MAURICE WHITE OF ICONIC GROUP “EARTH, WIND & FIRE” HAS DIED

Published February 4, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
My heart broke upon reading this news.  Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White, whose horn-driven band sold more than 90 million albums and made hits like “September,” ”Shining Star” and “Boogie Wonderland,” died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, his brother Verdine said.

  
White, who was 74, suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and had retreated from the public even as the band he founded kept performing.
“My brother, hero and best friend Maurice White passed away peacefully last night in his sleep,” Verdine White, also a member of the band, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “While the world has lost another great musician and legend, our family asks that our privacy is respected as we start what will be a very difficult and life changing transition in our lives. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.”

  
Rest in Paradise Maurice.  Your soul will forever live on through your music.  Thank you for blessing us with your gift and talent.

ERYKAH BADU IS SET TO STYLE A NY FASHION WEEK SHOW…

Published February 4, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
Who better to get to style a black experience inspired fashion show than Erykah Badu?!!!  Pyer Moss AW16 show alongside designer Kerby Jean-Raymond, which explores the black experience in Contemporary America has selected Erykah Badu to direct their style on the runway.

This will be a continuation of last season’s ode to the Black Lives Matter movement, Pyer Moss’s AW16 presentation will address the disjointed experience of being black in 2016 America — namely by addressing the “double bind” that is living in “a place where black culture is praised, commodified, and appropriated, while black people are vilified, criticized, and hunted for sport.

  
It’s the perfect topic that Erykah Badu has been very vocal about, adding that she and Kerby are a match made in fashion heaven.  Both share an eye for truth through art.  Erykah known for always being visually pleasing, believes that although the designer is risky, he stands in his truth.  “The strength of that truth lies in the belief of his vision.  I’m inspired by the bold statements he makes in this sometimes fickle industry” Badu says.  I agree with her on that note, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing her vision on the runway. 

IS O.J. SIMPSON THE FATHER?!?…KHLOE KARDASHIAN AND SYDNEY SIMPSON LOOK LIKE SISTERS

Published February 3, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
It’s no secret that O.J. Simpson and Robert Kardashian were very good friends.  Kris Jenner is also speculated to have had an affair or few while married to Robert Kardashian, and from the looks of Khloe…she definitely is the odd one out compared to her siblings.  I’m sure they may already know the truth, yet it’s just too scandalous to fess up to, but Maury, we need to know is O.J. The daddy.  Actually we don’t. It’s pretty obvious.  I don’t care what anyone says – these two barracudas are sisters.

5 OF THE BEST TRAVEL LOCATIONS FOR BLACK HISTORY EXPERIENCE…

Published February 3, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
We can’t forget our history. It reminds us of our trials as well as our triumphs. And travel gives us the opportunity to experience, firsthand, the black-history moments we’ve only read about and seen on TV and in movies.

The picture above shows a couple strolling through Savannah Georgia’s Forsyth Park.  Know for it’s rich history and many lavish former slave plantations.
“You have to explore African-American historical travel for yourself. Seeing the images, museums and landmarks in the media cannot begin to convey the complexity of our journey from Africa through slavery and to the modicum of freedom we have now, ” says Elaine Lee, author of Go Girl: The Black Woman’s Book of Travel and Adventure.

Theroot.com gives us the top 5 locations that are loaded with black history, museums, and experiences.  Check them out below.

  
1. Follow the path from slavery to freedom in Savannah, GA.

Savannah is a pretty city with an ugly past. Known as “the weeping time,” in 1859 the largest slave auction in U.S. history (436 men, women and children) took place at a Savannah racetrack. In commemoration of the Africans brought into America through Savannah’s port, a local artist created the African-American Families Monument (at the west end of historic River Street). The bronze statue inscribed with words by Maya Angelou depicts a black family with broken shackles at their feet.


A short walk from the statue, in Franklin Square, is Savannah’s First African Baptist Church, the oldest black church in North America. Original pews made by slaves have been preserved. And holes and prayer symbols carved into the lower auditorium’s floorboards indicate that the church was a point on the Underground Railroad. Guided tours are given daily, except Mondays. Another significant site is the Laurel-Grove South Cemetery, the city’s segregated burial ground for slaves and free people of color.

