URBAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER Apogee AI Media
October 1, 2026
A PUBLICATION OF PROJECT NORTHSTAR TEST WHAT YOU KNOW 1. About how many missing child reports are entered into the FBI's national database each year? A. 36,000 B. 363,000 C. 3.6 million 2. Black Americans are roughly 14 percent of the population. What share of missing children reported to that database are Black? A. 14 percent B. 22 percent C. Nearly one in three
More than 360,000 missing child reports reach the FBI each year, and nearly one in three of those children is Black. Most of their cases never travel past the local broadcast. In the News collects what the national desk passed over: children reclassified as runaways, prosecutions that moved quietly, and the legislation now moving in statehouses to change it. Sourced, dated, and corrected in print when we get it wrong.
3. A child classified as a runaway is: A. Given the same police priority as any missing child B. Excluded from AMBER Alert eligibility, with response and investigation legally permitted to be delayed C. Automatically referred to federal investigators 4. Which state became the first to create a dedicated alert system for missing Black youth? A. Georgia B. New York C. California 5. According to a Congressional Black Caucus review, what share of identified sex trafficking victims were Black women? A. 12 percent B. 40 percent C. 68 percent
Bernard G. Butler Publisher
Answers: 1-B. 2-C. 3-B. 4-C, the Ebony Alert, signed 2023. 5-B.
Chonie Benjamin Director
Sources: FBI National Crime Information Center; Black and Missing Foundation; California SB 673; Congressional Black Caucus, 2020.
David Saunders Art Direction
CJ Jackson Editorial Staff Slelah Abrams Writer Alexandra M’Tu Kay Writer
BLACK & MISSING
Bernard Butler, Apogee AI Media, Chair, Project Northstar
Black children are disproportionately classified as runaways where their white counterparts are classified as missing, which means that when a Black child is reported missing, the case is not always treated with urgency and an alert is not always issued.
T
his year our company was asked to chair Project Northstar, a program to locate and return missing children of color to their families. I accepted the work believing I understood the problem. I did not. In 2023, 363,485 missing child entries were made into the FBI's National Crime Information Center. Nearly one in three of those children is Black, though Black people are roughly 14 percent of the population. Black, Hispanic and multiracial children together account for 59 percent of all missing children in this country. As of October 2023, the Black and Missing Foundation counted 153,374 children of color still missing. Most missing children come home, and quickly. That is the honest part of this story and I will not hide it. But the children who do not come home are disproportionately ours, and the reason is not mysterious. It is written into the system in plain English. Consider how a child enters the national alert system at all. An AMBER Alert requires law enforcement to find that specific statutory conditions are met, and children categorized as runaways are excluded from eligibility entirely. When a missing child is listed as a runaway, that child receives no media coverage, fewer police and government resources are committed to the recovery, and the law permits officers to delay their response and their investigation.
California State Senator Steven Bradford said it better than I can. A child incorrectly listed as a runaway vanishes a second time. They vanish from the detective's workload. They vanish from the headlines. No one even knows they are missing, and you cannot bring home a child no one is looking for. That is the machinery. Not a conspiracy. A form, a box, a classification made in the first hour by someone who has already decided what kind of child this is.
And the runaway label is not a lesser danger. It is the doorway to the greater one. A two year review by the Congressional Black Caucus found that 40 percent of identified sex trafficking victims were Black women, that Black girls are trafficked at younger ages than their counterparts, and that Black children account for more than 57 percent of all juvenile prostitution arrests. A child alone on the street is a child a predator can find. We hand traffickers a head start every time we decide a Black child simply left of her own accord. Some states have begun to act. California enacted the Ebony Alert in 2023, the first statewide system in the nation dedicated to missing Black youth, after advocates documented that young Black people were too often classified as runaways and therefore never listed under the AMBER system. It followed the Feather Alert, created for missing Native American Californians. Pennsylvania, Alabama and Massachusetts have proposed similar legislation. That is the road. It runs through state legislatures, through police classification policy, and through the offices of people reading this page. We are asking for four things. First, a federal review of how missing child cases are classified in the first twenty four hours, with the racial breakdown of runaway designations published annually. What is not measured is not fixed. Second, Ebony Alert legislation in every state that has not passed it. Third, mandatory training for responding officers on initial classification, because the harm is done at the intake desk, not at the press conference. Fourth, resources for the families. Advocates describe the same dismissal repeated across decades: they are just runaways. A mother who is told that has no press office, no attorney, and no second call to make.
