By BHN
In this episode, BHN news anchor, Carol Angela Davis, discusses the following news items:
- JPMorgan Chase is making money moves in West Baltimore.
- Shoppe Black is reporting on boosting food security in Africa.
- Michigan exemplified the critical importance of diversity on state the Supreme Courts
Feature Story:
- The Justice Department commits to prioritizing prevention, investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.
The News Stories
Source: JPMorgan Chase follows up pledge to West Baltimore and local small businesses
(Afro News)
Afro News is reporting that JPMorgan Chase is making money moves in West Baltimore. The financial institution is following up on a pledge and launching a new community branch experience. It’s the Mondawmin Community Center Branch, where JP Morgan is putting up a $600,000 commitment to empower local small businesses. The Mondawmin area can use the assistance. It is seeing a slow recovery from the 2015 Freddie Gray uprising and the sudden closing of the Target store at Mondawmin Mall in 2018.
This new Chase branch will use a community-inspired model to help local consumers and businesses and create a positive financial footprint in West Baltimore. The objective is long term gains for area residents, small businesses and community partners. And it started with a new building which was built in 6 months by a woman-led construction company and the art was done by local artists. Newly elected Maryland governor Wes Moore says when it comes to repairing the fundamental breakdown in communities it is important that everybody,—philanthropy, the private sector, the public sector, government organizations, the people—have a role in terms of what that build up looks like,” Moore adds. “Every single place in our state needs to have pathways to work, wages, and wealth. The beauty of what we’re seeing right now and right here is this place symbolizes all of that.”
The new branch offers traditional banking services, plus free services for customers and non-customers
Source: $136M Agribusiness Fund Aims To Boost Food Security in Africa
(Shoppe Black)
Shoppe Black is reporting on boosting food security in Africa. How about a $136M Agribusiness Fund? Agribusiness is a term that describes the enterprises involved in the production, processing, and distribution of food for consumer use. The African agribusiness sector is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.
And it is critical to support this sector because in Africa, agribusiness is responsible for 70% of employment and about 25% of the continent’s GDP. Enter Zebu Investment Partners, a pan African private equity fund with offices in Ghana and South Africa. The fund’s goal is to build up the companies in the food value chain to improve food security in Africa.
(The New Citizen)
The New Citizens Press is reporting that Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has just announced the historic selection of African American Kyra Harris Bolden as the next addition to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Bolden will be the first Black woman to serve on the high court and is the governor’s first appointment to the state supreme court. Governor Whitmer says Kyra Harris Bolden brings a unique perspective to the high court as a Black woman—and as a new, working mom—that has too long been left out.
Kyra Harris Bolden currently serves as a State Representative for Michigan’s 35th House District where she serves as a member of the House Judiciary and Insurance Committees. Her work has focused on criminal justice reform and crafting and passing bipartisan legislation to protect survivors of sexual violence. She is also co-chair of the Legislative Attorney’s Caucus and chair of the House Democratic Caucus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Feature Story:
The Justice Department commits to prioritizing prevention, investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.
The Justice Department is committed to prioritizing prevention, investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. And with that in mind comes the 2021 FBI Hate Crime Statistics. This is the first year the annual hate crimes statistics are reported entirely through the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which collects significantly more detailed data for each individual criminal incident.
Overall, law enforcement agencies reported 7,262 total hate crime incidents and 9,024 victims. And we have to look at this number a little differently because since the government changed to a new reporting system, not every place reported and a lot of those that did not give their statistics were large metropolitan cities. So the numbers do not show the whole picture.
Specifically The 2021 FBI Hate Crime statistics for the nation are based on data received from 11,883 of 18,812 law enforcement agencies in the country. The 2020 statistics are based on data from 15,136 law enforcement agencies. Again that’s because a lot of law enforcement agencies did not transition to reporting crime data through NIBRS were not able to submit hate crime statistics to the FBI.
