Greene County Democrat

Month: June 2018

  • Newswire: Ugandan inventor wins major prize for malaria detector

    Brian Gitta wins prize.jpg

    Brian Gitta receives prize

    June 18, 2018 (GIN) – Ugandan inventor Brian Gitta, 24, has scooped a major prize for his device that detects tell-tale signs of malaria – the leading cause of death in his country.
    In fact, Gitta developed the device, called “Matibabu” after blood tests failed to diagnose his own malaria. It took four blood tests to diagnose Mr. Gitta with the disease, said Shafik Sekitto, part of the Matibabu team in an interview with the BBC.
    Matibabu is simply a game-changer,” said Rebecca Enonchong, a judge for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation and Cameroonian technology entrepreneur.
    Matibabu, which means “treatment” in Swahili, clips onto a patient’s finger and does not require a specialist to operate.
    Its red beam can detect changes in the color, shape and concentration of red blood cells – all of which are affected by malaria.
    The majority of global deaths caused by malaria – usually transmitted by the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito – occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
    His team hopes the device can one day be used as a way to better detect malaria across the continent.
    Matibabu still has to go through a number of regulators before being available in the market, Mr Sekitto told the BBC. In the meantime, the Matibabu team has been approached by international researchers offering support, and are currently performing field trials on the device.
    The prize, which was set up in 2014, provides support, funding, mentoring and business training to the winners, the Royal Academy of Engineering said in a statement. Mr Gitta has also been awarded £25,000 ($33,000) in prize money from the Royal Academy of Engineering.”The recognition will help us open up partnership opportunities – which is what we need most at the moment,” Mr Gitta said in a statement.

  • Newswire : Patients, health professionals observe World Sickle Cell Day

    By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

     

    Sickle Cell disease workers.jpg

    KC Morse (left) and Dr. Biree Andemariam (right) say that more work needs to be done to empower sickle cell disease patients

    It’s been 100 years since sickle cell disease (SCD), a hereditary blood disorder, was first discovered. And, according to health experts, it’s no secret that an alarming number of children and adolescence have died, and the condition remained in the province of pediatrics.
    Known as “the silent killer,” SCD is one of the most common genetic disorders in the United States where about 100,000 citizens currently live with the disease.
    With Tuesday, June 19 deemed World Sickle Cell Day, researchers said approximately 270,000 babies worldwide are born each year with sickle cell disease.
    With one in 365 African American babies born with SCD and one in 13 born with the trait, Black people are disproportionately affected by the disease, which also primarily affects those of Latin American, Indian, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent.
    Actress and director KC Morse, one of the many African Americans living with SCD, recalled her first major pain crisis, where she didn’t have the support of her loved ones.
    Morse told NNPA Newswire that she was attending college in Allentown, Pennsylvania while her parents were three hours away in Connecticut on a late Saturday night when she returned to her dorm room and began experiencing the excruciating pain known to just about every SCD patient.
    “It was my first experience on my own outside of my comfort zone,” said Morse, now 25. “When it happened, I was really afraid to call anyone. It was 2 a.m. and I felt alone, and I wasn’t sure about calling an ambulance or campus safety because I wasn’t sure they’d understand.”
    Like so many others battling the disease, Morse said she often has to give way to the limitations imposed by SCD. “One of my biggest challenges is that I’ve always been a very busy person. I studied in school theater and we’ve had exhausting rehearsals until 11 p.m. and there was homework and I joined a sorority,” she said. “I loved being busy, but I had to realize that I had to slow down because I needed rest because exhaustion triggers attacks and crisis.”
    Morse said things were a little different in high school, where students go home after school and are afforded the opportunity to rest and hit the reset button.
    “In college, you’re on your own and creating your own schedule and I realized that I wasn’t given myself time to rest and recuperate,” she said. “It took a long time to realize that I can’t do that, and I have to know when to say ‘no’ to things and I had to realize that keeping hydrated is a key and when you’re very busy, water isn’t something you think about, but it affects me. Most of my severe attacks were, because of dehydration.”
    Dr. Biree Andemariam, a noted hematologist, associate professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and founder and director of the adult sickle cell center at the New England Sickle Cell Institute, said Morse’s experience and reaction isn’t uncommon.
    However, Dr. Andemariam said the tide is slowly beginning to turn as more people become aware of SCD. “The disease is not anything to be ashamed of,” said Dr. Andemariam, who also serves as Chief Medical Officer on the board of directors for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.
    “Researchers and doctors are really beginning to understand the impact of chronic pain [although] many people living with SCD typically don’t let friends or extended family know about the diagnosis,” she said.
    Dr. Andemariam continued: “It’s really important for families to understand that no one did anything wrong and, as far as we can tell, with medical advances people are living longer now.”
    Morse said that she plans to launch a new video series on Facebook depicting what it’s like living with SCD, which will appear on the page, “Spotlight on Sickle Cell Disease.” n“I think people need to be aware of SCD and there’s a need to start a national discussion,” Dr. Andemariam said.
    Still, Dr. Andemariam added, that there’s a lot more education and advocacy occurring across the country and there’s enhanced education in the medical community.
    “The focus today is on the effect of having SCD; on the social and emotional well-being of those living with the disease,” Dr. Andemariam said. “There’s lots of efforts underway to broaden the medical community and empower patients to have the best knowledge and to develop patterns that will ensure they will have access to medical care and finding out who the best physicians are in their community.”
    For Morse, who is producing and starring in the upcoming New York stage show, “Tumbleweed,” World Sickle Cell Disease Day, is a time to reflect and count her blessings, she said.
    “I try to live my best life and I think somedays are good and somedays are bad. I’ve been very fortunate to have good days and have family and friends who have been extremely supportive,” Morse said. “I can’t imagine having this disease without having people there holding my hand and telling me it’s going to be okay.”
    This article was originally published at BlackPressUSA.com.

