General Motors earned top honors in four award categories at the 17th Annual Urban Wheel Awards, the official multicultural event of the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) on January 13, 2013.

The event honored the contributions of women in the automotive industry. General Motors’ awards included:

· Designer of the Year – Crystal Windham, Director of Design for the Chevrolet Passenger Car and Small Crossover Interior Studio

· Executive of the Year – Alicia Boler-Davis, Vice President of Global Quality and U.S. Customer Experience

· Company of the Year for Progress in Community Service Initiatives to Women – accepted by Vivian Pickard, President General Motors Foundation and Director of Corporate Relations and Ken Barrett, Chief Diversity Officer

· Urban Car of the Year – 2013 Cadillac ATS – accepted by Don Butler, Vice President of Marketing, Cadillac

This premier event attracts media, automotive executives, businesses, politicians, celebrities, and community and trade organizations, who come together to promote multicultural consumer awareness of auto manufacturers, vehicles, technology, suppliers, dealers, and community service. Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actor, producer, director and Latino activist, Edward James Olmos, and Daytime Emmy award-winning actress Niecy Nash hosted.

By Marc H. Morial
NNPA Columnist

“We urge that a comprehensive jobs program be developed and executed by way of a partnership that includes government, the private sector and the nation’s non-profit community.” November 7 National Urban League letter to President Obama, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi

(NNPA) The December jobs report has confirmed what urban America has known for a very long time: The fierce urgency of now is overtaking the slow pace of the economic recovery and continuing partisan gridlock in Washington. The recent jobs report reveals that 155,000 jobs were created last month and overall unemployment remained at a steady and still too high rate of 7.8 percent. But the unemployment picture in urban America tells a decidedly different story.

African American unemployment, which has hovered at twice the national average for decades, has now climbed to 14 percent and the Hispanic jobless rate of 9.6 percent also continues to exceed the national average. Despite the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive voices in Congress, the jobs crisis in urban America has reached emergency proportions and is tearing at the economic and social fabric of many communities. That is why the National Urban League announced last week a new $70 million “Jobs Rebuild America” initiative designed to employ, educate and empower communities that have been hardest hit by the Great Recession.

Our campaign is a two-pronged effort. First, through a $70 million public-private expansion of existing Urban League job training, education and business development programs, we intend to directly assist thousands of jobseekers and entrepreneurs in dozens of cities over the next five years. The second component of the Jobs Rebuild America initiative is a public engagement campaign to increase pressure on Washington to invest in the education and skills enhancement of at-risk youth and disadvantaged young adults. We also call for passage of targeted jobs legislation and a responsible fiscal plan and deficit reduction initiatives that do not exacerbate the unemployment crisis.

This effort is an outgrowth of the National Urban League’s historic mission of economic empowerment for African Americans and other hard-pressed urban citizens. It also builds upon the work that our network of nearly 100 affiliates has been engaged in since the start of the Great Recession. Our affiliates have served as economic first responders for communities devastated by job loss. They have also been successful in creating economic opportunity and preparing thousands of people to avail themselves of those opportunities. We’ve worked closely with our partners in the private sector and the federal government to maximize resources and mobilize the strength of our collaborative efforts.

For this expanded effort, we have put together a powerful coalition of public and private partners who have pledged their expertise and other resources. They include, the U.S. Department of Labor, Nationwide Insurance, Everest College, Pitney Bowes, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Stonehenge, UPS, State Farm, Target, Best Buy, the U.S. Department of Justice, AT&T, Time Warner, Chevron, BP and the New York Stock Exchange.

Our collective message is this: While we believe it is important to tackle deficit reduction, job creation remains the nation’s number one priority. We urge the President and the Congress to adopt a balanced approach that marries compassion for the most vulnerable Americans with protections for the nation’s jobs and sacrifice from all.

For a full description of the Jobs Rebuild America Initiative visit www.nul.org

Marc H. Morial, former mayor of New Orleans, is president and CEO of the National Urban League.

By Zenitha Prince
Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper

(NNPA) Amid criticisms that President Obama’s new administration seems to be dominated by White men, the new chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus has offered some diversity-boosting suggestions.

In a letter sent to the White House, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) asked the president to consider Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) for the position of Secretary of Commerce and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) to fill the post vacated by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis on Jan. 9.

