By Ayuko Babu Executive Director of PAFF (Editor’s Note: Pan African Film Festival co-founder and executive director Ayuko Babu tells how the remarkably outspoken sports legend Bill Russell was a major influence in the planning and development of the Pan African Film and Arts Festival that debuted in 1992 in Los Angeles. Russell passed on Monday, July 31 at age 88. )     Brother Bill Russell had a profound impact on my life. When I played center on my high school team in Cheyenne, Wyoming, we won the Wyoming State Championship and I won a full scholarship to the University of Wyoming and Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colorado (where the new Lakers head coach Darvin Ham played before he moved on to Texas Tech and pro ball). I moved on to play at LA City College and joined the Civil Rights/Black Power Movement. I had patterned my

Last week, Federal District Judge Carlton Reeves was confirmed as a member and chairman of the United States Sentencing Commission. His confirmation will enable the commission, which had been understaffed for eight years, to resume its work of reviewing and recommending federal sentencing guidelines. Judge Reeves, a resident of Yazoo City, comes to the position as a well-qualified and experienced attorney and judge. His magna cum laude graduation from Jackson State University and from the University of Virginia School of Law enables him to understand the culture and background of many marginalized victims and litigants involved in the federal system, while at the same time having an understanding of and appreciation for the broader legal system. The United States Sentencing Commission, as an independent judicial body, can go a long way toward helping promote justice and fairness in the system for prosecuted individuals. Prior to the commission’s establishment, judges had almost