Greene County Democrat

Category: General News

  • Newswire : Plans to shutter Education Department add to Financial Aid Confusion

    Black couple reviewing bills.

    by Charlene Crowell


    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – The chaos and confusion resulting from systemic changes and closures at multiple federal agencies have now reached the $242 billion budget of the Department of Education. With the agency’s workforce cut in half, and plans announced to shut it down, millions of students and families who rely on federal financial aid for higher education are facing a front-line assault.
     
    State attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit challenging the agency’s gutting. According to the AGs, the department is a congressionally authorized executive agency with laws creating its various programs and funding streams. As such, the Executive Branch lacks the legal authority to unilaterally incapacitate or dismantle it without an act of Congress.
     
    “The administration’s lay-off is so massive that ED will be incapacitated and unable to perform essential functions,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.  “As the lawsuit asserts, the administration’s actions will deprive students with special needs of critical resources and support. They will gut ED’s Office of Civil Rights, which protects students from discrimination and sexual assault. They would additionally hamstring the processing of financial aid, raising costs for college and university students who will have a harder time accessing loans, Pell Grants, and work study programs.”
     
    “This administration may claim to be stopping waste and fraud, but it is clear that their only mission is to take away the necessary services, resources, and funding that students and their families need,” said New York Attorney General Leticia James.
     
    While it is encouraging for state attorneys general to file legal challenges against administration actions, and education advocates to raise their voices and influence to thwart these changes, every day that passes without direct relief makes borrowers’ financial challenges harder and more difficult to resolve.
     
    For example, even before legislation was enacted to avert a government shutdown in March, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted the popular Pell Grant program that over six million students rely upon faced a $2.7 billion funding shortfall this year. Pell Grants, the single largest source of post-secondary education grants provided $31 billion in aid with approximately 6.5 million undergraduate students in FY2023.
     
    Without additional funding, the grant shortfall is expected to balloon to $10 billion in 2026. Currently, the maximum annual award per eligible student in the formula-based program is $7,395. Most Pell recipients come from families whose total income is $60,540 or less.
     
    It is relevant to note that the new round of cuts to the Pell Grant program are not the first time that significant changes have been made. Instead, the new changes come in addition to others never restored. For example, in the aftermath of the Great Recession in FYs 2011 and 2012, the option for “year-round” Pell, which helped students make continuous progress toward their credentials was eliminated. That same action also cut the number of lifetime semesters a student can receive Pell Grants from 18 to 12 semesters and remains unchanged.
     
    In response to CBO’s disturbing report, a coalition of over 100 higher education organizations signed a February letter appealing to committee chairs and ranking members in both the Senate and the House to act with dispatch. Its signatories included an array of organizations such as: the American Association of University Women, Center for Law & Social Policy, Georgetown University Center on Education & the Workforce, NAACP, National Education Association, National Consumer Law Center, Student Borrower Protection Center, and the United Negro College Fund.
     
    “If additional funding is not added to the Pell Grant program very soon, students could face eligibility or award cuts for the first time in more than a decade,” wrote the educators. “Students cannot afford such cuts during a time of rising living costs, and our economy cannot afford to have students lose access to the education and training they need to succeed in the labor market. The maximum Pell Grant already covers the lowest share of college costs in the program’s history, contributing to a persistent “affordability gap” that forces low- and middle-income students to either take out loans or forgo higher education and training entirely.” 
     
    And speaking of loans – borrowers understand that when it takes longer to repay principal owed, interest fees rise as well. Further, fixed interest rates on graduate student loans come at a higher price than those for undergraduate loans. New federal direct loans disbursed between July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025 carry 6.53 percent fixed interest rates for undergraduate loans, but an 8.08 percent rate for graduate and professional loans. 
     
    In other words, higher education comes with higher costs. And the longer loan repayment takes, the higher and harder it becomes to fully repay them.
     
    Today, many borrowers currently enrolled in affordable, income-based repayment options have been frustrated by a lack of online access to complete mandatory income recertification. Without that timely access, spikes in monthly payments ensue.  As recently reported by Forbes, “This effectively keeps millions of student loan borrowers who had enrolled in SAVE stuck in a forbearance. The forbearance pauses payments and sets interest to zero, but the period does not count toward student loan forgiveness, including for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF – a popular program for borrowers working in nonprofit or government settings.”
     
