Category Archives: Celebrity

Newswire : Tina Turner, trailblazing ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ who dazzled audiences worldwide, dies at 83

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Tina Turner performing on stage

By Daniel Arkin, NBC News

Tina Turner, the exuberant, heel-stomping, wild-haired rock goddess who sold out stadiums, earned a dozen Grammy Awards and won the adoration of fans around the world in an electrifying music career spanning five decades, died Wednesday at her home near Zurich after a long illness, according to her publicist.
She was 83.
“With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” Turner’s publicist, Bernard Doherty, said in a statement. Doherty added that there will be a private funeral ceremony for close friends and family members. He did not specify a cause of death.
The arc of Turner’s high-flying but tumultuous life was music industry legend — as well as the basis for a hit 1986 autobiography (“I, Tina”), a Hollywood biopic (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”) and a Broadway jukebox show (“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical”).
She ascended from rural roots to the heights of national stardom, blasting into public consciousness as one half of the sensational rhythm-and-blues duo Ike & Tina Turner and later establishing herself as one of the most popular Black female solo artists in the world.
She was the first woman and the first Black artist to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone — in just its second issue — and her massively successful solo career broke barriers for future generations of Black women in music.
But along the way, Turner experienced personal upheavals and private traumas. She alleged that Ike Turner, her ex-husband and artistic collaborator, subjected her to years of horrific physical abuse and tried to take control of virtually all aspects of her life.
“It was my relationship with Ike that made me most unhappy. At first, I had really been in love with him. Look what he’d done for me. But he was totally unpredictable,” Turner wrote in “I, Tina,” a memoir co-authored by music critic and MTV News correspondent Kurt Loder.
In the late 1970s, Turner managed to extricate herself from her husband and set out on her own. In the ’80s, Turner pulled off one of the most triumphant comebacks in modern rock music, reinventing herself as a gleefully liberated hit-maker who topped the Billboard charts.
Turner, a supremely talented vocalist who belted out songs with abandon, recorded one chart-topping song after another in the ’80s, but one track in particular made her a superstar: “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” a show-stopping anthem off the 1984 album “Private Dancer.”
Turner’s other big hits from the era included “Better Be Good to Me,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome),” “Typical Male,” “The Best” and “I Don’t Wanna Fight.” 
In the decades that followed, she toured around the world, racked up awards, occasionally acted in films and remained one of the signature musical personalities of the late 20th century. She decided to retire in 2009 after having wrapped up her 50th anniversary tour.
“I’ve done enough,” Turner announced to a crowd of 75,000 people at Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich that year. “I’ve been performing for 44 years. I really should hang up my dancing shoes.”
Turner earned eight competitive Grammy Awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame prizes and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement trophy. She was a two-time inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — first with Ike Turner (1991), then as a solo artist (2021). 

Newswire : Vice President Harris, the first woman to deliver the commencement address at West Point,extols the virtues of a diverse military

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By: Donna Brazille

Vice President Kamala Harris hands out diplomas after delivering the keynote speech at Michie Stadium during West Point’s graduation ceremony on May 27, 2023 in West Point, New York. Harris is the first woman to give a commencement address in the military academy’s 221-year history. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)


Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Saturday and said that “our military is strongest when it fully reflects the people of America” in its diversity.
“You stand on the broad shoulders of generations of Americans who have worn the uniform,” Harris told some 950 graduating cadets, receiving a standing ovation for her remarks. She told the graduates they will play a vital role in defending the United States and thanked them for being willing to risk their lives to selflessly serve our nation.
“The power of America’s military not only rests on our technology, our weaponry, our hardware, it rests on the character and the resolve of our people,” Harris said.
President Joe Biden spoke to graduating seniors at West Point in 2016 when he was vice president. Biden will deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Thursday. 
Harris spoke to the graduating class at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy last year and to graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy in 2021.
Black Americans have served in the American military and defended our nation in combat since the Revolutionary War, at a time when many were enslaved. Even long after, Black service members — including my own father, who served in the Army during the Korean War — returned home to face segregation and racial discrimination.
Racism was rampant at West Point throughout much of its history. In its first 133 years, the academy graduated more than 10,000 white men and only three Black men. Women, who were first admitted in 1976, now make up about a quarter of the student body and over 5,000 have graduated from West Point. 
Henry Ossian Flipper, who was born enslaved and was emancipated at the end of the Civil War, became the first Black graduate of the academy in 1877 and went on to command Black troops (the Army wasn’t desegregated until 1948). 
While at West Point, Flipper and the few other Black cadets (most of whom were pushed out before graduating) “endured physical and emotional abuse and racist treatment from their white peers and professors … [and] were ostracized, barred from social activities with other cadets, and spoken to only when officially necessary,” Patri O’Gan wrote on the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Racism resulted in Flipper being unjustly court-martialed in 1881 on charges of embezzlement and “conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.” Although Flipper was acquitted of embezzlement, he was dismissed from the Army in 1882. It wasn’t until 1976 that his descendants secured an honorable discharge for him, followed by a full pardon from President Bill Clinton in 1999.
More than 100 years after Flipper became the first Black graduate of West Point, Patricia Walker Locke and Joy Suzanne Dallas Eshelman became the first Black women to graduate from the academy in 1980. Locke retired from the Army in 1995 and went on to serve as president of a foundation serving underrepresented communities. Eshelman retired from the Army in 2001.

Newswire: More women sue Texas saying the state’s anti-abortion laws harmed them

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Pro-choice protesters march outside the Texas State Capitol in Austin. (photo: Sergio Flores/Getty Images)

Sarah McCammon/NPR

Eight more women are joining a lawsuit against the state of Texas, saying the state’s abortion bans put their health or lives at risk while facing pregnancy-related medical emergencies.
The new plaintiffs have added their names to a lawsuit originally filed in March by five women and two doctors who say that pregnant patients are being denied abortions under Texas law despite facing serious medical complications. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the women, is now asking for a temporary injunction to block Texas abortion bans in the event of pregnancy complications.
“What happened to these women is indefensible and is happening to countless pregnant people across the state,” Molly Duane, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.
The new group of women brings the total number of plaintiffs to 15. The lawsuit, filed in state court in Austin, asks a judge to clarify the meaning of medical exceptions in the state’s anti-abortion statutes.
The Texas “trigger law,” passed in 2021 in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, makes performing an abortion a felony, with exceptions for a “life-threatening physical condition” or “a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”
Another Texas law, known as S.B. 8, prohibits nearly all abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. That ban, with a novel enforcement mechanism that relies on private citizens filing civil lawsuits against anyone believed to be involved in providing prohibited abortions, took effect in September 2021 after the Supreme Court turned back a challenge from a Texas abortion provider.
In an interview with NPR in April, Jonathan Mitchell, a lawyer who assisted Texas lawmakers in crafting the language behind S.B. 8, said he believed the medical exceptions in the law should not have prohibited emergency abortions.
“It concerns me, yeah, because the statute was never intended to restrict access to medically-necessary abortions,” Mitchell said. “The statute was written to draw a clear distinction between abortions that are medically necessary and abortions that are purely elective. Only the purely elective abortions are unlawful under S.B. 8.”
But many doctors in Texas and other states with similar laws that have taken effect since last year’s Supreme Court decision say they feel unsafe providing abortions while facing the threat of substantial fines, the loss of their medical licenses, or prison time.

Dr. James Douglas Anderson, noted scholar of American education and Stillman College Commencement speaker, is a native son of Greene County

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John and Carol Zippert interview Dr. James D. Anderson at the Democrat office

 

 

Exclusive Interview with the Greene County Democrat

By: John Zippert, Dr. Carol P. Zippert and Dr. Monty Thornburg


Dr. James D. Anderson visited his hometown of Eutaw, Alabama on Friday, May 5, 2023, just before presenting the commencement address at his alma mater, Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the next day. The Co-Publishers of the Greene County Democrat and an associate had the honor of interviewing this native son of Greene County on his life and important intellectual view of the changes in Black education in the South over his life time.
Anderson attended Carver School in Eutaw, from 1950 to his graduation in 1962. At that time, the school had grades 1 to 12 and was a segregated school for Black students. “ We had great and dedicated Black teachers, who were genuinely concerned about their students. There was no social promotion and many students were failed and had to repeat grades until they mastered the subjects.”
Anderson lived on Kentuck, a neighborhood north of the Eutaw City Hall. “My mother worked as a cook for the Wilkes Banks family. We lived in a small shack out behind the Banks’ house.

