Greene County Democrat

Category: Community

  • Civil rights groups alarmed at Justice Department’s review of local police settlements

    AG Jeff SessionsAttorney General Jeff Sessions

    By Del Quentin Wilber and Kevin Rector Contact Reporter
    Los Angeles Times

    Civil rights groups and experts on police reform expressed alarm Tuesday at Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions’ order for a review of more than a dozen federal agreements with police forces that address problems of racial profiling, discrimination and use of excessive force.
    The broad review reflects the Trump administration’s emphasis on bolstering law and order over investigating allegations of police misconduct, and it could lead to changing or scaling back consent agreements or negotiations underway in several cities, including Baltimore and Chicago.
    Proposed consent decrees could be scrapped or overhauled in both cities, officials said, despite Justice Department investigations that uncovered systemic problems in their police departments.
    The review also could affect an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California into police patterns and practices in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
    The administration can’t unilaterally unwind consent decrees without court approval, so it’s unclear whether Sessions’ directive could affect the negotiated settlement that led to federal oversight of the Oakland Police Department, which was the result of a 2003 lawsuit.
    The Justice Department has recommended 272 changes to help improve the scandal-ridden San Francisco Police Department, but the six-month investigation last year did not lead to a consent decree or a federal takeover.
    The Justice Department “is signaling it no longer intends to fully support police reform even in consent decrees they are already active in,” said Christy Lopez, who led the Justice Department’s police investigation efforts under the Obama administration and now is a Georgetown University law professor. “I think it’s incredibly cynical.”
    Lopez said Sessions is signaling that the Justice Department has intruded too far into oversight of local policing, even as the administration threatens to withhold federal grants from cities and other jurisdictions that do not help federal agencies locate and arrest immigrants in the country illegally.
    Sessions, a critic of federal investigations of local police, wrote in a two-page memo released Monday that the “misdeeds of individual bad actors should not impugn or undermine the legitimate and honorable work that law enforcement officers and agencies perform.”
    Sessions said he had ordered his two top deputies to review “collaborative investigations and prosecutions, grant making, technical assistance and training, compliance reviews, existing or contemplated consent decrees and task force participation.”
    The Justice Department has 14 such agreements with local police departments, including a high-profile accord reached with the city of Ferguson, Mo. It was hammered out in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed young black man in 2014, which was followed by weeks of street protests.
    Such decrees are reached in court, overseen by a federal judge and stipulate changes that local law enforcement agencies must make in response to a Justice Department investigation.
    During the Obama administration, the Justice Department launched more than two dozen investigations into local law enforcement agencies accused of misconduct. The goal was to improve both policing and their community relations.
    Justice Department officials sought to downplay the review Sessions has ordered, saying it was normal for a new administration to examine policies and procedures inherited from a previous president.
    Sessions and his team are “actively developing strategies to support the thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country that seek to prevent crime and protect the public,” Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said in a statement.
    “The department is working to ensure that those initiatives effectively dovetail with robust enforcement of federal laws designed to preserve and protect civil rights,” Prior said. “While this memo includes the review of any pending consent decrees, the attorney general also recognizes the department’s important role helping communities and police departments achieve these goals.”
    On Monday, the Justice Department took its first step under Sessions’ order by asking a federal judge to pause court proceedings for 90 days involving a proposed consent decree affecting Baltimore’s police force.
    Baltimore officials and the Justice Department reached the wide-ranging agreement in the waning days of the Obama administration to address a pattern of discrimination and unconstitutional policing. That investigation was sparked by the 2015 death of another black man, 25-year-old Freddie Gray, from injuries suffered while he was in police custody.
    In its court filing, the Justice Department asked for the three-month pause so its new leadership could review the proposed agreement to assess whether the court-ordered initiatives “will help ensure that the best result is achieved” for Baltimore’s residents.
    A hearing is set for Thursday to allow U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar, who is overseeing the negotiations, to gather public comments on the proposed agreement. Baltimore’s leaders, including its mayor and police commissioner, announced opposition to the proposed pause.
    “Any interruption in moving forward may have the effect of eroding the trust that we are working hard to establish,” Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said.
    The Justice Department is also certain to review its determination that the Chicago police force was systematically abusive, following a series of police shootings of minorities.
    In January, the department issued a scathing report that found that Chicago officers were poorly trained and quick to use excessive force. The report also found the Police Department tolerated racial discrimination. Negotiations on a potential agreement between Chicago and the Justice Department have been in the works. In a joint statement Monday night, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said Sessions’ review would not alter their plans to reform police practices.
    Sessions said last month that he had read a summary of the Justice Department report on Chicago and that he worried police officers on the streets were pulling back because they feared getting in trouble if they made a mistake.
    “We need to help police departments get better, not diminish their effectiveness, and I’m afraid we have done some of that,” Sessions told a gathering of state attorneys general. “So we’re going to pull back” on federal investigations of police departments.
    Civil rights advocates said they are concerned about how the Trump administration will respond to police abuses.
    “This directive makes clear that the attorney general sees little to no role for the federal government to play in promoting policing reform, even in those communities where the problems are greatest,” said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonprofit group that has sought greater federal oversight of troubled police departments.

