The Greene County Democrat

Author: greenecodemocratcom

  • Newswire : Trump abruptly fires Carla Hayden: The first Black woman to serve as Librarian of Congress

    By Lauren Burke, NNPA Congressional Reporter

     

    President Donald Trump abruptly fired the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on May 8. Hayden made history in 2016 as the first woman and first African American to run the Library of Congress. Her firing arrived in the form of an abrupt email in the evening hours. There are fears that President Trump may also target a second prominent Black federal official, Smithsonian Chief Lonnie Bunch, for no other reason than the perceived political bias in a position not known for partisan activity.
    “Carla, on behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the terse communication to Hayden read. The Library of Congress confirmed that Hayden had been informed she was fired by The White House. According to the Associated Press, Hayden “recently faced criticism from a conservative advocacy group aligned with Trump’s political allies. The group, the American Accountability Foundation, accused her and other library officials of promoting children’s books with what it called “radical” themes.”
    Since his return to office Trump’s Administration has been focused on removing anyone who may disagree with their policy agenda. Many of the removals have introduced a sense of partisanship that Washington hasn’t seen in certain sectors such as the Library of Congress. “This is yet another example in the disturbing pattern of the President removing dedicated public servants without cause—likely to fill the position with one of his ‘friends’ who is not qualified and does not care about protecting America’s legacy,” wrote House Democrat Rosa DeLauro in a statement on Hayden’s firing.
    “President Trump’s unjustified decision to fire Dr. Carla Hayden as the Librarian of Congress is deeply troubling and just the latest example of Trump’s assault on the legislative branch of government. It’s also the latest demonstration of his blatant disregard for public servants who dedicate their lives to serving the American people,” wrote U.S. Senator Alex Padilla of California in a statement late on May 8.
    Some Constitutional experts are encouraging Hayden to sue since she is part of the Legislative branch, serving Congress but was fired by the Executive branch, which does not authorize or supervise her position. She is also the guardian of Federal records and has challenged Trump for his handling of Federal documents in his first administration.