    “For many of us, student loans were supposed to be a path forward, not something that holds us back,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. “We need leaders that prioritize policies that put working people first.”
     
    Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org” data linkindex=”10″>Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

  • Newswire : Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech ignites a Democratic base ‘desperate’ for a fighter

    Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks on the Senate floor on Tuesday.NBC News

    By Sahil Kapur, Frank Thorp V, Julie Tsirkin, Kate Santaliz and Syedah Asghar
    NBC News

    WASHINGTON — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., wanted to do something extraordinary. He knew Democratic voters were desperate for it.
    So he took to the Senate floor with little fanfare and went on to deliver a marathon speech — excoriating the Trump administration for lawlessness and undermining American values and in the process breaking the record for longest Senate speech ever, yielding last Tuesday after 25 hours and 5 minutes.
    It was a cathartic moment for a vast swath of demoralized voters across the country, who tuned in amid hunger for some action by the opposition party beyond the traditions of business as usual.And for a Democratic Party that has been lost in the wilderness since its bruising defeat to Donald Trump last fall, it offered a rare moment of hope to pursue what may be its only chance of slowing Trump down: inspiring a mass popular uprising against him.
    “There’s a lot of people out there asking Democrats to do more and to take risks and do things differently,” an exhausted Booker told reporters after he walked off the floor. “This seemed like the right thing to do. And from what my staff is telling me, a lot of people watched. And so we’ll see what it is. I just think a lot of us have to do a lot more, including myself.”
    Throughout Tuesday afternoon, Booker was trending across social media, including on TikTok, BlueSky and even Elon Musk’s X. 
    The speech got over 350 million “likes” on Booker’s TikTok livestream of his remarks, according to his office, including more than 300,000 people viewing them across his platform at once. It included over 200 stories from New Jerseyans and Americans. And it drew over 28,000 voicemails of encouragement on Booker’s office phone line, along with public accolades from Democratic luminaries like former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker.
    “Rank-and-file Dems are desperate for leadership and fighters,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of the progressive organization Indivisible, which has accused Democrats of being too passive against Trump.
    Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Booker taught Democrats a lesson. “He made the Senate relevant, and he captured the moment where people were focused on the why we have to push back and stand up against Trump, as opposed to the tactical day-to-day slog,” he said. “It was very inspirational .”Yet despite the reaction, Booker’s speech won’t end Trump’s attempts to dismantle the federal government or halt his agenda of tax cuts and mass deportations from barreling through the Republican-controlled Congress. The only specific Senate business it disrupted were votes on a resolution involving Trump’s tariffs and his nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to NATO. 
    After Booker finished, the GOP moved toward a vote on that nominee, Matthew Whitaker, prompting some outside liberals to say Democrats should treat it like an abnormal moment and object.
    Democratic strategist Mike Nellis said that Booker’s move recognizes the political currency of the modern era and that Democrats can take a page from his playbook.
    “Cynics are going to call Booker’s speech a stunt. Maybe—but stunts aren’t necessarily a bad thing. The name of the game is attention,” he wrote on X. “Trump and Musk are very good at it. Democrats have struggled to take these kinds of risks to our own peril—but Cory is paving the way forward.”
    Adam Jentleson, a former senior Senate Democratic aide, said Booker marshaled the chamber’s arcane rules to great effect, posting on X that “in today’s fractured media environment, Booker single handedly drove the narrative.”
    He added that Democrats have more tools at their disposal to build on that, if they unify: “As a thought experiment, imagine what a coordinated, caucus-wide talking filibuster against, say, a GOP funding bill that cuts popular social safety net programs would look like — as opposed to just voting it down at a 60-vote threshold?”
    Booker’s preparation included 1,164 pages of material — and some unusual physical techniques to brace his body, which couldn’t sit or go to the bathroom for the entire session. A spokesperson said Booker didn’t wear a catheter or a diaper.
    And Booker managed to remain on message for the duration of his remarks, albeit with help from Democratic colleagues who joined to ask him questions. While senators before him had gone off topic during long floor remarks — like Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who read the book “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss during a 21-hour speech protesting Obamacare in 2013 — Booker stayed focused on highlighting what he perceived to be the negative impacts of the Trump administration’s policies.
    “I fasted for days into it. I stopped drinking water a long time ago. I think that had good and bad benefits. I definitely started cramping up from lack of water,” he said. “So there’s just a lot of tactics I was using to try to make sure that I could stand for that long.”
    “I really spent time dehydrating myself beforehand so I did not have to go to the bathroom,” he said.
    Inside the packed chamber, Booker got a standing ovation when he crossed Strom Thurmond’s record of 24 hours and 18 minutes. It was a deeply symbolic moment for Booker, who is African American, to end a record held for nearly 70 years by a man who was a symbol of segregation politics and was fighting at the time to kill the Civil Rights Act in 1957.
    “To be candid, Strom Thurmond’s record always kind of just really irked me — that he would be the longest speech, that the longest speech on our great Senate floor was someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate,” Booker told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night. “So to surpass that was something I didn’t know if we could do, but it was something that was really, once we got closer, became more and more important to me.”
    NAACP President Derrick Johnson thanked Booker “for demonstrating true courage in the face of hatred.”
    “Despite Trump’s attempts to silence the voices, contributions, and history of Black people, a Black man just made history tonight in protest of Trump himself,” he said in a statement.
    Yet Booker was the first to insist his speech can’t be the end. “My constituents — the letters, the calls — the demands were definitely an ignition point for me,” he said. “But we have got to continue to ignite this movement.”

