'Black Lives Matter' Course To Be Offered At Dartmouth College

“If colleges cannot address current events in an intellectually rigorous manner then what are they good for?”

Mary K. Coffey, Dartmouth College’s Art History department chair, asks a valid question -- and one that her school’s students, faculty and administration plan to answer.

Dartmouth is set to offer a course titled “10 Weeks, 10 Professors: #BlackLivesMatter,” centered around racial inequality and violence in America.

‘The Dartmouth’ student newspaper reports that professors across more than 10 academic disciplines, from the humanities to geography to mathematics, will come together for an interdisciplinary approach to modern and historic perspectives of America’s racial climate.

According to Dartmouth geography professor Abigail Neely, the course was originally born from a Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning workshop that encouraged discussion of events that took place in Ferguson, Missouri following the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.

“The course has the potential to be revolutionary insofar as the students who take it will come away with a wide ranging critical framework for thinking through not only what happened in Ferguson (and elsewhere), but also why we continue to see so much violence perpetrated against poor people of color,” Coffey told The Huffington Post. “Having the ability to address the why question will make these students capable of thinking about change, alternatives, or forms of activism that might have a revolutionary impact.”

The creative curricular development comes on the heels of recent on-campus student activism and Dartmouth community protest, and in cooperation with members of faculty and administration dedicated to addressing student concerns.

“It reflects faculty support for student activism over the past several years around issues of inclusion, social justice, and campus climate,” professor Coffey explains. “Those students took risks to raise these issues on campus. Their work has generated interest in these issues within the student body. And it has given faculty who are dedicated to these concerns a new sense of purpose and motivation.”

The course is scheduled to begin during the university’s upcoming spring term.

JOB 20:

10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

DEUT.28:

10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

Chocolate snorting offers new way to a cocoa high

Chocolate sniffer

BRUGES, Belgium - When Belgian chocolatier Dominique Persoone created a chocolate-sniffing device for a Rolling Stones party in 2007, he never imagined demand would stretch much beyond the rock 'n' roll scene. But, seven years later, he has sold 25,000 of them.

Inspired by a device his grandfather used to propel tobacco snuff up his nose, Persoone created a 'Chocolate Shooter' to deliver a hit of Dominican Republic or Peruvian cocoa powder, mixed with mint and either ginger or raspberry.

"The mint and the ginger really tinkle your nose," the 46-year-old said in his chocolate factory in the medieval city of Bruges. "Then the mint flavor goes down and the chocolate stays in your brain."

Tattoo-clad Persoone, who has collaborated with celebrated chefs such as The Fat Duck's Heston Blumenthal and elBulli's Ferran and Albert Adria, has a history of culinary innovation.

Alongside the classics, he has created chocolates flavored with bacon and onion, oysters and even grass.

It took some perfecting to create the snorting powder as chocolate itself was too dry. Before the successful formula was discovered, Persoone used a mix that included chili pepper.

"It's a very bad idea," he said.

The chocolate shooters, which sell for 45 euros ($50) each, have been exported to Russia, India, Canada, Australia and the United States.

The packaging bears a warning against excessive sniffing, but Persoone insists it is safe. He was inspired by the role of the nose when tasting food and, he says, a certain idea of fun.

"The mentality when you think about sniffing is: 'Oh it's kinky, guys who do that stuff...'" Persoone said.

"I'm not the bad boy promoting drugs, not at all ... Life is boring. Let's have fun."

ROMANS 1:

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

ROMAN 6:

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members asinstruments of righteousness unto God.

The Devil’s Punchbowl: Concentration Camps for Black People

 The Devil’s Punchbowl

When you hear the term “concentration camp”, what do you think of? For most of us who have taken a history class, images of Nazi Germany and Hitler pop into our heads. Most of us already know about the history of violence and dehumanization directed at Jewish populations [as well as Polish people, disabled people, homosexuals, etc.] during WWII where they were forced into labor  and/or death camps because of pure bigotry. However, did you know that the U.S. also had concentration camps during the civil war for former slaves who were free?

“During the Civil War authorities in Natchez, Mississippi forced tens of thousands of freed slaves into camps built in what’s known as “The Devil’s Punchbowl”…Historians estimate that in one year following Union troops’ arrivals in Natchez, up to 20,000 freed slaves died in ‘contraband camps’ below steep bluffs.”

Those bluffs are known to local residents today for their wild peach groves. Little did they know that a massive grave was hidden beneath the brush.

