Published Work Archives - Page 14 of 23

Superdelegate Sleaze: A Case Study

January 22, 2025March 18, 2008

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post • March 18, 2008

At a moment when Democratic Party officials are urging voters to trust unelected superdelegates to act in the country’s best interests, HuffPost’s OffTheBus investigation into the background of DNC superdelegates reveals at least one appointed superdelegate who is as likely to use his political connections for personal profit as for the greater good.

Take the case of Joseph F. Johnson, a member-at-large of the Democratic National Committee from Chantilliy, Virginia –a suburb of Washington D.C. — and a superdelegate currently tilting toward Hillary Clinton.

In Harlem’s Test Kitchen: A Taste of Local Recipes

January 22, 2025January 28, 2008

City Limits

City Limits Weekly • Jan. 28, 2008

Flushing— The Go Green East Harlem Cookbook, edited by Scott Stringer, Jones Books, $17.95 in stores, free at community events.

It’s difficult to take critical aim at a community cookbook. Rarely intended as just a repository of cooking advice, the recipe collections of neighborhood associations, houses of worship, immigrant clubs and tenants’ groups are often aimed more at raising funds and morale than actually generating whole, good meals. Any true culinary skill gleaned from them is a result of luck as much as intention.

60 Seconds With…Eve Ensler

January 22, 2025January 1, 2008

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Contribute • January/February 2008

In the 10 years since the debut of her still-controversial play, The Vagina Monologues, playwright Eve Ensler’s V-Day campaign to halt violence against women and girls has gone global, raising $50 million to support anti-violence organizations at home and abroad, from India to Asia and the Middle East. This year, a tenth-anniversary run of the play is being performed in 1,200 cities worldwide. CONTRIBUTE’s Tracie McMillan caught up with Ensler recently to talk about her decade of activism and her take on the changing landscape of philanthropic giving.

Putting the Cart Before the Market

January 22, 2025December 24, 2007

City Limits

City Limits Weekly • Dec. 24, 2007

Bushwick – > City officials last week announced that they would be boosting the number of street food permits by 1,500, with a healthy catch: The new food carts will have to sell fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods where residents consume them at low rates.

Going by the name “Green Carts,” the project is being backed by the city’s Food Policy Task Force, Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Permits will be good year-round, and could be available as early as summer 2008, with 500 going to the Bronx and Brooklyn each, and the remainder divvied up between the other boroughs. Carts would be required to sell only unprocessed fruits and vegetables, or pre-packaged fresh produce that is already peeled or cut.

If You Give the Poor Fresh Vegetables, Will They Eat Them?

January 22, 2025December 6, 2007

The Huffington Post

HuffingtonPost.com • Dec. 6, 2007

A brighter note sounded in the obesity epidemic battles this week: Federal Women, Infants and Children vouchers are being overhauled to include fresh fruits and vegetables. But does that mean folks will drop the white bread and American cheese for greens?

In a word: Yes.

State Labor Chief Pledges Help for Domestic Workers

January 22, 2025November 12, 2007

City Limits

City Limits Weekly • Nov. 12, 2007

New York State Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith came out in support of the proposed Domestic Worker Rights Bill now making its way through the state legislature at a forum last week on unregulated work in New York City.

The current incarnation of the bill, first introduced in 2004, requires private employers of domestic help such as nannies and housekeepers to pay wages starting at $14 an hour; provide health insurance; offer paid vacation, overtime and sick days; and provide severance packages.

Pay Gap

January 22, 2025November 6, 2007

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Contribute • November/December 2007

Helping the homeless has never been considered a luxurious calling, but for Ralph Nunez, it’s been surprisingly remunerative. As head of Homes for the Homeless, a Manhattan-based social services nonprofit, Nunez brings home $352,381 a year, one-third of it for part-time work for the organization’s policy arm and an additional $53,598 in benefits. There’s also ready access to a company vehicle and an apartment atop one of the group’s homeless shelters in the gentrifying neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen.

Supermarkets Won’t Solve Obesity, But Bodegas Might

January 22, 2025November 6, 2007

The Huffington Post

HuffingtonPost.com • Nov. 6, 2007

The lack of healthy food in our nation’s poorest communities is finally making it into public discussion, but there’s a tricky hurdle we’ve yet to get around: How to fix it. The most obvious solution–bring in food stores like supermarkets, which are correlated with people eating more fruits and vegetables–is a bureaucratic nightmare. “Food deserts,” typically located in poor urban areas, usually come with limited building sites, hefty regulations and market realities that differ dramatically from the suburbs where supermarkets perfected their business model.

The Donor Drain

January 22, 2025November 1, 2007

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Contribute • November/December 2007

Anne Senft spends her work days raising money for the National Wildlife Federation. It’s not an easy job, and lately, it’s gotten harder. According to Senft, the Reston, Va.-based charity has been losing some 300,000 donors each year — nearly one-third of its nearly one million members.

For most of the early 2000s, Senft says, the group was only able to replace most of the donors who walked out the door. “We pretty much broke even,” she says. Late last year, though, the nonprofit had to make a tough decision: spend more money to make money, or risk falling behind. The Wildlife Federation ended up spending some $2 million more on fundraising than the previous year, according to its tax return, sending out 20 million donor letters and nearly as many e-mails.

Special Report: Charity Accountability

January 22, 2025November 1, 2007

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Contribute • November/December 2007

Created to alleviate poverty, the nonprofit Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust seemed for nearly a decade to be taking aim at South Florida’s most impoverished neighborhoods by creating new business opportunities and jobs.

As it happened, the organization also had been busy creating wealth for some of its own. The taxpayer-supported agency had lavished money on insider deals, lost money on failed loans, and spent hundreds of thousands on celebrity entertainers. Just one wasteful expense involved a tab of more than $87,000 to fly hip-hop star Sean “Diddy” Combs from New Jersey to Miami on a charted Gulfstream jet. Diddy’s antipoverty mission for the nonprofit? Hosting an MTV awards ceremony.