  • Newswire : Black America celebrates African Descent Heritage of Pope Leo XIV

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Black America is taking pride in a truth shaking up the Vatican and resonating through the streets of New Orleans: Pope Leo XIV—formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago—has Black and Creole roots. The Pope’s factual anthropological roots are not just symbolic. According to genealogist Jari Honora, his maternal lineage traces directly to the Black community of New Orleans’ 7th Ward, with family ties to Haiti, and census records identifying his ancestors as “Black” or “Mulatto.” “
    By the Europeans’ own ‘1/8th’ rules, we have a Black Pope,” noted author Elie Mystal declared. “Anyway, Pope’s grandfather is Haitian. We kind of got a Black Pope. ‘End Woke’ is not gonna be happy about this.” Further, New Orleans historian Jari Christopher Honora also speaking to the National Catholic Reporter and Black Catholic Messenger, detailed how the pope’s grandparents married in 1887 at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church on Annette Street in New Orleans before migrating north. His mother, Mildred Martínez, was the first child in the family born in Chicago. “The Holy Father’s ancestors are identified as either Black or Mulatto,” Honora said.
    The Chicago Tribune and New York Times also reported on Pope Leo’s mixed-race background and Creole lineage, noting that his election marks a defining moment in the Church’s evolving identity. “As a Black man, a proud son of New Orleans, and the U.S. Congressman representing the very 7th Ward neighborhood where our new Pope’s family hails from, I am bursting with pride today,” said Rep. Troy Carter.
    “This is history! The first American Pope, with Creole and Haitian roots, rising from the streets of New Orleans to the Vatican. As a Xavier University alum, I know how deeply faith and resilience run in our community. We celebrate this moment—with joy, with prayers, and with pride.” Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial called Leo XIV’s background “universal,” saying, “Here’s an American whose ministry was in Peru, who has roots in the American South and also ancestry in the American Black community.”
    Leo XIV is a member of the Augustinian Order, named after the African theologian St. Augustine of Hippo. His election came from a conclave in which two other leading contenders—Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana and Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo—were also men of African descent.
    But Leo XIV stood apart—not just as the first pope from the U.S. but as one known for his outspokenness on racial justice, immigrant rights, gun reform, and the abolition of the death penalty. TIME Magazine reported that his selection represented a Vatican rebuke of efforts by wealthy Americans and political operatives aligned with Donald Trump to influence the papal outcome.
    Known in Rome as “The Latin Yankee,” Leo XIV used his verified X account (@drprevost) to amplify criticism of Trump-era immigration policies, often reposting commentary from respected Catholic figures. The New York Post reported that his last post before his election was a retweet of Catholic journalist Rocco Palmo slamming Trump’s alliance with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele over migrant deportations. Back in 2017, the Roman Catholic leader also reposted a message quoting Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich, calling Trump’s refugee bans “a dark hour of US history.”
    Though Trump offered lukewarm congratulations from the White House driveway, his far-right allies were quick to lash out. Laura Loomer tweeted, “WOKE MARXIST POPE,” calling Pope Leo “just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican. ”But outside the MAGA echo chamber, in Black communities across the globe, the emotion is pride. “The pope is Black,” journalist Clarence Hill Jr. said bluntly. And that means something in the Black neighborhoods of Chicago and the Creole corridors of New Orleans.
    Many said it means representation, resilience, and the reshaping of history at the highest level of the Catholic Church. “We celebrate this moment—not because it erases the struggles of our past, but because it affirms that our faith, our heritage, and our presence matter,” Rep. Carter said. “This is history, and it belongs to all of us.”
    The  Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. affirmed, “On behalf of the Black Press of America as the authentic voice of 50 million African Americans and millions more throughout the African diaspora, we join to celebrate Pope Leo XVI, a world leader of African descent who speaks truth to power with courage and grace.”

  • Newswire : Trump Administration moves to eliminate Habeas Corpus

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller confirmed the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus — a constitutional right that allows individuals to challenge unlawful detention. Though framed as a move against undocumented immigrants, historians and legal experts warn the consequences could be far more sweeping, especially for Black Americans.

    “The Constitution is clear,” Miller told reporters. “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion.” Miller cited immigration at the southern border as justification, using language similar to what President Trump has repeatedly described as an “invasion.” But civil liberties advocates and Black historians say suspending this right — a cornerstone of due process — would reopen legal pathways used throughout U.S. history to detain, punish, and silence Black Americans. From the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 to Reconstruction-era terror and Japanese internment in World War II, the right to habeas corpus has been both a shield and a last resort for marginalized people. Its suspension has consistently led to devastating consequences.

    “Black Americans remember what happens when the government has unchecked power to detain,” wrote historian Amanda Tyler, author of Habeas Corpus in Wartime. “This isn’t new. It’s the same mechanism that was used to capture fugitive slaves and suppress Black resistance during Reconstruction.”

    In 1850, Congress passed a law that denied suspected fugitives any right to testify in court or even seek habeas relief. Free Black Americans were captured alongside escapees. “It meant no Black person in the North was safe,” wrote historians James and Lois Horton, who documented how the law turned states like Massachusetts into hunting grounds for slave catchers backed by federal power. The parallels are striking. Today, many of the deportation cases the Trump administration wants to fast-track involve habeas claims — legal challenges asserting that the government has no lawful basis for detention. One such case involves Rumeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was jailed for 45 days without charges. A federal judge in Vermont ordered her release after she filed a habeas petition, arguing her detention was based on her political speech and not any crime.
    Miller hinted that such judicial checks on the executive branch are part of the reason for considering suspension. “It depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not,” he said. That sentiment echoes past abuse. During Reconstruction, Congress had to pass the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 to protect Black citizens from paramilitary terror. The act allowed President Grant to suspend habeas corpus — not to restrict civil rights, but to crush white supremacist violence.
    Now, the suspension is being considered not to protect Black life, but to expand detention powers in the name of immigration control. Critics say that opens the door to much broader repression. “The legal history is clear,” said Tyler. “Suspending habeas has often led to the erosion of other rights — especially for Black people.”
    The fear isn’t hypothetical. In 1786, a Black father named Cato used a writ of habeas corpus to rescue his daughter Betsey from re-enslavement in Pennsylvania. Their case became one of the first major freedom suits in U.S. legal history. Even during Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus in 1862, a fierce backlash followed. Lincoln justified it during a rebellion. Critics warned then — as now — that the nation cannot preserve itself by abandoning the very liberties it claims to protect.
    Stephen Miller’s comments come at a time when millions of Americans are already concerned about voter suppression, militarized policing, and authoritarian tactics. For Black Americans, the prospect of suspending habeas corpus rings especially loud. “When we hear this,” said one civil rights attorney, “we don’t just hear a legal argument. We hear footsteps from the past.”