  • Newswire : Police killings challenge the mental health of Black Americans

    By Frederick H. Lowe, BlackmansStreet.Today

    policearemostlikelytokillblackpeople.png

    Blacks more likely to be killed by police
    Police killings of unarmed African Americans have a deep psychological effect on the entire black community, causing many who weren’t in the line of fire to feel psychically wounded, according to a study published by The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal.
    Black people are most likely to be killed by police . Source. Mapping Police Violence
    Police killings of unarmed Black Americans add 1 to 7 additional poor-mental health days per person per year or 55 million excess poor mental-health days among black Americans, resulting in their suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the report titled, “Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of black Americans: a population-based, quasi-experimental study.”
    The report focused on the number of days in which the person questioned said his mental health suffered noticeably after learning of deadly police shooting of an unarmed black person in their city or state. Police kill more than 300 blacks each year and at least a quarter of them, or 75, are unarmed.
    The list of unarmed black men killed by police is long and continues to grow. These victims include Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray and Stephon Clark. Most recently, Antwon Rose, Jr., 17, was killed when Michael Rosfeld, an East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police officer, shot him three times in the back as he ran from a traffic stop.
    In 2017, 25 percent of the people killed by police were black although blacks comprise only 13 percent of the nation’s population. Some were armed and some were not. There were only 17 days in 2017 when the police did not kill someone.
    Following the police murder of Michael Brown, which set off days of civil unrest and demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri, where the shooting occurred, researchers said blacks reported suffering from high rates of depression.
    Dorian Johnson was walking with Brown when the teenager was shot to death by Darren Wilson, a police officer. Johnson said he suffered from depression following the shooting.
    The study did not address how deadly police shooting in other parts of the country affected blacks who read about them in the newspapers, hear about them on the radio, watched television news reports or read news stories about the deadly shooting online.
    The study also did not report how deadly shootings affected blacks when police are assigned to desk duty but are later are acquitted of all the charges related to the killings.
    The website Mapping Police Violence reported that in 2015 99 percent of cases have not resulted in involved officers being convicted of a crime.

