Today is 9/11, What Good Deed Will You Do Today?

Dear Friends,

Today is the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Our hearts are with the victims' families, the survivors, first responders, recovery workers, and our military and their families.

Please join us in paying tribute to all of them by doing a special good deed today.

Consider making a donation perhaps, like purchasing needed school supplies for your child’s class, or scheduling time to give blood. Think about how you might volunteer your time and talents in your community. Bake cupcakes for a local fire or police station. Or look into adopting a pet from a local animal shelter. Reconnect with a relative you haven’t seen or spoken with in a while. Take your children to visit their grandparents. Or simply buy someone a cup of coffee.

It’s really up to you.

We hope you’ll visit our Facebook/911day page, read what others are doing, and share your own good deeds with us. Or post your plans on our website at 911day.org if you haven’t already done so.

We wish you all the best today, and we thank you for making 9/11 this nation’s largest annual day of charitable service.

God bless the victims and heroes of 9/11 and their families!

Your friends,

David Paine, Co-Founder & Jay Winuk, Co-Founder

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Graham Greene's #TheQuietAmerican Classic Novel about a CIA Agent Who Creates a Puppet Government

"I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused," Graham Greene's narrator Fowler remarks of Alden Pyle, the eponymous "Quiet American" of what is perhaps the most controversial novel of his career. Pyle is the brash young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon, where the French Army struggles against the Vietminh guerrillas.

As young Pyle's well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to stand safely aside as an observer. But Fowler's motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and himself, for Pyle has stolen Fowler's beautiful Vietnamese mistress.

Originally published in 1956 and twice adapted to film, The Quiet American remains a terrifiying and prescient portrait of innocence at large. This Graham Greene Centennial Edition includes a new introductory essay by Robert Stone.

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"The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Russell Bufalino, the Mob's Most Fearsome Kingpin" Investigates Former Gov. Ed Rendell's Involvement with Awarding Lucrative Casino Licenses in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania state police ran a top-secret investigation into whether then-Gov. Ed Rendell and his administration rigged the outcome of the casino licensing process to benefit favored applicants, including a wealthy and politically connected businessman suspected of having mob ties, a new book asserts. But the probe failed to lead to criminal charges against anyone in the administration or on the state gambling board, and prosecutors blamed the state Supreme Court for thwarting the investigation, according to "The Quiet Don," a forthcoming book by Matt Birkbeck that also serves as the first full-length biography of reclusive northeastern Pennsylvania mob boss Russell Bufalino.

Birkbeck covered the troubled beginnings of Pennsylvania's casino industry as a newspaper reporter, and here he pieces together the yearslong effort by state police and local prosecutors to probe whether corruption was involved in the awarding of the lucrative casino licenses.

The narrative emerges from interviews with dozens of participants, including now-retired Lt. Col. Ralph Periandi, the No. 2 official in the Pennsylvania State Police.

Periandi initiated the probe in 2005 because he suspected that "Rendell, members of his administration and others in state government might be trying to control the new gaming industry in Pennsylvania," Birkbeck writes.

Rendell did not return a call for comment. He has long denied any impropriety.

The book follows Periandi and his small, secret "Black Ops" team of covert investigators as they dig into the gambling board, the Rendell administration and Louis DeNaples, a powerful northeastern Pennsylvania businessman who'd been awarded a casino license despite questions about his suitability.

DeNaples was eventually charged with perjury in January 2008 for allegedly lying to state gambling regulators about whether he had connections to Bufalino - the titular "quiet don" - and other mob figures. Prosecutors later dropped the charges in an agreement that required DeNaples to turn over Mount Airy Casino Resort to his daughter. DeNaples has long denied any ties to the mob.

Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico agreed to the DeNaples deal because "the Supreme Court had interfered in his case twice already, and he feared that no matter what he did, the court would see to it that the DeNaples prosecution would never move forward," Birkbeck writes.

The author said investigators "basically stepped on a bee's nest" when they went after DeNaples.

Chief Justice Ronald Castille did not return a call placed to his office. He has rejected similar allegations about Supreme Court interference in the gambling industry as ludicrous, slanderous and irresponsible.

"The Quiet Don" traces Bufalino's ascent to mob boss, including his role in organizing the infamous 1957 meeting of Mafia leaders in Apalachin, N.Y., his control of the garment industry in New York and Philadelphia, and his control of the Teamsters union and its leader, Jimmy Hoffa.

The book asserts that it was Bufalino who ordered a hit on Hoffa, a claim also made in the 2004 Mafia memoir "I Heard You Paint Houses," in which confessed mob hitman Frank Sheeran said he killed Hoffa on Bufalino's say-so. Hoffa disappeared in 1975; his body has never been found.

What's new here is the reason: Birkbeck writes Bufalino was upset by a 1975 Time magazine article that linked him, for the first time, to the CIA's attempts to enlist the Mafia to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and he feared Hoffa would tell Senate investigators what he knew about the failed plot.

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"Prisoner of Dreams: Confessions of a Harlem Drug Dealer" Provides a Fascinating Look at the New York City Underworld During the Era of the French Connection and Superfly

Prisoner of Dreams: Confessions of a Harlem Drug Dealer is the  true story of Rick Talley, a black man who returned from Vietnam with a dream that he made a reality and who then had to deal with the consequences of his actions. Talley returned to New York City from the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, a time of turbulence and change. Race relations in America were changing, thanks to the Civil Right movement. Still, racism was very much alive in America.

Times were tough for a young black man in America, especially one who has fought in an unpopular war. Rick Talley took what he believed to be the only economic road open to him: drug dealing. In the late 1960s and early 70s, America was awash in drugs, and an entrepreneurial black man bent on a criminal lifestyle could make millions of dollars.

Prisoner of Dreams presents a large cast of characters, from small time street hustlers and pimps to Hollywood and Las Vegas celebrities to organized crime figures. It was a time of the French Connection and of Superfly and Black Caesar and Talley was there to interact and observe. In a poignant, eye-opening memoir, the author describes his life and the times, the good and the bad, in New York City and Harlem, during one of the most seminal periods in America history.

Prisoner of Dreams is more than just a story about the world of drugs. Once a prisoner of his own dreams Mr. Talley is no longer a prisoner of any kind but the master of his life and dreams. The hard times he once lived helped him rise above the problems and to understand their true meaning.

The author dares to speak out loud about real issues of which for years were only whispered about in dark rooms. He tells his story and not for a moment thought to hide from it, forget it, and this way he manages to turn what could have been a failure into a great success. He is one of the few who dares to dream and live his dreams.

“Intriguing, Prisoner of Dreams captures a moment in time and allows the reader to be there. Talley educates the reader about the secrets of a fascinating lifestyle.”
Reggie Wells, legendary DJ, Formerly of 98.7 Kiss FM Radio, New York City

“As a personal and long lasting associate and friend of Rick Talley, let me say that this book is the truth, as well as a serious accounting of an intriguing life style in one of the Big Apple’s most interesting eras.“
Jesse Gray, Harlem hustler and boss maker

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Rick Talley Discusses "Prisoner of Dreams: Confessions of a Harlem Drug Dealer" on #CrimeBeatRadio

On September 5th, Rick Talley, author of Prisoner of Dreams: Confessions of a Harlem Drug Dealer appears on Crime Beat Radio.

Crime Beat is a weekly hour-long radio program that airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. Crime Beat presents fascinating topics that bring listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. Guests have included ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, sports officials, informants, prisoners, drug dealers and investigative journalists, who have provided insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime.

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