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The congressman’s statement is the strongest denouncement of the possible takeover since the story made national news last year:

“How come all of the jurisdictions put under emergency management are majority African American? Has anybody noticed that?” asked Rep. John Conyers (D), who has represented Detroit for 47 years. “There seems to be a racial aspect, a racial component of the application of this law.”

The severity of the crisis is further punctuated by the flip-flopping of Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, who initially said that the city could run out of money this spring only to backtrack on that statement recently.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post and give us your thoughts on Detroit‘s never-ending economic woes.

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There are plenty of familiar Black faces in the public eye who took time out of their lives to serve their country in the United States armed forces. In honor of Veterans Day, here’s a gallery of some former servicemen you knew about, and maybe a few you didn’t.

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Black unemployment appears to be the biggest gripe Black leaders have with Obama. Representatives Maxine Waters and John Conyers, both prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have voiced their disappointment in recent weeks.

“We want him to know from this day forward that we’ve had it. We want him to come out on our side not to watch and wait… We’re suffering,” Conyers said.

Read more at the Huffington Post.

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DETROIT — A former Detroit city councilwoman was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for bribery after a federal judge refused to set aside her guilty plea during a stormy court hearing dominated by a dispute over evidence of other payoffs.

As guards cleared the packed courtroom, Monica Conyers yelled that she planned to appeal. The wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., wanted to withdraw her guilty plea, suggesting she was the victim of “badgering” last year when she admitted taking cash to support a Houston company’s sludge contract with the city.

RELATED: Conyers Apologizes To Detroit: “I Don’t Want To Go To Jail”

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, reviewing a transcript of the June hearing, said Conyers had denied any coercion and voluntarily pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

Text continues after gallery …

Conyers, 45, is the biggest catch so far in the FBI’s wide-ranging investigation of corruption in Detroit city government. Nine people have pleaded guilty, including two former directors of the downtown convention center, and prosecutors have promised more charges are coming.

“Bribery is a betrayal of trust,” Cohn told Conyers after announcing a 37-month prison term for her “egregious” crime. She quit the council after pleading guilty in June.

Conyers’ plea deal was limited to taking bribes to support a contract with Synagro Technologies worth $47 million a year. But the recent trial of her former aide, Sam Riddle, exposed a series of alleged schemes involving others making payoffs to do business at city hall.

Prosecutors said Riddle and Conyers collected $69,500 by shaking people down and urged Cohn to consider the alleged crimes when sentencing her. Defense lawyer Steve Fishman firmly objected and demanded a separate hearing.

RELATED: John Conyers’ Wife Implicated In Detroit Bribery Scandal

Conyers declared, “I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do.”

Cohn had handled the Riddle trial and said he agreed with prosecutors that the evidence was relevant. Considering it in the sentencing would have boosted Conyers’ guidelines and given the judge justification to send her to prison for as long as five years. But Cohn changed his mind — and she got a break.

“The sentence will be based solely on conviction,” Cohn said.

Earlier this year, jurors at the Riddle trial heard secretly taped phone calls in which he and Conyers discussed money, bank deposits and how to split cash.

In a November 2007 call, Conyers told Riddle, “You’d better get my loot.” On another call, businessman Rayford Jackson, who passed bribes to Conyers for her sludge vote, said, “You’re my girl. Don’t forget that.”

Conyers told the judge some taped conversations would exonerate her.

“They have taken tapes and used them out of context,” she said of the U.S. attorney’s office. “I will take the blame for things I did do.”

Fishman said news media had turned Conyers into a “human pinata for all that’s wrong in the city of Detroit.” He asked Cohn to keep her out of prison and urged him to consider factors filed in a sealed document. At one point, Conyers said she had been examined by a mental-health expert at the judge’s request.

“What about my children? … My children didn’t do anything to deserve this,” Conyers, who has two sons, told the judge.

She wants to appeal but her plea deal with prosecutors prevents her from objecting to a sentence of under five years.

