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Black farmers push for $1.25B shakedown payout
New York (CNN) -- The National Black Farmers Association will call Tuesday for the U.S. Senate to fund a historic discrimination case settlement involving minority farmers.

John W. Boyd Jr., the founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. ET in front of a federal court house in lower Manhattan to make the announcement.

Last month, the U.S. Senate failed to approve $1.25 billion for the settlement between the U.S. Agriculture Department and black farmers, prompting finger pointing by members of both parties and outrage among many black farmers.

"We are very, very, very disappointed that we are just caught up in such a larger political fight in the Senate, where it's just partisan division," Boyd said after the August 5 outcome.

A 1997 case against the U.S. Agriculture Department, Pigford v. Glickman, was settled out of court 11 years ago, but tens of thousands of farmers missed the filing deadline to submit claims.
Does a vegetable garden qualify as a farm?


BASICS ABOUT ORIGINAL PIGFORD FILING

October 9, 1998 -- Class Certification in Pigford granted by the Court
April 14, 1999 -- Consent Decree Approved
The court approves the Consent Decree (what the parties agreed to in the settlement) after a Fairness Hearing.
October 12, 1999 -- Deadline for claim sheets to be submitted
Six months after approval of Consent Decree: 21,776 individuals filed a claim by this date and were considered eligible by the facilitator.
July 14, 2000 -- Court ruling for late filers
The court ruled that individuals could send in an application to provide information about the extraordinary circumstances (as spelled out in Section 5g of the Consent Decree) as to why they missed the October 12, 1999 deadline. The deadline for the late filers was September 15, 2000.
September 15, 2000 -- Late Filers "Application" Deadline
For those who did not submit a claim by October 12, 1999, there was an opportunity to submit an "application/affidavit" to the arbitrator to explain why the October 1999 deadline was missed. The person had to convince the arbitrator of the extraordinary circumstances that prevented him or her from submitting a claim.

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2010-09-07
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=305022