Charges Filed in NAACP Embezzlement Case

A former NAACPexecutive was charged in Fulton County, Ga., with embezzling $275,000 from the U.S. civil rights organization, NAACP officials say.

The Rev. Amos Brown, administrator for the NAACP's Atlanta chapter, said former NAACP official Judith W. Hanson and Hanson's former assistant, Saundra Douglass, are accused of embezzling funds during their time with the Baltimore-based organization, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Tuesday.

Authorities allege Hanson, who served as the executive director of the NAACP's Atlanta chapter, and Douglass used NAACP funds for personal expenses during a six-year period.

 

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African American News: Study Finds Financial Benefits to Marriage

Historically, marriage was the surest route to financial security for women. Nowadays it's men who are increasingly getting the biggest economic boost from tying the knot, according to a new analysis of census data.

The changes, summarized in a Pew Research Center report being released Tuesday, reflect the proliferation of working wives over the past 40 years — a period in which American women outpaced men in both education and earningsgrowth. A larger share of today's men, compared with their 1970 counterparts, are married to women whose education and income exceed their own, and a larger share of women are married to men with less education and income.

"From an economic perspective, these trends have contributed to a gender role reversal in the gains from marriage," wrote the report's authors, Richard Fry and D'Vera Cohn.

 

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Facebook Plagued by Fake Haiti Fundraisers

Fake fundraising efforts for the Haiti disaster are spreading like wildfire on Facebook. Dozens of fan pages have been set up, urging users to join and promising a $1 donation for each member. One group this weekend attracted 1.5 million members before it was disabled.

Meanwhile, during the weekend, Facebook officials had to beat back a rumor that the firm had promised a $1 donation for every member that changed their status to include a message about Haiti.

"This status is being tracked, the owners of facebook have confirmed they will send $1 to the rescue fund for the Haiti earthquake disaster for everytime this is cut and paste as a status," read one form of the bogus claim. "You only have to leave it for a minimum of 1 hour. Lets all do our bit to help."

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said the firm took aggressive steps to quell the rumor. It posted a note on its blog on Saturday warning about the bogus message.

"Beware of scams and hoaxes and ensure that your donations for Haiti get to the right places," the social networking company wrote on its blog. Contrary to a current meme, Facebook is not donating $1 for statuses, however we are sharing reputable resources via the "Other Pages" tab on the Global Disaster Relief on Facebook Page."

 

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Wyclef’s Charity Under Questioning

Haiti's musician Wyclef Jean, left, arrives at the airport in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010, the day after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit his country. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

(AP)

Groups that vet charities are raising doubts about the organization backed by Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, questioning its accounting practices and ability to function in earthquake-hit Haiti.

Even as more than $2 million poured into The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. via text message after just two days, experts questioned how much of the money would help those in need.

"It's questionable. There's no way to get around that," said Art Taylor, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, based in Arlington, Va.

Taylor reviewed Internal Revenue Service tax returns for the organization also known as Yele Haiti Foundation from 2005 through 2007. He said the first red flag of poor accounting practices was that three years of returns were filed on the same day — Aug. 10 of last year.

In 2007, the foundation's spending exceeded its revenues by $411,000. It brought in just $79,000 that year.

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US Insurers Have Limited Exposure to Haiti

U.S. insurers may have very little exposure to the massive losses caused by the earthquake that struck Haiti.

Haiti is one of the smallest insurance markets in the Americas, with a total non-life insurance premium income of just under $20 million, "which reflect the country's poverty," according to a report Wednesday from Newark, Calif.-based Risk Management Solutions Inc. By comparison, the total net premiums for property and casualty coverage in the U.S. in 2008 totaled nearly $441 billion, the most recent figures available from the Insurance Information Institutes 2010 Fact Book.

 

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Your Financial News: Jobs Come and then Go

By Chris Isidore, senior writerJanuary 8, 2010: 11:31 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Employers once again slashed a substantial number jobs off their payrolls in December, according to adisappointing report from the government Friday. But there was a small glimmer of hope as well.

The payroll number for November was revised to a net gain of 4,000 jobs. That's the first increase in jobs in nearly two years. The government had previously indicated that 11,000 jobs were lost in November.

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Your Black News: Black Leaders Fight for Census Funds

The nation’s black newspaper executives are asking for $10 million from the U.S. Census Bureau to advertise for the 2010 Census, but the government is reportedly only offering $2.5 million.
NNPA officials told Richard Prince - who writes a diversity column for The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education - that the NNPA would use the $10 million in advertising to encourage African Americans across the country to participate in the 2010 Census.  
Commerce officials said the Census Bureau would take a second look at its $300 million communications campaign to determine if there are ways to make it better. The bureau kicks off its ad campaign next month and will conduct its head count via mail and door-to-door canvassing next spring.
Last month, a coalition of civil rights leaders met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke in an effort to prevent an undercount of African-Americans in the upcoming 2010 Census. In 2000, the Census Bureau said about 4.5 million people were mistakenly overlooked - mostly African Americans and Hispanics.

 

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