  • Take action to break the silence, 50 years since Dr. MLK’s ‘Beyond Vietnam’ Speech

     

    By: Mary Hladky, Military Families Speak Out, United for Peace & Justice

    mlkmilitaryspendingquote

    Dr. King

    50 years ago, on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church, in NYC, Martin Luther King delivered his powerful and most controversial speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”.   No longer willing to keep silent about the immorality of the Vietnam War, knowing the intense criticism he would receive for speaking out, he nevertheless was compelled to speak, “I am here tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice”.
    He gave this speech, one year to the day before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, assisting garbage workers to get justice and fair wages.
    King spoke against war and its crippling effects on social progress.  He denounced the death and destruction in Vietnam and the waste of billions on an immoral war.  All this at the expense of the poor and those serving in the military.  The destruction done to the Vietnamese is the same destruction we are doing to the Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, Somalis, Libyans, Pakistanis, and others today.
    “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
    I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else.  For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy.  We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved.  Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.
    King connected the inherit racism of killing the Vietnamese people with the killing of black people in America through dehumanization and contempt for “other” people.
    King was greatly concerned that the war in Vietnam was destroying the soul of America.  He called for an end to the war, detailing how a foreign policy based on violence and domination abroad, relates to the violence and problems we are afflicted with at home.  He asked us to reassess our values to avoid future mistakes that could destroy our nation.
    “We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society.  When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
    King’s message was not heeded, and our problems have multiplied. Since 1991 the U.S. has been at war in the Middle East, destabilizing the whole region.  In 2016 the U.S. dropped bombs in seven countries:  Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Pakistan & Somalia.
    The U.S. is the world’s #1 exporter of arms.  We have more than 800 bases in over 70 countries.  U.S. Special Forces have been deployed in over 105 countries.   We have launched thousands of drone strikes.
    Our Congressional representatives are cowards.   They are willing to send ground troops into the war in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Syria, while refusing to debate and vote on the use of military force.  Instead they shamefully forego their constitutional duty, to avoid being held accountable to their constituents.
    Congress has voted to spend our taxpayers’ dollars on endless wars at the expense of everything else.  Total defense spending costs our country approximately $900 billion (that’s almost $1 trillion) each year. This $900 billion pays for cost of war, 800 bases, nuclear weapons, intelligence agencies, homeland security, and veterans benefits.   Economist Jeffrey Sachs stated “The U.S. is incurring massive public debt and cutting back on urgent public investments at home in order to sustain a dysfunctional, militarized, and costly foreign policy.”
    The Cost of War project at Brown University reports that war costs since 2001 will run to nearly $5 trillion.  “Yet the cost seems invisible to politicians and the public alike.  The reason is that almost all of the spending has been financed through borrowing – selling US Treasury Bonds around the world – leaving our children to pick up the tab.  Consequently, the wars have had little impact on our pocketbooks.”  “As long as the cost of the war remains hidden from public view, there is no pressure to reexamine our military strategy.” (Linda Bilmes)
    And now we have Trump’s budget proposal.  He is asking for an additional $54 billion to the budget busting $596 million the Pentagon is already allocated.  The Pentagon’s budget is larger than the budgets of the next 7 countries combined.   That proposed increase alone is almost as large as Russia’s entire military budget.  Trump proposes to finance his expanded war budget by making drastic cuts to the EPA, Dept. of Education, State Dept., the UN and its humanitarian aid, and social services.
    These cuts will have devastating effects on the environment, our children’s education, the ability to prevent war through diplomacy with cruel cuts to social services for the poor, sick and elderly.
    We have a choice about how this country spends our taxpayer dollars.  We can remain silent allowing billions to be spent funding endless, futile wars or we can speak out, demanding our tax dollars fund healthcare for all Americans, support climate change initiatives, invest in solar and renewable energy, improve our educational system providing free college, rebuild our infrastructure and end extreme poverty in this country.
    WE CAN NO LONGER REMAIN SILENT.  WE MUST CHALLENGE AMERICAN MILITARISM.  
    MLK’S CHALLENGE TO US

    “Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.”
    “We still have a choice today, nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.  We must find new ways to speak for peace and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors.  If we do not act we shall be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”
    “Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter – but beautiful – struggle for a new world.  Shall we say the odds are too great?  Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard?  The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.”
    Beginning this week, on April 4, peace-loving people around the country are participating in actions honoring Dr. King and readings of this speech, in a campaign to rebuild our movement. There’s still time to join or host an event in your community.
    United For Peace & Justice has created a web page with resources for you and your organization to host a reading and begin working on these issues.