  

2. Trace the Civil Rights Trail in Alabama 

The Civil Rights Trail encompasses landmarks and attractions in several neighboring towns in Alabama, all accessible by car. Among the important sites are the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, where four little Sunday-school girls (Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley) were killed in 1963; and the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, which honors the mother of the early civil rights movement and depicts events that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.


The trail’s most harrowing landmark, however, is the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where marchers for voting rights were beaten by police on March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday. On March 21, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. led a successful five-day march from Selma to Montgomery, which initiated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. You can follow the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail along U.S. Route 80. (An interpretive center highlights key events along the route.)  

  

3. Discover Gullah Culture in South Carolina 

Gullah (also called Geechee) people are descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans brought to the Southeastern states to farm rice. They live in the idyllic low country of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, and to this day, Gullah people speak their own Creole-like dialect and maintain African-based culture through food, music and crafts. In St. Helena, a Sea Island in Beaufort County, S.C., the Gullah-Geechee Nation offers authentic tours and workshops for groups of seven or more, conducted by natives of the island.


“People can truly learn our story and support our community by engaging with us,” says Queen Quet, chieftess of the Gullah-Geechee Nation. “We don’t do drive-by tours. We want to invite people into our homes and not have them peeping through the windows on our porches. This is not a safari. It is a living community.”

4. Celebrate Chicago’s proud past and present

  

It’s ironic that a city as racially divided as Chicago was founded by a black man. Born in Haiti, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable is known as the Windy City’s first settler and its first black resident. In his honor, there’s a bust of DuSable on the Magnificent Mile (Michigan Avenue) just north of the Chicago River, and the DuSable Museum of African American History celebrates African-American achievements and contributions through art exhibits and family-friendly activities.
The Obamas, meanwhile, are part of Chi-town’s modern history—they lived in Hyde Park, a traditionally black middle-class neighborhood on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, before they moved on up to the White House. Sneak a peak at their guarded Georgian mansion (5046 S. Greenwood Ave.), and stand at the spot of their first kiss, marked with a plaque at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and 53rd Street.

5. Explore Baltimore’s Black History Museums

 

A wax figure of Martin Luther King Jr. stands on exhibit at the National Great Blacks in Wax Musuem in Baltimore, Feb. 13, 2006. 
JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Although Baltimore’s image is still rebounding from the unrest after Freddie Gray’s death, the city is a great source of black history. Noteworthy museums include the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, the first wax museum of African-American culture in the nation, with over 150 realistic-looking wax figures of prominent people of color; the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, which celebrates the history and accomplishments of black Americans in Maryland through exhibitions and events; and the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park Museum, an educational and historic site that highlights African-American maritime history and chronicles the formative years of Douglass, a Maryland native who worked in a Baltimore shipyard before he fled North to freedom.
Credits – http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/02/the_5_best_black_history_travel_destinations.html

RAPPER “THE GAME” GETS SLAPPED WITH A 10 MILLION DOLLAR DEFAULT JUDGMENT FROM “SHE GOT GAME” CONTESTANT…

Published February 3, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
Last year Rapper “The Game” formally known as Jayceon Taylor, had a dating show titled “She Got Game.” Several women competed to win his affection, but one contestant – Pricilla Rainey, accused The Game of sexually assaulting her.  She filed a 10 million dollar lawsuit as a result, in which The Game never responded to.

  
Originally Rainey accused game Game, who she says was extremely intoxicated and “out of control” during a shoot last May, “forcefully reach[ed] his hand inside her dress to rub her bare vagina and buttocks.”

According to Bossip, the Compton rapper apparently didn’t respond to the suit brought forth and now a judge has ruled in favor of Rainey by default. Whether or not he has to pay the full suit is yet to be determined. The case’s next hearing is slated for February 24.

This isn’t the first case where The Game has had a default judgment issued against him.  A former nanny also won a default judgment last year for over 200,000.00 for defamation, due to a Instagram post by the Game.  He posted her picture and social media likeness, claiming she had sex and used drugs around his children, and fired her as a result.  He removed the post, but failed to respond to the lawsuit filed by the former nanny Karen Monroe.

