Mediaboss Marketing

*Rev. Al Sharpton reportedly earned $1,046,948 from his own charity last year, according to National Action Networks latest tax filings.

Via foxnews.com:

Sharpton got a $324,000 salary 32% higher than his 2017 pay in addition to a $159,596 bonus and $563,352 in other compensation.

The Harlem-based nonprofit which Sharpton controls as president and CEO said the extra cash was to make up for the years from 2004 to 2017 when he didnt get his full pay.

NAN said it hired an executive compensation firm that determined the good reverend was owed $1.252 million but he was generously willing to take $500,000 less.

Sharpton and the nonprofits board also agreed he has now been fully compensated for all the years he was underpaid and received no bonus, the NAN statement said.

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:Kanye West: Rapper Tells Megachurch Hes the Greatest Artist God Ever Created [VIDEO]

Rev. Al Sharpton speaks at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2016.Sharpton announced that the We Shall Not Be Moved march in Washington will be held on January 14, 2017 commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. and to give notice that a collective body of Americans are dedicated and fully committed to moving the legacy and mission Dr. King forward. / AFP / NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Sharpton said he deserved the 2018 raise.

Its a six-day-a-week job and several hours a day and when [the compensation firm] compared it to other companies, other nonprofits, thats the salary that they would get, he said.

In related news, the legendary comedy club will roast the 65-year-old civil rights activist on June 5, 2020 at the New York Hiltons Grand Ballroom.

Im prepared the Friars Club is the Friars Club, Sharpton told the Daily News Thursday.

Sharpton expects roasters to make fun of his weight loss and his feuds with Trump.

Once you decide to go in the frying pan you cant decide what kind of preparations (or if) theyre going to put salt and pepper on, he said.

At the Friars, we like to say, we only roast the ones we love. This time, were roasting one we adore a national hero, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Friars Club Executive Director, Michael Gyure said in a statement. The stars are turning out to show their respect by being hilariously disrespectful to the Rev and then he gets to give it right back to them!

Follow this link:
Al Sharpton Receives $1M in Pay from His Charity + Will Be Roasted by Legendary Friars Club - Eurweb.com

The Rev. Al Sharpton pushed back on media reports that South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete ButtigiegPeter (Pete) Paul ButtigiegSanders, Buttigieg surge in New Hampshire as Biden, Warren slip: poll Buttigieg calls The Root writer whose column on his past comments on minorities and education went viral Buttigieg surges to second place behind Biden as Warren sinks: poll MORE is struggling to gain traction with black voters in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary because hes gay, saying homophobia is not unique to the African American community.

I wanted to make a statement for the cynics in the media that they try and act like homophobia in the black community is different from homophobia in America. There are some homophobic blacks, and there are some homophobic whites. We dont have an epidemic of homophobia, Sharpton said Thursday at a National Action Network event in Atlanta.

But we have some homophobics just like any other community. And it is a process that America needs to deal with both in the black and white community.

Thecivil rights leader's remarks come in response to reports speculating that Buttigiegs sexual orientation could be a barrier in his attempts to appeal to black voters, particularly older black voters. The South Bend, Ind., mayor is the only openly gay candidate in the 2020 Democratic field.

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the third highest ranking Democrat in the House, also said earlier this month that there was no question Buttigiegs sexual orientation was a problem among older African Americans, calling it a generational issue.

Im not going to sit here and tell you otherwise, because I think everybody knows thats an issue. But Im saying its an issue not the way it used to be, he said.

Buttigieg has dismissed speculation that black voters may not support him because hes gay, noting he was elected mayor of South Bend despite the prevalence of socially conservative Democrats.

It is remarkable how Americans are capable of moving past old habit, moving past old prejudices, making history, and getting the president that will serve them best regardless of the other noise thats circling around the race, he said this month.

Originally posted here:
Sharpton: 'We don't have an epidemic of homophobia' in the black community | TheHill - The Hill

Deval Patrick fields questions during a meeting of the Polk County Democrats on November 18, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Deval Patrick has hardly had the smoothest public entry to the Democratic presidential primary since he jumped in earlier this month, but behind the scenes hes started trying to win over some of his partys power players in a bid to fund and energize his long-shot campaign. The latest step: a small, private meeting on Friday between the former Massachusetts governor and a handful of influential figures, including prominent undecided African-American political and business leaders in New York some of whom were close to Barack Obama according to Democrats briefed on the closed-door gathering.