Before the hearing, Conyers moved around the courtroom like a playful host, blowing kisses to supporters while wearing dark sunglasses. Her husband, who has an office in the courthouse, was not in the courtroom. Spokesman Jonathan Godfrey said he didn’t know his whereabouts.

Councilman Ken Cockrel, who clashed with Monica Conyers on the council, said there’s a lesson in her case.

“When you are elected to public office, you are elected to fulfill the public’s trust. You not only break that trust, but you put your career in peril,” he said.

John Conyers appeared on the Bill Press show this morning and had some harsh criticism for President Barack Obama, regarding the Republican party and health care. He said:

I’m getting tired of saving Obama’s can in the White House, I mean, he only won by five votes in the House, and this bill wasn’t anything to write home about. The public option is only available, which is the only way you manage cost and get some competition to 1,300 other health insurance companies, the only way he could have got that through is that progressives held their nose and voted for it anyway.

He also said:

You know, holding hands out and beer on Friday nights in the White House and bowing down to every nutty right-wing proposal about health care, and saying on occasion that public options aren’t all that important is doing a disservice to the Barack Obama that I first met who was an ardent single-payer enthusiast himself.

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WASHINGTON – The most senior African-American in Congress offered some unsolicited advice Monday to President Barack Obama on how to get his signature health care bill through a balky Senate: knock their heads together.

“The president could take a few pages from Lyndon Johnson’s book … and start knocking heads together,” said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

RELATED: Landmark Health Care Bill Narrowly Passes The House

Conyers, who spoke to reporters in Detroit, first came to Congress in 1965, the year Medicare and the Voting Rights Act both passed under the strong hand of Johnson, by then the president. Obama was not yet 4 years old.

The House passed the sweeping health care legislation late Saturday on a narrow 220-215 vote. By Sunday, the bill was being declared a nonstarter in the Senate.

A government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the there. These senators are locked in a battle with liberals, with the fate of health care legislation at stake.

On Sunday, Obama urged the Senate to follow the lead of the House, like a runner in a relay race. The president says he’s confident senators will do the right thing.

But Sen. Joe Lieberman wasted no time in saying he can’t support the public insurance plan in the House bill.

If a government plan is part of the deal, “as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent whose vote Democrats need to overcome GOP filibusters.

“The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.

RELATED: OPINION: House Health Care Bill Has Nowhere To Go In Senate

Democrats did not line up to challenge him. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has yet to schedule floor debate and hinted last week that senators may not be able to finish health care this year.

Nonetheless, the House vote provided an important lesson in how to succeed with less-than-perfect party unity, and one that Senate Democrats may be able to adapt. House Democrats overcame their own divisions and broke an impasse that threatened the bill after liberals grudgingly accepted tougher restrictions on abortion funding, as abortion opponents demanded.

In the Senate, the stumbling block is the idea of the government competing with private insurers. Liberals may have to swallow hard and accept a deal without a public plan to keep the legislation alive. As in the House, the compromise appears to be to the right of the political spectrum.

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who voted for a version of the Senate bill in committee, has given the Democrats a possible way out. She’s proposing to allow a government plan, if after a few years premiums keep escalating and local health insurance markets remain in the grip of a few big companies. This is the “trigger” option.

That approach appeals to moderates such as Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. “If the private market fails to reform, there would be a fallback position,” Landrieu said last week. “It should be triggered by choice and affordability, not by political whim.”

Lieberman said he opposes the public plan because it could become a huge and costly entitlement program.

For now, Reid is trying to find the votes for a different approach: a government plan that states could opt out of.

He will keep meeting with senators this week to see if he can work out a political formula that will give him not only the 60 votes needed to begin debate, but the 60 needed to shut off discussion and bring the bill to a final vote.

Toward the end of the week, the Congressional Budget Office may report back with a costs-and-coverage estimate on Reid’s bill, which he assembled from legislation passed by the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The Finance Committee version does not include a government plan.