This is interesting that The Game – Known for his witty brutal “clap backs” online, would ignore such serious allegations and legal actions.  Maybe he just likes to pay off these claimants or there may be truth to their claims.  Either way, this definitely isn’t a good look for him.  Good luck with this Game. 

——-UPDATE——-

Well The Game wasn’t to thrilled about this news today, and took to Instagram to Clap Back in pure “Game” fashion posting this…

  
  
OMG….LOL! This man has no chill or filter.  Just Damn.  I know he gave whoever invited this Transformer to his show a earful.  Wowzers!!!  He even went on her page with the insults, which isn’t too smart while in the middle of a lawsuit.  Sometimes you have to put the pettiness aside when it comes to the law, and dealing with a opportunist.  Smh. I guess the Game will be Game.  

AMBER ROSE AND KIM KARDASHIAN ARE SWINGERS….

Published February 2, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
So the latest publicity stunt before Kanye West drops his new album is this stunt.  A few days ago, Amber declared Kanye West -husband to Kim Kardashian, a fingers in the booty as bitch.  Today, she’s posing with his wife on Instagram suggesting they’re swingers.  Both ladies posted the pic on there IG accounts, with Kim K asking…Tea anyone? Smh.

*Yawns* – seriously yo….!?!? Way too obvious of a stunt here.  Anyway, enough of the bullshit meaningless information.  Just posting it for those who care.  Developing….

BOKO HARAM KILL 86 PEOPLE IN NIGERIA

Published February 2, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
Please pray for the people of Nigeria dealing with murder and senseless terror.  The Religious extremists terrorist group Boko Haram, continues to terrorize and take innocent lives to the extreme of burning children to death.  Details available below —-

A survivor hidden in a tree says he watched Boko Haram fighters firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning to death, among 86 people officials say died in the latest attack by Nigeria’s homegrown armed group.


Scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds littered the streets from Saturday night’s attack on Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, according to survivors and soldiers at the scene just 3 miles from Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and the biggest city in Nigeria’s northeast.


The shooting, burning and explosions from three suicide bombers continued for nearly four hours in the unprotected area, survivor Alamin Bakura said, weeping on a telephone call to The Associated Press. He said several of his family members were killed or wounded.


The violence continued as three female suicide bombers blew up among people who managed to flee to neighboring Gamori village, killing many people, according to a soldier at the scene who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.


Troops arrived at Dalori around 8:40 p.m. Saturday but were unable to overcome the attackers, who were better armed, said soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Boko Haram fighters only retreated after reinforcements arrived with heavier weapons, they said.


Journalists visited the carnage Sunday and spoke to survivors who complained it had taken too long for help to arrive from nearby Maiduguri, the military headquarters of the fight to curb Boko Haram. They said they fear another attack.


Eighty-six bodies were collected by Sunday afternoon, according to Mohammed Kanar, area coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency. Another 62 people are being treated for burns, said Abba Musa of the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.


Another 62 people were being treated for burns, said Abba Musa of the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeastern Nigeria, which is about 10km from from Dalori.


Nigerian troops were initially unable to fight off the attackers, and Boko Haram fighters only retreated after reinforcements arrived with heavier weapons, soldiers said.


“As they saw the flames of the fight, then they alerted us. I informed the soldiers … and that’s how they checked,” Lawana Geti, head of a local vigilante group called Kondugua, said.


“And when the soldiers were coming, Boko Haram rushed out of the village.”


Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets, increasingly with suicide bombers, since the military last year drove them out of towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria.


The 6-year uprising has killed about 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

10 THINGS THEY DON’T WANT US TO KNOW ABOUT THE FLINT WATER CRISIS…

Published February 1, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
Activist Michael Moore has been very vocal about the Flint Water Crisis to the disadvantage of the political powers that be in Michigan.  He has wasted no time exposing top officials – namely the Governor of Flint for his atrocious and deliberate crimes against humanity.  This list created by Michael Moore not only exposes these devils, but is more than enough ammunition to have these people prosecuted for Domestic Terrorism.  See the list below and decide for yourself…

Here are ten things that you probably don’t know about this crisis because the media, having come to the story so late, can only process so much. But if you live in Flint or the State of Michigan as I do, you know all to well that what the greater public has been told only scratches the surface.