  • Newswire : Trump slaps highest tariff yet on small southern African nation of Lesotho

    By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

     

    President Donald Trump has announced sweeping new tariffs on dozens of nations, including a record-setting 50% reciprocal tariff on the tiny southern African mountain kingdom of Lesotho — the highest levy imposed on any sovereign country by the United States.
    Trump’s move targets at least 60 countries with duties starting at 10%, with Lesotho and other African nations bearing some of the heaviest hits. The White House said the tariffs are aimed at addressing what it described as long-standing trade imbalances that hurt American manufacturers. In the case of Lesotho, the administration cited a 99% tariff on U.S. goods and a $264 million trade surplus in the kingdom’s favor as justification for the steep penalty. Lesotho, which exports diamonds and apparel to the U.S., imported only $8 million in American goods in 2022, according to the Tralac Trade Law Centre in South Africa.
    The U.S. government’s action also appears to signal the impending death of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a landmark trade deal from the Clinton administration that allowed duty-free access to the U.S. market for many African exports. The pact will expire in September, but trade experts say the tariffs effectively end AGOA months ahead of schedule. “The reciprocal trade announcement policy will pull the AGOA rug from under our feet,” said Adrian Saville, an economist and professor at South Africa’s Gordon Institute of Business Science. “That will be gone. It will replace AGOA; you don’t have to wait for September.”
    Other African nations are also reeling. Madagascar faces a 47% tariff, Mauritius 40%, Botswana 37%, and South Africa — the continent’s largest exporter to the U.S. — 30%. For several of these countries, the tariffs could not come at a worse time as they struggle with severe poverty, natural disasters, or public health crises. Lesotho, for example, has one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS infection rates and relies on South Africa for 85% of its imports.
    “African countries are being penalized for having trade surpluses, some of them achieved by pursuing export-driven development policies, as advised by the U.S.,” Bloomberg Africa economist Yvonne Mhango wrote. “Lesotho exports apparel to the U.S., a product that until recently enjoyed duty-free access and helped create jobs for the youth that migrates in large numbers to neighboring South Africa.
    One of Trump’s arguments for these tariffs is to bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Slapping high tariffs on Africa is not going to help this narrative.” Lesotho now joins Saint Pierre and Miquelon — a French archipelago off the coast of Canada — as the only other territory to face a 50% reciprocal tariff from the Trump administration. While acknowledging the setback, the South African presidency said the tariffs make it even more important to reach a new agreement with the U.S. “The tariffs affirm the urgency to negotiate a new bilateral and mutually beneficial trade agreement with the U.S., as an essential step to secure long-term trade certainty,” the South African government said in a statement.

