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HYLife develops multimedia CD-card   HYLife Productions LLC, a multimedia production company based in New York, has developed a Video Interactive Media (VIM) Card that plays in both Mac and PC CD-ROM drives and holds a great deal of multimedia information, such as clear video, crisp audio, photos, text and documents. Unlike older generation single-media cards, says HYLife CEO David A. Wilson, a 26-year-old African-American, the business-card-sized VIM card is a powerful marketing, promotion and sales tool because of its multimedia capability. A key goal is to get more small and minority-owned businesses to take advantage of the new technology, Wilson says.

The number of Black male elected officials declining   The number of Black male elected officials declined for a third straight year in 2001, according to a report released by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The report, Black Elected Officials: A Statistical Summary, 2001, showed that Black women accounted for all the growth in the number of Black elected officials between 1999 and 2001. During that period, the number of Black male elected officials fell by 58 to 5,881, while the number of Black female elected officials rose by 223 to 3,220.

Churches co-sign loans for small firms that can't qualify   A community of predominantly African-American churches in San Antonio, Texas, established the Eastside Business Loan Fund to take on part of the liability for local small business owners who need a loan but can't qualify on their own. Member congregations of the Community of Churches for Social Action put up $24,000, along with $5,000 from the Community Economic Revitalization Agency, and got a matching $30,000 from the Mustard Seed Foundation to capitalize the fund. About 13 loans have been co-signed since the fund's creation in 2002, with just a single default. ACCION, a nonprofit microlender, provides financial expertise. Currently, the group will co-sign up to $7,500 for a small business on San Antonio's East Side, but ACCION must sign off on a loan applicant before the churches consider co-signing.

David Dickson, first Black to lead a N.J. college, dies   David Watson Daly Dickson, the first Black to head a New Jersey state college or university, has died. He was 84. The cause of death was not disclosed. A scholar of Renaissance and biblical literature, Dickson was president of what is now known as Montclair State University from 1973 to 1984. During his tenure, the school's enrollment tripled to nearly 14,000 as he raised academic standards and helped develop 30 new undergraduate and graduate programs. Eleven buildings also were constructed during that time, and the university's School of Humanities and Social Sciences building is named in his honor. After leaving the presidency, Dickson was named a distinguished service professor and taught until his retirement in 1989. During an academic career that spanned more than 40 years, Dickson held several teaching and administrative posts at schools across the country. In the 1940s, he became the first Black faculty member at Michigan State University, where he taught for 15 years.

- By Rosalind McLymont

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