1. While the Children in Flint Were Given Poisoned Water to Drink, General Motors Was Given a Special Hookup to the Clean Water. A few months after Governor Snyder removed Flint from the clean fresh water we had been drinking for decades, the brass from General Motors went to him and complained that the Flint River water was causing their car parts to corrode when being washed on the assembly line. The Governor was appalled to hear that GM property was being damaged, so he jumped through a number of hoops and quietly spent $440,000 to hook GM back up to the Lake Huron water, while keeping the rest of Flint on the Flint River water. Which means that while the children in Flint were drinking lead-filled water, there was one — and only one — address in Flint that got clean water: the GM factory.

2. For Just $100 a Day, This Crisis Could’ve Been Prevented. Federal law requires that water systems which are sent through lead pipes must contain an additive that seals the lead into the pipe and prevents it from leaching into the water. Someone at the beginning suggested to the Governor that they add this anti-corrosive element to the water coming out of the Flint River. “How much would that cost?” came the question. “$100 a day for three months,” was the answer. I guess that was too much, so, in order to save $9,000, the state government said f*** it — and For Just $100 a Day, This Crisis Could’ve Been Prevented. Federal law requires that water systems which are sent through lead pipes must contain an additive that seals the lead into the pipe and prevents it from leaching into the water. Someone at the beginning suggested to the Governor that they add this anti-corrosive element to the water coming out of the Flint River. “How much would that cost?” came the question. “$100 a day for three months,” was the answer. I guess that was too much, so, in order to save $9,000, the state government said f*** it — and as a result the State may now end up having to pay upwards of $1.5 billion to fix the mess.

3. There’s More Than the Lead in Flint’s Water. In addition to exposing every child in the city of Flint to lead poisoning on a daily basis, there appears to be a number of other diseases we may be hearing about in the months ahead. The number of cases in Flint of Legionnaires Disease has increased tenfold since the switch to the river water. Eighty-seven people have come down with it, and at least ten have died. In the five years before the river water, not a single person in Flint had died of Legionnaires Disease. Doctors are now discovering that another half-dozen toxins are being found in the blood of Flint’s citizens, causing concern that there are other health catastrophes which may soon come to light.

4. People’s Homes in Flint Are Now Worth Nothing Because They Cant Be Sold. Would you buy a house in Flint right now? Who would? So every homeowner in Flint is stuck with a house that’s now worth nothing. That’s a total home value of $2.4 billion down the economic drain. People in Flint, one of the poorest cities in the U.S., don’t have much to their name, and for many their only asset is their home. So, in addition to being poisoned, they have now a net worth of zero. (And as for employment, who is going to move jobs or start a company in Flint under these conditions? No one.) Has Flint’s future just been flushed down that river?

5. While They Were Being Poisoned, They Were Also Being Bombed. Here’s a story which has received little or no coverage outside of Flint. During these two years of water contamination, residents in Flint have had to contend with a decision made by the Pentagon to use Flint for target practice. Literally. Actual unannounced military exercises – complete with live ammo and explosives – were conducted last year inside the city of Flint. The army decided to practice urban warfare on Flint, making use of the thousands of abandoned homes which they could drop bombs on. Streets with dilapidated homes had rocket-propelled grenades fired upon them. For weeks, an undisclosed number of army troops pretended Flint was Baghdad or Damascus and basically had at it. It sounded as if the city was under attack from an invading army or from terrorists. People were shocked this could be going on in their neighborhoods. Wait – did I say “people?” I meant, Flint people. As with the Governor, it was OK to abuse a community that held no political power or money to fight back. BOOM!