  • Newswire : GOP Medicaid plans would slash health coverage for millions, CBO confirms

    By Stacy M. Brown 
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    A newly released analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has confirmed that proposals pushed by Republicans in Congress to slash Medicaid spending would result in millions of Americans losing health coverage.

     The analysis arrives just days before the House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to vote on several of these drastic policy changes. The CBO report, addressed to Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden and House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr., outlines five Republican-backed Medicaid policy options that would significantly reduce federal spending.

    The agency estimates that under the proposed changes, as many as 8.6 million people could lose Medicaid coverage, and up to 3.9 million would become uninsured. “This CBO report further confirms what we already knew – that Republicans in Congress are willing to sell out millions of working families to give their billionaire friends another massive tax break,” said Kobie Christian, spokesperson for Unrig Our Economy.

    “Republicans in Congress have been gaslighting the American public by claiming to be against Medicaid cuts, while actively trying to take away health care from millions of working-class Americans.”

    The proposals outlined in the CBO’s letter are capping federal contributions to Medicaid, reducing the matching rate for states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and repealing enrollment rules designed to streamline access to Medicaid and CHIP. Each of the first four policy options would force states to respond by cutting provider payments, reducing benefits, and slashing enrollment.
    The fifth option alone—repealing the Eligibility and Enrollment final rule—would eliminate coverage for 2.3 million people, most of whom are low-income seniors and people with disabilities. “Donald Trump and Rubber Stamp Republicans in Congress are lying to the American people about their plans to enact the largest cut to Medicaid in our nation’s history,” warned Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
    The CBO analysis confirms House Democrats’ warnings that the GOP proposals would force states to raise taxes, cut education spending, or push people off health insurance,” Jeffries said. “Rather than working to improve the Medicaid program, congressional Republicans are continuing a 15-year-old fight to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” noted Andrea Ducas, vice president of Health Policy at the Center for American Progress. “This new CBO report confirms that each of congressional Republicans’ latest proposals would kick millions of the most vulnerable Americans off their health care, all to pay for tax giveaways for the president’s billionaire donors.”
    The report also arrives as Senate Republicans voted 53–47 to confirm Frank Bisignano—former Wall Street executive and self-described “DOGE person”—as the new head of the Social Security Administration, drawing harsh criticism from Democrats and advocates. During his confirmation hearing, Bisignano dodged questions from Senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden about the agency’s cuts and the use of cryptocurrency-related tools in sensitive federal databases.
    In recent months, under the Trump administration, the SSA has shuttered field offices, laid off 7,000 employees, and made it harder for Americans—especially seniors and rural residents—to access benefits. Reports from outlets including Axios, NPR, and the Washington Post highlight the collapse of customer service at the SSA, long wait times, and the inability of many Americans to apply for benefits online or by phone. “Republicans just handed over the future of Americans’ Social Security to Frank Bisignano, a Wall Street stooge,” said Ken Martin, Chair of the Democratic National Committee. “Just like Trump and Musk, Bisignano will gladly put Social Security on the chopping block to line the pockets of billionaires and special interests.”
    Democrats argue the Republican strategy—cutting Medicaid and destabilizing Social Security—amounts to an all-out war on working-class Americans. The CBO report estimates the GOP’s Medicaid policy shifts would reduce the federal deficit by as much as $710 billion over the next decade, but at a devastating cost: loss of care, rising out-of-pocket expenses, and widening inequities in health access. “Crafting health care policy is not an academic exercise; for tens of thousands of Americans, it’s a matter of life or death,” Ducas noted.

