February 26, 2023 – Urban CNY

News

“Dilbert” Comic Strip Dropped by Multiple Newspapers after Racist Rant

by Ken Jackson
February 26, 2023

”I don’t want to have anything to do with them,” Adams added. “And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to White people is to get the hell away from Black people, just get the f**k away … because there is no fixing this.” – Scott Adams His cancellation was due to his racist rant where the cartoonist called Black Americans a “hate group” and told white people to “get the fu@k away” from Black people documented in a YouTube Video. The following is what he said and the immediate response posted by concerned African Americans. The 69 year old Adams began his comic strip in 1989 and happens to be popular world wide. In the past he’s expressed admiration for former President Trump. His views were express on his You Tube channel called, Coffee with Scott Adams. The Cleveland Plain Dealer Editor, Chris Quinn issued letter to readers describing Adams comments as, “mostly hateful and racists”. Declaring, that dropping the long running comic strip was, “not a difficult decision” . Newspapers includes Advance Media publications in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Massachusetts, Oregon, and many more have pulled the controversial comic off their media properties. In Texas, editor and publisher of the Express-News characterized the comments as, “hateful and discriminatory public comments” they continued, “Dropping a comic strip from our pages is not censorship. Adams is entitled to his opinions. The Express-News is not obliged to give him a platform and financial support.” According to published reports “Dilbert had been cancelled by 77 newspapers in September by publisher, Lee Enterprises”. This controversy has Syracuse, NY connections as Advance Local includes; The Post Standard and Syracuse.com. Warning: This Video contains verbiage that some may find offensive.

Black Woman Offers Assistance to Another Black Woman

Business Transition/Succession Planning

Organizations Offer Assistance for Businesses and Not-for-profit Organizations

by Urban CNY News
February 26, 2023

Many organizations and business have not planned Transitions of their business or organization. Several entities are offering a variety of programs and initiatives in an effort to assist small businesses and Not-for-profit organizations. The following organizations call help by offering nonprofit organizations and nonprofit organizations as they go through their transition. In addition to navigating different phases of the succession process. Personal leadership and professional development; helping emerging leaders prepare for future responsibilities. Other initiatives include the following. The Central New York Community Foundation offers a variety of programs that can assist nonprofit executives and boards during different phases of the succession process. LeadUp CNY – designed to help emerging leaders prepare for their future responsibilities in higher roles through the development of personal and professional leadership skills. Marsellus Executive Development Program – An opportunity for nonprofit leaders to identify and build on their strengths as a nonprofit leader, elevate their thinking and connect with a strong group of peers. Strategic Partnership Fund – Supports organizations seeking to create new synergies in and between nonprofits, such as mergers and affiliations, that will enable them to enhance program delivery and achieve more effective and efficient use of limited financial and human resources. Establishing a Fund – Nonprofit organizations that decide to dissolve operations may want to extend their mission and legacy with the development of a fund at the Community Foundation. Examples include: • Onondaga Citizens League-Syracuse 20/20 Fund• Westminster Presbyterian Northside Concerns Fund• Corinthian Club Fund

Business Transition/Succession Planning

For a business owner, a business sale is more than a transaction, it’s a major life transition.