Reid has pledged to Obama that he will get the bill done by the end of the year and remains committed to doing that, according to a Senate leadership aide.

Both the House and Senate bills gradually would extend coverage to nearly all Americans by providing government subsidies to help pay premiums. The measures would bar insurers’ practices such as charging more to those in poor health or denying them coverage altogether.

All Americans would be required to carry health insurance, either through an employer, a government plan or by purchasing it on their own.

The majority of middle-class workers with employer-provided health insurance would not see major changes. The main beneficiaries would be some 30 million people who have no coverage at work or have to buy it on their own. The legislation would create a federally regulated marketplace where they could shop for coverage.

Lieberman appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” while Graham was on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

In a recent radio interview, Rep. John Conyers, a democrat from Detroit, had some harsh words to say about President Barack Obama. While being interviewed by Rev. Horace Sheffield, from WGPR in Detroit, Conyers criticized Obama’s efforts to push health care reform.

“President Obama is sucking up to the wrong people and insurance companies as Obama pushed a weak health care package.”

He also had harsh words for President Obama about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“President Obama is getting bad advice from those clowns in the White House. We should be ending those wars now. America should be providing food instead of bombs from drones that kill innocent civilians.”

[Source] Detroit Free Press

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Radio One, Inc. Founder & Chairperson, Cathy Hughes received the Kappa Alpha Psi Humanitarian Award along with President Barack Obama, Senator Mary Landrieu (LA), and Dr. Ian Smith at the Kappa Annual Convention in Washington, DC on August 4, 2009.

It was standing room only in the main ballroom of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in the Nation’s Capital with over 5000 Grand Kappa Fraternity Brothers and their Sweethearts and fellow Pan Hellenic Members for the opening session of the largest annual convention in Kappa Alpha Psi history. Opening night ceremonies provided the occasion for the awarding of the highest honors that the 98-year old Fraternity bestows.

The Laurel Wreath Awards, which are the highest honor for the members of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, this year, were awarded to Dr. Carl Anderson, Ralph J. Bryson, Nathaniel R. Jones and Thomas A. Moorehead. Humanitarian Awards (the highest honor for non-members) were bestowed upon President Barack Ohama, Senator Mary Landrieu, Dr. Ian Smith and Cathy Hughes. The President came to the convention to personally receive his Humanitarian Award from the Kappas. Also in attendance at the convention was the Kappa Mayor of Washington, DC, Adrian Fenty and the current Kappa members of Congress, Alcee Hastings, Lacy Clay, Sanford Bishop, and John Conyers and former Kappa members of Congress, Representative Walter Fauntroy and Louis Stokes.
In accepting her Humanitarian Award from Kappa Alpha Psi, Cathy Hughes thanked the Fraternity for their ongoing support of the Piney Woods School. The 100-year old school in Piney Woods, Mississippi was the recipient of a $1 million dollar contribution from Kappa Alpha Psi during their fundraiser on August 6, 2009. The Founder of the school, Dr. Laurence C. Jones, was one of the very first African American college graduates in this country and one of the early members of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and is the maternal grandfather of Cathy Hughes. The presentation to Piney Woods School was made by Grand Polemarch Dwayne M. Murray who noted that the four presidents of Piney Woods School have all been Kappa Alpha Psi active members. Cathy Hughes credited much of her success to the Kappa men whom she “had been blessed to have in her life.” She also expressed her gratitude to the Fraternity for including her in the distinguished company of the President of the United States, Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Dr. Ian Smith of the 50 Million Pound Challenge.

The evening’s Award presentations were spectacularly handled by Grand Polemarch Dwayne M. Murray, Executive Director/COO Richard Lee Snow and National Committee Chairman Kevin J. Johnson. The evening’s Public Meeting was perfectly staged with dramatic sound, light and video effects. Live performances included the vocal artistry of Kappa Brother Jonathan Hicks and comic great Cheryl Underwood brought the house down when she protested her two minute limit on remarks as the International Grand Basileus of Zeta Phi Beta, proclaiming that “there is nothing a Zeta sister can do with a Kappa brother in two minutes” and then demanded that they “reset the clock,” which they graciously did. However, when other speakers started to run “well” over their allotted time – Academy Awards sounding music started to play softly in the background and the audience loved the reactions of the speakers who sometimes just as graciously ignored it.