The group, which met at the Manhattan office of Advent Capital Management president Tracy Maitland, included Reverend Al Sharpton, long-serving Queens congressman Gregory Meeks, and former New York governor David Paterson, multiple people familiar with the meeting told New York. Others in attendance included real-estate investor Don Peebles a high-level fundraiser for Obama Sundial Brands founder and Essence magazine owner Richelieu Dennis, and investor Robert Wolf, an Obama friend and former bank executive who is now a sought-after Democratic fundraiser and a fellow Obama Foundation board member with Patrick, before the ex-governor stepped down this summer.

Patrick, a political moderate and longtime friend of the former president, had met most of the attendees before, but he used the one-hour get-together to recount his record on issues like education, infrastructure, clean energy, and Massachusetts economy, and to explain his vision for the long-shot campaign, which he launched in mid-November after initially passing on a run in late 2018. He explained that when he first decided to hold off on running, his wife had recently been diagnosed with cancer, but that she is now healthy. And while he underscored that he was aware a run at the nomination would be an uphill climb, he also outlined his plan to focus heavily on campaigning in New Hampshire a next-door neighbor state for him and South Carolina the first state in the process with a majority black Democratic primary electorate.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide a platform for folks to evaluate the governor, and why he got into the race when he did, and, Is there a path forward?, said Maitland, who talked up Patricks ability to sway moderate Republicans. The investor explained that this was the first such meeting hes ever held, but that he also knows Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. I do believe there is some plausibility to a pragmatic progressive in the market right now, so I did think it was incumbent on me to provide the venue for people to give the governor full and fair consideration of his candidacy.

The early days of Patrick 2020 have involved a barrage of public appearances as he sprints to introduce himself to as many Americans as possible before voting begins. But Patrick, who left office in 2015 and until earlier this month worked at private-equity giant Bain Capital, has also been trying to reconnect with donors and influential activists whod indicated at least some willingness to support or consider him when he first looked at running last year. Some of the Friday meeting attendees like Wolf have met with many candidates in private in recent months, while Sharpton has met publicly with a range of them, as well.

Patrick, meanwhile, has spent recent weeks trying to build up a campaign staff from scratch as he travels the country. With multiple longtime advisers committed to other presidential or down-ballot campaigns, this has proven a complicated task especially given the long odds hes now facing. Despite a wave of interested news coverage when he first announced his candidacy, Patrick canceled an appearance at Atlantas Morehouse College last week when only two people showed up. And while he drew an interested crowd in New Hampshire on Monday, the day ended with a new poll of the state showing him at just one percent support, and with half of voters saying he waited too long, so that they would not consider him. Some in the field have been running for nearly a year, after all.

All of that makes Patricks task of raising campaign cash and making powerful friends who can bring in more of it all the more urgent. And it makes the job of considering his candidacy in person all the more appealing, and time-sensitive, for his potential financial backers.

Its important as an investor, these days. The political scene is moving the markets quite a bit for instance, when Elizabeth Warren was surging in the polls, it affected the markets, and healthcare in particular. [And] as an American, its important to have an opinion on who is the best candidate, said Maitland of his decision to host Patrick. So, as an investor, it makes a lot of sense. And as an ordinary citizen, it makes a lot of sense.

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

Originally posted here:
Deval Patrick's Bid to Win Over Democratic Power Players - New York Magazine

By Marcia Moxam Comrie

Special to the Eagle

Former New York CityMayor Michael Bloomberg has flirted with running for president for years, and this might finally be the year he does it.

You dont go as far as to dispatch campaign workers to distant states to get you on the ballot to run in the primary election if you dont plan to run. But Bloomberg is no ordinary candidate. He is financially equipped to take his time. Right now he has the five toes of one foot in the water; but by early December he might be fully wading in.

The question is, do enough voters care about candidate Bloomberg to switch loyalties from anyone they may be currently supporting? Hes not exciting. Hes a bit of an elitist and definitely not warm and fuzzy if thats your thing. But sitting on the sidelines watching Mayor Pete thriving in the polls, Mayor Mike must be feeling hes the more qualified mayor of the two. And one cannot argue with that. Say what you will about him, but Bloomberg did some good things in New York that can be sold nationally.