by Urban CNY News
February 26, 2023

Article written by Thomas Griffith, AEP®, ChFC®, CAP® Their business is often the largest asset that they own, as well as the key part of their financial and estate plans. What’s more – their business has likely played an important role in shaping their daily life and identity. A failure to fully align the sale of a company with their personal plans could potentially undermine the long-term wealth preservation and family engagement opportunities afforded by the business deal. This is especially true for owners with charitable components to their plans. Preparing for a business sale involves assembling a team of advisors, reviewing financial and estate plans, assessing the transition and creating a plan of action. Often, due to the number of considerations and people involved, the advisor that is leading this work tries to keep the team and scope focused. This focusing is often done with the hope that it leads to a greater chance of a successful outcome, but it is important to consider what overall success looks like for the client and their family. For advisors guiding clients through this change, comprehensive and coordinated planning is critical. An integrated team is necessary to assemble a complete picture of the business owner’s broader goals. A cooperative approach will maximize client benefit and satisfaction. With effective charitable planning, potential advantages include reducing estate tax, avoiding capital gains tax, creating a charitable income tax deduction, reducing tax to heirs and generating charitable resources to help the now former business owner and their family achieve their desired impact. How Does it Work? In the simplest case, a cash gift to charity can be made either before or after the sale of the business. As long as this is done in the same year, this will provide a tax deduction to help offset the income from the sale. The needed tax deduction is often much greater than the client’s annual charitable giving. Using a donor-advised fund, the gift can be made in the year needed and grants may be given from the fund to support charities of the client’s choice for many years into the future. The cash gift, while simple, does not maximize the tax advantages of gifting. A preferred approach would be to gift stock or ownership shares to a donor-advised fund prior to the sale. Then, when the sale occurs the fund receives the proceeds from the sale for its portion. This creates a charitable deduction similar to gifting cash, and also avoids taxation on any capital gains embedded in the ownership since the fund is administered by a tax-exempt public charity. Using a donor-advised fund at the community foundation also provides ongoing charitable planning support. Whether it is legacy planning or engaging future generations in giving, the community foundation has extensive resources to deploy. For example, our flexible discernment process allows donors to work at their own pace with a range of tools to develop their legacy plans. Our experienced staff members are available to facilitate family meetings and to help donors maximize use of their fund as their needs change over time. There are also more complex planning tools that can be incorporated into the business sale. For example, charitable remainder trusts can be used to create income streams for heirs while ultimately creating a charitable resource. This type of trust planning can be useful for wealth distribution and addressing spendthrift or creditor concerns with heirs. Another tool is the charitable lead trust, which creates an initial charitable resource but allows for tax-efficient transfer of the trust corpus to heirs in the future. Regardless of your clients’ charitable needs, the community foundation can be a partner in business sale planning. The result is a more tax-efficient and comprehensive result for their financial and estate plans as well as the inclusion of a steward to their charitable plan. When we work together, everyone benefits. When our community thrives, we all thrive. We encourage you to connect your charitable clients with the community foundation. Thomas Griffith is vice president, development at the Central New York Community Foundation. He can be reached at 315.883.5544 or tgriffith@cnycf.org.

