Greene County Democrat

Month: June 2022

  • Bingo entities distribute $504,211.31 for month of May

    On Thursday,  June 16, 2022, Greene County Sheriff Department issued a listing of the bingo distributions for May, totaling $504,211.31 from four of the five licensed bingo gaming facilities.  The May distribution reported by the sheriff includes $24,000 from Greenetrack, Inc. and $51,000 from the Sheriff’s Supplemental Fund distributed to Greene County Commission.  
    The bingo facilities regularly distributing through the sheriff include Frontier, River’s Edge, Palace and Bama Bingo.  The recipients of the May distributions from bingo gaming include Greene County Sheriff’s Department, the cities of Eutaw, Forkland, Union, and Boligee, the Greene County Board of Education and the Greene County Hospital (Health System).           
    Sub charities include Children’s Policy Council, Guadalupan Multicultural Services, Greene County Golf Course, Housing Authority of Greene County (Branch Heights), Department of Human Resources, the Greene County Library, Eutaw Housing Authority, Historical Society, REACH, Inc., Headstart  Community Service and This Belong To US.
      Bama Bingo gave a total of $114,995.03 to the following: Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $48,070; City of Eutaw, $9,250; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,875; Greene County Board of Education, $10,500, and the Greene County Health System,  $12,500. Sub Charities, each received $1,026.89, including REACH. Community Service received $466.77 and This Belong to Us received $93.35.  
    Frontier (Dream, Inc.) gave a total of $114,995.03 to the following: Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $48,070; City of Eutaw, $9,250; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,875; Greene County Board  of Education, $10,500; Greene County Health System, $12,500. Sub Charities each, received $1,026.89, including the Historical Society and REACH.  Community Service received $466.77and This Belong to Us received $93.35.
        River’s Edge (Next Level Leaders and Tishabee Community Center Tutorial Program) gave a total of  $118,288 to the following:  Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $48,070; City of Eutaw, $12,543; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee  each, $3,875; Greene County Board of Education, $10,500; Greene County Health System, $12,500. Sub Charities each, $1,027, including the Historical Society and REACH.  Community Service received $467 and This Belong to Us received $92.
         Palace (TS Police Support League) gave a total of $155,933.25 to the following: Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $65,182.92; City of Eutaw, $12,543; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $5,254.50; Greene County Board of Education, $14,238 and the Greene County Health System, $16,950; Sub Charities received $1,392.46, including the Historical Society and REACH $1,392.46. Community Service received $632.94 and This Belong to Us received $126.59.
          In the Sheriff’s May distribution report, supplemental funds, totaling $62,181.20, were provided by the four licensed facilities.  Bama Bingo contributed $14,274.79; Frontier contributed $14,274.79; River’s Edge contributed $14,275.00 and Palace contributed $19,356.62 as sheriff’s supplemental funds.  