Until my junior year in high school, I walked to school, with my brothers, about two miles. It was an adventure and we learned along the way. But you could not be late because the principal locked the school door at the start of the school day. We did get school buses, like the white children already had, in 1960.”
Anderson recounted a story that speaks to his growing up in poverty in Greene County. “My mother was very upset, this was when I was in high school, when Wilkes Banks told her that her son had a future after school as his ‘yardman’, taking care of mowing his grass. My mother had greater expectations for me and did not want me to aspire as a servant for white people.”


Stillman College

He was a good student and graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1962. Anderson had not made any college applications because he did not have funds to attend college. Herman Hughes, his math teacher at Carver, who was a graduate of Stillman, went to speak with the Dean of Stillman and arranged a full scholarship for him to attend.
“As I was preparing to make my graduation speech at Carver, Mr. Hughes and the principal called me aside and into the office. I was fearful that they were going to tell me that I could not graduate but instead they explained that I had been awarded a full scholarship to attend Stillman.
This was the start of my academic career,” said Anderson.

Mr. Hughes was part of the family of Judge and Alverta Hughes of Mantua community of Greene County. Hughes went on from teaching math in Greene County to get a Ph.D. in Computer Science and became a Professor at Michigan State University. Anderson later reconnected with Hughes, when both served on the Stillman College Board of Trustees. He said that Hughes was a great inspiration to him as a math teacher and peaked his interested in majoring in math at college.
There is a fountain on the Thomas Gilmore Courthouse Square honoring Ms. Alverta Hughes for her contributions to Greene County.Anderson attended Stillman College during the turbulent 1960’s. “ I was among the Stillman students that joined Rev. T. Y. Rogers, civil rights campaign in Tuscaloosa. Rogers was the pastor of First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa and a close colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I was with Rogers on ‘Bloody Tuesday’ when police and deputized white citizens attacked peaceful marchers trying to hold the city to its promise not to have segregated water fountains and restroom facilities in a newly constructed Federal courthouse.
‘Bloody Tuesday’ in Tuscaloosa is often compared with ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Selma as milestones in the civil rights movement in Alabama.
Anderson graduated from Stillman College in 1966. He switched majors from mathematics to sociology. He went on to graduate school in social studies at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. In 1967, he graduated with a teaching certificate and went to teach social studies in Chicago.” I was in a bookstore in Chicago) and purchased a book on the history of Black education. It raised more questions for me than gave answers. I went back to a fellowship at the University of Illinois, to study and answer my questions about the history of Black education. I found my passion. I stumbled into the field where I have made a lifetime contribution.”

Educational Leader and Scholar

Dr. James D. Anderson is the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutsell Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His scholarly career has focused mainly on the history of American education with a specialization in the History of African American education.