Cathy Hughes described her view from the stage of the Public Meeting as “a sea of strong, brilliant, committed, college educated, good looking black men, from all walks of life, nattily attired in varying shades of Crimson and Cream with creases in their trousers and a shine on their shoes that paled in comparison to the illuminating smiles on their faces.” “Awesome is the right description of the entire Kappa Convention,” she went on to add.

From Freep.com:

Detroit City Councilwoman and admitted felon Monica Conyers went on television Tuesday to talk about council endorsements, hopes of staying out of jail and her plans to write a tell-all book.

And toward the end of her hour-long live TV show, Conyers apologized.

“To all of the residents of the city of Detroit, if I disappointed you, I apologize,” she said.

Just before the 3:30 p.m. airing, Conyers raced to the Highland Park studios of WHPR-TV (Channel 33), and stepped out of the city-owned Ford Crown Victoria in a dress with a strand of pearls and a light-colored blazer.

It was her first time addressing the public since pleading guilty Friday to a bribery charge. She started the show by telling viewers she wouldn’t talk about the case.

“I don’t want to get my judge mad at me, and I don’t want to go to jail,” she explained.

Click here for the full story.

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Detroit: City councilwoman Monica Conyers resigned from office Monday, days after admitting in court that she accepted bribes from a company in exchange for her vote on a lucrative city sludge-treatment contract.

Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman John Conyers who was voted into office in 2005 largely on his name, submitted her resignation in a letter to the city clerk’s office Monday. It will take effect July 6.

“I am glad she did the right thing and resign from the Detroit City Council,” Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said in a statement. “Now we as a council and a city, can move on and forward in focusing on the vital issues our city faces — and we will.”

Monica Conyers did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Monday.

She pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges Friday and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced. Conyers admitted she took bribes from Houston-based Synagro Technologies in exchange for her vote on a city contract. The council voted 5-4 in favor of the Synagro contract with Monica Conyers’ support.

Prosecutors made clear that John Conyers, the 80-year-old chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, knew nothing of his wife’s corruption.

Prosecutors said Monica Conyers accepted two payments in late 2007 from a Synagro Technologies official, Rayford Jackson, in exchange for supporting a 20-year, $47-million-a-year, contract that November to have Synagro recycle wastewater sludge and build a modern incinerator in a poor Detroit neighborhood.

The council voted 5-4 to approve the contract with Conyers’ vote. It was rescinded in January amid the accusations of wrongdoing.

Monica Conyers is the most prominent person snagged in the Synagro investigation. Jackson and the company’s Michigan representative, Jim Rosendall, also have pleaded guilty to bribery charges in the case. Rosendall’s plea agreement described how he distributed cash and other gifts to officials.

DETROIT – City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman John Conyers, pleaded guilty Friday to accepting cash bribes in exchange for supporting a sludge contract with a Houston company.

Conyers, a fiery 44-year-old first-term council member, admitted in federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery, responding quietly to questions from Judge Avern Cohn.

She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she’s sentenced.

Conyers left court without commenting.

Her lawyer, Steve Fishman, declined to comment on the specifics of Conyers’ case outside of court, saying only that all plea deals were more or less the same.

Rep. John Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who has no role in the case, didn’t answer when questioned about it as he walked to the House floor for a vote Friday morning. “I have no comment whatever,” he said.

RELATED NEWS: John Conyers Wife Implicated In Detroit Bribery Scandal

John Conyers’ office issued the following statement:

“This has been a trying time for the Conyers family. With hope and prayer, they will make it through this as a family. Public officials must expect to be held to the highest ethical and legal standards. With this in mind, Mr. Conyers wants to work towards helping his family and the city recover from this serious matter.”