Researcher Paula Westbrook states that when slaves left plantations, they ran to Natchez and were trapped there in an encampment.

Black men were re-captured and forced to perform hard labor, while women and children were left in the “punchbowls” to die. Former director of Natchez City Cemetery, Don Estes, states:

“Disease broke out among ‘em, smallpox being the main one. And thousands and thousands died. They were begging to get out. ‘Turn me loose and I’ll go home back to the plantation! Anywhere but there’”

It’s going to be difficult to get further physical data from the site considering the bluffs are dangerous to navigate. Oftentimes skeletal remains will wash up after flooding occurs on the Mississippi river which is a constant reminder that unheard narratives of suffering and brutalization are waiting to be excavated.

Estes states “…There’s the devil’s punchbowl that has so many people that no one knows how they got killed or when.”

While the discovery of the massive grave is a great find for our historical record, it demonstrates just how deep the suffering was for black people who were considered “free.” Disheveled bones from brutalized bodies are all that are left to tell the stories of racism and white supremacy. This find also demonstrates just how little we still know about our ancestors. Understanding our past helps in understanding our contemporary lives.

Though slavery may be an uncomfortable topic for our postracial generation today where we act as though slave ships were cruise ships, punchbowl serves as a reminder that black people were brutally dehumanized in this nation, and no matter how equal we all think we are, perhaps we can look to the ways that  “freed” enslaved people were treated to understand how we too might still have a tradition of discrimination in our own government today.

With each peach tree that grows on punchbowl land, let it serve as an inconvenient reminder to our comfortable lives that racism is alive, and that we can never forget the horrors of slavery.

REVELATION 12:

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

DEUTERONOMY 4:

20 But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

NY Federal judge slams Wells Fargo for forged mortgage docs

Judge Robert Drain has a message for Wells Fargo: “Forged” foreclosure documents don’t cut it in New York’s federal courts.

In a stunning 30-page decision on January 28, Drain, a federal bankruptcy judge in New York’s Southern District, blasted Wells Fargo, America’s largest mortgage servicer, for false documents it used in trying to prove its right to foreclose on Westchester County resident Cynthia Carrsow Franklin’s home.

Drain shredded Wells Fargo’s arguments regarding two crucial documents needed to prove ownership of a loan: an indorsement (another term for endorsement) on a note and an assignment of mortgage.

These documents have to be created properly within a certain time frame, or they won’t hold up in court.

The issue lies at the heart of the foreclosure crisis, and continues to haunt hardworking New Yorkers like Franklin, a speech pathologist for autistic children, to this day.

“… [T]he blank indorsement, upon which Wells Fargo is relying, was forged,” wrote Drain in a stinging rebuke to the bank. “Nevertheless it does show a general willingness and practice on Wells Fargo’s part to create documentary evidence, after-the-fact, when enforcing its claims, WHICH IS EXTRAORDINARY,” wrote Judge Drain with emphasis.

Drain went on to say that “it is conceivable that all of Wells Fargo’s newly created mortgage assignments and newly created indorsements were proper” but that the burden was on Wells to show that, and it didn’t.

A Wells Fargo spokesman said, “Wells Fargo’s processes ensure that all note endorsements are done legally and appropriately, and we strongly dispute the conclusions in this case,” adding, “we are troubled by the additional comments about our general practices that are unsupported by the evidence.”

The judge’s ruling delves deeply into the work of Herman John Kennerty, who was deposed for this case by Franklin’s attorney, Linda Tirelli.

Drain casts a harsh eye on Kennerty’s statements about his work as a manager heading up a “default documents” department for Wells Fargo at the time of Franklin’s foreclosure.

Kennerty admitted to signing between 50 and 150 original documents each day related to administration and enforcement of Wells’ defaulted loans, according to the ruling.

Drain added: “Moreover, Mr. Kennerty’s testimony does not stop at describing manufactured mortgage assignments. He also testified that his ‘assignment team’s’ duties were not limited to processing assignments, including, when determined necessary, creating them; in addition, the ‘assignment team’ included people tasked with endorsing notes.”

The Post first reported on Franklin’s case in March 2014, when Tirelli alleged in court papers that Wells Fargo set up detailed internal procedures in a 150-page Wells Fargo Foreclosure Attorney Procedures Manual (created Nov. 9, 2011, and updated Feb 24, 2012) to fabricate foreclosure papers on demand. Wells Fargo denied the allegations.

Franklin told The Post, “I feel relieved … I’m hoping this case will help other people.”