His book, ‘The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935’, won the American Education Research Association (AERA) outstanding book award in 1990. The AERA is the largest academic research organization in the nation.
Anderson has also authored hundreds of articles in educational journals about the issues of Black education from Reconstruction to the present day.
Anderson has served as an expert witness in a series of federal desegregation and affirmative education cases, including Jenkins vs Missouri, Knight vs Alabama, Ayers vs Mississippi, Gratz vs Bollinger and Grutter vs Bollinger. He has also served as an advisor to documentaries and PBS television programs on the history of education and African American schools over the past twenty years.
At the interview, Anderson observed, “My book on Black education has
already been banned in Florida by the actions of Governor Ron Desantis and the Florida State Legislature. This is part of an effort by some states to take our nation backwards and to remove the truth about Black history and Black education from our schools and colleges.”
In October of 2014, Dr. James D. Anderson delivered the AERA’s Brown Lecture, an annual commemoration of the Supreme Court’s historic 1954 school desegregation decision. In his lecture, Anderson speaks to the equivalence in work toward equality in education with work toward voting rights in our nation. He suggests that the periods of greatest educational equality were matched with the greatest periods of voting rights and progress for democracy.
He cites the progress during the Reconstruction period, after Emancipation until the turn of the century, when Black people championed public education for all people. This was also a period when Black people were able to vote and did vote, especially in the South, where there were large numbers of Black people. When Reconstruction ended and southern states adopted Jim Crow legislation limiting the Black vote and imposing school segregation, democracy and social change were stifled and reversed.
Anderson specifically laments the failure to adopt the first versions of the 14th amendment which would have guaranteed a right to vote for all men.
“We do not have a Constitutional right to vote, which has made it once again possible to weaken and destroy the Voting Rights Act of 1965, by the Supreme Court in the Shelby vs Holder decision and voter suppression legislation in many states. In many areas, the local politicians are discouraging voters by telling us that our vote doesn’t count or will not be counted. We have to go back to door-to-door organizing to educate and mobilize Black people to vote in every election,” said Anderson.

As the interview ended, so Dr. Anderson could meet with relatives still living in Eutaw, he said that, “The Black teachers that I had at Carver, were truly dedicated and interested in the students. We need more Black teachers in our schools. Some young people go through their whole K to 12 educational experience, without seeing a single Black teacher. We need to change this.

County Commission expresses interest in county-wide Sunday alcohol sales

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The Greene County Commission met in regular session Monday, May 8, 2023. All Commissioners were present. At the Commission’s work session on May 3, Commissioner Allen Turner raised an interest in the county authorizing Sunday alcohol sales. Turner raised questions on the process – would the County have to present its request to the State Legislative Representatives, and would such a proposed bill have time to be advertised before the current session ended. Subsequently, State Representative Curtis Travis was invited to attend the Commission’s meeting on May 8. Rep. Travis stated that since Greene County is a “wet” county, the County Commission could authorize Sunday alcohol sales at prescribed times. He noted that the Commission should develop a resolution to that effect.
According to Mayor Latasha Johnson, the City of Eutaw has authorized Sunday alcohol sales, but currently that does not extend throughout the county.
The Commission approved a request by Probate Judge Rolonda Wedgeworth to secure a new contract for computer services in her office. In her initial request presented at the Commission’s work session on May 3, Judge Wedgeworth stated that her office was in dire need of an updated computer system. She noted that due to the inadequacies of the current vendor, her office is out of compliance with the State. “We are in a situation where we have to develop our own forms which is a set back to our work. Our current vendor will not respond to requests for assistance,” she said. As per her request, the Commission approved Ingenuity, Inc., business and technology services, as the new vendor at a cost of $28,000.
The Commission approved three members for the Board of Equalization: Mrs. Alfretta Crawford, Mrs. Loydleetta Wabbington, and Mr. John Vester.
Other items approved by the Commission are as follows:
* Repair Jury Building on old courthouse square at cost not to exceed $35,000.
* Engineer’s request to fill position of Shop Foreman.
* Engineer’s request for right-of-way acquisition for bridge replacement on County Rd. 220 for the sum of $20, 500.
Engineer’s request to move one driver from Highway Department to Solid Waste Dept.
Engineers’s request to adjust salaries of four employees in Solid Waste Department.
* Travel request for Assistant Engineer on June 7 and June 13-14, 2023.
* Replacing back doors at Eutaw Activity Center.
Sheriff’s request to replace commercial dishwasher at county jail.
The Commission tabled the following items.
* Request from the Water Authority Board.
Consideration of Sunday alcohol sales in the County.
The commission approved the financial report and the payment of claims for April 2023 as presented by CFO Macaroy Underwood. In his report Underwood noted the following: Accounts payable – $309,692.59; Payroll Transfer – $274,299.19; Fiduciary – $69,124.45; Total $653,116.23; Electronic Claims – $85,183.29. Bank totals at end of April: Citizen Trust – unrestricted $2,928,224.96, restricted $5,181,617.91; Merchants & Farmers – unrestricted $3,170,801.50, restricted $1,544,523.24; Total investments – unrestricted $877,979,73, restricted $881,522.99.