  • John and Carol Zippert to be inducted in Cooperative Hall of Fame for their lifetime of service to Federation of Southern Cooperatives

    john

    Carol and John Zippert at work at the Greene Co. Democrat weekly newspaper

     

    heroes-header2.pngFour outstanding cooperative leaders will receive the cooperative community’s highest honor on May 3, 2017, when they are inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame.
    The inductees are Rita L. Haynes, CEO emeritus of Faith Community United Credit Union, John D. Johnson, retired president and CEO of Cenex Harvest States Inc. (CHS) , the largest agricultural cooperative in the nation; Richard Larochelle, retired senior vice president of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation; and John & Carol Zippert, cooperative activists with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.
    These cooperative leaders will be recognized at the annual Cooperative Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on the evening of May 3, 2017. In conjunction with the ceremony, a public forum on cooperative development and leadership will be held in the afternoon.
    “Induction into the Cooperative Hall of Fame is reserved for those who have made genuinely heroic contributions to the cooperative community. The 2017 inductees join a host of extraordinary Hall of Fame members who have contributed significantly to the advancement of the cooperative movement,” said Gasper Kovach, Jr., board chair of the Cooperative Development Foundation, which administers the Hall of Fame.

    John and Carol Zippert to be recognized as a couple

    John and Carol met while working in the civil rights and cooperative movement in southwest Louisiana. John was a volunteer and later field staff with the Congress of Racial Equality in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. John was working on registering minority voters, integrating public accommodations and helping sweet potato and vegetable farmers to develop a cooperative to market their produce.

    Carol was working with the Southern Consumers Cooperative, while attending the University of Southwest Louisiana. She participated in a special program to study cooperatives and credit unions nationally and internationally in Canada and Turkey.
    When John and Carol decided to get married in 1967, they had to sue the State of Alabama to remove the state’s ”miscegenation statute” to allow them to get a marriage license in Louisiana as an interracial couple. Partners in both life and the pursuit for racial, social and economic justice in the U.S. South, John and Carol (Prejean) Zippert continue to embody the principles and priorities of the two movements that shaped their lives—the civil rights movement and the cooperative movement.
    Father A. J. McKnight, himself a Cooperative Hall of Famer deeply involved in community and cooperative development across Louisiana, first kindled the couple’s passion and commitment to the cooperative movement. The same year they were married, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund was chartered. John and Carol were involved as community organizers with the cooperatives and credit unions and the meetings that resulted in the formation of the Federation
    From the 1960s onward, John and Carol’s lives progressed in parallel with the mission of the Federation and the growth of the cooperative movement in the South. Over the years they have worked with many members of the Co-op Hall of Fame including McKnight, Ralph Paige, Woodrow Keown, G. L. Twitty, Melbah Smith, Shirley Sherrod, Earnest Johnson and Jessica Gordon Nembhard.
    For five decades, John has worked with the Federation. For the past quarter century, he served as the Director of Program Operations for the Federation at its Rural Training and Research Center in Epes, Alabama, where he promotes cooperative economic development for low-income and minority people in ten Southeastern states. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, John expanded the center’s reach to include relief work, enlisting cooperatives to help individuals, families and other co-ops recover and rebuild along the Gulf Coast.
    During his career at the Federation, John has trained staff, mentored countless young people and designed programs to further sustainable small farming and cooperative development. The Federation honored John’s dedication with its Staff Award in 1977, 1978 and 1996.
    John is a champion of cooperative development, a co-op policy analyst and a cooperative historian currently writing a book about the Federation. His career highlights also include contributions to housing co-ops and affordable housing for low-income people in Alabama. As a member of the Southern Cooperative Development Program staff, he helped former tenant farmers form the Panola Land Buyers Association and buy 1,164 acres of land in 1970. In 1980, the association established a housing cooperative. John also played a critical role in the Southern Grassroots Economics Project, which works to build democratic ownership in the U.S. South and hosts CoopEcon, an annual training institute for cooperative members.
    Serving on the board of numerous state and national organizations, like the Rural Coalition, Rural Development Leadership Network, Alabama New South Coalition, Alabama Black Belt Commission, and others, John has been involved in advocacy and public policy development for family farmers, rural and cooperative development. John also assisted hundreds of African-American farmers in filing successful claims in the Pigford Class Action discrimination lawsuits.
    Since 1985, John and Carol have together published the Greene County Democrat Newspaper, a weekly publication to inform and educate their primarily African-American community.
    In 1985, Carol earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Supervision and Curriculum Development from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. As a self-described “community worker,” she dedicated five decades to building leadership and developing co-ops with the Federation—where she continues to volunteer—as well as supporting grassroots community groups in their work to achieve social transformation. Carol has served as an adjunct research professor and resource specialist for Tuskegee University’s Community-Based Youth Partnerships. She has been involved with the 21st Century Youth Leadership movement since its inception in 1986 and continues to serve on its board.
    Carol is also president and founder of the Federation of Greene Country Employees (FOGCE) Federal Credit Union. Under her leadership, in one of the poorest counties in the U.S. built a credit union that has accumulated more than $1.4 million in assets. In addition, Carol’s poetry and leadership in cultural organizations such as the Black Belt Community Foundation and the Greene County Society for Folk Arts and Culture strengthen connections and trust among people, their co-ops and their communities.
    The Co-op Hall of Fame ceremony is a major fundraising activity for the Cooperative Development Foundation. Persons and organizations interested in supporting the fundraiser or purchasing tickets for the dinner, should contact: http://www.heroes.coop.