6. The Wife of the Governor’s Chief of Staff Is a Spokeswoman for Nestle, Michigan’s Largest Owner of Private Water Reserves. As Deep Throat told Woodward and Bernstein: “Follow the money.” Snyder’s chief of staff throughout the two years of Flint’s poisoning, Dennis Muchmore, was intimately involved in all the decisions regarding Flint. His wife is Deb Muchmore, who just happens to be the spokesperson in Michigan for the Nestle Company – the largest owner of private water sources in the State of Michigan. Nestle has been repeatedly sued in northern Michigan for the 200 gallons of fresh water per minute it sucks from out of the ground and bottles for sale as their Ice Mountain brand of bottled spring water. The Muchmores have a personal interest in seeing to it that Nestles grabs as much of Michigan’s clean water was possible – especially when cities like Flint in the future are going to need that Ice Mountain.

7. In Michigan, from Flint water, to Crime and Murder, to GM Ignition Switches, It’s a Culture of Death. It’s not just the water that was recklessly used to put people’s lives in jeopardy. There are many things that happen in Flint that would give one the impression that there is a low value placed on human life. Flint has one of the worst murder and crime rates in the country. Just for context, if New York City had the same murder rate as Flint, Michigan, the number of people murdered last year in New York would have been almost 4,000 people – instead of the actual 340 who were killed in NYC in 2015. But it’s not just street crime that makes one wonder about what is going on in Michigan. Last year, it was revealed that, once again, one of Detroit’s automakers had put profit ahead of people’s lives. General Motors learned that it had installed faulty ignition switches in many of its cars. Instead of simply fixing the problem, mid-management staff covered it up from the public. The auto industry has a history of weighing the costs of whether it’s cheaper to spend the money to fix the defect in millions of cars or to simply pay off a bunch of lawsuits filed by the victims surviving family members. Does a cynical, arrogant culture like this make it easy for a former corporate CEO, now Governor, turn a blind eye to the lead that is discovered in a municipality’s drinking water?

8. Don’t Call It “Detroit Water” — It’s the Largest Source of Fresh Drinking Water in the World. The media keeps saying Flint was using “Detroit’s water.” It is only filtered and treated at the Detroit Water Plant. The water itself comes from Lake Huron, the third largest body of fresh water in the world. It is a glacial lake formed over 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age and it is still fed by pure underground springs. Flint is geographically the last place on Earth where one should be drinking poisoned water.

9. ALL the Children Have Been Exposed, As Have All the Adults, Including Me. That’s just a fact. If you have been in Flint anytime from April 2014 to today, and you’ve drank the water, eaten food cooked with it, washed your clothes in it, taken a shower, brushed your teeth or eaten vegetables from someone’s garden, you’ve been exposed to and ingested its toxins. When the media says “9,000 children under 6 have been exposed,” that means ALL the children have been exposed because the total number of people under the age of 6 in Flint is… 9,000! The media should just say, “all.” When they say “47 children have tested positive”, that’s just those who’ve drank the water in the last week or so. Lead enters the body and does it’s damage to the brain immediately. It doesn’t stay in the blood stream for longer than a few days and you can’t detect it after a month. So when you hear “47 children”, that’s just those with an exposure in the last 48 hours. It’s really everyone.

10. This Was Done, Like So Many Things These Days, So the Rich Could Get a Big Tax Break. When Governor Snyder took office in 2011, one of the first things he did was to get a multi-billion dollar tax break passed by the Republican legislature for the wealthy and for corporations. But with less tax revenues, that meant he had to start cutting costs. So, many things – schools, pensions, welfare, safe drinking water – were slashed. Then he invoked an executive privilege to take over cities (all of them majority black) by firing the mayors and city councils whom the local people had elected, and installing his cronies to act as “dictators” over these cities. Their mission? Cut services to save money so he could give the rich even more breaks. That’s where the idea of switching Flint to river water came from. To save $15 million! It was easy. Suspend democracy. Cut taxes for the rich. Make the poor drink toxic river water. And everybody’s happy.

Follow the money, and find the crime.