  • Commission agrees to lease former Greenetrack facility to First Biometrics

    The Greene County Commission met in a called session, Thursday, May 1, 2025 with all Commissioners present. The two items on the presented agenda, relative to access to the former Greenetrack facility, included consideration of a lease between the Greene County Commission and First Biometrics and consideration of a lease between the Commission and Tim Anderson. Chairperson Garria Spencer noted that the Commission had not received a proposal from Tim Anderson, thus the agenda was adopted omitting the latter item.
    Commissioner Allen Turner, Jr. suggested going into an executive session, however, Chairman Spencer proposed that the body just vote on the sole item on the agenda. On a three-two vote, with Commissioners Allen Turner, Corey Cockrell and Roshanda Summerville voting yes, the Commission approved entering into a lease with First Biometrics which will allow them access to the former Greenetrack facility for restorations, renovations and security.
    In previous Commission meetings, Charlie Gomez of Iron Wolf LLC based in Huntsville, AL, advanced the proposal from First Biometrics which included language indicating a lease agreement would be presented asking the Commission to consider the financial investment for facility improvements made by First Biometrics. Commission Attorney Mark Parnell will prepare the lease agreement.
    It was noted that if bingo is brought back by the lessee to the renovated facility, Greene County Sheriff Jonathan Benison would have to issue the appropriate license to a charity operating the bingo gaming. First Biometrics indicated they would be considering gaming and a variety of entertainments.

  • More than 800 students, faculty and community members protest Trump’s visit to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on May 1st

    By John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    On Thursday, May 1,2025, President Donald Trump invited himself to be a speaker at the University of Alabama’s graduation in Tuscaloosa. The University administrators hurried put together a special ticket only program for the President of the United States to speak. The regular formal graduation took place on May 2-4, as previous planned.
    There were three public demonstrations against President Trump, the largest of which at Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa, included more than 800 students, faculty, staff and community members. The demonstration, entitled ‘Tide vs. Trump’, was sponsored by the University Young Democrats with support from the State Democratic Party. Most of the speakers, with the exception of Beto O’Rouke of Texas and Doug Jones, former Alabama U. S. Senator, were students, faculty or persons connected with the university.
    Braden Vick, student leader from the University of Alabama said the demonstration was held, “To protest President Trump coming to the UA not for the graduates but for his own glorification and to identify with the school’s winning sports teams. He has cut research grants for our faculty and students; he has imposed tariffs which will raise our grocery, clothing and other prices; he has curtailed academic freedom at UA and other universities, which will hurt our ability to learn. Vick also thanked the Black community in Tuscaloosa for supporting the demonstration and opposing Trump’s reckless policies.
    Adan Meyers a graduate student at UA said that he had earned a summer internship with the CDC to research and study Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease. “ In early February, I and other students I know, received letters abruptly cancelling our internships without giving any reason. WE have a tyrant in office, in Donald Trump, he does not care about the students and faculty at this university, or the research work they are doing. He is cutting benefits for the poor and the middle class to give tax cuts to the richest people in our country.”
    Jacoby Bennett, a Black graduate student lamented the influence of Trump’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies and the state’s legislation (SB -129) to limit DEI in Alabama’s education system from K-12, colleges and community programs. “This is not a rebranding, this is an erasure of Black, LBTGQ, and other marginalized groups on our campus. The Black Student Union and other similar groups helped students to end their isolation and relate positively to other groups on campus. DEI policies have ended these benefits, but apathy is not an option. We must fight for our rights and to bring back DEI policies and recognition,” said Bennett.
    Maggie Justice of the UA Planned Parenthood said the President’s policies on reproductive freedom, cutbacks in birth control, and general disrespect for women’s rights brought her to the demonstration.
    Dr. Cathy Simon, UA Social Work Professor and lead plaintiff on the lawsuit against the provisions of SB-129, which limits the curriculum, books and learning for young people and college students in Alabama. The limits are in compliance with the President Trump’s Executive Orders on DEI. Dr. Simon said, “The provisions of SB-129 and Trump’s DEI policies are detrimental to our students lives and to our educational institution. We face disciplinary actions if we teach what we believe. We are not able to teach the truth. We are limited in our encouragement of critical thinking. We cannot use some books written by our own faculty because they have been found to violate these new DEI dictates. We must fight for full equality and academic freedom. If you have any privilege because of the color of your skin, your position, your income – then use your privilege for the good of all.”
    The demonstration then heard from two national leaders, Beto O’Rouke of Texas and former Alabama U. S. Senator, Doug Jones on the national impacts of Trump’s policies. Both speakers reminded the audience of the work of the civil rights movement that changed conditions in Alabama, the South and the nation from the 1960’s forward. Although Trump is trying to belittle these accomplishments and trying to change history it will not work if the people are organized and resist these challenges.
    Jones said, “Every change in America came from the work and actions of a movement. What we are experiencing now, under Trump is not justice. We must work on a movement to restore justice and include all the people in our nation.”