  • Newswire : U.S. Parks Service appears to have restored Harriett Tubman texts on it’s website

    By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

     

    After significant public backlash, the U.S. National Park Service has now appeared to restore its original webpage on the history of the Underground Railroad after it was met with backlash for deleting a prominently featured photo of abolitionist and women’s suffragist Harriet Tubman, as well as segments of text describing the horrors of slavery.
    Part of the restored text describes the 18th- and 19th-century Underground Railroad as “efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage.” Tubman was one of the system’s best-known “conductors.” Earlier, a photograph of Harriet Tubman was removed from a webpage about the Underground Railroad. Previously, the page opened with a photo of Tubman and a description that acknowledged slavery and the efforts of enslaved African Americans to escape bondage. That language is now gone.
    The change followed an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month directing the Smithsonian Institution to eliminate “divisive narratives.” A review by The Washington Post found that since Trump’s return to office, dozens of webpages across the National Park Service have been edited to soften or eliminate references to slavery, racial injustice, and the historical struggles of African Americans.
    On the website for the Stone National Historic Site in Maryland, mentions of Declaration of Independence signer Thomas Stone owning enslaved people were removed. Elsewhere, references to “enslaved African Americans” were changed to “enslaved workers.” A page exploring Benjamin Franklin’s views on slavery and his slave ownership was taken offline. Those references were still missing despite the restoration of Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
    The Defense Department also removed several webpages related to diversity and minority contributions to the U.S. military, including a tribute to Jackie Robinson’s Army service and content honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, and the Marines at Iwo Jima. Officials later said some content would be republished after public outcry.
    Nearly 400 books were removed from the library at the U.S. Naval Academy. The list includes Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Memorializing the Holocaust, Half American, and Pursuing Trayvon Martin. Officials cited Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s directive to eliminate books that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

  • Newswire : The Black Economy

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Corespondent

    “We are in the midst of a storm,” according to Allan Boomer, Chief Investment Advisor for Momentum Advisors, who discusses Black Americans wallets amid this downward economic spiral created by President Donald Trump. The president’s economics include the proposed 10-year budget, massive tariffs, and the firing of federal workers. The stock market and global markets are shaking because the U.S. has implemented tariffs on imports to this country. The expectation is that the costs will be transferred to consumers. There’s been no rhyme or reason for each country’s percentage of tariffs it’s receiving for imported goods to the U.S.
    The National Urban League, an economic rights organization, urges people to “resist” and fight against these drastic financial shifts. Marc Morial, the President and CEO of the organization believes federal government firings will create” an impending slowdown [that] will drive Black unemployment up.”  18 to 19% of all government employees identify as Black or African American.
    Morial also added, “DOGE is a disaster for Black people” as it “targets those agencies that have invested in the most vulnerable- the Department of Education, Minority Business Development Agency, National Institutes of Health, and Veterans Affairs.” Another concern of the president’s economic plan is his budget.
    Reverend William Barber, founder of Repairers of the Breach, calculated, “60% of Black people in this country are poor and are low wealth” and will be severely impacted by the president’s budget that cuts out money in Medicare and Medicaid.
    Barber emphasized, “Eight hundred eighty billion dollars would be cut from Medicaid for the 10-year plan. It would cut 36 million people from Medicaid, impacting more than 6 million Black people.” Barber says the president’s proposed 10-year budget is just as “dangerous and it’s deadly” as “800 people die a day from poverty.”
    “Black people need to be in the budget battle,” says Barber, amid financial concerns for Black wallets, Boomer says consumers should “take a hard look at your spending. Are there areas where you could make cuts? Now is the time to increase your savings and to put cash aside to make more investments. “

     

     

  • ‘An important step towards reconciliation’ Carencro, Louisiana historical marker acknowledges history of lynchings, racial injustice 

    Ola Prejean, right, president of Move the Mindset, unveils a historical marker memorializing lynching victims Louis Senegal and Antoine Domingue on Saturday at the Carencro Welcome Center during a dedication ceremony.  Staff Photo by Brad Kemp

    One side of the historical marker is seen Saturday during the historical marker dedication ceremony memorializing lynching victims Louis Senegal and Antoine Domingue at the Carencro Welcome Center.  Staff Photo by Brad Kemp