  • Newswire: Rev. Barber is ready to mobilize beyond a Juneteenth Rally 

    Rev. William Barber speaking in Washington D. C., June 18, 2022

    By Hamil R. Harris

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – In June 1968, the disciples of the late Dr.   Martin Luther King Jr. took over Washington DC in a Poor People’s march and campaign with thousands of signs calling for an end of segregation, voting rights, and decent wages for all people.
    Fifty-four years later, a new crowd of thousands walked up Pennsylvania Avenue and stood on stage with the US Capitol in the background. They had signs that read: “We are the 140 million poor and low-wage people. We won’t be silent anymore…Forward Together.”
    And while King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4th, 1968, fighting for garbage workers, Rev. William Barber, a North Carolinian, surrounded by a cadre of male and female leaders, came to Washington DC on Saturday, June 18, to warn Democrats and Republican lawmakers that the new chapter of the poor people’s campaign is far from over.
    “From here, we only intensify, and we say to America, you have two years,” Barber boomed, “two years to do some fundamental changes in living raises and raising childhood income tax credit and health care, or we will be back in every street and backroad in America.”
    Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis are co-chairs of The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. For the last four years, their primary effort has been to organize leaders across the country instead of star-studied events in Washington DC.
    The campaign has 40 state coordinating committees and is supported by more than 170 mobilizing partners, more than 20 religious and denominational bodies, and a growing “ Prophetic Counsel” of more than 2,500 clerics that organized Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March.
    One of the speakers at the march was Rukiye Abdul-Mutakallim, a Cincinnati, Ohio activist who came to Washington DC with a bus load of activists who are all part of her organization—called The Musketeer Association.
    Even though Rukiye’s son was killed in the streets of Cincinnati, She forgave the boys who did it, and since then, she’s been working to end violence in her community.
    “Our mission is to save the three B’s babies, butterflies, and bees,” said Abdul-Mutakalim as she loaded up the vans and prepared to return home. “We will vote them out if they don’t change these laws.”
    There were dozens and dozens of speakers who each had a minute to talk. But the cry of one young lady stood out on stage when she said, “I am tired of donating plasma because I don’t have the money to meet my basic needs.”
    Among those in the crowd were Rev . Andrew Wilks and Rev. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes, co-pastors of Double Love Experience in Brooklyn, New York.
    Andrew Wilks said, “I wanted to come here because people are here from every state saying one message: We have a right to live, and we want the White House to act so that we can finally deal with poverty once and for all.”
    In terms of going forward, Barber said in an interview after the event, “the people are ready, we have mobilized to this point, and now we organize forward. We have seven things that we have to do.”
    Barber was referring to the Seven Steps Before Midterms,” a group of demands released by the Poor People’s campaign.

    They include: We demand every member of Congress commit to creating and supporting legislation that reflects the Third Reconstruction Agenda developed by poor and low-wage communities. No action available to this Congress to relieve this injury and protect our democracy should be taken off the table – no matter how close we are to an election. We declare that this Campaign will engage in massive mobilization and outreach through every means available to us – by visits, letters, petitions, candidate forums, and phone calls – advocating for our current representatives to take action now to address the needs of 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country.

  • Newswire: World health body wants new name for ‘monkeypox’ virus,calling it ‘discriminatory and stigmatizing’

    June 20, 2022 (GIN) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced plans to find a new name for the viral disease informally known as ‘monkeypox’ which, says the world body, is “discriminatory and stigmatizing.”
     
    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a briefing on the matter, said the virus is no longer behaving as it did in the past and therefore should be renamed.
     
    But a public narrative persists in suggesting the current outbreak is linked to Africa, West Africa or Nigeria, noted a group of 29 biologists and other researchers. That builds on an existing stigma, although the virus has been detected without a clear link to Africa.
     
    The majority — 84 percent — of confirmed cases are from the European region, followed by the Americas, Africa, Eastern Mediterranean region and Western Pacific t obvious manifestation of this is the use of photos of African patients to depict the pox lesions in mainstream media in the global north,” the researchers said.
     
    Ahmed Ogwell, deputy director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than a dozen infectious disease experts in the U.S. and Europe are soliciting suggestions for a new name using the website virological.org.
     
    “We are removing the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries, reporting on countries together where possible, to reflect the unified response that is needed,” the WHO said in its outbreak situation update dated June 17 but sent to media on Saturday.
     
    As for what the virus should be called, the scientists suggest starting with hMPXV, to denote the human version of the monkeypox virus. Rather than geographic locations, they say, letters and numbers should be used, based on order of discovery. In that system, the lineage behind the current international outbreak would be dubbed B.1.
     
    The Geneva-based UN health agency is due to hold an emergency meeting on June 23 to determine whether to classify the global monkeypox outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern – the highest alarm the UN agency can sound.
     