Gov Hochul's Black History Month Event 2023

Cover Stories Events

Governor Hochul Announces Plans for “I Love NY” Black Travel Initiative

by Urban CNY News
February 26, 2023

I LOVE NY Will Promote Black Travel Destinations, Events and Cultural Attractions to Encourage Black Travelers to Explore New York State Governor Hochul: “I’m really excited to make an announcement here today that we are going to be launching through I Love New York Tourism, the I Love New York Black Travel Initiative. First time ever. First time ever to celebrate unparalleled Black history and culture right here in New York State and welcome more Black travelers to our state, as well as encouraging local residents to understand that story.” Governor Kathy Hochul presents plans for an I LOVE NY Black travel initiative, designed to grow New York State tourism and encourage Black traveler visitation. The Governor made the announcement at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as part of the state’s commemoration of Black History Month. On Friday February 24th, Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans for an I LOVE NY Black travel initiative, designed to grow New York State tourism and encourage Black traveler visitation. The Governor made the announcement at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as part of the state’s commemoration of Black History Month. VIDEO of the event below. A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below: Good morning, everyone, and thank you. First of all, Happy Black History Month. No better place to celebrate than right here. I think this is extraordinary. I want to acknowledge Robert Battle. Your contributions to lifting up this beautiful, spiritual experience that we all just went through, and what you’ve done replicating this on and on and on to audiences from all around the world. People come here, they know the power of the story and the experience that you’ve created and the legacy that you’ve inherited, but also that you propelled forward. So, I thank you for your leadership of this outstanding, wonderful part of our New York State story. Let’s give another round of applause to Robert Battle, the Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey Dancers. And we are also joined by someone you’re going to hear from. I hear from her a lot because she always tells me what I have to do, and that is the voice – the conscience of America spoken through our own piece of American and Black history, Hazel Dukes. Let’s give her a round applause. Our President of Empire State Development, our President and CEO, Hope Knight. Please recognize Hope Knight. Ross Levi, the Executive Director and Vice President of the New York State Division of Tourism. Thank you, Ross. Erik Kulleseid, the New York State Parks Commissioner. Commissioner Kulleseid, thank you for joining us here. Governor Hochul greets attendees at NYS Black History Month Event Again, just to be here in this space, there’s something magical about it. I’ve heard about it. I’ve never had a chance to experience this in person, and boy, I’m going to make sure I come back over and over and over and tell others that this is just an incredible story of someone who redefined our image of what dance is and can be. And I’m so proud to be here and to realize, you know, and Robert started to tell the story back in 1958, but young Black dancers performed at a time when there was racism that was not just systemic and behind the scenes, but prevalent. But it was visceral, it was real. It was out there in the open – 1950. And to be able to be groundbreaking, have a new company that celebrated these gifts, this talent, and it was quite visionary at the time, but necessary. Necessary. And so, I’m so proud to be here. And what Alvin Ailey said, I wanted to say, I wanted to show Black people they could come down to concert halls and it was their culture that is being celebrated here. So, welcoming people to come and understand the shared story that had been kept behind the scenes for far too long. So, that’s why we’re here. We’re here to celebrate that as part of Black history. And that’s just a beautiful sentiment of what he left and what Black History Month means, what Black culture means. And I’m really excited to make an announcement here today that we are going to be launching through I Love New York Tourism, the I Love New York Black Travel Initiative. First time ever. First time ever to celebrate unparalleled Black history and culture right here in New York State and welcome more Black travelers to our state, as well as encouraging local residents to understand that story. You know, this is not something where some other states want to sweep a story under the rug and pretend nothing ever happened. We lean into that story here in New York. That sets us apart. And we think about our local residents who live among, whether it’s in New York City, all the way up to the far reaches the northern part of New York, all the way to Western New York. People live there not knowing that in their own communities that extraordinary things happen by extraordinary people, and I feel it as our moral responsibility to educate this generation and to pass on those stories to the next. That’s how you keep the flame alive. And that’s critically important to me. So, I’ve been to so many places. Every single thing that’s worth seeing in the State of New York, I have seen. Okay. We have things that you just never think about. Like we have a Jell-O museum. Okay. The birthplace of Jell-O is in New York State. So, but I also have had the chance to, because of my own desire, my own quest to know the stories, I’ve been to countless sites, and it has been a treasure for me to know them, but now it’s time to make sure everybody else knows them. So, take a minute, watch this video that’s going to queue up, and then I’m going to talk

Arrest of David Arnold for Multiple Charges of Sexual Misconduct with a Child

CNY Community Foundation to Premiere Lead Poisoning Documentary

15-Year-Old, Alexcia Lynch – Syracuse Police Release Homicide Investigation Timeline

Congressman Jim Clyburn (SC-06) Endorses John Mannion for Congress in NY-22

Van B. Robinson Common Council Chambers Weekly Schedule September 2 -6, 2024

The Public is invited to Participate in Two Rounds of Open Houses Showcasing the Syracuse Housing Study

State Department of Transportation to Host Open House for Bridge Rehabilitation Project in the City of Syracuse

“Dilbert” Comic Strip Dropped by Multiple Newspapers after Racist Rant

Organizations Offer Assistance for Businesses and Not-for-profit Organizations

For a business owner, a business sale is more than a transaction, it’s a major life transition.

Governor Hochul Announces Plans for “I Love NY” Black Travel Initiative

Black Voices