  • Superintendent Carter advances new classroom designs School board salutes GCH Girls Basketball Team as Class 3A Area 7 Champions

    Greene County High Lady Tigers displaying their Class 3A banner, Shown Above: Graduating seniors of the GCHS Lady Tigers Basketball Team: Te’Aira Wilson, Kelsey Spencer, Raven Vanable and Sabrina French.

    At the Greene County School Board meeting held Monday, March 27, 2017, Superintendent James Carter and board members gave a special salute to the Greene County High Lady Tigers basketball team as Class 3A Area 7 Champions, 2016-2017. Dr. Carter presented the Lady Tigers, along with their coach, Kendra Payne and Principal Garry Rice, with a banner designating their championship.

    Superintendent James Carter, in his continued efforts to improve school curricula and culture, presented the board with additional innovative considerations. Dr. Carter explained that the design of the classroom is important to the learning process. “Students’ desks, textbooks, and other barriers between teacher and students should be removed.
    Teachers need and should have the flexibility to be more innovative and creative in the classroom. There is a need to reinvent the classroom to fit the 21st century learners,” he stated.
    According to Superintendent Carter, the first thing that should be done is to get parents more involved in their children’s education; next Second identify teachers and principals who care about children and make students feel like they belong in the school. Third thing is that every child should feel a sense of accomplishment. He further noted that the three major institutions that once supported our children and now are failing our children. These institutions, home, church and school, must take the lead in helping educators turn around schools.
    Dr. Carter also raised the question: “How can corporal punishment have a place in schools?” He noted that research shows that Black students and students with disabilities receive physical punishment more than other students. He suggests that the system reviews its policies regarding corporal punishment in schools.
    Carter also noted that the school system is in the process of establishing collaboration with Greene County Hospital to implement a candy striper program as well as a Nursing Assistant Program with students enrolled at Greene County Career Center.
    The superintendent ended his report with the announcement of a sale of surplus equipment at the former Paramount school on April 11 and; at former Carver school on April 12 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
    In other business, the board approved the following personnel items as presented by the superintendent.
    * Employment: Micheal Bolton as Bus Driver for the system.
    * Leave of Absence without pay for LaJoycelyn Davis, Secretary at Robert Brown Middle School.
    Additional Service contract(s) for the following employees at Greene County High School for the 2016 – 2017 academic year. (Separate Contract): Jacob Sullivan – Asst. Baseball Coach. The Board approved the following administrative services items:
    Bid submitted by Dallas Air Conditioning and Heating, Inc. in the amount of $82,950 to rework controls at Robert Brown Middle School (Only Bidder).
    Field Trip Requests: Robert Brown Middle – Math and Science Day at Six Flags Over Ga on May 12, 2017; Robert Brown Middle – Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, GA on May 4, 2017.
    Payment of all bills, claims, and payroll.
    The board approved the following Instructional Items:
    * Revamping of Kindergarten Program to include project learning type of concept with a focus on communication, critical thinking skills, foreign language, and math problem solving activities
    * Organize Summer School for promotion of students who are struggling or identified as at-risk
    * Teachers and Principals to develop a reading list for students to enhance their reading skills over the summer months