    It has been reported in 39 countries so far in 2022, and most of them are having their first-ever cases of the disease, according to the WHO. Worldwide, it says, there are around 3,100 confirmed or suspected cases, including 72 deaths. The normal initial symptoms include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash.
    Between January 1 and June 15, 2,103 confirmed cases, a probable case and one death have been reported to the WHO in 42 countries, it said.
     
     

  • Newswire: The real story of Juneteenth must be told, historians and educators say  By Hazel Trice Edney 

    Dr. Frank Smith, president/CEO of the African American Civil War Museum and Memorial

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – When President Joe Biden signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act last year, making Juneteenth a federal holiday, he and Vice President Kamala Harris envisioned it as a holiday mostly for the celebration of freedom.
    “We are gathered here in a house built by enslaved people. We are footsteps away from where President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation,” said Harris at the White House signing ceremony alongside Black Caucus members on June 17, 2021. “We have come far, and we have far to go. But today is a day of celebration. It is not only a day of pride. It’s also a day for us to reaffirm and rededicate ourselves to action.”
    But, a year later, based on interviews with historians and educators around the nation, this year’s Juneteenth public holiday, Monday, June 20, 2022, will likely turn out to be mostly a day to turn up the struggle for freedom, justice and equality that have yet to be attained.
    “I had to warm up to this day like everybody else because it wasn’t on my radar as a significant holiday until Congress passed the bill,” said Dr. Frank Smith, president/CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based African American Civil War Museum and Memorial which will spend Juneteenth correcting a wrong. “We will be lifting up the names of those 200,000 Black troops” who helped defeat the Confederate Army in the Civil War,” Smith said, a story that is so often untold.
    The overwhelming bipartisanship support for the Juneteenth federal holiday came last year amidst widespread protests as millions of people took to the streets against police violence in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and other racial traumas and inequities. It was the first federal holiday attained since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983. But, African-Americans and several states had celebrated Juneteenth for decades as the day they’d been freed.
    However, given the nearly 4,000 lynchings of Black people across the U. S since the end of slavery; given the August 28,1955 killing of Emmett Till; the massacre of nine Black people by Dylann Roof at a Bible study in 2016, the horrific public murder of George Floyd by police only two years ago, and the shocking murders of 10 people in a racist rampage at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. on May 14 this year, many think they’d best spend Juneteenth continuing to work for freedom instead of just celebrating it.
    Caroline Brewer, the author of 13 children’s books, agrees. She pointed out that Black people have long commemorated Juneteenth. Therefore, she has noticed that during the official holiday, her associates are leaning toward continuing their work to build up the Black community as she is attempting to do with Black children.
    “I think with any holiday, and when it comes to Black history, where most people that I know are and where I am is that I am celebrating Black history every day. I am doing something for the liberation of our people every day. So, I am focused on promoting my children’s books,” one of which is going to be published in August.
    The new book is titled, “Say Their Names”, Brewer said. “We’re having conversations about the trauma that we’ve experienced as Black people as a result of police violence and racial violence.”

  • Newswire: Vice President Kamala Harris talks voting rights, racism with Black press publishers By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Vice President Harris stepping off helicopter