  • Congressman Shomari Figures tells Alabama New South Coalition that Trump “is trying to take us backwards and we must organize, resist, and fight back”

    Congressman Shomari Figures speaking at ANSC Convention

    Alabama’s new 2nd District Congressman, Shomari Figures, was the keynote speaker for the Alabama New South Coalition’s (ANSC) Spring Convention in Montgomery this past weekend. The convention was held at the Maggie Street Dream Center and attended by over 100 delegates from the organization’s county chapters.
    In his remarks, Figures said the Trump Administration is trying to take the nation backwards, thread our social safety net and make it difficult for Black and poor people to get ahead in Alabama and America. He pointed to efforts to cut food stamps, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, ending LIHEAP (a program that provides assistance to people with their utility bills), cuts to assistance  1890 Land Grant Colleges, making it difficult for people to get their Social Security benefits, cutting education funds for Title I, Headstart, school lunches, and critical scientific and medical research.
    Figures said that the Trump Justice Department had just pulled out of a longstanding school desegregation case in Louisiana, which is the beginning of their backing away from the 1954 Brown vs. The Board of Education landmark school desegregation case. Trump is also backing away from basic Constitutional principles, the rule of law, birthright citizenship and bypassing the role of Congress in funding and staffing government programs.
    “They are trying to take us backwards to an earlier time when we were not a multi-racial, technological society. Progress is not inevitable. ANSC and other community-based organizations must organize, resist and fight back against these reckless and destructive proposals, “ said Figures. “ I voted against the Republican budget outline bill because of all the cuts and tax breaks for the richest in our country. Some are criticizing me because they say I voted to shut-down the government. But Trump and his supporters are following the dictates of Project 2025 and closing the parts of the government they don’t like anyway”.
    On the positive side, Figures said he has introduced legislation in Congress, with bi-partisan support which will provide $500 million to rural hospitals that need operation support to keep open. “Four hospitals in rural counties in my district have closed in the past five years. Others, including Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, are in danger of closing. Until we provide affordable health insurance for all or a universal payer system, this fund will help support operational costs for qualified hospitals,” said Figures.
    The ANSC Convention had three informative panels on healthcare, education and voting in the morning before the luncheon keynote. The panels discussed ways that the community could be involved in healthcare, education and voting decisions and actions at the local level by ANSC County Chapters and their members and supporters.