  • Newswire : Supreme Court upholds Muslim travel ban

    by: Frederick Lowe, Northstar News

    Supreme Court.jpg

    U. S. Supreme Court building

    The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Trump a major victory Tuesday by upholding his ban on immigrants and visitors from seven mostly Muslim countries.
    In a 5-4 ruling in the case titled Trump v. Hawaii, the justices rejected the argument that Trump overstepped his authority under immigration laws and that the targeting of mostly Muslim-majority countries amounted to religious discrimination.
    Chief Justice John Roberts who wrote the majority opinion said the ruling concerned the nation’s security.
    Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined by Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the court’s ruling blindly endorsed a discriminatory policy motivated by animosity towards Muslims.
    Sotomayor added that the ruling is a total and complete shutdown of Muslims coming to this country under a façade masquerading as national security measures.
    Trump’s order issued in September 2017 was the third version of the travel ban. It imposed a 90-day ban on citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia Yemen, North Korea, and Venezuela entering the U.S. Later, the order put a 120-day hold on the admission of refugees.
    “The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the President to defend the national security of the United States. In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those coming into our country,” Trump said in a statement.
    Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, advocacy and rights groups warned of an increase in attacks against Muslims, reported Al Jazeera.
    Since Trump took office, reports of crimes against Muslims have climbed, Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman of Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Al Jazeera.

  • Newswire : ‘They’re not welcome anymore, anywhere’ Maxine Waters tells supporters to confront Trump officials

    By JENNIFER CALFAS , Time Magazine

     

    Cong.m Maxine Waters.jpeg
    Congresswoman Maxine Waters

    Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is calling on her supporters to confront Trump administration officials and staffers in public amid widespread backlash to the President’s zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration.
    “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” Waters told a crowd in California over the weekend. “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
    Waters’ call to action comes after two Trump administration officials recently faced backlash in public and, in one case, was denied service at a restaurant.
    Last week, protesters confronted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen while she ate at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., after she defended the administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Nielsen was having a work dinner at the restaurant.
    Over the weekend, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that she was denied service at a Lexington, Virginia restaurant called Red Hen because she worked for President Donald Trump. “Her actions say far more about her than me,” Sanders wrote in a tweet, referring to the restaurant’s owner.

    The owner of the restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, later told The WashingtonPost that “there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one.”
    Waters’ comments come amid ongoing fallout from Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy, which, before the President signed an executive order curtailing it last week, resulted in the separation of more than 2,300 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite Trump’s order, government agencies and foster care organizations tasked with caring for these separated children received little to no guidance on what to do with them.
    The Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday that 522 of the separated children had been reunited with their families. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that immigrants who enter the country illegally must be deported “immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases.”
    “Mr. President: We will see you everyday, every hour of the day, wherever you are, to let you know you cannot get away with this,” Waters said over the weekend.
    “History is not going to be kind to this administration,” she said. “But we want history to report that we stood up. That we pushed back. That we fought. That we did not consider ourselves victims to this president.”
    Other Democrats, like Senate Minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York were critical of Maxine Waters’ confrontational approach and said it was handing electoral benefits to President Trump and his supporters.

  • Bingo facilities distribute $367,525 for month of May

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    Shown above Bingo Clerk Emma Jackson, Brenda Burke representing the Greene County Commission, Bingo Clerk Minnie Byrd, Greene County Sheriff Jonathan Benison, Greene County Health System CEO, Dr. Marcia Pugh, Assistance Chief Walter Beck, Probate Judge Julia Spree and Boligee Councilwoman Earnestine Wade.

     

    On Friday, June 15, 2018, Greene County Sheriff Department reported a total distribution of $367,525 for the month of May from the five licensed gaming operations in the county. The recipients of the monthly distributions from bingo gaming designated by Sheriff Benison in his Bingo Rules and Regulations include the Greene County Commission, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, the cities of Eutaw, Forkland, Union, Boligee, the Greene County Board of Education and the Greene County Hospital (Health System).
    The following assessments are for the month of May 2018.