    Vice President Kamala Harris held an exclusive discussion with publishers from the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents the Black Press of America, to discuss various issues from voting rights to Roe v. Wade and racism in the United States.“The Black Press has been very special,” Harris told the publishers in a 30-minute conversation moderated by NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.“[The administration] doesn’t expect special treatment, just fair treatment to cover the accomplishments because they are significant and will have, in many cases, a generational impact on families and communities,” Harris remarked.With a record number of women of color representing the administration in various capacities, Harris asserted that “when people hold office reflect those impacted, we can effect change.”“At the top, as vice president, I am humbled and honored to hold this position,” she insisted.“I’ll say that I think this administration and President Joe Biden have been exceptional. For example, I recently gave a speech in South Carolina, and it was in South Carolina that President Biden, then a candidate, said he was going to put a Black woman on the United States Supreme Court.”In April, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson earned Senate confirmation as the first Black woman to the nation’s high court. “This president, our administration, has appointed more Black women to the federal court than, I believe, any administration in the history of this country,” Harris demanded.Also, she noted the appointment of former Congressional Black Caucus Chair Marcia Fudge as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. “One of the big issues affecting our country right now is affordable housing, and one of the accomplishments of our administration is the work we’ve been doing on home appraisals and how Black families’ homes get appraised for less than white people,” Harris said. “We have confronted that issue of biased appraisals,” she added.Harris said the administration understands the vital issue of voting rights, despite the Senate failing to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the suppression laws that Republican-led states have adopted.She acknowledged how the large voter turnout in the 2020 election and the special Senate election in Georgia in January 2021 helped catapult Democrats to the White House and control both chambers of Congress.“We need to pass legislation. But, short of that, we’re going to have to keep uplifting states that are doing good work around the right to vote every election cycle,” Harris offered.“If we help people to understand when they turned out in record numbers in 2020, what we were able to accomplish. We must remind people of what they get when they vote; that’s the reality we face, but we must speak up and keep fighting.”The vice president noted that many states with voter suppression laws also have statutes restricting other rights. “There’s an overlap that I think we should be aware of,” Harris insisted.Additionally, Harris offered concern about racism within politics. “I’m very concerned about elected officials around the country who won’t put a name on white supremacists,” Harris stated.She said part of the solution lies in communities. “One of the strongest tools is to build coalitions around communities that are targeted, to speak up and be informed so that nobody would be made to stand alone,” Harris said.“I believe in many ways [students] are entering an increasingly unsettled world. The things we took for granted as being settled are not settled.“Foreign policy, the concept of the sovereignty of a nation and its territorial integrity, the right to not be invaded by force … and you see what’s happened in Ukraine. For 70 years, Europe went without war, and now there is war.“Domestically, 70 years ago, we thought voting rights was settled. Shelby v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and now we’re seeing laws sprout up all over the country denying people the ability to receive food and water if they are standing in line to vote. Unsettled is the woman’s ability to decide about her own body.“We’re not asking anyone to change their beliefs; just let everybody have what they believe and not have the government tell them what to do.”Harris concluded by sharing her planned celebration of Juneteenth. She said she would open the Vice President’s official residence, not to celebrities or politicians but to families and individuals from the various wards in the District of Columbia.“When you look at the epidemic of hate, all that says is that we as leaders have to make sure that we use our platform,” Harris said.“We have to speak the truth and speak with the spirit of trying to unify our communities.”

  • Newswire: Jan 6 hearings expose serious threat to Democracy – and it’s not over By Hamil R. Harris

    U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Testimony before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol says President Trump refused to believe that he lost the election despite election results, advisors and family members telling him the contrary.
    Instead, according to testimony, Trump listened to former New York Mayor Rudolph Guliani, who on election night appeared drunk, continue to push a false narrative that the election had been stolen by operatives loyal to President Biden. At the close of the last hearing June 13, Former Attorney General William Barr had become the star witness for the committee.
    In a closed-door session last year Barr said Trump became “detached from reality” and had chosen to believe unsubstantiated theories.
    “I told him that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time, and it was doing a grave disservice to the country,” Barr told the nine member panel in a video that was aired by the committee. The committee also aired video from Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband and Whitehouse adviser Jarad Kustner who painfully disputed Trumps claims.
    Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), chairman of the House committee, made it clear from the start that there was a need for the hearing.
    “We can’t sweep what happened under the rug. The American people deserve answers. So I come before you this evening not as a Democrat but as an American who swore an oath to defend the Constitution,” Thompson said. “The Constitution doesn’t protect just Democrats or just Republicans. It protects all of us: ‘We the People.’ And this scheme was an attempt to undermine the will of the people. So tonight, and over the next few weeks, we’ll remind you of the reality of what happened that day.”
    Rep Lynn Cheney (R-Wy), daughter of former Vice-President Cheney, has been President Trump’s leading Republican critic. In her opening comments, she said, “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. You will also hear about plots to commit seditious conspiracies on Jan. 6, a crime defined in our laws as conspiring to overthrow, put down or destroy the government of the United States.” Another significant moment during the hearing was the video of Ivanka Trump interviewed by committee members. In terms of Barr saying that he didn’t find fraud in the election, she said, “I accepted what he was saying.”