“Both Melvin Watt and Barbara Lee have served the American people in the United States House of Representatives and the citizens of their respective Congressional districts with distinction… [and] are exceptionally well-qualified, proven candidates,” Fudge wrote in her letter.

Watt, a former CBC chairman, has served in Congress since 1993. As an attorney, he specialized in minority business development law and was a partner in several small enterprises.

Lee has served California’s 9th Congressional District since 1998. Also a former CBC chair, she has been a persistently progressive voice on Capitol Hill, advocating against the United States’ involvement in the Iraq War and championing issues such as labor and minority health.

“While I’m honored by my colleagues’ unsolicited recommendation, my focus remains the 13th Congressional District. If the President were to ask me to join his Cabinet, I would of course have to give that very serious consideration,” Lee told The San Francisco Chronicle.

By Ayana Jones
Special to the NNPA from The Philadelphia Tribune

(NNPA) In response to the recent carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., various health organizations are calling for intervention in reducing firearms-related deaths and injuries.

“Since 1996, ACP has proposed policies to reduce deaths and injuries related to firearms, even as we must also acknowledge today that we are not doing enough. Over the next weeks and months, ACP will review the research on the most effective approaches to reduce firearms-related injuries and deaths, and then from this review, offer our ideas for a multi-faceted, comprehensive approach,” Dr. David L. Bronson, president of the American College of Physicians said in a statement.

“But we know already that there are policies that can help and should be acted upon immediately. Congress should start by banning the sale of assault-type weapons and high capacity (ammunition) magazines that are designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest possible time. Weapons like the semi-automatic rifle used to kill 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.”

Bronson called for the public health system to be strengthened.

“The public health system must be strengthened and adequately funded to provide access to treatment, as long as it is needed, to people with mental health and substance abuse problems. It is especially urgent that the system provide affordable and effective treatment options for persons who may be at greater risk of inflicting violence on themselves and others, even as we recognize that most persons with mental health and substance abuse problems pose no danger,” said Bronson.

“Government must not impose any restrictions on physicians being able to counsel their patients on reducing injuries and deaths from firearms in the home, as some state legislatures have attempted to do.”

Dr. Rahn K. Bailey, president of the National Medical Association, expressed condolences on behalf of the organization of African American physicians and called for increased awareness and treatment of mental illness.

“There have been far too many senseless acts of domestic terrorism occurring in this country. After seeing the multiple images of sobbing schoolchildren, as well as distraught teachers and parents on the various news outlets this weekend, there is only one thing left to say; this has got to stop,” said Bailey, who is a psychiatrist.

Bailey noted that there is a need for acute psychiatric intervention for the victim’s family, the children who survived and for others affected.

“There is an ever present need to increase our awareness, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. This is necessary for the individual, but also for our communities as we have unfortunately witnessed; undiagnosed and untreated mental illness may lead to tragedy for us all,” said Bailey.

Bailey noted that although signs of mental illness appear in adolescence and early adulthood; mental illnesses are usually diagnosed in young men in their late teens to mid-twenties, as opposed to women which are more often diagnosed in their late 20′s. These signs or symptoms are not limited to a particular race or group in our society and we must recognize that mental illness is a medical condition.

“The stigma associated with mental illness delays adequate diagnosis and care and can have devastating effects on the country,” Bailey said.

The American College of Emergency Physicians, a national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine, called on government at every level to increase investments in mental health resources and to ban the sale of assault weapons and high capacity-magazines.

“Emergency physicians see the tragic consequences of gun violence every day,” said Dr. Andy Sama, president of ACEP.

“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and to everyone affected by this terrible event in Newtown. We deplore the improper use of firearms and support legislative action to decrease the threat to public safety resulting from the widespread availability of assault weapons. We also are urging policymakers to restore dedicated funding for firearms injury prevention research.”

CEP’s policy on firearm injury prevention endorses limiting the availability of firearms to those “whose ability to responsibly handle a weapon is assured.” It also calls for aggressive action to enforce current laws against illegal possession, purchase, sale or use of firearms.

“The nation’s emergency physicians call for increased funding for the development, evaluation and implementation of evidence-based programs and policies to reduce firearm related injury and death,” said Sama.

“We will fully support legislation that supports the principles of ACEP’s policy on firearms injury prevention.”