    Editors Note: The Greene County Democrat is reprinting this story from the Acadiana Advocate, Lafayette, Louisiana because it is about the work of the ‘Move the Mindset’ organization to recognize the Black people, who were victims of lynching in the Jim Crow South. This work is being done in cooperation with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) of Montgomery, Alabama. Ola Prejean, President of Move the Mindset is the widow of Fredrick Prejean, brother of Carol Prejean Zippert, Co-Publisher.
    By Angeline Matthews, Contributing Writer, Acadiana Advocate,
    March 30, 2025
    On Saturday, Move the Mindset, a civil rights organization dedicated to promoting racial and social justice, held a ceremony for the installation of a historical marker honoring the lives of two Black men who died by lynching in 1896 and 1906. The marker recognizes the unjust destiny faced by Antoine Domingue and Louis Senegal and offers details about the history of lynching in America. 

    Domingue, described as peaceable, was attacked and killed on Nov. 24, 1906, by “whitecappers,” bands of poor White farmers who saw Black farmers as economic competition. According to historical accounts, they monitored Carencro roads, waiting for Black travelers to fall into their traps. Local law enforcement was aware of the crimes they committed but never intervened, according to accounts. 

    Domingue and two other Black men were making their way home when they were attacked. The two other men escaped, but Domingue was beaten repeatedly. Knocked off his buggy, he fled to his home to retrieve a gun. He returned to the scene and was shot and hanged.

    Six White men were arrested and charged, causing other Whites to protest the arrests. After each man was released on $300 bond, the case dissipated.

    On March 24, 1896, Louis Senegal, also referred to as Louis Sinclair in some records, was accused of assaulting Louise Martin, a White woman. While awaiting trial in jail, a mob of 500 masked White men overpowered the guard watching Senegal and “the prisoner was no doubt lynched, but no trace of him can be found anywhere,” according to an archive of The Times-Democrat, a New Orleans-based newspaper. 

    Neither Domingue not Senegal’s murderers faced prison time or other legal repercussions for their actions. 

    This is why almost 130 years after the murders, Ola Prejean, president of Move the Mindset, believes a marker honoring the two men is long overdue. An installation ceremony took place in the Carencro Welcome Center, a quaint building already filled with rich history ,that now holds two jars of soil honoring Domingue and Senegal. Carencro is a small rural town, five miles west of Lafayette, Louisiana.

    With a much larger audience than expected on Saturday, people poured outside the doors of the welcome center, onto the lawn and into the street. As the lyrics of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” played, the sun shone, and the rain was delayed. 

    “For the marker to be officially unveiled, I don’t have words,” Prejean said. “My late husband started this organization, and even though he’s not physically here to see it, I know he’s here.” 

    This historical marker installation is part of an ongoing effort to commemorate victims of racial violence and encourage conversations about justice and racial reconciliation led by the Equal Justice Initiative,
    Based in Montgomery, Alabama. EJI has a memorial in Montgomery to the more than 4,000 Black people lynched in the South, during the Jim Crow period. They are also promoting memorials in the places where the lynchings occurred.

    “It’s necessary to acknowledge history to move forward,” said Stepanie Wylie, an EJI staff attorney. “Facing what happened openly and honestly is an important step towards reconciliation because we can’t move forward without this history. It also represents a commitment that this kind of violence is not forgotten and to ensure it never happens again.” 

    A part of the ceremony was recognizing submissions to the “Reflections on What the History of Racial Injustice in Lafayette Parish and America Means to Me” literary contest, encouraging Carencro students to express their feelings on the past and future of equality. 

    In third place was Israel Rhodes, a 10th grade student who wrote an essay titled, “Understanding Racial Injustice.” His essay tackled religion’s role in permitting slavery, with Bible passages being misunderstood to condone the mistreatment of Africans. He noted how discrimination shows itself in resources, education and opportunities. 

    TyRiana Williams, second-place winner and a senior at Carencro High, wrote a poem about being from Lafayette but knowing its dark history with racial injustice. She ends her poem with “for justice must rise like the morning sun until every name is remembered as one,” a reminder to listeners that the effort to honor those who died unjustly is never over. 