Bloomberg, like Tom Stayer, would be the green president. He would get us right back into the Paris Agreement, which Trump took us out of shortly after taking office. One of his biggest accomplishments as mayor was the greening of New York, both literally with the planting of more than 1 million new trees across the five boroughs; and figuratively by working with corporations and public institutions to narrow their carbon footprints.

He also proved his leadership upon taking office in January 2002 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The mayor and an almost entirely new City Council body led by Speakers Gifford Miller and Christine Quinn, respectively, brought the city back from the brink of financial disaster setting the wheels in motion to rebuild lower Manhattan and lure tourists back to a safe New York City. Mayor Bloomberg was also a great public health mayor.

His policy in this area was often met with scorn, but in the end we are a healthier city for it. He outlawed smoking in public spaces, including public transportation, restaurants, and even some sidewalks. This was, and continues to be a great thing for people with respiratory maladies and everyone else for that matter.

Other health policies included the banning of trans fat in restaurants as well as calorie count so diners can make informed food choices. If some of these policies sound dictatorial, they were, but for many, it was good public policy. He was a mayor concerned about the health of the city and its residents. He would also fight the good fight for sensible gun laws, just as he has been doing for years in and out of office. On this front, he has poured tens of millions of his own money into the fight against the NRA and other such interests.

But heres where Bloomberg caused a lot of damage: Stop and Frisk. Young Black men in particular were singled out for the controversial stop and frisk practice by the NYPD. African-American and darker hued Latino men felt they couldnt catch a break. Bill de Blasio ran on a promise to end the Blomberg stop and frisk era, and he won and kept his promise.

Today, according to Mayor de Blasio, crime is at its lowest in decades. And Mayor Bloomberg has embarked on what sounds like an apology tour. I like Mike and think he definitely has something to add to the 2020 conversation. However, it seems disingenuous to have waited until hes on the verge of a national campaign to start apologizing. He should have realized the harm that policy was doing to our community and at least monitored it more closely to ensure it wasnt being abused.

He also could have made his apologies at any time during the six years hes been out of office. The optics of waiting until hes considering a run for president just reeks of insincerity. Going to a mega church in Brooklyn or a conversation with Rev. Al Sharpton cannot undo the time people spent in jail on petty or trumped up charges. It rings hollow. Sharpton says he accepts the apology and good for him! But he does not speak for the rest of us.

Of course our hurt over stop and frisk shouldnt make us vote for Trump if Mike is the nominee next year. Bloomberg would be an honorable president with good ideas. He is a statesman. He would never sell out our country to further enrich himself nor win an election. He would not be tweeting insults nor encouraging ethnic divides. In fact, on paper hes almost perfect. I would never dismiss his candidacy because hes messed up badly in one area.

A wise retired politician once told me that sometimes you hold your nose and vote. He probably meant this more in the legislative sense, but its workable for elections too. In the 90s the Clintons caused a lot of damage with the crime bill, but we still voted for them in large numbers. Kamala Harris brought up Joe Bidens record on busing, but we have not turned away from him either. Just as no person is perfect, no presidential candidate is perfect. We just have to weigh the totality of their record.

Bloomberg, and just about everyone else on the Democratic side, would bring back respectability, if nothing else to the Office of the President. We would regain respectability on the world stage, respect the value of every human life and dignity including at the Southern border. So lets see what Bloomberg has to say if he really joins the race.

Marcia Moxam Comrie is a freelance writer from St. Albans, Queens. She is a former columnist and founding editor of the Southeast Queens PRESS. She has a special affinity for political commentary.

View original post here:
Opinion: Candidate Bloomberg and the delayed apology - Queens Daily Eagle

New York He was the billionaire businessman and untested politician who took charge of a scarred city and steered it into a new era, shaping a New York that projected glittering prosperity, governmental innovation and cosmopolitan confidence.

Michael Bloomberg will be highlighting, and answering for, that legacy in his newly launched Democratic presidential campaign as a doer and a problem-solver.

File-This photo from Sunday, July, 4, 2004, shows developer Larry Silverstein, right, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the unveiling of a 9-foot-by-4-foot granite cornerstone, after it was lifted into its resting spot at the World Trade Center site in New York.(Photo: DEAN COX, AP)

Over 12 years as mayor of the nations largest city, Bloomberg governed with a focus on functionality and a vision of New York rebounding from the trauma of 9/11 to become safer, shinier and more of a magnet than before.

