Nororious Klansman Dies
An infamous North Carolina Klansman was buried last week. Virgil Griffin, best known for leading a Ku Klux Klan chapter that was involved in a deadly clash with members of the Communist Party two decades ago, died last Wednesday at Gaston Memorial Hospital. He was 64. Griffin, who during his 40 years in the hate group – he rose to become imperial wizard of the Cleveland Knights of the KKK – was cast into the public spotlight after five members of the Communist Party were killed and 10 injured in a clash with the Klan in Greensboro in 1979. Many civil rights advocates believe that justice was denied when Griffin and several of his fellow Klansmen were tried and cleared of state murder charges and federal civil rights conspiracy charges. In a civil trial, the Klan, the American Nazi Party and the Greensboro Police Department were found jointly liable for the wrongful deaths of the five people killed. The city paid $350,000. He would later tell a Truth and Reconciliation panel investigating the incident that Communist Workers Party members were killed and not Klansmen because “my people hunt for food. Maybe God guided the bullets, I don’t know.”

Sen. Burris Under Fire in Illinois
Illinois Republicans said Sunday that they want the senator who filled President Barack Obama’s seat in Congress investigated for perjury, saying he misled the public regarding then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Sen. Roland Burris had previously told a panel probing the governor’s alleged attempt to sell the Senate seat that he had never been asked by the governor to contribute to his campaign. On Sunday, in what his opponents say was deliberately misleading, Burris acknowledged being hit up by Rod Blagojevich’s brother for contributions. “I made clear to him I would not contribute [to the governor's campaign] because it would be inappropriate because I had expressed my interest in the Senate seat,” Burris, a Democrat, told reporters at a news conference. “I did not donate one single dollar.” But state Rep. Jim Durkin, who headed the Republican questioning of Burris at the impeachment hearing, said in a statement, “I’m very disappointed.” A spokesman for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Jim Manley, said that the Democratic senator is looking into the matter. “Clearly it would have been better if Sen. Burris had provided this information when he first testified,” Manley said. “Sen. Reid is reviewing the affidavit and will await any action by Illinois legislative leaders after they review the matter.” In an affidavit, Burris said the governor’s brother called him three times to “seek my assistance in fundraising for Gov. Blagojevich.”

Ex-Klansman Apologizes for Years of Hatred
Elwin Wilson, who spent his early years making life miserable for Blacks, could have gone to his grave with the truth about ugly actions of the 1960s. But, in a stunning admission following a lifetime of baggage, he fessed up about a brutal act that has haunted him for decades. The former Klansman, who now lives in Rock Hill, S.C., says that he was the member of an angry White mob who in May 1961 attacked a group of students from a local Black college as they got off a bus to try and integrate a local dime store lunch counter. “Well, at the time, it felt….I felt like somebody going to play golf and getting a hole in one,” he told The Chicago Tribune. “I’m ashamed to say that’s what I remember feeling. That’s how good it felt.” Read the rest here.

FEMA Blasted for Aid Decisions
The government’s top emergency response agency, which has been under a microscope ever since dropping the ball with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is now being blasted for the way it handled housing aid after Hurricane Ike slammed the Texas coast last September. The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied nearly 650,000 applications for housing aid after Ike struck, ruling that nine in 10 claimants were ineligible for FEMA help. Many of those people who were kicked to curb by the federal agency say they qualified for assistance and that the ones making the decisions weren’t qualified to make such judgments. Of the more than 730,000 applications for money to help with home repairs, mobile homes or other housing services needed to counter Ike’s rage, FEMA declared almost 650,000 ineligible. It paid out about $371 million to 82,000 aid applicants, according to the Chronicle. One applicant told the newspaper that he knew of a musician and short-order cook who suddenly had been deemed an aid evaluator. “It seems to me that [FEMA] hired a bunch of people, basically just anybody, and put them on the street after one day of training,” he said. A woman told the Chronicle that child welfare workers warned her that her damaged apartment wasn’t safe for her children and a condominium owner whose unit was condemned by a city building inspector. “Both the woman and the condo owner told the newspaper that FEMA inspectors said their homes were habitable,” the newspaper reported. FEMA officials acknowledged that inspectors make mistakes sometimes, encouraging claimants to file appeals if they believe they were unfairly denied assistance. “Most times, [eligibility is] obvious,” said Timothy Cannon, a FEMA inspections supervisor. “It’s not a tough question.”