Apogee AI Media is developing child location technology and we will say plainly what it can and cannot do. A locator device can shorten the search when a child is wearing it, is above ground, and the device has not been removed or disabled. It is a tool, not a shield, and no family should be sold otherwise. Any such technology must belong to the parent and the child, with their knowledge and their consent. We will not advocate for the covert tracking of Black children. Our community has been surveilled enough by people who called it protection. Apogee will host the first National Children Abduction Prevention Seminar in Miami, Florida in the spring of 2027. We are inviting law enforcement, legislators, educators, HBCU administrators, and above all the families who have lived this. I am an old man. I have watched this country learn a child's name only after the funeral, and only sometimes. I would like to be wrong about how long that takes to change.
The Lighter Side T
here is a way to measure what an administration believes about people of color that does not require reading anyone's mind. You count who is removed, and you count who is working. Begin with the removals. In February 2025, Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr. was dismissed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the second Black officer ever to hold that post. In August 2025, Robert E. Primus was removed from the Surface Transportation Board. His term ran through December 2027. By statute, a member of that board may be removed only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. No such finding was made. The termination email gave no reason at all. The only public explanation offered was that Primus did not align with the President's America First agenda. In his amended federal complaint, Primus states plainly that he is a Black man, that the three remaining members of the board are white, and that he was removed because of his race. That allegation is now before a federal court. Also in August 2025, the President purported to fire Lisa Cook from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the first governor removed in the central bank's 111 year history, over mortgage allegations predating her service. Cook called it a manufactured pretext. On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled five to four that she remains in her seat while she litigates, finding that the President had not given her the process the statute required. Read the ruling closely, however. The Court did not say she cannot be removed. It said she cannot be removed this way. The door was left open.
New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted in October 2025 on bank fraud and false statement charges, after extended public calls by the President to prosecute her. On November 24, a federal judge dismissed the indictment, finding that the prosecutor who brought it had been unlawfully appointed. In December, two separate grand juries declined to indict her. Three times the machinery was aimed at her. Three times it failed. And in September 2026, Lonnie G. Bunch III announced his retirement as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the first African American and first historian ever to lead it, after 38 years of service. He said the criticism from the White House was not the reason. But the record around him is not silent. A March 2025 executive order singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum Bunch built from nothing. Days before his announcement, the Interior Department threatened to withdraw support from the Smithsonian over what it called radical ideology. In his statement to ABC News, Bunch said he had fought for as long as he could.
The Lighter Side Five people. Five institutions built to stand outside politics. That is not a coincidence. That is a pattern, and patterns are evidence. Now count who is working. Between February and July of 2025, according to analysis by gender economist Katica Roy, Black women lost 319,000 jobs. In the same five months, white women gained 142,000. Latina women gained 176,000. White men gained 365,000, the largest gain of any group. Black women were the only major group of women to lose ground at all. Roy called Black women the canaries in the coal mine, and warned that any group believing it is safe is mistaken. The Economic Policy Institute found the same thing from a different direction. Black women's employment rate fell 1.4 percentage points in 2025, one of the sharpest single year declines in a quarter century, with the heaviest losses falling on college graduates and public sector workers. Federal employment dropped by 277,000 over the year. Understand what that means. These were not marginal workers. These were degree holding women in stable government careers, the exact households that carry a community forward, and they were removed from the economy in a single year.
Some of them did. A federal judge threw out an indictment. Two grand juries refused to return another. The Supreme Court, narrowly, kept a Fed governor in her seat. That is not nothing. That is the system doing exactly what it was built to do, and it deserves to be said out loud by people who are usually its critics. But Primus is still out of a job. General Brown is still out of a job. The 319,000 are still out of work. Courts move slowly and rent comes monthly. Here is what I would ask of the people reading this page. Support the litigation. Primus's case is live and it turns on whether a president may remove a member of an independent board for no stated reason at all. Require the employment data to be published by race and sex every quarter, not reconstructed by economists after the fact. And do not let these five names disappear into a news cycle. A country that removes its Black institutional leaders one at a time, quietly, in August, is counting on no one keeping a list. I am keeping a list. I would be grateful for the company.