The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent (now turned Democrat again) was unbeholden to the citys Democratic power structure or the combative law-and-order conservatism of predecessor Rudy Giuliani. But Bloombergs City Hall wasnt without ideology of its own: data-driven; tech-friendly; committed to making national waves on gun control, public health and climate change; unapologetic and unafraid of backlash if officials were confident theyd be proven right in the end.

The approach did much to transform the city. But many New Yorkers were chafing as Bloombergs tenure neared its 2013 end, in a third term hed won after engineering a term-limits-law change.

Some felt Bloombergs New York worked better for a well-off elite than for others, including hundreds of thousands of black and Hispanic men experiencing police stop and frisks each year, the homeless whose numbers had surged, the tenants who rued seeing rents rise along with pricey skyscrapers. The term-limited mayors successor, Democrat Bill de Blasio, told a campaign tale of two cities that resonated with voters who felt Bloomberg was out of touch.

Nonetheless, Bloomberg left office with nearly two-thirds of voters saying he made the city better, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, and a long list of important mayoral moments.

Here are some.

File-This photo from Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001, shows Mayor Rudolph Giuliani endorsing then Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg, left, on the steps of City Hall in New York. Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001. The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent (now turned Democrat again) was unbeholden to the city's Democratic power structure or the combative law-and-order conservatism of predecessor Rudy Giuliani.(Photo: ROBERT SPENCER, AP)

I commit to you today that I will make the schools better, Bloomberg said when an education overhaul he muscled through the Legislature became law in 2002.

He had campaigned on gaining control of the nations largest public school system, troubled by low test scores and high dropout rates. It was overseen by an unwieldy combination of an appointed board which Bloomberg said ran the schools like a rinky-dink candy store and 32 elected school boards.

After getting control, Bloomberg left his mark by championing charter schools, expanding school choice, giving schools letter grades, and replacing scores of struggling institutions with clusters of small schools. His presidential-campaign announcement boasted that he gave teachers the largest raise in America and improved high school graduation rates by 42%.

Many of his education initiatives were contentious. Protests erupted when some schools closed. Bloombergs choice system gave families options, but was criticized as fueling segregation by expanding the number of schools allowed to screen students by test scores, interviews and auditions.

Six months into his tenure, Bloomberg signed what he said may be the most important measure my administration takes to save peoples lives.

It raised the citys cigarette taxes to the highest level in the nation.

Bloomberg went on to prioritize public health, banning smoking in bars and parks, making chain restaurants post calorie counts and prohibiting artificial trans fats in restaurant food. He lobbied food manufacturers to use less salt.

Then, in 2012, Bloomberg took aim at soda.

Pointing to rising obesity rates, he proposed a 16-ounce cap on non-diet soda and other sugary beverages sold in restaurants and other venues.

Health officials praised the first-of-its kind measure. Industry groups and believers in laissez-faire called it unfair to businesses and condescending toward consumers, dubbing the mayor Nanny Bloomberg and Mayor Poppins.

Courts struck the measure down.

Bloomberg called the outcome unfortunate but remained proud of his public-health record, saying his administrations biggest accomplishment was a roughly 3-year increase in residents life expectancy.

File-This photo from Friday, Oct. 12, 2012, shows District Attorney Cyrus Vance, left, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, center, NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, right, with confiscated illegal firearm during a press conference in New York.(Photo: John Minchillo, AP)

Saying he wanted to stanch gun violence at the source, Bloomberg announced in May 2006 that he was suing 15 dealers he accused of selling firearms illegally in other states.

Efforts to stop this bloodshed have to reach across state lines, said Bloomberg, whose administration said the shops were linked to guns used in New York City crimes.

The lawsuits resulted in court-appointed monitoring for many targeted shops and a burgeoning role for Bloomberg as a public face of gun control.

He went on to co-found Mayors Against Illegal Guns now part of his Everytown for Gun Safety advocacy group and has given millions of dollars to pro-gun control candidates.

Critics complained he was deaf to the views of millions of firearms owners.

The National Rifle Association caricatured Bloomberg as an octopus on the cover of its magazine in 2007. A Virginia group organized a taunting Bloomberg Gun Giveaway.