  • COVID -19

    As of June 10, 2022, at 10:00 AM
    (According to Alabama Political Reporter)

    Alabama had 1,325,361 confirmed cases of coronavirus,
    (2,404) more than last week with 19,692 deaths (16) more
    than last week)

    Greene County had 1,904 confirmed cases, 2 more cases than last week), with 50 deaths

    Sumter Co. had 2,632 cases with 52 deaths
    Hale Co. had 4,828 cases with 106 deaths

    Note: Greene County Physicians Clinic has testing and vaccination for COVID-19; Call for appointments at 205/372-3388, Ext. 142; ages 5 and up.

  • Superintendent Jones reports multiple grants to school system Eutaw Primary awarded $10,000 health education grant from Blue Cross/Blue Shield

    At the Greene County Board of Education meeting held Monday, May 13, 2002, Superintendent Dr. Corey Jones reported on several new grants awarded to the school system. Eutaw Primary School Principal, Ms. Brittany Harris, presented an overview of the $10,000 CATCH (Coordinated Approach To Child Health) grant awarded to EPS by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama. Ms. Harris explained that the grant is for the implementation of a school-based health and wellness program that emphasizes increased physical activity and nutritional education during the school year. “Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama made available $250,000 with award grants up to $10,000 to schools across the state that enroll students in grades K through eight, and Eutaw Primary School was one of 31 schools to receive an award” she stated.
    Principal Harris also reported on the plans to secure new playground equipment for Eutaw Primary School. She shared visual proposals from two companies: Play and Park Structures and Burke Play that Moves You. Resources for the new equipment will come from ESSER funds. She noted that once the company is selected, preparations to install new equipment will begin.
    Superintendent Jones reported that the Child Nutrition Program was awarded a No Kid Hungry grant of $25,000 for the weekend back pack program. The grant will support scholars receiving a backpack of food for the weekend beginning with the next school term, and staff stipends. No Kid Hungry is the only national campaign committed to ending childhood hunger in the U.S.
    Jones also reported that Greene County High School received a $1,000 grant from Alabama Power Foundation for classroom materials.
    Continuing his updates to the board, Dr. Jones stated that 86 scholars at Eutaw Primary School had an identified reading deficiency and were invited to attend the Summer Reading Camp. There are currently 51 of the 86 scholars attending the camp at EPS. Jones noted that the ACAP scores were not released yet, but he expected favorable results, however, according to the Alabama Literacy Act, any scholar who did not meet the cut score of 452 would be retained.Superintendent Jones stated that 37 scholars are enrolled in the summer program at Robert Brown Middle School. RBMS will host a Tiger Round Up Job Fair on Thursday June 16. Juneteenth will also be celebrated with a cookout and crafts.
    The scholars in the after-school program at Greene County High visited the Alabama Museum of Natural Science and toured Stillman College in Tuscaloosa. Jones stated that 24 students are enrolled in credit recovery at GCHS; 83% of seniors completed FAFSA and 83% of the class of 2022 were accepted into college.
    The following personnel items recommended by the superintendent were approved by the board.
    Resignations: Jakeyla Woods, Science Teacher, Greene County High School, June 30, 2022; Shelia Daniels, Secretary, Eutaw Primary, effective June 10, 2022; Hillary Bruner, 2nd Grade Teacher, Eutaw Primary School, effective June 10, 2022; Tara Thomas, Kindergarten Teacher, Eutaw Primary School, effective June 30, 2022.
    Employment: Victoria Moore, Chemistry Teacher, Greene County High School; Patrick Allen, CNP Director, Greene County Board of Education.
    Recall: Destiny Taylor, 2nd Grade Teacher, Eutaw Primary School.
    Supplemental Contract, Spring Football Training: Corey Cockrell; Rodney Wesley.
    Supplemental Contract, Greene County High School – 2022-2023 School Term: Corey Cockrell, Head Football Coach: Rodney Wesley, Assistant Football Coach; Zadderick Smith, Offensive Line Coach; Britney Jenkins, Head Volleyball Coach; Janice Jeames Askew, Assistant Volleyball Coach; Janice Jeames Askew, Athletic Director.
    Retroactive Approval After School Extended Day Teachers
    Eutaw Primary School: Genetta Bishop; Elona Washington.
    Robert Brown Middle School: Raven Bryant; Vanessa Gray; Leanita Hunt; Allison Newton; KaToya Quarles; Elroy Skinner; Felecia Smith; Pinkie Travis;
    Greene County High School: Cassandra Freeman; Angela Harkness; Janice Jeames Askew; Brittany Jenkins; Dutchess Jones; Drenda Morton; Tameshia Porter; Kelsey Smith;
    Bus Drivers: Eddie Coats; Ayanna Crawford; Marilyn Finch; Gerald Holloway; Nastasha Lewis; Freddie Merriweather; Wennoal Peebles.
    Extended Day Personnel – Rates of Pay: Lead Teacher $35. hourly; Teacher $30. hourly; Teacher Assistant $25. hourly; Bus Driver $25. hourly;
    Three-Year Non-Probationary Principal Contract for Andrea Perry, Greene County High School;
    Three-Year Non-Probationary Principal Contract for Brittany Harris, Eutaw Primary School.
    Issue Concerning After School Program: Superintendent recommended that funds paid out without proper authorization of the board need to be repaid by the persons receiving the funds. The board approved the same.
    The board approved the following administrative service items.