  • Civil War blamed for starvation and famine looming in South Sudan


    (TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – The government of South Sudan and the United Nations are reporting that some 100,000 people are facing starvation, with a million more on the brink of famine.
    The announcement comes as international aid agencies are overwhelmed by catastrophes unfolding in four countries. There have been warnings of famine in Yemen, Somalia and north-eastern Nigeria, but South Sudan is the first to declare one.
    The famine is currently affecting parts of the Unity state in South Sudan, but humanitarian groups have warned that the crisis could spread if urgent help is not received.
    Currently, some 20 U.S.-based charities are working in South Sudan, bringing medical equipment and supplies, the most needed type of food, clothing, shelter materials and other supplies. The groups are listed in CharityWatch, a charity watchdog which issues letter grade ratings (A+ to F) to nonprofit groups aiding victims. Groups that receive an “A” or “B” grade spend at least 75% of their budget on program services and spend no more than $25 to raise $100.
    Under the heading “Donors Beware,” CharityWatch writes: “As with any charitable contribution, Americans wanting to help South Sudan relief efforts should send contributions to only those charities with an established track record of helping people in this region.”
    ReliefWeb.int, a digital service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which tracks countries in crisis and provides the latest reports, maps, infographics and videos, wrote in a report in December: “Alarmingly, 4.8 million people in South Sudan – more than one-third of the population – are food insecure.”
    Serge Tissot, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s representative for South Sudan described those affected as “predominantly farmers as war has disrupted agriculture. They’ve lost their livestock, even their farming tools. For months there has been a total reliance on whatever plants they can find and fish they can catch.”
    Food prices have soared by 800 percent, putting food out of the reach of impoverished families. Thousands of refugees have sought shelter in camps in Uganda.
    “This famine is man-made,” said Joyce Luma, country director for the World Food Program in South Sudan, which has seen its facilities looted on several occasions by armed groups. “WFP and the entire humanitarian community have been trying with all our might to avoid this catastrophe, mounting a humanitarian response of a scale that quite frankly would have seemed impossible three years ago.”
    But she warned that without peace and security, “there is only so much that humanitarian assistance can achieve.”
    Meanwhile, workers at Save the Children-supported health clinics and hospitals in Puntland have reported a significant increase in severe malnutrition among children coming through their doors.
    An estimated 363,000 children are already suffering from malnutrition in Somalia.

  • Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, has relationship with voting rights opponent – Hans von Spakovsky

    By: Julie Alderman, National Memo

    Neil Gorsuch

     Neil Gorsuch

    Newly released emails from President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, evidence an amicable relationship between the judge and National Review contributor and discredited conservative media legal analyst Hans von Spakovsky. The relationship is a sign that Gorsuch could continue Trump’s assault on civil rights from the high court.
    According to emails released by the Senate Judiciary Committee, first reported on by The Nation’s Ari Berman, Gorsuch’s communications with or about von Spakovsky paint a picture of their friendly relationship. In 2005, Gorsuch wrote “Good for Hans” after then-President George W. Bush nominated von Spakovsky to the Federal Election Commission. In another email that year, Gorsuch praised von Spakovsky for participating in a Bush-era Justice Department conference on the election system at a time when “Though the Justice Department was supposed to investigate both voting discrimination and voter fraud, the latter cause took priority and eventually led to Republican US Attorneys’ being wrongly fired from their jobs for refusing to prosecute fraud cases,” as explained by Berman.
    As Berman wrote, “the emails suggest Gorsuch was friendly with von Spakovksy. But it’s far more disturbing if Gorsuch shares Von Spakovsky’s views on voting rights.” As Berman previously pointed out, Gorsuch’s “paper trail on civil-rights cases is slim,” and little is known about his views on voting rights. However, this relationship with von Spakovsky does nothing to reassure voting and civil rights advocates.
    Von Spakovsky is one of the leading conservative media misinformers on voting rights, frequently hyping the false narrative that voter fraud is widespread. In November, von Spakovsky and his frequent partner, John Fund, rehashed discredited evidence to fear monger about noncitizen voting in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The op-ed was published even though noncitizen voting is incredibly rare and studies that claim otherwise have been found to be flawed. Von Spakovsky has also erroneously suggested that double voting is not only a problem, but that it could be solved by strict voter ID laws.
    In 2012, von Spakovsky and Fund wrote a book filled with lies about voting rights.Von Spakovsky has used these lies to relentlessly advocate for unnecessarily strict voter ID laws across the nation, which have been shown to systematically disenfranchise voters, especially voters of color. To promote these laws, von Spakovsky has hyped myths and misleading details, claiming that the laws don’t lead to voter disenfranchisement and that they actually speed up the voting process. Additionally, von Spakovsky has also praised blatantly illegal voter suppression tactics.
    While von Spakovsky is often held up as a conservative expert on voting rights, his talking points are incredibly misleading and discredited, and his tactics are shady. His apparent disdain for civil rights and access to justice is supported by more than just his disregard for half a century of progressive voting rights jurisprudence. He has called the modern civil rights movement “indistinguishable” from “segregationists.”
    Von Spakovsky also has been a proponent of forced arbitration clauses, which are when an “employee or consumer is required to waive their right to sue, to participate in a class action lawsuit, or to appeal.” Forced arbitration is terrible for consumers, and according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, gives less consumers eligibility for financial redress than they would have through class-action settlements.
    Gorsuch’s friendly emails to and about von Spakovsky should trigger alarms among those who are worried about voting rights and civil rights in general. If confirmed, Gorsuch would be ruling on many of these issues from the bench. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 68 bills have been introduced in 2017 alone to restrict access to the ballot in 27 states — and Trump’s lies about the election and voter fraud are only paving the way for an even wider assault on voting rights. This is to say nothing of Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who has a record of being incredibly hostile toward civil rights, even calling the Voting Rights Act “intrusive.” If Gorsuch’s correspondence with von Spakovsky is any hint, access to basic rights and liberties may only get worse.