Eutaw street and sewer worker loses his life during plumbing repair work in Branch Heights

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On Tuesday afternoon, April 25, 2023, Mr. Tony Rice, a Eutaw City employee, lost his life as he and co-workers attempted to repair water/sewer lines in the William M. Branch Heights subdivision. Rice and other city workers were helping dig a hole at the community center in Eutaw when it collapsed, prompting a multi-agency rescue effort Tuesday night. According to the Eutaw Ambulance service this was the scene of a heavy technical rescue. Reportedly two other workers were injured requiring medical attention.
Seemingly the City of Eutaw nor the County had adequate equipment to conduct a successful rescue when the indecent occurred. The Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue Team was called in to assist with its equipment. After 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, the body of the 46 year-old city worker was recovered.
The following statement was released by Eutaw City Mayor, Latasha Johnson.
“The City of Eutaw is saddened at the loss of a hard worker and great friend. Tony Rice was a dedicated worker who has served the City of Eutaw for many years. Our public works employees are first responders who’s daily responsibilities are to maintain public infrastructure like roads and utilities. No one ever wants to have to deal with a situation like this, and no one ever thinks it will happen to them. Over the next several days there will be more questions than answers as we move through all of the official processes and also deal with heavy hearts and sadness at a loss of someone who’s close to you. We will forever miss Tony’s smiling face and energy. We would ask for your thoughts and prayers during this time as we are all grieving. Out of respect for the family, out of concern for the rest of the Team Eutaw family, and due to the nature of the circumstances we are not going to be able to provide additional comments at this time. “

Newswire: Entertainment icon and Human Rights Activist Harry Belafonte dies at 96

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 Harry Belafonte speaking with African refugees


By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Renowned singer, actor, producer, and legendary civil rights trailblazer, Harry Belafonte has died at the age of 96.
His publicist confirmed that the beloved icon died of congestive heart failure at his home in New York.
In addition to his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte, David Belafonte and two stepchildren Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank, Belafonte leaves behind eight grandchildren: Rachel Blue Biesemeyer, Brian Biesemeyer, Maria Belafonte McCray, Sarafina Belafonte, Amadeus Belafonte, Mateo Frank, Olive Scanga, and Zoe Frank.
Known globally for both for his artistic ingenuity and humanitarian ideals, Belafonte became an early, vocal supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, a confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and financial backer of countless historic political and social causes and events, including the anti-Apartheid Movement, equal rights for women, juvenile justice, climate change and the decolonization of Africa.
He was one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington and led a delegation of Hollywood luminaries including his best friend Sidney Poitier, as well as Paul Newman, Sammy Davis, Jr, Marlon Brando, Rita Moreno, Tony Curtis, James Baldwin, Burt Lancaster, Joanne Woodward, Diahann Carrol, Bob Dylan, Mahalia Jackson, Peter, Paul and Mary and Joan Baez, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis and Tony Curtis.
The following is from Belafonte’s bio on the HistoryMakers:
Born to immigrant parents in Harlem on March 1, 1927, Harry Belafonte spent much of his youth in his mother’s home country of Jamaica.
Though difficult, life in Jamaica was full of rich cultural experiences that influenced Belafonte’s art.
At the beginning of World War II, Belafonte returned to Harlem with his mother and brother. He had trouble integrating into the new environment and later dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy.
After Belafonte was honorably discharged, he went back to New York, where he worked odd jobs until two free tickets to the American Negro Theatre (A.N.T.) changed his life.
Belafonte auditioned for the A.N.T. and earned his first leading role in Juno and the Paycock. In 1953, he made his film debut opposite Dorothy Dandridge in Bright Road. He won a Tony in 1954 for his performance in Almanac.
At the same time, Belafonte developed his singing talents, having parlayed a series of nightclub performances into a record contract. His third album, Calypso, topped the charts for thirty-one consecutive weeks and was the first record to sell more than 1 million copies.
Belafonte also secured a television outlet with his hour-long special, Tonight with Belafonte, which won him an Emmy. He became the first African American TV producer and his company, HarBel, went on to produce one Emmy nominee after another.
In the early 1950s, Belafonte developed a strong relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Belafonte worked tirelessly to mobilize artists in support of the civil rights movement.
In 1985, he again rallied the global artistic community to raise awareness of the famines, wars and droughts plaguing many African nations.
USA for Africa raised more than $60 million for this cause with “We Are the World” and Hands Across America.
A longtime anti-apartheid activist, Belafonte hosted former South African President Nelson Mandela on his triumphant visit to the United States.
Belafonte maintained his commitment to service as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
“The lifelong commitment, courage, global leadership, and legacy of The Honorable Harry Belafonte will always be cherished and remembered by billions of people throughout the world,” said NNPA President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. “Belafonte was a gifted, talented and transformative freedom fighter for all of humanity. The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) salutes the memory of Harry Belafonte and recommits to the struggle for freedom, justice and equality that Belafonte so boldly epitomized and embodied.”