    • Payment of all bills, claims, and payroll.
    • Bank reconciliations as submitted by Ms. Marquita Lennon, CSFO.
    • Approval of FY22 Budget Amendments.
    • Contract with SAVVAS Learning Company LLC to provide professional development.
    • Approval of Mr. Rice, to travel to Texas to attend SREB School Improvement Conference, July 19-22, 2022.
      *Approval of Stillman College Stem Summer Enrichment Camp.
    • Amendment of school calendar to include the Juneteenth Holiday on Monday, June 20, 2022.

  • Adopt-A-School reigns big in Greene County
    Four schools impacted by partnerships with AAS this month by companies, businesses, and churches in Greene County

    Greene County Career Center adopted by Cook Utility, Mills Pharmacy and M&A Auto
    Greene County High School was adopted by Freedom Rock Church, Mills Pharmacy and cook Unity
    Eutaw Primary School was adopted by New Generation, Greene County PARA and Tishabee Nonprofit Organization
    Robert Brown Middle School adopted by Eutaw High Class of 1979 Foundation.

    Adopt-A-School is now in Greene County in a big way. Business and industry, faith-based sectors, and organizations in Greene County are getting a head start in partnering with schools before the start of the school year in August.
    “Businesses and organizations partnering with public schools create several mutually beneficial advantages for each party. Businesses that support schools with contributions of volunteer time and funds are viewed as good corporate citizens interested in helping shape the local workforce,” said Superintendent Dr. Corey Jones.
    “Schools benefit by receiving tangible and intangible assistance from the local businesses and organizations.  We are excited to form these lasting relationships in Greene County schools,” said Jones.
    Overall, there were 10 partnerships with schools in Greene County which officially began June 7, 2022.
    Adoptions include:
    •Cook Unity in the Community adopted Greene County High School and Greene County Career Center
    •Freedom Rock Church adopted Greene County High School
    •Greene County Park and Recreation adopted Eutaw Primary School
    •M&A Auto Diesel, LLC adopted Greene County Career Center
    •Mills Pharmacy adopted Greene County High School and Greene County Career Center
    •New Generation Community Outreach adopted Eutaw Primary School
    •Tishabee Nonprofit Organization adopted Eutaw Primary School “The entire school community, in particular the students, gain from the additional resources and experience offered by corporate and community partners. These Greene County partners will now make a significant, direct impact on the school community and have an opportunity to form quality relationships within the schools,” said Carolyn Tubbs Director of Education Programs.
    Each partnership committed to implement activities around the four initiatives of the Pillars of Education (Literacy, Character, Elevating Educators, and Career Pathways) by offering incentives and volunteers.
    For AAS is a strong advocate of the Pillars of Education initiative. All AAS partners are encouraged to push students to take advantage of opportunities to foster character development in addition to addressing the needs of educators and supporting their efforts in and out of the classroom. This will allow them to gain an increase in literary skills and capitalize on their abilities to discover a career path of their choosing.
    As seen above, most schools graciously have more than one adopter to their school. We wish to encourage other entities to step forward if they wish to become an additional adopter of Robert Brown Middle School.  