I am not in a position to prove what any man intends. I am in a position to read a ledger. On one side, Black officials removed from independent agencies without cause. On the other, Black women pushed out of the workforce while every comparable group advanced. Whatever was intended, that is what happened, and it happened inside eighteen months. The question now is not whether this is racism. Argue about the word if you like. The question is whether the institutions that are supposed to prevent it still function.
Sources: U.S. Supreme Court, Trump v. Cook, decided June 29, 2026; Primus v. Trump, amended complaint, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, dismissal order, November 24, 2025; Katica Roy, analysis reported in Fortune and Ms. Magazine; Economic Policy Institute, February 2026; ABC News and NPR, September 8, 2026.
OPINION
THE MULTI-PARTY AMERICAN VOTER A
s the November 3, 2026 midterm elections approach, many voters of color once again find themselves questioning whether either major political party adequately represents their interests. In my view, Republican politics has too often embraced rhetoric and policies that alienate communities of color, while the Democratic Party, traditionally considered a political home for many of those same voters, has too often responded with complacency, neglect, and an assumption of continued loyalty. That frustration deserves attention. For decades, Democrats have relied heavily on support from urban voters, Black voters, other communities of color, and liberal voters. Those constituencies have not disappeared, and polling continues to show substantial Democratic support among several of these groups. But loyalty should not be confused with satisfaction. There are voters who increasingly question whether their longstanding support has resulted in meaningful political representation, economic progress, or a genuine share of political power. This dissatisfaction is particularly visible among voters who do not feel firmly attached to either major party. Progressive and democratic socialist movements have also attracted some voters who believe the traditional Democratic establishment has failed to respond adequately to economic inequality, housing costs, health care, wages, and other concerns affecting working families. The Democratic Party must be willing to confront that disillusionment rather than assume that traditional voting alliances will remain intact indefinitely.
The country's economic outlook adds another dimension to this political uncertainty. While the United States is not currently experiencing the kind of economic contraction that would by itself establish that a recession is underway, growth has slowed. For voters already struggling with the cost of living and economic insecurity, economic statistics may offer little comfort. In my opinion, neither Democrats nor Republicans should assume that dissatisfaction with one party automatically means loyalty to the other. That is where the independent and unaffiliated voter becomes increasingly important. I believe the period following the 2026 midterm elections could bring further movement away from traditional party identification. Some voters may remain Democrats or Republicans on paper while becoming much more willing to support independents, third party candidates, or candidates outside their usual political affiliation.
OPINION
THE MULTI-PARTY AMERICAN VOTER The eventual departure of Donald Trump from the center of Republican politics will also force Republicans to confront questions about the future direction of their party. Democrats, meanwhile, will have their own questions to answer about leadership, representation, economic policy, and their relationship with constituencies they have historically depended upon. Neither party should take the American voter for granted. I expect the November 2026 election to provide further evidence of a more politically independent electorate. Whether that eventually develops into a successful third party, several viable political parties, stronger independent candidacies, or simply less predictable voting behavior remains to be seen. What is clear is that distrust of political institutions and dissatisfaction with the two major parties are part of today's political conversation. For political leaders looking toward 2028 and beyond, the message should be taken seriously: a vote should not be assumed simply because of race, neighborhood, age, income, or the party a person supported in the past. The American voter may increasingly be willing to make each party earn it.
OPINION: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sunfloral Co., Home Sweet Jamaica, or their editors and publishing partners. Opinion submissions may be edited for clarity, accuracy, grammar, and length.
PROJECT NORTHSTAR Shining a Light Until Every Child Comes Home Project Northstar is a public awareness initiative. All statistics sourced from the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC) 2023, the Black and Missing Foundation, and peer-reviewed research published in PLOS One.
Contact: Bernard G. Butler COO Apogee AI Media Phone: 954-669-4300 bbutler@apogeeaimedia.com