Biggs honored by attorney general
By FELECIA P. McMILLAN
Lorctta Copeland Biggs, execu
tive U.S. attorney, was honored by
Attorney General Janet Reno
recently.
Biggs was given the Atforney
General's Award for Outstanding
Contributions to Community Part
nerships for Public Safety during the
Department of Justice 47th Annual
Award Ceremony. The ceremony
was held July 13 at Constitution
Hall in Washington, D.C.
Sylvia I. Oberle. who works for
Biggs at the U.S. Attorney's Office,
was also honored. More than 100
award recipients were recognized
during the 90-minute ceremony.
Biggs' husband. Larry, and their
children, Jahmela, 16, and Jelani,
13, attended the ceremony along
with several members of Emmanuel
Baptist Church, where Biggs wor
ships.
"I sincerely believe that Ms.
Reno has bestowed a great honor
upon all who have participated in
developing Forsyth Futures by rec
ognizing the role of Loretta and
Sylvia as representatives of the
United States Department of Jus
tice." U. S. Attorney Walter C.
Holton Jr. said.
The Attorney General's Awards
are "the highest commendation for
employees of the Department of
Justice and for certain nonemploy
ees who have provided service to
DOJ and communities across the
country. The awards are given to
individuals for exceptional achieve
ments. leadership and heroism. The
I9W award recipients were recom
! mended" and selected from a group
of more than 580 highly qualified
> nominees. Reno offered remarks
before the presentation of awards
"I am pleased to be here today to
personally recognize the employees
of the Department of Justice who
have responded to the many chal
lenges that threaten the safety of our
citizens our children and our com
munities" Reno said.
Bii_gs was elated to receive the
honor. She was also surprised to.see
her church members
Loretta Copeland Bigg* received the Attorney General'* Award far Outttanding Contribution* for Public
Safety from Attorney General Janet Reno during the 47th annual ceremony. They are flanked by U.S.
Attorney Walter C. Holton Jr. (left) and Loui* Freeh, FBI director.
"While I have been blessed to
receive a number of awards, I truly
believe 1 receive that as a representa
tive of a group of many people who
have worked in this community to
improve the quality of life for chil
dren and youth," she said. "The
event itself is exciting and special,
but what makes it an exceptional
day is for me to see my church mem
bers standing there in support of
me. There is no greater feeling than
to know that the people at home
love you and support the work you
are doing. That, in and of itself, is a
precious gift to me." she said.
During the reception, Reno had
the opportunity to me& the van
load of Biggs' supporters.
"Now all of these people came
up from your church?" she asked
Biggs. " ?
"Sister Biggs has done an excel
lent job as a judge and as executive
assistant U.S. attorney in helping to
reduce crime. It is important for us
to show our support for her efforts,"
said the Rev. John Mendez. "There
are so few African Americans we see
here in upper levels of law enforce
ment, and it is good to see our
African Americans who are being
recognized. We need to show our
support physically."
Mendez, who is the pastor of
Emmanuel, said he saw his church's
support of law enforcement as a way
to send a message that counters the
myth that many African Americans
are critical of law officers. He com
mended Reno for her work with the
burned churches, a project on which
Mendez worked with Reno in order
to reduce the number of churches
being torched by arsonists,
"In fact this myth is far from the
truth. We simply want to weed out
the bad element in law enforcement.
But we have many in the law arena
that make our communities safe for
all of us," he said.
"I am very proud of Loretta as if
I had done something myself. My
chest was standing out and I was
smiling just like she was mine,"
Emmanuel member Mildred Pep
pers said. "I was taken aback that
this is an annual event, and it was
something that I did not know exist
ed. This event has opened a whole
new world for me to share with my
students There are positions in fed
eral government that they need to
get ready for."
Biggs received the award for her
role in assisting in the development
of Forsyth Futures, an innovative
community partnership to address
issues of juvenile violence. She is the
principal adviser to the U.S. attor
ney in areas of crime prevention and
crime reduction strategies and over
sees those activities for the Middle
District of North Carolina. She has
served as chairman of Forsyth
Futures since* its inception and has
been instrumental in developing it
as a model.
Having been with -the U,S.
Attorney's Office since 1994. Biggs
supervises the Winston-Salem
branch office, oversees the Weed and
Seed efforts for the office as well as
the federal child support efforts. She
is a former District Court judge as
well as a former state assistant dis
trict attorney in Forsyth County.
A
M&F Bank introduces e-commerce services
?
Special lo The Chronicle
DURHAM ? Mechanics and
Farmers Bank has announced
that it has introduce Internet
banking on its website located at
www.mfbonline.com.
The product gives the capabil
ity of viewing deposit and loan
; accounts on line, including M&F
Visa/MasterCard accounts, trans
! ferring funds between accounts,
I bill pay and the ability to down
load data to MSMoney? or
spreadsheet format.
This service is available imme
diately. ?
The service charges for the
1 first three months will be waived.
Beginning in August, all M&F
; Internet banking customers will
receive their monthly statements
by e-mail as soon as they are ren-'
dered. The bank expects to intro
duce discount brokerage services
through its Internet banking pro
! gram as well as through its sub
; sidiary. M&F Financial Services
Inc.
Theses services will be provid
ed by Uvest and should be avail-,
able in th^next 90 days. The tech
nology used by M&F provides
convenient, secure Internet bankr
ing services.
Other electronic services that
will be introduced in August
through the bank's website will
include InterCheck,M and Posi
tive Pay. InterCheck? is a secure
delivery system that provides the
; commercial and retail customer
with Internet-based access to
check images, image statements
and account research capabilities.
It also provides Internet access to
cleared check information, with
the front and/or back of each
image, available for viewing and
downloading the day after clear
ing.
Positive Pay services will be
available for commercial cus
tomers. Positive Pay reduces
fraud by validating the checks
presented to financial institutions
for payment and automatically
matching the items against cus
tomer-issued check records
before processing.
Positive Pay detects counter
feit items having duplicate serial
numbers, voided checks presented
for payment, stolen checks and
checks with altered amounts.
CD-ROM statements are now
available for commercial cus
tomers and can be requested by
retail customers. The CD-ROM
statement contains image state
ments, all statement text and
images (front and back) of each
check and deposit, in addition to
images associated with each
deposit.
E-Statements? also will be
available to all customers and can
be requested even if the customer
does not use M&F Internet bank
ing.
Julia W. Taylor, chairman,
president and chief executive offi
cer, said, "M&F Bank has posi
tioned itself to compete and sur
pass some of the services avail
able by other banks in our market
area. We are a community bank
that is dedicated to serving the
communities where we operate
with personalized service as well
as providing the secured aggres
sive technology to make banking
convenient for our customers."
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Women
from page A2
managers have few role models
to turn to.
Further, minority women's
immediate bosses often can't or
don't help them advance. Fewer
than half of those surveyed said
? their manager "provides oppor
tunities for visibility," according
to the study. Seventeen percent
said their managers are held
accountable for advancement of
women who work for them.
"Women of color tend not to
have as many people at the table
talking about them positively,"
said Susan Johnson, director of
diversity at Pitney Bowes, a
sponsor of the study. "What's
important is there's someone in
the organization who knows
who these women are and can
speak for their abilities and
potential."
Many minority women also
find fault with corporate diver
sity initiatives - the program
and policies that aim to smooth
ethnic and racial differences in
the workplace. More than half
of those surveyed said such pro
grams aren't effective in com
bating subtle racism, and 22
percent said their managers
don't receive adequate training
in managing a diverse wQrk
force.
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