File-This photo from Friday April 15, 2011, shows the New York by Gehry tower, center, in downtown New York--which was originally supposed to include 200 sprawling condos along with 700 rentals, but now all apartments are for rent.(Photo: Mary Altaffer, AP)

A rail yard on Manhattans Far West Side had been a linchpin of Bloombergs bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. After it failed in 2005, Bloomberg pivoted to reconceiving the 28-acre area as a new neighborhood of offices, apartments, arts spaces and more.

To facilitate it, the city took an unusual step to finance a subway line extension.

The December 2007 groundbreaking for the citys first additional subway station in a quarter-century was a milestone in the citys biggest private real estate development since Rockefeller Center.

Hudson Yards, which opened this March, was part of the roughly 40 percent of the city that was rezoned during Bloombergs tenure.

Bloomberg said his administration created or preserved more than 175,000 affordable housing units. But for many New Yorkers, affordability slipped from reach.

By 2013, some 54% of renter households were spending 30% or more of their income on housing, up from 43% in 2000, according to New York Universitys Furman Center. The number of people in homeless shelters rose about 60% during Bloombergs tenure, despite his pledge to reduce homelessness by two-thirds.

Bloomberg insisted he had worked to fight poverty. Yet he was unabashed about also courting the rich.

Thats where the revenue comes to take care of everybody else, he told New York magazine in 2013. Wouldnt it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here?

When a proposal to build a Muslim community center near ground zero generated a bitter debate over tolerance and the legacy of 9/11, Bloomberg delivered one of the most impassioned speeches of his career.

When first responders rushed to save people on Sept. 11, 2001, he noted, not one of them asked, What God do you pray to?

Muslims are as much a part of our city and our country as the people of any faith, and they are as welcome to worship in lower Manhattan as any other group, he said.

The terror attacks happened two months before Bloomberg won the mayoralty, partly by arguing that his business experience would help revitalizing the city.

Bloomberg at times alienated some Sept. 11 victims relatives, but he also led the development of the ground zero memorial.

As progress stalled in 2006, Bloomberg joined the 9/11 memorial foundation board and became chairman to boost fundraising, giving at least $15 million of his own fortune. Organizers credited him with injecting momentum. The memorial plaza opened in 2011, followed by the museum in 2014.

Superstorm Sandy slammed New York City with a surge of water that killed 44 people and plunged swaths of the city into darkness. Flooding damaged tens of thousands of homes, swamped subways and forced evacuations of hospitals and nursing homes.

Bloomberg offered a voice of on-top-of-it assurance.

We will get through the days ahead by doing what we always do in tough times by standing together, he said.

Those days were packed with problems: enduring outages, gas shortages, senior citizens stranded in high-rises where elevators didnt work.

Bloomberg embarked on home-repair initiatives that drew initial praise for performing basic fixes on 20,000 dwellings in five months, but led to years-long delays for more substantial repairs.

He also proposed a $20 billion plan to protect New York with levees, flood gates and other defenses.

File-This photo from Sunday, June 17, 2012, shows Rev. Al Sharpton, center, with demonstrators during a silent march to end the "stop-and-frisk" program in New York.(Photo: Seth Wenig, AP)

During the Bloomberg administration, civil rights groups went to court to end the NYPDs use of a tactic known as stop and frisk, which involved detaining, questioning and sometimes searching people deemed suspicious by officers.

A federal judges 2013 ruling on the program was unsparing: The police had violated thousands of peoples civil rights.

The citys highest officials have turned a blind eye to the evidence that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin wrote.

The tactic was longstanding, but its use soared under Bloomberg and then-Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, from about 97,000 stops in 2002 to a high of almost 685,000 in 2011.

They argued the tactic helped drive crime down to record-low levels, but only about 10 percent of stops yielded arrests or summonses.

De Blasio later dropped the citys appeal of the ruling, agreeing to reforms and a court-appointed monitor.

Bloomberg apologized for this month for supporting stop and frisk.

I cant change history, he told a black church congregation in Brooklyn, but I realize back then I was wrong.

Jennifer Peltz covered New York City Hall during part of Bloombergs final term. Associated Press writer Karen Matthews contributed to this report.

Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/26/bloomberg-mayor-new-york-sparkled-chafed/40713871/

Excerpt from:
Bloomberg as mayor: A New York that sparkled, and chafed - The Detroit News