    Greenetrack, Inc. gave a total of $67,500 to the following: Greene County Commission, $24,000; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $9,000; City of Eutaw, $4,500; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,000; Greene County Board of Education, $13,500, the Greene County Health System, $7,500.
    Green Charity (Center for Rural Family Development) gave a total of $67,500 to the following: Greene County Commission, $24,000; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $9,000; City of Eutaw, $4,500; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,000; Greene County Board of Education, $13,500, the Greene County Health System, $7,500.
    Frontier (Dream, Inc.) gave a total of $67,500 to the following: Greene County Commission, $24,000; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $9,000; City of Eutaw, $4,500; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,000; Greene County Board of Education, $13,500, Greene County Health System, $7,500.
    River’s Edge (NNL – Next Level Leaders and TCCTP – Tishabee Community Center Tutorial Program) gave a total of $73,225 to the following: Greene County Commission, $24,000; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $9,000; City of Eutaw, $4,500; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,000; Greene County Board of Education, $13,500, and the Greene County Health System, $13,225.
    Palace (Tommy Summerville Police Support League) gave a total of $99,330 to the following: Greene County Commission, $4,620; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $36,930; City of Eutaw, $27,720; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $4,620; Greene County Board of Education, $4,620 and the Greene County Health System, $11,550.

     

  • Steele moves $115,000 of Branch Heights Road funds Eutaw Mayor and City Council members disagree over use of funds

    Last night’s Special Called Meeting of the Eutaw City Council ended in a deadlocked 3 to 3 tie vote over paying bills for the City.
    Mayor Raymond Steele, Latasha Johnson and Bennie Abrams voted in favor of paying the bills while Joe Lee Powell, LaJeffrey Carpenter and Shiela H. Smith voted against paying the outstanding bills for May and June.
    This special meeting was held because the prior regular Council meeting, last Tuesday June 12, ended in an argument between Council members and the Mayor, after an Executive Session discussing the movement of funds to pay bills.
    In an interview with the Democrat, Councilman Joe Lee Powell said he was concerned that Mayor Steele had transferred $115,000 from an account earmarked to repair roads and streets in Branch Heights to pay the City’s current bills. The account had about $350,000 in it before the transfer.
    “ A meeting was held in Branch Heights to discuss the status of the ‘road fund’ which comes from a $27,000 monthly set aside of funds paid by the Palace Electronic Bingo Hall. After the meeting, the Mayor transferred the funds out of the Road Account into the General Fund, and used them to pay bills,” asserted Councilman Powell, who lives in Branch Heights and represents the area on the Eutaw City Council.
    “What the Mayor did was take the little hope we had of fixing the roads in Branch Heights and dashed our hopes. The Mayor should have met with us to figure out what other parts of the budget could be cut and how to adjust accounts to make funds available to pay bills. How will we pay next month’s bills, does Mayor Steele plan to dip into the Branch Heights Road Fund again?” asks Powell.

    Councilman LaJeffrey Carpenter says, “ This is not a new problem, the Mayor knows our income has been dropping for several months. Why didn’t he meet with the Council to discuss this before taking the Branch Heights funds without our permission? If we had a budget for the City, we could have caught this problem in time and avoided being in this situation.”
    Mayor Steele says, “ I had no choice but to use the funds we had to pay our bills, including a bill to IRS on late payment of employee taxes. I have been working with U. S. Senator Richard Shelby and others to get the $5 million needed to redo the roads and streets in Branch Heights. It is going to take a lot more than the money in the special Branch Heights Road Fund to fix the roads. We need to pay our bills now and work on the roads when more substantial funds become available from the Federal government.”
    Steele went on to say, “I consulted with Sheriff Benison before I moved the road funds over to the general fund. He agreed that we needed to pay our current bills.”
    “ I am also hoping in the near future that the Love’s Truck Stop, at the Interstate 40 Exit, will become a reality and can generate new sales and gas tax revenues to help with the City’s General Fund and for special projects like repair of the roads in Branch Heights,” said Steele.
    Powell said, “ Mayor Steele was wrong not to meet with us and present and discuss his plan to move and spend the Branch Heights Road Fund monies. If he had worked with us, we might have found a solution that all could live with. I did not vote to pay the list of bills he presented because most of them were marked paid already, with the funds he transferred. He has to work with us and he cannot dictate to us without any discussion.”
    Asked if delays in sending water bills was contributing to the City’s financial problems, Powell said, “I think everyone will get a partial bill this week but I would not have signed off on the water project, like Mayor Steele did, until everything was worked out on the new digital self-reading water meters. This is part of the problem but until we sit down together – the Council and the Mayor – we will not be able to work out these problems.”
    In other business, the Eutaw City Council:
    • Approved the 2018 ‘Back to School’ Sales Tax Holiday from July 20-22, 2018;
    • Approved travel to the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Orange Beach from July 29 to August 2, 2018 for Chief Derrick Coleman and Assistant Chief Beck; and
    * Cancelled the regular City Council meeting set for June 26, 2018.
    * The City of Eutaw will be closed July 4,5,6, 2018 for Independence Day