    For more information about Adopt-A-School, and how your business or organization can support a public school in West Alabama, email carolyn@westalabamachamber.com or call (205) 391-0556. We have a school for you! Learn more about Adopt-A-School by clicking here .

     

  • African Union head finds common ground
    with Putin regarding sanctions

     

    June. 13, 2022 (GIN) – African Union chair Macky Sall, after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, addressed his western and European “partners” with a plea to remove their sanctions hurting African economies.
     
    Senegalese president Sall underscored the pain resulting from the barrage of international sanctions on Russia which have disrupted supplies of fertilizer, wheat and other commodities, pushing up prices for food and fuel. 
     
    “We no longer have access to grain from Russia and especially fertilizer” that is crucial for Africa’s “already deficient agriculture,” Sall said at the meeting of the leaders at Putin’s Black Sea residence in Sochi on the 100th day of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
     
    Sall was joined by the AU Commission Chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat at the confab.
     
    African countries are “victims” of the Ukraine conflict, Sall was quoted to say by the French news agency, adding that food supplies should be “outside” of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over Ukraine.
     
    Neither the U.S. nor the EU has sanctioned Russian fertilizers or wheat, but the African Union is concerned that sanctions on Russia’s financial system will make it harder for countries to buy them.
    Putin blames the West for the global food and energy crises and repeated his government’s offers of safe passage for ships exporting grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s leading exporters of wheat and corn.
     
    “We will facilitate the peaceful passage and guarantee the safety of arrivals to these ports, as well as the entry of foreign ships and their movement through the Azov and Black seas, in any direction,” Putin pledged, in remarks carried on Russian state TV after his meeting with the African heads of state.
     
    African countries are especially hard hit by the food shortages and price increases. They imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to U.N. figures, and wheat prices have soared around 45% as a result of the supply disruption, according to the African Development Bank.
     
    “The fact that this crisis brought the cessation of exports from Ukraine, but also from Russia because of sanctions, we have found ourselves in between these two,” Sall told reporters. “It’s of absolute necessity that they (Western partners) help to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grains, but also that Russia is able to export fertilizers, food products, but mainly cereals.”
     
    After initially citing Russian propaganda, Sall’s message is now strikingly similar to Moscow’s line, observes the news site Politico, by driving a wedge in international support for sanctions.. 
     
    Senegal was one of 17 African nations that abstained from voting on the U.N. resolution condemning Russia’s military action in Ukraine. Sall reportedly told Putin many African countries didn’t condemn Moscow despite what he described as strong pressure to do so.
     
    Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned that 18 million people are facing severe hunger in the Sahel, the part of Africa just below the Sahara Desert where farmers are facing their worst agricultural production in more than a decade. About 13 million more people face severe hunger in the Horn of Africa region as a result of a persistent drought.