. More than 30 banks nationwide received letters containing a suspicious powder and threats Tuesday, authorities said. JPMorgan Chase & Co. banks were the primary targets in what might be an extreme backlash to the nation’s economic crisis. Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Home Loan Bank, a Chase Bank subsidiary in Atlanta, , reported receiving a suspicious letter with white powder and a threat. The powder was later found to be harmless. Law enforcement officials said the letters were also mailed to Chase bank branches in or near Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Newark, N.J.; New York City; Oklahoma City and Washington, D.C. They all appear to be from the same source and began showing up at the banks on Monday, according to the official, who spoke to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. A second law enforcement official, also speaking anonymously, said authorities were looking into whether the letters were sent in anger because of the economic crisis. Authorities would not release the text of the letters, but Gary Johnson, a spokesman at the FBI field office in Oklahoma City, said the threat was “based on past actions of the bank” and that the letters implied that the opener was going to die. U.S. Postal Inspector JoJan Henderson confirmed that the letters appeared to be related. The U.S. Postal Service and state and local officials also were investigating.

“Urban street terrorists” hit Philly Dunkin Donuts.  Police are tracking an armed crew - which Upper Darby’s top cop called “urban street terrorists” - that has hit three area Dunkin’ Donuts locations in broad daylight. In the latest attack, the robbers hit a Dunkin’ Donuts on West Chester Pike in Upper Darby, Pa., Friday afternoon. In surveillance footage from the robbery Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood released Monday, a man shoves a gun in the manager’s face, then hurdles over the front counter before his hooded accomplices join him. “We gotta get these guys off the street. They’re going to kill somebody,” Chitwood said. “I cannot emphasize it enough: These guys are really, really dangerous.” One of the suspects, believed to be Black males in their 20s, struck the manager in the head with his gun as she was led to the safe. Philadelphia Police spokeswoman Officer Christine O’Brien said detectives are investigating two Dunkin’ Donuts robberies in West Philly that they believe are linked to the Upper Darby case.

Cop-shooting teen gets 25-50 years in prison

. Donyea Phillips, a 17-year-old a runaway, who had been squatting with a cousin in an East Frankford rooming house, was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison for shooting and wounding two Philadelphia drug officers serving a search warrant at the house, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. Phillips, a suspected crack dealer who pleaded guilty in July to two counts of attempted murder and related charges, apologized to Officers Christopher Reed and Stephen Holts. Phillips insisted to Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn B. Bronson that he did not know police were trying to come through the door when he blindly fired through a window Nov. 13. “I was afraid for my life,” Phillips told Bronson, adding, “All I’m just asking is not to lock me up and throw away the key, because I’m changed.” The prison term drew gasps from some of the dozen relatives in court to support Phillips because it’s above the 5- to 10-year minimum recommended under state sentencing guidelines. However, it was also less than the 32-1/2 to 65 years requested by the prosecuting attorney. “I think this sentence was clearly excessive,” said defense attorney James A. Lammendola. He said he would file a motion asking the judge to reconsider the sentence. Explaining his sentence, the judge credited Phillips with accepting responsibility by pleading guilty and acknowledged his grim upbringing: “You had a horribly deprived childhood, there’s no doubt about that,” Bronson said. Kirk Heilbrun, a forensic psychologist hired by Phillips’ defense, testified that Phillips was the oldest of six children. Heilbrun said Phillips experienced mental and physical abuse by his parents and was largely responsible for caring for his siblings. But the judge said Phillips’ background did not excuse the fact that he was squatting in a house, selling crack cocaine and spending $100 a day for marijuana. “Sadly, other people have been in similar situations, but they don’t hole themselves up in a crack house and fire a gun at police officers,” Bronson said.

Philly’s Black teacher pool is drying up

The already shallow pool of Black teachers in Philadelphia schools is evaporating at an alarming rate. District officials, who understand that increasing the number of African Americans in the classroom is one - perhaps the only - surefire method of closing the achievement gap between Black and White students, are scrambling for solutions. When school began this year, The Philadelphia Daily News reports, the percentage of Black teachers in the city was the lowest it has been in decades. And some argue that the dearth of African American teachers has put the district in violation of an agreement it made with the federal Office of Civil Rights three decades ago to achieve a racially balanced teaching force, the News reports. In 1978, more than a third (36 percent) of the teachers were Black. Fast-forward to now, and the number has dropped to 29 percent. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Black student body has remained 60 percent. While other school districts nationwide also have a paucity of Black teachers, Philly’s Black-teacher pool has shrunk by 739 over the past half-decade; the percentage of White teachers has grown from 62.5 percent to 65.4 percent over the same period. “Clearly, more must be done to recruit and retain African-American teachers,” said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), told the News. Reg Weaver, who heads the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher union, with about 3 million members, said that, “While race doesn’t determine anyone’s ability to master and teach a subject, research does show that teachers of color have higher performance expectations for minority kids, which in turn can impact student achievement.”

Racists terrorize a girl in Idaho. Federal investigators want to know what would motivate two grown men would go through lengths to terrorize a Black girl in the Idaho town of Post Falls. On Monday, 15-year-old Rai Franklin said she woke up to dogs barking outside her family home. They had been aroused by two White men who allegedly threw eggs at her parents’ car and left fliers in the neighborhood telling Black people that they didn’t belong in the neighborhood. Rai said that one of the men grabbed her, punched her in the face and fled while yelling racial slurs. Post Falls is apparently a short distance from Hayden Lake, the home of a compound where members of the Aryan Nations, a violent militant White supremacist organization, used to meet. FBI officials say that if the me are caught, they could face federal hate-crime charges.