Prosecutors accused Monica Conyers of accepting two payments from a Synagro Technologies official in late 2007 in exchange for supporting the sludge contract. They said Conyers received envelopes containing cash on Nov. 20, 2007 in the parking lot of a Detroit community center and on Dec. 4 of that year in a McDonald’s parking lot.

In November 2007, Conyers voted in favor of the Synagro contract. The U.S. attorney’s office said she received cash payments from an individual sent by Rayford Jackson, a paid consultant for Synagro, before and after her vote.

“It’s a very sad day for Detroit,” said City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. “On the other hand, I think it’s another step in clearing out some problems in city government. I don’t necessarily think this is over. This may go beyond one council member and may involve non-elected officials.”

Conyers is the most prominent person snagged in the Synagro corruption investigation. Jackson and another person who worked for the company already had pleaded guilty.

U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said Friday that the Conyers plea doesn’t end the Synagro investigation, but it does mark the conclusion of the probe into elected officials in the case. He called the plea deal an “appropriate and fair resolution to the matter,” with a “high-level public figure pleading guilty” to bribery.

The Synagro sludge contract was rescinded in January.

RELATED NEWS: Performance Fee Bill Opposed By Black Radio Passes Committee

The council voted 5-4 in November 2007 to award a $47-million-a-year contract to Synagro to recycle wastewater sludge and build a state-of-the-art incinerator to replace one that belches yellow plumes over a poor neighborhood.

In January, Synagro’s Michigan representative, Jim Rosendall, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. His plea agreement described how he distributed cash and other gifts to officials.

Jackson pleaded guilty on June 15.

Monica Conyers’ plea is the latest blow to a city beset by political scandal in recent years. Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a top aide were jailed after admitting to lying under oath about their romantic involvement during a whistle-blowers’ trial.

And a recent audit of the city’s beleaguered public school system has uncovered theft and other wrongdoing by employees.

Like the brash and arrogant Kilpatrick, Monica Conyers took a defiant stance as the Synagro bribery accusations swirled around her, the council and city. She refused to address the accusations in recent weeks, and was often contentious with colleagues and the media.

Monica Conyers was a political unknown until her 2005 election – largely on the name of her 80-year-old husband. She told The Associated Press in September that she would like others to see her as “someone who cares about the city, someone who wants to make sure all the citizens of Detroit have what they need to live” productive lives.

But it was another side of Conyers that gained the most attention.

She has called reporters seeking interviews “evil” and compared the local media to “paparazzi.”

Last summer, Conyers was involved in a disturbance at a Denver hotel while attending the Democratic National Convention with her husband. She also has been accused of threatening to shoot a mayoral staffer, and she publicly called Cockrel “Shrek.”

City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of a prominent congressman, sought political support from Baptist pastors and prayers from constituents Tuesday as her re-election bid collided with a corruption probe involving cash bribes handed over in fast-food parking lots.

A person told The Associated Press that Conyers is the “Council Member A” listed in a court document as receiving more than $6,000 for her fall 2007 vote on a multimillion-dollar sludge contract. She has not been charged. The information comes from a person with knowledge of the investigation who asked not to be named because the person was not authorized to speak publicly.

No suggestion has been made that Conyers’ husband, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has any role in the investigation and it appears unlikely to dent his nearly 45-year political career. In Washington, he said he hadn’t talked to his wife Tuesday and wasn’t aware of any discussions with prosecutors.

Monica Conyers, meanwhile, asked for prayers during her weekly public access television show, without directly addressing the scandal that has the FBI investigating how Houston-based Synagro Technologies won a $47 million-a-year contract to recycle sludge from a wastewater treatment plant.

“All these things that are going on right now … I believe in my heart that God will deliver me from them,” said Conyers, 44. “And so I say to all of the people out there: If you’re not praying for me, then you’re just adding to the problem.”

Officials at the U.S. attorney’s office did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. After the show, Conyers ignored questions about the case or any possible plea deal.