  • Trump signs Executive Order reversing Obama’s ‘Clean Power Plan’ and putting climate change goals in jeopardy

    By: Associated Press

    Power Plant Pollution
    Power Plant Pollution

    Declaring “the start of a new era” in energy production, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would revive the coal industry and create jobs.
    The move makes good on his campaign pledge to unravel former President Barack Obama’s plan to curb global warming. The order seeks to suspend, rescind or flag for review more than a half-dozen measures in an effort to boost domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels.
    Environmental activists, including former Vice President Al Gore, denounced the plan. But Trump said the effort would allow workers to “succeed on a level playing field for the first time in a long time.”
    “That is what this is all about: bringing back our jobs, bringing back our dreams and making America wealthy again,” Trump said, during a ceremony at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters, attended by a number of coal miners.
    The order initiates a review of the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The regulation, which was the former president’s signature effort to curb carbon emissions, has been the subject of long-running legal challenges by Republican-led states and those who profit from burning oil, coal and gas.
    But just as Obama’s climate efforts were often stymied by legal challenges, environmental groups are promising to fight Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda in court.
    Trump has called global warming a “hoax” invented by the Chinese, and has repeatedly criticized the power-plant rule as an attack on American workers and the struggling U.S. coal industry.
    In addition to pulling back from the Clean Power Plan, the administration will also lift a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands.
    The Obama administration had imposed a three-year moratorium on new federal coal leases in January 2016, arguing that the $1 billion-a-year program must be modernized to ensure a fair financial return to taxpayers and address climate change.
    Trump accused his predecessor of waging a “war on coal” and boasted in a speech to Congress that he has made “a historic effort to massively reduce job-crushing regulations,” including some that threaten “the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners.”
    The order will also chip away at other regulations, including scrapping language on the “social cost” of greenhouse gases. It will initiate a review of efforts to reduce the emission of methane in oil and natural gas production as well as a Bureau of Land Management hydraulic fracturing rule, to determine whether those reflect the president’s policy priorities.
    It will also rescind Obama-era executive orders and memoranda, including one that addressed climate change and national security and one that sought to prepare the country for the impacts of climate change.
    The administration is still in discussion about whether it intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
    Trump’s order could make it more difficult, though not impossible, for the U.S. to achieve its carbon reduction goals. The president’s promises to boost coal jobs run counter to market forces, such as U.S. utilities converting coal-fired power plants to cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas.
    Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, alarmed environmental groups and scientists earlier this month when he said he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. The statement is at odds with mainstream scientific consensus and Pruitt’s own agency.
    The overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed studies and climate scientists agree the planet is warming, mostly due to man-made sources, including carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons and nitrogen oxide.
    Opponents say Obama’s effort would have killed coal-mining jobs and driven up electricity costs. The Obama administration, some Democratic-led states and environmental groups counter that it would spur thousands of clean-energy jobs and help the U.S. meet ambitious goals to reduce carbon pollution set by the international agreement signed in Paris.
    Trump’s order on coal-fired power plants follows an executive order he signed last month mandating a review of an Obama-era rule aimed at protecting small streams and wetlands from development and pollution. The order instructs the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to review a rule that redefined “waters of the United States” protected under the Clean Water Act to include smaller creeks and wetlands.
    While Republicans have blamed Obama-era environmental regulations for the loss of coal jobs, federal data shows that U.S. mines have been shedding jobs for decades under presidents from both parties as a result of increasing automation and competition from natural gas, which has become more abundant through hydraulic fracturing. Another factor is the plummeting cost of solar panels and wind turbines, which now can produce emissions-free electricity cheaper than burning coal.
    According to an Energy Department analysis released in January, coal mining now accounts for fewer than 75,000 U.S. jobs. By contrast, renewable energy — including wind, solar and biofuels — now accounts for more than 650,000 U.S. jobs.
    The Trump administration’s plans drew praise from business groups and condemnation from environmental groups.
    U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue praised the president for taking “bold steps to make regulatory relief and energy security a top priority.” “These executive actions are a welcome departure from the previous administration’s strategy of making energy more expensive through costly, job-killing regulations that choked our economy,” he said.
    Former Vice President Al Gore blasted the order as “a misguided step away from a sustainable, carbon-free future for ourselves and generations to come.”
    “It is essential, not only to our planet, but also to our economic future, that the United States continues to serve as a global leader in solving the climate crisis by transitioning to clean energy, a transition that will continue to gain speed due to the increasing competiveness of solar and wind,” he said in a statement.