Texas university isn’t cheering this student on. It doesn’t matter that Jamie Burns has let the campus off the hook, that her doctors have cleared her medically, and that her mom has said to let her daughter do what she was recruited for, officials at Southern Methodist University say that she won’t be cheerleading. Find out why at BET.com/News.

Ex-husband of Atlanta mayor dies. David McCoy Franklin, the ex-husband of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin who was a trusted adviser of former Mayor Maynard Jackson, died Sunday, according to a death notice issued by Murray Brothers Funeral Home in Atlanta . He was 65. No cause of death has been disclosed. Franklin had suffered a long illness, Angelo Fuster, former spokesman for Jackson , told The Associated Press. Fuster said that Franklin ’s political smarts were “quite valued,” AP reports.

Blacks are the target of choice for Taser-wielding Houston Police

Life can be shocking if you’re Black and life in Houston . A new study released Monday revealed that Houston Police officers have used their Tasers on African-American suspects more than any other group of people. Read more at BET.com/News.

Philly cops nab third suspect in cold-blooded murder. Philadelphia Police have netted a third suspect in connection with the slaying of a 78-year-old Korean War vet who was shot in the face last week by thugs who attempted to rob him outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars post. The murder of the “sweet and gentle man,” as neighbors described him, shocked the community and the police, which launched an intense investigation into the homicide. Last Thursday detectives arrested two 18-year-olds, Karl Jarmon and Terrell Bennett. Their alleged accomplice, 15-year-old Gary Autrey, is now under arrest, according to homicide Lt. Mel Williams. The trio is being held without bail, charged with murder, conspiracy and weapons charges, police said. “We are satisfied that we took these predators off the streets and we made an arrest in a timely manner, and we were able to give the family closure,” said Lt. Williams. “It’s a tragedy whenever people prey on the old.” Enor Williams had been married to Connie Williams nearly 40 years and, according to The Philadelphia Daily News, was a devoted volunteer at the post. “I hate that [the murder] was the last thing that happened to him,” his 59-year-old widow told the newspaper. “I knew they would find him,” she said of the suspected gunman. “I don’t know how, but I did.” *

Donyell Marshall to reach 15 years as Sixer. He may have been dropped by the then-unnamed, newly franchised Oklahoma City Thunder, but NBA vet Donyell Marshall wouldn’t be counted out. Marshall will reach his 15^th year in the league as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers after Oklahoma waived him. Marshall, 35, is expected to sign a one year deal with Philly for $1.26 million by week’s end. The deal makes the vet one of the seasoned class eligible for a minimum salary guaranteed only to players with at least 10 years experience in the league. Marshall last averaged 3.8 points off the bench with Seattle before the team moved to Oklahoma.

NFL season begins tonight. The Giants hope to defend their Super Bowl title as the NFL officially begins its regular season today. Meanwhile, New England is among top contenders, Adam “Pacman” Jones will try to show he’s worth his welcome back into the league from

suspension, and Chad Ocho Cinco, formerly Chad Johnson, will likely do his best impression as the Dennis Rodman of football. Keep up with all the action by visiting BET.com.

Blacks in the South have higher HIV rates. Blacks in the South have higher HIV and AIDS rates. Why? Read more at BET.com/Body & Soul.

Be Sickle Smart program hits major cities.

The Be Sickle Smart program is on the road, and likely will be in a city near you. “American Idol” season two Winner Ruben Studdard hosted the Be Sickle Smart Education Day in Jacksonville, Fla., last Saturday to raise awareness of the risk of iron overload, a serious condition that affects people living with sickle-cell disease. Transfusional iron overload is a serious condition that can arise from having 10 or more blood transfusions over one’s lifetime (which is common among people who suffer from sickle-cell disease). If left untreated, iron overload can lead to serious health problems, including liver and heart damage, to name a few. The nationwide Be Sickle Smart campaign is a community-based health education effort leveraging advocacy groups, churches, local media and community leaders to raise awareness of sickle-cell disease and iron overload. The program will continue in Birmingham on Sept. 13 and Chicago on Sept. 18, with other stops planned later for Atlanta, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Philadelphia. More than 70,000 people in America have sickle-cell disease. One in 12 African Americans carries the trait for sickle-cell disease. For more information, go to Ask About Iron.com.

Is L.A. driving the trans fat bandwagon off a cliff?
Vital Signs: Cities and states are helping you cut the fat from your diets. Cities like Los Angeles are going as far as to stop fast food restaurants from opening in poor communities to lessen the number of unhealthy restaurants there. But do we really need that kind of help in the fat fight, or is the city going too far? Vital Signs has more.

hen authorities found Danieal Kelly, it was the most horrific scene imaginable.The case of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly proves that the safety net, supposedly in place to protect society’s weakest and most vulnerable individuals from unnecessary strife, is in dire need of repair. On Thursday, nine people, including the disabled girl’s mother and four social workers, were charged with causing the child’s slow, horrific death two years ago. In lodging the charges – ranging from murder for the mother, Andrea Kelly, to manslaughter and perjury for those Philadelphia Department of Human Services who ignored Danieal’s condition – Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said that everyone should be angry about Danieal’s treatment. Danieal was 42 pounds and covered in open sores – that were teeming with maggots and went clean to the bone – when her corpse was found in her mother’s filthy house in August 2006, according to authorities. “Danieal did not fall through the cracks,” Abraham said. “It was a failure of institutional inclination. Saving Danieal was just too much trouble.” In addition to the mother, who is accused of starving her daughter, warrants were issued for the father, Daniel Kelly, 37, who did not live with the family (child endangerment), and eight others. Some social workers ignored three year’s worth of reports, neglected to go on site visits or even fabricated reports to appear as if they paying close attention to the girl’s condition, the grand jury found. “You can’t continue to bury these children and say things are getting better when they’re not,” Abraham said. If convicted, what penalty should the defendants face?