt Sledge said one woman on the scene said that one of the victims was her grandson. She was swinging her arms and just saying "Oh Lord Jesus, oh Lord." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/us/new-hampshire-white-diversify.html By Katharine Q. Seelye July 27, 2018 New Hampshire, like its neighbors Vermont and Maine, is nearly all white. This has posed an array of problems for new arrivals, who often find themselves isolated and alone, without the comfort and support of a built-in community. It has also posed problems for employers in these states, who find that their homogeneity can be a barrier to recruiting and retaining workers of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. The issue prompted about 100 business leaders, government officials and members of nonprofit organizations to meet Thursday to search for ways that New Hampshire — which is 94 percent white — might lure other racial and ethnic groups, as well as younger people. New Hampshire’s neighbors, Vermont and Maine, are 95 percent white, making northern New England collectively the whitest region in a nation where white residents make up just over 60 percent of the population, according to the census. Northern New England does contain pockets that are less monolithic. They are concentrated in the largest communities — Portland, Me.; Burlington, Vt.; and in Manchester, N.H. In Manchester, for example, the white population has dropped to 82 percent, down from 98 percent in 1980. Since then, other ethnicities have been increasing, and as of 2016, Manchester was nearly 8 percent Hispanic, nearly 5 percent black and more than 4 percent Asian. In Lewiston, the second largest city in Maine, Somalis are well-established.

Colin Flaherty author of Don't Make the Black Kids Angry, reviews and gives commentary on news with headlines "Famed Twin Cities actor and singer recovering after a bloody carjacking in St. Paul" By Rohan Preston Star Tribune JULY 26, 2018 — 10:28PM On Saturday, noted Twin Cities entertainer T. Mychael Rambo was carjacked, pistol-whipped and left on a St. Paul street with a concussion after giving a lift to five teenagers. He said he feels pity, not rage, for his attackers. Last weekend, he was carjacked, pistol-whipped and left bloodied in the street by a group of young men. Doctors diagnosed a concussion and put six stitches in his head. St. Paul police said the case remains under investigation. The suspects were described as young men between the ages of 14 and 18. Rambo said he had been to the festival and was driving down University Avenue when five young men — teenagers he had never met — shouted to him at a stoplight near Lexington Avenue: “Hey, Unc, won’t you give us a lift to the next train station?” He agreed and they piled into his vehicle, four in the back, one in the front. “I took them to the intersection they were asking for,” he said. “When we got there, one of the boys asked me to take them to another block — that they were going somewhere else in the neighborhood. When I turned down the residential street, the fellow who had been giving me directions put a gun to the base of my head and told me to give up everything I had. “He hit me with the barrel of the gun. … He fired a set of directions at me, which I didn’t respond to, because I was a bit in shock. When he moved the butt of the gun, I pushed my foot on the brake ... I was able to get my seat belt off, the car door opened and I ejected myself from the vehicle. “When I was getting up off the ground, someone in the vehicle managed to stop it. The guy with the gun came out and put it to my temple and told me he would blow my brains out. One of the boys came running over, rifled through my pockets, took the contents and ran back to the car and drove off. They left me there, standing in the middle of the street, bleeding, totally disoriented and distressed.” In the meantime, he’s savoring the outpouring of support from the community. A neighbor stopped by during the interview to ask after his health. Rambo has taken a philosophical approach to the incident, invoking Martin Luther King Jr., who dreamed of creating a “beloved community.” While the attack was “disheartening, I’m not discouraged,” said Rambo, whose longtime passion is helping young people through mentorships, teaching and performance, including a juvenile offender program offered by Hennepin County. “Our children, with technology, are living very isolated lives,” he continued. “And they’re seeing that people in high places, people who have power, don’t reap consequences for their behavior. [But] the more people are able to connect to each other, to create community, the more we can see others and have some empathy. Then we will [all] be better off."