She added, “Reading this opinion … it feels very calculated. It wasn’t like I was lost in the shuffle somehow. And you know, if someone writes me a check and they forget to sign it, I can’t cash it. If in my job I turn in paperwork and I forgot to check something or to write in a code, it’s kicked out. I don’t get paid. That’s how it works with everybody else.”

Wells Fargo has about two weeks to file a notice of appeal. The megabank lost this round, but the judge also made it clear that Franklin’s debt remains.

Drain’s ruling followed another major loss for Wells Fargo in a residential foreclosure case last week — and another smackdown, this time from a Missouri state court judge. This in turn comes after Wells Fargo and three other big banks were hit with a $2.7 million penalty to settle allegations of unlawful foreclosures in Massachusetts.

On Jan. 26, Judge R. Brent Elliott of Missouri’s 43rd Judicial Circuit awarded $2.9 million in punitive damages to a Missouri couple who spent years in limbo after Wells wrongfully foreclosed on their home. Wells sold it to Freddie Mac on Aug. 15, 2008, even after agreeing to a reinstatement of the loan following a disputed debt.

Elliott also blasted Wells Fargo for “outrageous and reprehensible” decisions and “deceptive and intentional conduct” that “displayed a complete and total disregard for the rights of David and Crystal Holm.

“Defendant Wells Fargo operated from a position of superiority provided by its enormous wealth,” Brent wrote in a blistering nine-page decision. “Wells Fargo’s decision took advantage of an obviously financially vulnerable family,” the judge continued, noting that Wells Fargo showed no evidence of remorse for the harm caused.

“In fact, the Court recalls the lack of remorse and humanity illustrated by a Wells Fargo corporate representative who testified, ‘I’m not here as a human being. I’m here as a representative of Wells Fargo,’ ” the judge wrote.

The couple and their 12-year-old daughter got their home back, along with a total of $3.25 million in damages.

“We have modified more than 1 million mortgage loans and have forgiven $8.4 billion in principal since the beginning of 2009. There’s a lot more to this case than the decision reflects, and we have strong arguments to appeal the judgment and the unwarranted damages that were awarded,” a Wells Fargo spokesman said of the Missouri case.

PROVERBS 28:

8 He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.

JOHN 10:

10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Hamilton man stabs another in the back over $8 argument, police say

Daesean Lynch and Jairre Muldrow

An argument over $8 ended Saturday night when one man stabbed another in the back, police said.

Daesean Lynch, 19, of Hamilton was jailed on aggravated assault and weapons charges after stabbing a 25-year-old man in the back. He was taken to Mercer County jail, Hopewell Township, in lieu of $25,000 bail, according to Capt. James Stevens.

Police also arrested Dianna Ray, 41, of Hamilton and Jairre Muldrow, 24, of Trenton. Each was charged with obstruction and resisting arrest. They were released with a court date, Stevens said.

Police were called to the 400 block of Massachusetts Avenue around 8 p.m. to break up a fight among friends that began in an apartment and spilled into the street, Stevens said.

The fight began as a verbal argument over the money that turned physical and ended when Lynch stabbed the 25-year-old in the back. The victim suffered only minor injuries and was treated at Capital Health Medical Center in Trenton and released, Stevens said.

LEVITICUS 19:

17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

DEUT 25:

1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

Missing 86-year-old lottery winner found stabbed to death

86-year-old Arthur Neal 

DETROIT - The elderly lottery winner who went missing the day after his windfall was found murdered Sunday.

Family and friends of 86-year-old Arthur Neal hoped for his safe return, but he was found stabbed multiple times in the basement of a house on Detroit's west side.

He was found in the 15800 block of Mansfield after someone discovered a body in the basement of the house next door. 

Sources tell FOX 2 it was the body of  Neal, the man who won $20,000 in the lottery Dec.19 and disappeared the next day.

It is unknown if the winning ticket was cashed in or not. 

 "That's who was there, oh," said Fred, a neighbor next door. "That's why it's not good to identify yourself picking up that money. I'm sorry to hear that."

It is not clear if Neal's new-found fortune was a motive in his death. His family grew concerned after they had not heard from their grandfather - especially around the holidays.

They had put out a plea and searched. Days turned into weeks.

On Sunday Neal's body was hidden under a tarp. An autopsy revealed he had been stabbed multiple times.

"That's scary," Fred said. "That's scary. I have vacant houses on both sides of me - it's scary."

Fred said nothing seemed unusual until he remembered a friendly young man who he recently saw go in and out of the house.