Newswire : White man arrested in shooting of 16-year-oldwho rang wrong doorbell

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 Ralph Yarl, 16 year-old shooting victim

By: Stacy Brown, NNPA Newswire

A White 85-year-old homeowner who allegedly shot and wounded Ralph Yarl, a Black teen, after the 16-year-old went to the wrong home to pick up his siblings will face two felony charges, Clay County attorney Zachary Thompson announced early Monday evening.
Andrew Lester will face charges of assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. Authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest and he’s not currently in custody, Thompson said, according to CNN.
“I can tell you there was a racial component to this case,” Thompson said at a news conference without elaborating.
There is no indication that either Lester or Ralph spoke to one another before the Thursday evening shooting, he said. The prosecutor added there is no evidence that the teen entered the home and preliminary evidence shows Lester opened fire on the teen through a glass door with a .32 caliber revolver.
Earlier, nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritt were retained by the Yarl’s family.
According to the Kansas City Defender, the white man reportedly shot Yarl in the head through the glass door, then when Yarl was already bleeding out on the ground, shot him again.
“The family has described it as a hate crime, and community members are calling for justice for the young victim,” reported The Defender, a member of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).
The NNPA is a trade of more than 230 African American-owned newspapers and media companies representing the Black Press of America.
“This was not an ‘error’; this was a hate crime. You don’t shoot a child in the head because he rang your doorbell. The fact that the police said it was an ‘error’ is why America is the way it is,” Dr. Faith Spoonmore, Yarl’s aunt, told The Defender.
Authorities reportedly escorted the suspect to police headquarters following the shooting, briefly interviewed him and released the man.
Yarl’s family said they are outraged that the perpetrator had not been held accountable. “This man intended to kill an innocent child simply because he rang the doorbell of the wrong house,” Dr. Spoonmore asserted.
“He looked him in the face and shot him… and the individual is free to go about his day as if he did a great deed. While my nephew Ralph Yarl is a great kid, an intelligent kid, a black boy is left with so many broken pieces.”
Crump and Merritt, nationally recognized civil rights lawyers who has represented Ahmaud Arbery and Cameron Lamb, announced they would represent Yarl’s family.
Shaun King, a well-known activist and journalist, announced that he’s also assisting with the case.
The Defender, which was the first outlet to report on the shooting, said the Yarl family has urged supporters to help spread awareness about the case and bring attention to the issue of racial violence in America.
“There is no excuse for the release of this armed and dangerous suspect after admitting to shooting an unarmed, non-threatening, and defenseless teenager that rang his doorbell,” Crump and Merritt said in a joint statement.
“We demand swift action from Clay County prosecutors and law enforcement to identify, arrest, and prosecute to the full extent of the law the man responsible for this horrendous and unjustifiable shooting.