For more info visit –

http://michaelmoore.com/10FactsOnFlint/

INMATE STAFFED CALL CENTERS – THE NEW SLAVES

Published February 1, 2016 by sheezacoldpiece

  
Did you know that many well known American companies use inmates in their call centers.  Imagine calling AT&T and speaking with an inmate to assist you.  9 times out of 10 you already have.  I call this the new slave era. These inmates are paid up to .50 cents an hour for their labor, and no they don’t have a choice.  It’s either you work or face possibly more time.  Sounds like slavery to me.  All except the .50 cent pay per hour, but, guess what a tax paying citizen would make? I’m guessing at least minimum wage, and .50 cents is laughable compared to that.  Here’s the details below from an article I read about inmate call centers and why they exist.  Prison for profit. The mass incarceration of black people in America has put a new face on slave labor.

Via MSNBC

When you call a company or government agency for help, there’s a good chance the person on the other end of the line is a prison inmate.
The federal government calls it “the best-kept secret in outsourcing” — providing inmates to staff call centers and other services in both the private and public sectors.
The U.S. government, through a 75-year-old program called Federal Prison Industries, makes about $750 million a year providing prison labor, federal records show. The great majority of those contracts are with other federal agencies for services as diverse as laundry, construction, data conversion and manufacture of emergency equipment.

But the program also markets itself to businesses under a different name, Unicor, providing commercial market and product-related services. Unicor made about $10 million from “other agencies and customers” in the first six months of fiscal year 2011 (the most recent period for which official figures are available), according to an msnbc.com analysis of its sales records.

Justice Department and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons don’t break down which companies they do business with. But Unicor said inmates provide private call center service, including data review and sales lead generation, for “some of the top companies in America” under a federal mandate to help companies repatriate jobs they have outsourced overseas.
In a fact sheet, Unicor asserts that prisoners in the program are less likely to re-offend and are better trained for full-time work upon release. All revenue goes back into the program, which “operates at no cost to the taxpayer,” it says.
The idea has filtered down to some of the states, among them Georgia, Arizona and New York.
When New York residents call the Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, they might get an inmate at Greene Correctional Institution in Coxsackie, near Albany, or at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women near White Plains, on the border with Connecticut.
“Obviously, it saves taxpayer dollars,” Brian Fischer, commissioner of the state Corrections and Community Supervision Department, told NBC station WNYT of Albany. “Number two, it provides what we call a transferable skill.”
Besides saving the state money, said Elizabeth Glazer, the state’s deputy secretary for public safety, the program is “an investment in our state’s overall safety.”

“When we help offenders build the workforce skills necessary to find viable employment after incarceration, we lessen the chances they will reoffend and end up back in the state’s prison system,” she said.
The corrections department acknowledged that callers aren’t told they’re talking to a state prisoner. But they stressed that callers are protected — no personal information is displayed to the prisoners, who don’t have access to computers, officials said.
In the private sector, states usually partner with business-to-business firms to run the services — the companies provide the equipment and facilities, and the state provides the labor. One such firm is Televerde, a Phoenix company that partners with the Arizona prison system to provide marketing services for major companies that have included Hitachi and Microsoft.
In a marketing paper, Microsoft says companies like Televerde “can reduce the burden on corporate marketing and local marketing teams can have more meaningful interactions with their customers.” (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC News.)
For inmates, the appeal isn’t the pay, which can be as low as 50 cents an hour. It’s the training and the opportunity: “A lot of times, we need to feel like we are appreciated, and it builds self-esteem,” John Howard of Brooklyn, N.Y., an inmate at Greene, told WNYT.

“It allows me the opportunity to speak to different people of different nationalities, regardless of what ethnicity, and it makes me feel like ‘Wow, I can do better,'” he said.
Read the original story at WNYT.com
But Danny Donohue president of the New York Civil Service Employees Association, criticized the program for prioritizing marketable skills for prisoners over providing jobs to “law-abiding citizens.”
It’s “a bad idea generally and even worse considering the current economy,” Donohue said.

You can dress it up nicely to mask the true ugly face of this oppression, yet the bottom line is these are jobs that could and should be given to law abiding citizens.  This is all for profit while the majority of these companies black ball these inmates upon their release from working due to prior offenses, yet while they’re behind bars making pennies on the dollar they’re somehow eligible to to work for them.  It’s wrong.