  • Black Caucus Members Give Mixed Reviews on Meeting With Trump

     

    By Jane Kennedy

    cbc-trump meeting1.jpgCBC meeting with Trump in White House

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Throughout his bid for the White House, then-candidate Donald J. Trump had an annoying habit of treating all African-Americans as a homogeneous group of people living in communities mired in crime, poverty and hopelessness. When asking for Black voters’ support, almost always before a rally crowd in which there were very few people of color, he would ask, “What do you have to lose?”
    Members of the Congressional Black Caucus sought to answer that very question when the group had its first meeting with President Donald J. Trump on March 22. The entire caucus had been invited to the White House but CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) wanted to present a businesslike front and avoid being used as a photo opportunity as many have charged was the case with the HBCU leaders who met with the president earlier this month.
    Therefore, despite the objections of some members, he limited participation to the executive board, which included Representatives Andre Carson (Indiana), Anthony Brown (Maryland), Brenda Lawrence (Michigan), Gwen Moore (Wisconsin), and Karen Bass (California), all Democrats. Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. James Clyburn (South Carolina) also attended the meeting.
    Trump, in his opening remarks, echoed his campaign trail rhetoric. “Throughout my campaign, I pledged to focus on improving conditions for African American citizens. This means more to me than anybody would understand or know,” he said. “Every American child has a right to grow up in a safe community, to attend great schools, to graduate with access to high-paying jobs.” The president added that the U.S. has spent trillions of dollars overseas “while neglecting the fate of American children in cities like Baltimore and Chicago and Detroit.”
    Such statements strike many Black lawmakers and leaders as hypocritical given the adverse impact they believe the White House’s budget proposal would have on African-American communities, as well as views held by several of his cabinet secretaries, most notably Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that threaten to reverse hard-won gains. They also believe that part of Trump’s problem is that he is uninformed and doesn’t have the right people in place to educate him.
    That’s why the group arrived at the White House armed with a 125-page document titled “We Have A Lot to Lose: Solutions to Advance Black Families in the 21st Century.” The tome provides an overview of the CBC “to enlighten the President on the history and diversity of African-Americans”. It also highlights problems related to the caucus’ top priorities, including economic, environmental and criminal justice; health care; and voting rights. Perhaps more important, it offers what the document describes as “bold policy solutions.”
    Richmond told reporters after the meeting that while the president has met with various African Americans, the CBC is the only group of Black elected officials who develop federal policy and can also offer diverse viewpoints.
    “There were many areas where we disagreed with the policy solutions prescribed by his budget, but it was a meeting where both sides listened and where we were very candid about disagreements,” Richmond said. “But the surprising part was that when we talked about the goals, there were more similarities than there were differences. The route to get there is where I think you may see differences and part of that is just education and life experiences.”
    According to Richmond, the president offered to engage regularly with the caucus and agreed to make members of his cabinet available as well as to work on solutions. The CBC members also gave the president letters to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Sessions, written by the Education and Judiciary committees’ ranking Democrats, Reps. John Conyers (Michigan) and Bobby Scott (Virginia) in which they expressed major areas of concern.
    “Each of us handled separate areas. I think it was a positive first start and we’re going to continue to dialogue,” said Rep. Bass.
    Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, who also is the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is less optimistic than some of his fellow CBC members.
    “I think it’s the responsibility of the CBC leadership to try to reach out to the president. I also doubt that, based on his history, he will do anything to help us,” Ellison said. “But still, you’ve got to ask. You don’t want him to be able to say, ‘Well, they never asked.’”
    There were some areas of agreement, Richmond noted, including infrastructure spending, which will create jobs, and enabling all American children opportunities to reach their full potential despite their socio-economic status. The latter is an example of a goal the two sides share, he noted, cautioning more than once that “the question is, do we have the same path to get there?” The president’s approach is more “law and order,” he added, while the CBC is more focused on building ladders of opportunity through initiatives like summer jobs and education.
    Richmond told reporters that the discussion was very candid and the group even shared the objections they received from constituents, members of their own Caucus and others to the meeting with Trump because of his campaign rhetoric that frequently offended them, and policies that give more to the rich than the poor.
    “We never thought we’d agree on everything at this meeting, but the one thing we did ask was for both sides to be candid so that we could represent our constituents to the best of our ability,” the Louisiana lawmaker said. “Trump listened and we talked, and we proposed a lot of solutions, many of which I think he had not heard before. We’re going to keep advocating. Where we agree, we will agree; where we disagree we will fight with the passion that this caucus has had since 1971 when our first meeting was with President Nixon. We’re not called the conscience of the Congress for nothing.”