Newswire: Biden issues proclamation for Black Maternal Health Week

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 Black pregnant mother and child


 

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

In 2022, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra implemented actions to improve maternal health and reduce health disparities, and this year, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to champion policies to improve maternal health and equity.
Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting with Becerra and other Cabinet leaders amplifying a whole-of-government approach to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity.
On Monday, April 10, President Biden issued another proclamation to begin Black Maternal Health Week.
The president called the week a reminder that so many families experience pain, neglect, and loss during what should be a joyous occasion.
Biden called it urgent that all act.
“Black women in America are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women,” the president remarked.
“This is on top of the fact that women in America are dying at a higher rate from pregnancy-related causes than in any other developed nation.”
He insisted that tackling the crisis begins with understanding how institutional racism drives these high maternal mortality rates.
Studies show that Black women are often dismissed or ignored in hospitals and other health care settings, even as they suffer from severe injuries and pregnancy complications and ask for help, the president reminded.
He said systemic inequities are also to blame.
“When mothers do not have access to safe and stable housing before and after childbirth, they are at greater risk of falling ill,” Biden exclaimed.
“When women face barriers traveling to the hospital for prenatal and postpartum checkups, they are less likely to remain healthy. Air pollution, water pollution, and lead pipes can have dangerous consequences for pregnant women and newborns. And when families cannot afford nutritious foods, they face worse health outcomes.”
He claimed his administration has penned the blueprint for addressing the maternal health crisis, an agenda that lays out specific actions the federal government would take to improve maternal health and secured funding from Congress to help implement it.
“Vice President Kamala Harris has been a leader on the issue of maternal mortality for years and led the charge to improve maternal health outcomes, including by issuing a call to action to address disparities in maternal care,” Biden stated.
“She continues to elevate the issue nationally, convening State legislators, medical professionals, and others so all mothers can access the care they need before, during, and after childbirth.”
The president continued:
“Additionally, my American Rescue Plan gave States the option to provide a full year of postpartum coverage to Medicaid beneficiaries — up from just 60 days of coverage.
“As a result, my Administration has approved requests from 30 States and Washington, D.C. to provide women with Medicaid coverage with a full year of postpartum coverage, and we have made this option permanent for every State that extends Medicaid postpartum coverage.
“My Administration has helped facilitate Medicaid expansion in four States since I took office, and I continue to call on the Congress to close the Medicaid coverage gap.
“We are also working to expand and diversify the maternal health workforce, helping health care providers hire and train diverse and culturally competent physicians, certified nurse midwives, doulas, and community health workers to support women during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care.”
The president’s budget includes $471 million to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates, improving access to care in rural communities, expanding implicit bias training for health care providers, and further supporting the perinatal health workforce.
“This week, as we continue our work to make pregnancy and childbirth safe, dignified, and joyful for all, let us remember that health care should be a right and not a privilege,” Biden continued.
“Let us give thanks to the extraordinary maternal health care workforce, which serves its patients and their families every day. And let us join in common cause to end the tragedy of maternal mortality once and for all.”


Newswire : ProPublica Report: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas violated ethics laws with multiple super yacht trips with Republican donor

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Justice Clarence Thomas with Harlan Crow