“I’m not going to talk to you today, tomorrow, next week. What difference does it make?” Conyers told the AP.

Earlier Tuesday, Conyers met for three minutes with the influential Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit & Vicinity as one of many candidates seeking a political blessing ahead of the city’s August primary.

“As of this morning, the lady has not been indicted,” said the Rev. Oscar King, the group’s president. “We’re not passing judgment at this point because we’re being pastoral in the political process.”

Monica Conyers is a relative neophyte in elective politics compared with her husband. John Conyers, 80, has never received less than 82 percent of the vote since he was first elected to Congress in 1964. He faced no Republican opposition in the latest election.

Voters first put Monica Conyers on the Detroit council in 2005. She served as council president for about eight months until Ken Cockrel Jr. returned to the post in May after serving as interim mayor following Kwame Kilpatrick’s September resignation over a text-messaging sex scandal that sent him to jail for 99 days.

The sludge scandal broke in January when Jim Rosendall, Synagro’s Michigan representative, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. His plea agreement described how he distributed cash and other gifts to officials, including an unidentified Council Member A, to win the city business.

The probe cooled for nearly five months, at least publicly, until Rayford Jackson, a local businessman and Synagro contractor, pleaded guilty to the same charge Monday and said he gave more than $6,000 to Council Member A.

Jackson said a courier delivered $3,000 to the council member on Nov. 20, 2007, the same day Conyers joined with the majority in approving the Synagro deal 5-4. An unspecified payment was made a month earlier outside a Mr. Fish restaurant, and another $3,000 was passed in a McDonald’s parking lot in December of the same year, Jackson said.

A month before her vote, Conyers expressed concern giving the sludge contract to Texas-based Synagro would lead to the loss of jobs in Detroit, home to the ailing auto industry and plagued by some of the highest home foreclosure and unemployment rates in the country.

“I don’t understand why we can’t do that ourselves here in the city of Detroit. … I don’t see how a company that just may have 10 African-Americans is more important than the people in that community,” she said at a public hearing.

In his plea deal with prosecutors, Rosendall said $25,000 was spent after the Synagro vote to ensure that Council Member A and others in favor of the deal would not withdraw support. The contract was rescinded and Rosendall was fired after his guilty plea in January.

In a separate matter, the council in March 2007 voted to allow a yard-waste composting operation on land controlled by Rosendall. He said an “intermediary” in that deal passed $5,000 to $8,000 to Council Member A.

As a 200-person “Save Black Radio” rally was held in Detroit, the House Judiciary Committee today passed a controversial bill to impose a performer’s fee on over-the-air radio stations.

The Performance Rights Act would change law so that AM and FM radio stations would pay performers to play their songs, as is true of satellite, cable and Internet music services. All four music platforms pay songwriters for use of their work.

The final vote was 21 to 9. The bill moves to the House floor for a full vote. The Senate has a companion bill pending action.

The committee approved by voice vote a “manager’s amendment” by Chairman John Conyers, D-Detroit, to try to address critics — including Radio One Detroit — who contend the bill threatens the survival of minority and women-owned stations during rocky economic times.

“This is not a revolutionary concept,” Conyers said of the proposed performer’s fee for AM and FM stations. “Everybody gets paid for their creativity and their work.”

About 200 marchers joined local radio hosts Mildred Gaddis and Reggie Reg outside of Conyer’s office in Detroit, chanting, “No to the bill on the hill,” and, “Save black radio,” as supporters honked as they passed. Branding the new fee a “tax,” many critics argued it could destroy small broadcasters, including minority and women-owned stations that provide valuable diversity on the airwaves.

“This is crucial; this is critical,” Gaddis, host at WCHB-AM (1200), said. “(Conyers) is generally 95 percent of the time on the right side. He’s on the wrong side on this one.”

Conyers and other committee members said their offices had been flooded by critics of the bill.

Conyers said he shares the concern about the potential impact of new fees on small broadcasters.