    Alexandra Alfred, a Carencro High senior, won first place with her powerful piece highlighting Black stereotypes and how they morph one’s sense of self-worth. She mentions cornrows, a popular hairstyle once used to help slaves escape plantations and streets named after slave masters that never wanted to see Black people prosper. 

    “My mom encouraged me to do the competition, and at the same time in U.S history class we talked about lynching,” Williams said. “I wanted people to know that it isn’t all about us getting discriminated against; we’re more than that.” 

    After students read their pieces, Prejean removed the cloth covering the marker, revealing a bright, blue monument with distinct gold lettering. 
    “I think it’s important for the community to be able to say, ‘It’s OK for us to learn about our past.’ We don’t need to keep it buried,” Prejean said. “It heals people when we bring these topics to light.”

  • Picket Line and Rally against Trump Administration to be held Saturday, April 5th at Eutaw Post Office, 10:00 AM to Noon

    You are invited to a Picket Line and Rally, this Saturday, April 5, 2025, at the Eutaw Post Office, 227 Prairie Avenue. This is a protest against the polices and actions of the Trump Administration, during its first 75 days in office.
    This public witness of dissatisfaction with Trump-Vance-Musk, at a Federal building in Eutaw, Alabama, is open to anyone who is angry, frustrated and feels betrayed by our national government.
    This Greene County demonstration is part of a larger national and international “Hands Off Our Democracy” protest going on in hundreds of places across America and the world this Saturday, April 5, 2025.
    This is a grassroots response to the power-grab by millionaires and billionaires, like Trump, Vance, Musk and their MAGA supporters, of our Constitutional rights, benefit programs and ultimately of our democracy.
    In recent weeks, the Trump-Vance-Musk regime has unfairly fired thousands of needed Federal workers; unlawfully closed whole agencies and departments, USAID, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Department of Education and others; suspended and questioned contracts with CBO’s because they are implementing policies of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

    Trump and his associates are also trying to cut Federal programs – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, National Parks, Smithsonian Museums, SNAP (food stamps), WIC, Food Banks, school lunches and post offices serving working and poor people. Many of these actions have been taken to provide funding for tax cuts to the top 1% of wealthy people in our country, who do not need tax cuts and should be paying their fair share.

    Trump is also working to take your voting rights; women’s reproductive rights; deporting hundreds of immigrants, who are our neighbors; changing foreign policy to abandon Canada, Mexico and Europe for an alliance with Putin, the Russian dictator; abandoning climate change and environmental justice; and trying to eliminate our Constitution and end our Democracy.

    If you are affected and displeased with any of these policies and unlawful actions, come and join us on Saturday morning, at the Eutaw Post Office and let people see that we are resisting and protesting the Trump-Vance-Musk Administration. This is your chance to show your opposition to the things Trump and his MAGA supporters are doing to America. This is your chance to show that small rural communities, as well as big cities, do not support and want to reverse the policies, cutbacks and unjustifiable and unlawful policies of the Trump Administration.

    This protest is open to all that oppose and want to resist Trump-Vance-Musk. Bring your own handmade sign, protesting the parts of the Trump agenda you most disagree with. Sign up for future actions and protests.

    For more information, contact the Publishers of the Greene County Democrat at 205-372-3373 or by 205-657-0273.

  • Newswire : AARP pushes back as Social Security Administration slashes services and staff