By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
For more than two decades, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from Dallas businessman and Republican mega donor Harlan Crow without disclosing them, a bombshell new report from ProPublica has revealed.
Citing documents and interviews, the nonprofit and Pulitzer Prize winning legal news organization said Thomas who has a salary of $285,000, has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe.
Had Thomas footed the bill himself, one trip on Crow’s yacht would have set him back a cool half-million dollars.
What’s more, the controversial conservative justice often flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. That’s a $70,000 trip.
Justices are required to report all gifts of $415 or more that are “anything of value” and not fully reimbursed.
There’s no record of Thomas reporting the gifts or reimbursing anyone for the trips.
“He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas,” the legal news site reported on Thursday, April 6. “And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.”
The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and ProPublica further notes that the trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures.
“His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts,” the site reported, citing two ethics law experts.
Thomas, the experts said, also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton, told ProPublica.
When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: “It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.”
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.”
“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.”
As ProPublica noted, federal judges sit in a unique position of public trust.
Each justice enjoys lifetime tenure, which is supposed to inoculate them from feeling any temptation toward corruption.
Intentionally, a code of conduct for federal judges below the Supreme Court requires them to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.”
Members of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts has written, “consult” that code for guidance.
However, the Supreme Court is left almost entirely to police itself.
And many opine that Thomas has exploited that privilege and, along with his wife Ginny, have thumbed their noses at Democracy.
“The most glaring example of the Supreme Court’s ethical vacuum is Clarence Thomas,” political columnist Jonathan Chait wrote for New York Magazine.
“The right-wing justice has operated, in conjunction with his wife, in the center of a network of conservative activists whose project is indistinguishable from his legal work.”
Meanwhile, ProPublica reported evidence that Thomas has taken even more trips on the superyacht.
The report noted that Crow often gave his guests custom polo shirts commemorating their vacations.
ProPublica found photographs of Thomas wearing at least two of those shirts.
In one, he wears a blue polo shirt embroidered with the Michaela Rose’s logo and the words “March 2007” and “Greek Islands.”
“Thomas didn’t report any of the trips ProPublica identified on his annual financial disclosures,” the outlet noted.
“Ethics experts said the law clearly requires disclosure for private jet flights and Thomas appears to have violated it.”

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

For more than two decades, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from Dallas businessman and Republican mega donor Harlan Crow without disclosing them, a bombshell new report from ProPublica has revealed.
Citing documents and interviews, the nonprofit and Pulitzer Prize winning legal news organization said Thomas who has a salary of $285,000, has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe.
Had Thomas footed the bill himself, one trip on Crow’s yacht would have set him back a cool half-million dollars.
What’s more, the controversial conservative justice often flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. That’s a $70,000 trip.
Justices are required to report all gifts of $415 or more that are “anything of value” and not fully reimbursed.
There’s no record of Thomas reporting the gifts or reimbursing anyone for the trips.
“He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas,” the legal news site reported on Thursday, April 6. “And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.”
The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and ProPublica further notes that the trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures.
“His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts,” the site reported, citing two ethics law experts.
Thomas, the experts said, also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton, told ProPublica.
When she was on the bench, Gertner said, she was so cautious about appearances that she wouldn’t mention her title when making dinner reservations: “It was a question of not wanting to use the office for anything other than what it was intended.”
Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who served in administrations of both parties, said Thomas “seems to have completely disregarded his higher ethical obligations.”
“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.”
As ProPublica noted, federal judges sit in a unique position of public trust.
Each justice enjoys lifetime tenure, which is supposed to inoculate them from feeling any temptation toward corruption.
Intentionally, a code of conduct for federal judges below the Supreme Court requires them to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.”
Members of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts has written, “consult” that code for guidance.
However, the Supreme Court is left almost entirely to police itself.
And many opine that Thomas has exploited that privilege and, along with his wife Ginny, have thumbed their noses at Democracy.
“The most glaring example of the Supreme Court’s ethical vacuum is Clarence Thomas,” political columnist Jonathan Chait wrote for New York Magazine.
“The right-wing justice has operated, in conjunction with his wife, in the center of a network of conservative activists whose project is indistinguishable from his legal work.”
Meanwhile, ProPublica reported evidence that Thomas has taken even more trips on the superyacht.
The report noted that Crow often gave his guests custom polo shirts commemorating their vacations.
ProPublica found photographs of Thomas wearing at least two of those shirts.
In one, he wears a blue polo shirt embroidered with the Michaela Rose’s logo and the words “March 2007” and “Greek Islands.”
“Thomas didn’t report any of the trips ProPublica identified on his annual financial disclosures,” the outlet noted.
“Ethics experts said the law clearly requires disclosure for private jet flights and Thomas appears to have violated it.”