As a result, he proposed changes that were agreed to that create a sliding fee scale for small broadcasters and delays the start date of payments:

• Stations with annual gross revenues of less than $100,000 would pay $500 each year. Those with gross revenues between $100,000 and $500,000 would pay $2,500. Those between $500,000 and $1.25 million would pay a royalty fee of $5,000 per year.

In the original bill, stations with gross revenues of less than $1.25 million would pay a flat fee of $5,000.

Conyers said the change to a sliding fee would affect 90 percent of all minority-owned radio stations, and 77 percent of all radio stations.

Read the Whole Story

From the New York Daily News

The hot-button issue of whether radio should pay performance royalties to artists for playing their music has split Michigan Democrat John Conyers from some of his long-time allies in the civil rights movement.

As head of the House Judiciary Committee, Conyers has scheduled a session Wednesday for the committee to “mark up” the Performance Rights Act and send it to the full House for action.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, among others, have warned its impact would be “devastating” to minority stations, because they can’t afford more expenses in these hard times.

Read the Whole Story

UPDATE:  To all our Radio One / Interactive One family, I am urgently calling on YOUR SUPPORT to help save BLACK RADIO!!

Today, there will be a demonstration/rally Opposing Congressman Conyers Bill H.R. 848 – Performance Tax that will “KILL” Black Radio

Wednesday, May 12, 2009

Time:  12:00pm EST

Location:

John Conyers Office (outside)  “The Federal Building”

669 Federal Building

231 W. Lafayette

Detroit, MI 48226

313.961.5670 Office

313.226.2085 Fax

Please show up to support Black Radio!!

TO MY RADIO ONE FAMILY:

The Honorable John Conyers, our 80 year old African-American Congressman is the sponsor of a new bill that could put many black owned radio stations out of business. And force others to abandon their commitment to provide free music, entertainment, news, information, and money losing formats like gospel and black talk.

This is Cathy Hughes, founder and chairperson of Radio One with an urgent call to our Radio Family.

The John Conyers Performance Tax Bill is the brain child of the foreign owned record industry who would receive at least 50% of the revenue that would be charged to radio stations in order for them to play music. The music that you now receive free from us – we would have to pay millions of dollars for.

And in the midst of this economic depression, black radio stations simply do not have that financial ability.

There has been only one hearing on the bill and that hearing did not have any black ownership representation. Black radio owners and community leaders including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Dick Gregory, Tom Joyner, and myself have all begged Conyers to at least allow us the opportunity for a hearing. He has flatly refused.

We now ask you, our radio family, to assist us in saving the future of black radio. Please call or email or visit the offices of John Conyers today.

His phone numbers are 202-225-5126 and 313-961-5670 and his email address is john.conyers@mail.house.gov

TELL HIM that you oppose this bill that would murder Black owned radio and the free music that you now hear on all free radio stations. In the midst of an American economic recession, it is not the right time to send millions of dollars to foreign owned record companies that don’t even pay taxes like you and me in this country. This bill is not in the interest of Black people! Please help us save Black radio!

WANT TO LEARN MORE? See below why it is IMPERATIVE that we act to save Black radio:

1. The promotional value of free local radio airplay translates into significant revenues for artists and record labels:

• According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), record sales in the United States in 2007 were approximately $10.4 billion;
• Touring revenue in 2007 in the U.S. was approximately $5 billion;
• The above figures exclude the several billion dollars derived annually from merchandise, songwriting royalties and licensing deals for commercials, films, etc.; and
• Also excluded is the boost that U.S. popularity provides for foreign sales and concerts.

2. Local radio also actively promotes artists by:

• Devoting considerable and valuable airtime to promoting artists’ concerts;
• Featuring artist weekends
• Providing opportunities for live in-studio performances; and
• Creating buzz through on-air ticket and album giveaways, helping to drive concert and merchandising revenue.

Without doubt, the engine driving these billions of dollars into the pockets of the record labels and artists is free, local radio promotion.