  • Bingo funds distribution $265,680 for Feb. 2017

    Bingo.jpgShown above Bingo Clerk Minnie Byrd, Paul Bird CFO of the Commission, Forkland City Councilman Joe Lewis Tuck, Union City Councilman, Rosie Davis, Bingo Clerk, Emma Jackson, Cynthia McKinnon representing the Sheriff Department and Boligee Mayor Louis Harper.

     

     

    On Friday, March 17, 2017, Greene County Sheriff Department distributed $265.680.22 in monthly bingo allocations from the four licensed gaming operations in the county.
    The recipients of the monthly distributions from bingo gaming designated by Sheriff Jonathan Benison in his Bingo Rules and Regulations include the Greene County Commission, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, the cities of Eutaw, Forkland, Union and Boligee and the Greene County Board of Education. Assessments are for the month of February 2017.
    Greenetrack, Inc. gave a total of $85,680.22 to the following: Greene County Commission, $34,272.09; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $12,852.05; City of Eutaw, $6,426.00; Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $4,284.01; Greene County Board of Education, $19.278.05.

    Green Charity (Center for Rural Family Development) gave a total of $60,000 to the following: Greene County Commission, $24,090; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $9,000; City of Eutaw, $4,500; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,000; Greene County Board of Education, $13,500.
    Frontier (Dream, Inc.) gave a total of $60,000 to the following: Greene County Commission, $24,000; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $9,000; City of Eutaw, $4,500; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,000; Greene County Board of Education, $13,500.
    River’s Edge (TennTom Community Outreach) gave a total of $60,000 to the following: Greene County Commission, $24,000; Greene County Sheriff’s Department, $9,000; City of Eutaw, $4,500; and the Towns of Forkland, Union and Boligee each, $3,000; Greene County Board of Education, $13,500.

     

  • ALEA expands hours at Eutaw Driver License Office

    MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) is expanding hours of operation at the Eutaw Driver License Examining Office and eight other field offices in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation to better serve Alabama and make services more convenient for citizens who live in outlying areas.
    “Beginning Monday, March 20, our Driver License Division will operate its Eutaw office from 8 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. each Tuesday,” Secretary of Law Enforcement Stan Stabler said. “Combined with the expanded hours of operation at eight other outlying offices, we will offer 26 additional days each month of service to our citizens.”
    The Eutaw office is at Greene County Courthouse, 400 Morrow Avenue.
    The SOS Coalition for Justice and Democracy sponsored a caravan last fall to all of the driver’s license offices closed in the Black Belt region. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a successful complaint with the U. S. Department of Transportation closing these offices in rural African-American majority counties.
    An Alabama Drivers License is a critical state authorized photo identification card needed to be able to vote. Without a valid Alabama license voters have to secure a special voter registration ID, which is available from the Voter Registrar’s office. SOS and other civil rights and social justice organizations in the state protested the closure of the driver’s license offices because it made it more difficult for voters to secure the necessary photo ID to be able to vote.
    The other eight locations are in Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Perry and Wilcox counties. Depending on size of town or city and demand, office hours vary from one day each week to three days each month.
    • Centreville (Bibb): 8 a.m.-noon and 12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. the first and third Thursday
    • Union Springs (Bullock): 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. each Thursday
    • Greenville (Butler): 8 a.m.-noon and 1-4:30 p.m. each Monday
    • Greensboro (Hale): 8 a.m.-noon and 12:30-2:30 p.m. each Thursday
    • Hayneville (Lowndes): 8 a.m.-noon and 12:30-4:30 p.m. each Wednesday
    • Tuskegee (Macon): 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. each Tuesday and Wednesday
    • Marion (Perry): 8 a.m.-noon and 12:30-2:30 p.m. each Tuesday
    • Camden (Wilcox): 8 a.m.-noon and 12:30-2:30 p.m. the first, second and third Tuesday ALEA makes every effort to meet the needs of the state’s citizens. In October 2015, the agency reduced operating hours in 31 outlying Driver License Offices because of limited funding. ALEA adjusted operations in November 2016 and expanded services in seven locations, including Troy, Livingston, Rockford and Butler.