  • Newswire : Trump Admin erases decades of school integration

    By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

    The Trump administration has ended a decades-old federal school desegregation order in Louisiana, the latest move in what legal experts and historians describe as a methodical dismantling of civil rights protections under the Project 2025 blueprint. Announced Tuesday, the Department of Justice declared the 1966 court-enforced desegregation decree involving Plaquemines Parish schools no longer necessary.
    Officials dismissed the long-standing order as a “historical wrong” and used its termination to signal that other civil rights-era mandates may soon be repealed. “We are getting America refocused on our bright future,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said. The Justice Department and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a joint motion stating, “The parties are satisfied that the United States’ claims have been fully resolved.” Officials said that the district was declared integrated in 1975, but the court never formally closed the case, and records have since vanished.
    Trump’s second term has unfolded in lockstep with Project 2025, a hardline conservative roadmap that calls for purging the government of diversity programs, civil rights enforcement, and what it calls “woke ideology.” Within days of taking office, Trump signed an executive order eliminating all chief diversity officers in the federal government, terminating racial equity contracts, and halting programs intended to remove discriminatory barriers.

    He has revoked the 1965 executive order on equal employment opportunity, cut funding to minority and women-owned businesses, and frozen grants focused on racial disparities in health care. The administration has labeled DEI efforts “immoral” and, in one executive action, accused cultural institutions of promoting “national shame.” Diversity itself, officials now say, is a “curse word.” Inside the Justice Department, appointees have privately discussed withdrawing from other desegregation orders, calling them an outdated burden on schools, according to a source familiar with the conversations. Yet dozens of districts across the South remain under court supervision to ensure racial integration—a legacy of the government’s post-Brown v. Board of Education enforcement.

    Civil rights advocates argue these agreements remain vital because segregation was never fully dismantled. However, officials aligned with Trump insist that the consent decrees are relics that have outlived their purpose. Historians say the administration’s actions extend beyond legal rollbacks and into aggressively reengineering American memory.
    Trump has criticized the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, accusing it of portraying Western culture as “inherently harmful.” Some government websites briefly removed references to Harriet Tubman and other Black historical figures before restoring them under public pressure. “It’s not just about erasing DEI. It’s about reshaping how this country sees itself,” said Lawrence Rosenthal, chair of the Center for Right-Wing Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “Project 2025 replaces the institutions of democracy with a loyalty test to one authoritarian vision.”
    Meanwhile, research continues to show the lasting power of desegregation. A new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research followed Black children relocated under Chicago’s 1966 Gautreaux program. Those who moved to predominantly White neighborhoods earned up to $34,000 more by age 38, were more likely to be homeowners, and lived in communities with lower poverty. The benefits were most pronounced for children who moved at younger ages. “How on earth can you teach about Rosa Parks without talking about racism?” asked Mark Bray, a civil rights scholar at Rutgers University. “This is an attempt to rewrite the past—and in doing so, control the future.”

  • Newswire : Attorneys General sue Trump over Health Department purge

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Twenty state attorneys general, led by New York’s Letitia James, have filed a federal lawsuit to block what they call the Trump administration’s unlawful dismantling of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The lawsuit accuses the administration and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of gutting the federal health system and putting lives at risk through mass firings and the shutdown of life-saving programs.

    The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, seeks to halt the so-called “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) directive, which the attorneys general argue violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Appropriations Clause, and the constitutional separation of powers. “This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us,” said Attorney General James.