Artist Examples of Increased Sales From Local Radio Airplay

Each of the next graphs details and compares the spins on over-the-air radio (highlighted in red on each graph) with the retail sales and downloads of the artists’ releases (highlighted in blue on each graph). The results are consistent in every artist example: Significant play on radio results in significant sales of the artist’s song, demonstrating the significant promotional and economic impact that free, local radio provides to the recording industry.

The recording industry suggests that the Internet and viral marketing is now the way to break a new artist.  However, despite numerous new methods for artists to showcase their music, such as MySpace.com, retail outlets, etc., radio’s promotional value in spiking and sustaining sales is clearly demonstrated by the information included below.

Kanye West

Kanye West is an American record producer and is a multiple Grammy Award-winning rapper and singer who rose to fame in the mid 2000s.

Albums

He released his debut album “The College Dropout” in 2004, his second album “Late Registration” in 2005 and his third album “Graduation” in 2007. His first three albums have received numerous awards (including nine Grammys), critical acclaim and commercial success. The first two singles from “Late Registration” sold over 860,000 copies in its first week, and earned him eight Grammy Award nominations including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for the song “Gold Digger.” His first three albums have certified sales of three million, three million and two million copies respectively by the RIAA.

Tours

Kanye West headlined 190 concerts between 2004 and 2007, grossing an average of $244,669 and selling an average of 5,235 tickets per date. (Source: Pollstar Artist Profile Report, © 2007)

50 Cent

50 Cent is an American rapper.

Albums

He rose to fame with the release of his albums “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” (2003) and “The Massacre” (2005). Both albums achieved multi-platinum success, selling over 21 million records worldwide, including 11 million RIAA certified sales in the United States.

The lead single from “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” “In da Club,” which The Source noted for its “blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps” broke a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week.

Tours

50 Cent headlined 199 concerts worldwide between 2002 and 2007, grossing an average of $632,272 and selling an average of 11,406 tickets per date between 2005 and 2007. (Source: Pollstar Artist Profile Report, © 2007)

The House Judiciary Committee chairman subpoenaed former White House adviser Karl Rove on Monday to testify about the Bush administration’s firing of U.S. attorneys and prosecution of a former Democratic governor.

The subpoena by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., continues a long-running legal battle with ex-President George W. Bush’s former White House political director. Rove previously refused to appear before the panel, contending that former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress.

The subpoena commanded Rove to appear for a deposition on Feb. 2 on the firings of U.S. attorneys for political reasons. Conyers also demanded testimony on whether politics played a role in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat.

Bush upheld Rove’s legal position, but Conyers said times have changed.

“That ‘absolute immunity’ position … has been rejected by U.S. District Judge John Bates and President Obama has previously dismissed the claim as ‘completely misguided,’” Conyers said in a statement.

Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.

“I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today’s action is an important step along the way,” Conyers said.

The change in administrations may affect the legal arguments available to Rove, Conyers said.

“Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it’s time for him to talk,” Conyers said.

Even if Democrats don’t agree with Barack Obama on everything, who among them would challenge a president with a 73 percent approval rating?

He’ll soon find out.

Sooner or later, the bonhomie of Obama’s Inauguration will dissipate — and the novelty of having a soul mate in the Oval Office will give way to intense internal debates over the extent and substance of Democratic change.

Either that, or some people will just get on Obama’s nerves.

The president’s friends might not become his enemies. But here are 10 Democrats — and some runners-up — who could soon find themselves on the White House Frenemies List:

1. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) — Conyers, the outspoken chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, hasn’t been shy about pressuring Obama — vowing to proceed with investigations into the Bush administration’s sacking of eight U.S. attorneys and other potential violations of federal law. Obama has said he prefers to “look forward” and not rehash the past — but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she’s open to allowing Conyers to proceed. Remember: In the 110th Congress, Conyers had to be talked down from pushing for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Click here for the full list which include MICHELLE OBAMA!!!