  • Newswire : Newly-elected Mayor London Breed makes history in San Francisco

     
    By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

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                                                                          London Breed
    London Breed has made history, becoming the first African American woman elected mayor in San Francisco after her opponent conceded in what had been a razor-close race.
    Breed, who had been appointed mayor last December following the death of Mayor Ed Lee, was forced out of the post after officials cited a conflict with her position on the city’s Board of Supervisors.
    She defeated former State Senator Mark Leno in a close race that came down to 14,000 provisional ballots counted, over the past week.
    “I am London Breed, I am president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and soon to be mayor of the city and county of San Francisco,” she told a crowd gathered downtown after Leno conceded. “I am truly humbled, and I am truly honored.”
    Born in San Francisco, Breed was raised by her grandmother in the city’s public housing.
    Breed praised United States Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), among others, as being an influence. She said she wanted to emulate her grandmother, who took care of the community and looked after everyone.
    “It’s really amazing, and it’s really an honor and I know it means so much to so many people,” she said, responding to a question about being the first African American female to earn election to the city’s mayor’s office. “This is my home and I grew up in some of the most challenging of circumstances.”
    Breed continued: “I think the message that this sends to the next generation of young people growing up in this city, that no matter where you come from, you can do anything you want to do.”
    outspoken, 43-year-old who was raised on the hard knock streets of the Fillmore District, just southwest of Nob Hill.
    “People sometimes say about me, ‘I can’t believe, she said that.’ I remind them, I’m from Fillmore, but I say it in the way we say it in the streets—‘Fill-Mo,’” Breed said. “When you come from the kind of community that I come from and experience a lot of frustration, if you are not outspoken you can’t get the things done that you need to [get done].”
    After first being appointed to take over for Lee after his death on December 12, local media noted that Breed has been criticized for being “headstrong” and “outspoken,” once even announcing to her peers that she “was no shrinking violet.”
    “I am who I am, and I didn’t think I’d ever run for office, because I am who I am,” Breed said. “I say what I feel like I need to say and that’s how I’ve always been, and I couldn’t live with myself, if I felt that I have to change to be an elected official.”
    This article was originally published on BlackPressUSA.com.

  • Newswire : Lawsuit filed to block Obama Presidential Center in Chicago

    Crusader Staff Report (The Chicago Crusader/NNPA Member)

     

     