    “When you fire the scientists who research infectious diseases, silence the doctors who care for pregnant patients, and shut down the programs that help firefighters and miners breathe, or children thrive, you are not making America healthy – you are putting countless lives at risk.”
    On March 27, Kennedy announced the MAHA directive under the Trump administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative. In a single move, 28 HHS divisions collapsed into 15, more than 10,000 workers were terminated overnight, and half of HHS’s 10 regional offices were shut down. By April 1, thousands of federal health employees had been locked out of their computers, emails, and office buildings—many learning of their termination only after their badges failed to work.
    Programs for low-income families and children, including Head Start, have stalled as regional offices closed and grant funding was frozen. Staff responsible for determining food and housing assistance eligibility, Medicaid, and TANF were fired. The team that runs the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was also eliminated, leaving millions at risk amid rising energy costs. The firings crippled mental health and substance use programs. Half the workforce at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) was dismissed, its regional offices closed, and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline team drastically reduced. HIV/AIDS programs were cut, and tobacco enforcement has all but ended with the elimination of federal oversight.
    Entire maternal health teams at the CDC were fired, ending efforts to track and combat maternal mortality. The only federal lab that certifies N95 masks has shut down. Infectious disease surveillance has been severely weakened after key labs monitoring illnesses like measles were closed. The World Trade Center Health Program, which serves more than 137,000 9/11 survivors and first responders, faces the loss of key personnel needed to certify cancer diagnoses.
    California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the administration’s actions are beyond the scope of presidential power. “The Trump administration does not have the power to incapacitate a department that Congress created, nor can it decline to spend funds that were appropriated by Congress for that department,” Bonta stated. “That’s why my fellow attorneys general and I are taking the Trump administration to court—HHS is under attack, and we won’t stand for it.”
    Kennedy reportedly admitted he rejected a more deliberate review process for the terminations, saying it could slow “political momentum.” “The disastrous cuts to the WTC Health Program are placing in peril the lives of every first responder and survivor that relies on this health care program to stay alive,” stated Gary Smiley, a 9/11 first responder and union official.

  • Newswire : Legendary civil rights attorney Fred Gray honored with statue at Alabama State Bar

    Civil Rights Attorney Fred Gray, right, and his wife Carol Gray look on during the unveiling ceremony of a statue of Fred Gray at the Alabama State Bar Association building in downtown Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday April 24,2025. (Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

    By Safiyah Riddle, Philadelphia Tribune

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Legendary attorney Fred Gray — once deemed the “chief counsel” of the Civil Rights Movement by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — was honored with a statue outside the Alabama State Bar Association on April 24, 2025.
    “Growing up in Montgomery on the west side, I never thought that one day my image would be in stone to honor my professional career,” the 94-year-old said in an impassioned speech at the statue unveiling in downtown Montgomery.
    Gray represented prominent civil rights leaders like King, Rosa Parks and John Lewis throughout the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, allowing activists to intentionally leverage mass arrests and civil disobedience to push for equal rights. Gray also represented participants in Selma-to-Montgomery marches in March 1965, which led to the Voting Rights Act in August later that year.
    On Thursday, Gray emphasized his gratitude for the countless other people he represented who aren’t often recognized — including Claudette Colvin, who was arrested in 1955 when she was a teenager after she refused to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus, months before Parks earned worldwide appreciation for doing the same.
    “I humbly accept this award for all those unknown heroes and clients whose names never appear in print media, whose faces never appear on television. They are the persons who laid the foundation so that you can honor me here today,” Gray said.
    The statue is engraved with the words “lawyers render service,” a phrase coined by Gray that is now championed by the Alabama Bar Association. Gray was the first Black president of the statewide organization in 2002.
    Gray’s role in the Civil Rights Movement was the first of many accomplishments in his 70 years practicing law. In 1970, he became one of Alabama’s first Black state legislators after Reconstruction.
    Around the same time, Gray represented Black men who filed suit after the government intentionally let their illnesses go untreated in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study. His work eventually led to an official apology from President Bill Clinton on the government’s behalf in 1997.
    Gray is currently involved in a lawsuit seeking to remove a Confederate monument from a square at the center of mostly Black Tuskegee.
    In 2022, Gray received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
    Gray, who is an ordained minister, attributed his successful career to his faith in God and the support of his family, many of whom were in the audience as he spoke.
    He acknowledged Thursday that the court “system doesn’t always deliver justice” but said that he would continue to keep working “until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a stream.”