Ticker tape

Jet, Feb 11, 2002 by Simeon Booker

Confidential: With many Republicans believing that the party can do better than get 10 percent of the minority votes in the nation's inner cities, Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts plans to escort Sen. John McCain on bus trips in coming weeks to woo Black voters in "battleground" districts in the Northeastern, Southern and Western regions.

Also the GOP will hold its second summit for Black college presidents on February 13 in Washington. Meanwhile, the Democrats shortly will launch an offensive when the Congressional Black Caucus holds several events in the nation's capital during Black History Month. Las Vegas County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson-Gates was elected president of the DNC Black Caucus and Michigan's Joel Ferguson as vice president.... Brooklyn's new deputy borough president is Yvonne Graham, founder and executive director of the Caribbean Women's Health Association. Borough President Marty Markovitz picked her for the post and New York Congressman Rep. Major Owens agreed, calling "first rate" the Black woman who has never held public office before ... An oil painting of New York's first Black Mayor David Dinkins is the center of a City Hall controversy in Gotham. Some supporters want to move the picture from the mayors' side of the building to the council side in a more frequented spot and more ornate room. Wags quip that perhaps the politicos need two paintings on the noted politician ... Virginia's new Public Safety Chief John W. Marshall has a reputation for more than being the son of the Supreme Court's first Black Justice Thurgood Marshall. He also has served as director of the U.S. Marshals Service.... NAACP President Kweisi Mfume was named to direct Baltimore's African-American Heritage Festival on June 21-23 with Ravens all-pro linebacker Ray Lewis serving as celebrity representative.