"I thought he was staying there squatting there, not disturbing the property," Fred said.

Police are asking questions and searching for the person responsible.

In the meantime, neighbors who live near Neal's Detroit house on Trinity were saddened to hear their friend, who was missing for six weeks would not be coming home alive.

"I hate to hear he is gone," said one neighbor.

"It's sad is all I can say," said another. "A good man, just gone."

FOX 2 spoke to one of Neal's granddaughters but she declined comment saying she was too upset.

1 TIMOTHY 6:

10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

PROVERBS 1:

18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

The FAA: Regulating business on the moon

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  - The United States government has taken a new, though preliminary, step to encourage commercial development of the moon.

According to documents obtained by Reuters, U.S. companies can stake claims to lunar territory through an existing licensing process for space launches.

The Federal Aviation Administration, in a previously undisclosed late-December letter to Bigelow Aerospace, said the agency intends to “leverage the FAA’s existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities can be conducted on a non-interference basis.”

In other words, experts said, Bigelow could set up one of its proposed inflatable habitats on the moon, and expect to have exclusive rights to that territory - as well as related areas that might be tapped for mining, exploration and other activities.

However, the FAA letter noted a concern flagged by the U.S. State Department that “the national regulatory framework, in its present form, is ill-equipped to enable the U.S. government to fulfill its obligations” under a 1967 United Nations treaty, which, in part, governs activities on the moon.

The United Nations Outer Space treaty, in part, requires countries to authorize and supervise activities of non-government entities that are operating in space, including the moon. It also bans nuclear weapons in space, prohibits national claims to celestial bodies and stipulates that space exploration and development should benefit all countries.

    “We didn’t give (Bigelow Aerospace) a license to land on the moon. We’re talking about a payload review that would potentially be part of a future launch license request. But it served a purpose of documenting a serious proposal for a U.S. company to engage in this activity that has high-level policy implications,” said the FAA letter’s author, George Nield, associate administrator for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Transportation.

“We recognize the private sector’s need to protect its assets and personnel on the moon or on other celestial bodies," the FAA wrote in the December letter to Bigelow Aerospace. The company, based in Nevada, is developing the inflatable space habitats. Bigelow requested the policy statement from the FAA, which oversees commercial space transportation in the U.S.

The letter was coordinated with U.S. departments of State, Defense, Commerce, as well as NASA and other agencies involved in space operations. It expands the FAA’s scope from launch licensing to U.S. companies’ planned activities on the moon, a region currently governed only by the nearly 50-year old UN space treaty.

But the letter also points to more legal and diplomatic work that will have to be done to govern potential commercial development of the moon or other extraterrestrial bodies.

“It’s very much a wild west kind of mentality and approach right now,” said John Thornton, chief executive of private owned Astrobotic, a startup lunar transportation and services firm competing in a $30 million Google-backed moon exploration XPrize contest.

Among the pending issues is lunar property and mineral rights, a topic that was discussed and tabled in the 1970s in a sister UN proposal called the Moon Treaty. It was signed by just nine countries, including France, but not the United States.

"It is important to remember that many space-faring nations have national companies that engage in commercial space activities. They will definitely want to be part of the rule making process," said Joanne Gabrynowicz, a professor of space law at University of Mississippi .

    Bigelow Aerospace is expected to begin testing a space habitat aboard the International Space Station this year. The company intends to then operate free-flying orbital outposts for paying customers, including government agencies, research organizations, businesses and even tourists. That would be followed by a series of bases on the moon beginning around 2025, a project estimated to cost about $12 billion.

Company founder Robert Bigelow said he intends to invest $300 million of his own funds, about $2.5 billion in hardware and services from Bigelow Aerospace and raise the rest from private investors.

The FAA’s decision “doesn’t mean that there’s ownership of the moon," Bigelow told Reuters. "It just means that somebody else isn’t licensed to land on top of you or land on top of where exploration and prospecting activities are going on, which may be quite a distance from the lunar station.”

Other companies could soon be testing rights to own what they bring back from the moon. Moon Express, another aspiring lunar transportation company, and also an XPrize contender, intends to return moon dust or rocks on its third mission.

“The company does not see anything, including the Outer Space Treaty, as being a barrier to our initial operations on the moon," said Moon Express co-founder and president Bob Richards. That includes "the right to bring stuff off the moon and call it ours.”

OBADIAH 1:

4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.

JEREMIAH 49:

16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

17 Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.