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    Obama Presidential Center
    Days before the Chicago Plan Commission approved plans for the Obama Presidential Center, a federal lawsuit was filed to block the proposed $500 million facility that will be built in Jackson Park.
    The 500-acre park is located in Chicago’s predominately Black Woodlawn and South Shore neighborhoods, where former First Lady Michelle Obama, rapper Kanye West and some of the nation’s most prominent Blacks once lived. On Thursday, May 17, the Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved the blueprints for the Obama Presidential Center, despite emotional appeals from protestors who are concerned that the library will eventually drive up rents in the neighborhoods and force out longtime, low-income residents. The plans now go before the city’s 50-member city council. While those plans are expected to pass that stage, the Obama Foundation faces a lawsuit that may be its biggest hurdle yet.
    The lawsuit was filed on Monday, May 14 by “Protect Our Parks,” a nonprofit organization that seeks a court order to “bar the Park District and the City from approving the building of the Presidential Center and from conveying any interest in or control of the Jackson Park site to the Foundation.”
    In its complaint, Protect Our Parks accuses the Chicago Park District of an “institutional bait and switch.” The organization said the park district transferred public land to the Obama Foundation to house an official federal Obama Federal Library. But that purpose changed when Obama decided his center will not be his official library. Instead, the federal National Records and Archives Administration will run it in another location. In the lawsuit, Protect Our Parks called Chicago’s plan to lease public park space an “illegal land grab.”
    The organization also said the transfer of park land to a non-governmental private entity violates the park district code. In addition, Protect Our Parks said the park district and the city will receive only token rent for the land and the Park District Act law “does not authorize the Park District itself to transfer valuable public trust land for virtually no compensatory return.”
    Protect Our Parks says that city officials are “prohibited by law” from turning over public park land to a non-governmental private entity for private use.
    At a meeting Thursday, May 17, the commission was expected to take up a resolution authorizing a long-term ground lease for 19.3 acres in Jackson Park from the city to the Obama Foundation. In March 2015, Chicago’s city council approved an ordinance for Chicago Park District land in Jackson Park to be transferred to the city of Chicago to lease to the Obama Foundation.
    Protect Our Parks’ lawsuit may force planning officials to rewrite the ordinance.
    Protect Our Parks is being represented by Roth Fioretti; Robert Fioretti is a former Chicago alderman who challenged Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2015 before endorsing Emanuel in the run-off. More recently, Fioretti was defeated in a March Democratic primary bid for Cook County Board president.
    In an emailed statement, Emanuel’s mayoral spokesman Grant Klinzman said, “The Obama Presidential Center is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest hundreds of millions of dollars that will create good jobs on the South Side, bring our communities together and honor the legacy of Chicago’s favorite son and daughter. While some choose to stand in the way of progress for the South Side, we are focused on making progress in every community in Chicago.”
    But later that day, Emanuel at an event called the lawsuit frivolous and said that the “notion that somehow this is not a presidential library, because the actual papers will be in New York …to me not only is frivolous, but means the people that filed this don’t understand the 21st century,” he added. “The good news is, the presidential papers will be in two places but there will be only one library, here in Chicago.”
    Emanuel said that the papers will be digitized.
    Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, also released a statement, saying officials with the group welcome the Obama Center to the South Side “but disagree with the choice to locate it on public parkland, rather than vacant land across the street from Washington Park.”
    “While we are not involved with this lawsuit in any way, it is an indication of the fact the Friends of the Parks is not alone in our concern about Chicago’s parks being seen as sites for real estate development,” Irizarry said.
    Plans have not gone smoothly for the library since President Barack Obama announced that Jackson Park will be the location of his library in 2016. Residents in Woodlawn and South shore have held numerous protests demanding that the Obama Foundation sign a community benefits agreement as concerns of neighborhood gentrification and rising rents continue to grow. Despite their concerns, Obama has said that a community benefits agreement is not necessary, because his library is an automatic benefit to the neighborhoods.
    This article was originally published in The Chicago Crusader, a member publication of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). Learn more about becoming a member of the NNPA at http://www.nnpa.org.

     

  • Newswire: School once named after Confederate general to be renamed for Barack Obama

    By Associated Press

    Barack Obama.jpg
    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia city is rebranding its only school named after a Confederate general to honor the United States’ first Black president.
    The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the Richmond School Board voted 6-1 Monday to rename J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School to Barack Obama Elementary School. Kenya Gibson represents the school on the board and was the lone dissenting vote. Gibson wanted the vote to be delayed and said there was a lack of local names included in the administrations rebranding recommendations.
    The Richmond City School Board revealed the top three possible names Monday night. Northside, Barack Obama and Wishtree took the majority of votes from the students, knocking aside suggestions like John Adams Elementary and Jackie Robinson Elementary. The board estimates it will cost about $26,000 to rename the school.