    By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

    The Social Security Administration (SSA) is moving forward with a sweeping overhaul of its operations, including plans to slash its workforce by 12 percent, shut down six regional field offices, and eliminate key phone services—changes that have sparked fierce opposition from AARP and alarmed millions of older Americans.
    Beginning March 31, the SSA will require that individuals applying for or managing their Social Security benefits confirm their identity online or in person at a local office, effectively ending the ability to complete specific critical tasks by phone. The new rule impacts retirement, disability, and other benefit applications and alters how individuals change their direct deposit information. Acting SSA Commissioner Lee Dudek said the move is designed to combat a surge in fraud, stating, “Social Security is losing over $100 million a year to direct-deposit fraud.”
    However, the shift has drawn sharp criticism from AARP, which represents more than 100 million Americans over age 50. In a March 19 letter to Dudek, AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond wrote that requiring in-person verification or internet access will create “undue hardship” for millions, particularly those in rural areas, without reliable transportation, or who lack internet access.
    She called on the SSA to immediately reverse a “rash decision.” “It is outrageous that under this new policy, older Americans will have to call, wait on hold for possibly hours, make an appointment, or even take a day off work to claim the benefits they have earned,” LeaMond wrote. “There is nothing ‘efficient’ about creating more confusion and disrupting the lives of millions of hardworking American taxpayers with such short notice and no input from the public”.
    LeaMond and AARP argue that this change—announced only two weeks before implementation—compounds an existing customer service crisis. SSA is already plagued by long phone wait times, with more than half of callers reportedly hanging up before reaching a representative. Those who do get through often face callback delays of two hours or more. The SSA’s restructuring plan includes cutting its workforce from 57,000 to 50,000 and reducing its number of field offices from 10 to just four. AARP says these actions will worsen already deteriorating services. “Older Americans have paid into and earned their Social Security after a lifetime of hard work—not just their checks, but top-notch customer service as well,” LeaMond wrote.
    The organization has sent letters to both chambers of Congress, urging immediate oversight. In letters dated March 24 to the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee, LeaMond asked lawmakers to hold hearings and intervene to stop the changes before they cause what she termed “serious harm”. “These abrupt changes, made with no public input or adequate notice, will force many Americans—especially those in rural areas or without internet access—to wait on hold for hours, make appointments, or take time off work simply to access their earned benefits,” she wrote. “This is unacceptable.”
    AARP has mobilized its vast membership in response, with over a million emails and calls to Congress in the past few weeks. The group has adopted what it describes as an “all-hands-on-deck” strategy, engaging directly with SSA leadership, educating lawmakers, and urging the public to act. John Hishta, AARP’s senior vice president of campaigns, said the organization is determined to protect Social Security for current and future generations. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that older Americans continue to see no disruption in their payments and receive the information they need to stay informed and take action on changes at SSA,” he said.
    AARP warned that the SSA’s abrupt changes could also heighten the risk of fraud. “While this was announced to combat fraud, we are concerned this will have the opposite effect,” LeaMond wrote in her letter to Dudek. Without a proper education campaign, scammers may exploit the confusion, using fake verification processes to steal personal data and drain bank accounts. The SSA has not publicly detailed how it plans to mitigate the risk of fraud or assist those unable to verify their identity online or reach a field office. AARP is calling on Congress to act before the March 31 implementation date, urging lawmakers to ensure that changes to Social Security service delivery come with transparency, sufficient notice, and public engagement. “We urge the agency to reverse this decision, or for Congress to step in and stand up for older Americans everywhere,” LeaMond said.

  • Newswire : Federal judge: Alabama can’t prosecute citizens who help women get out-of-state abortions

    By Jacob Holmes, Alabama Political Reporters
    U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled Monday evening that the State of Alabama cannot prosecute groups or individuals who help Alabama women travel to get a legal abortion out of state.
    Attorney General Steve Marshall had threatened to prosecute such groups on the grounds that abortion is outlawed in the state, and that groups helping women to get abortions out of state were therefore complicit in a crime.
    In a declaration of summary judgment on behalf of the plaintiffs, Thompson said applying that same argument to other circumstances reveals its flaws. “For example, the Alabama Attorney General would have within his reach the authority to prosecute Alabamians planning a Las Vegas bachelor party, complete with casino-style gambling, since casino-style gambling is outlawed in Alabama,” Thompson wrote.
    Yellowhammer Fund, an Alabama abortion fund, alleged that the Attorney General’s threats of prosecution were preventing it from providing support to pregnant Alabamians who seek legal care across state lines and therefore sued the Attorney General in July 2023.
    “Today is a good day for pregnant Alabamians who need lawful out-of-state abortion care, “said Jenice Fountain, Executive Director of Yellowhammer Fund. “The efforts of Alabama’s attorney general to isolate pregnant people from their communities and support systems has failed.”
    Marshall had publicly considered the possibility of prosecuting individuals who provide assistance to women seeking abortions, but the state has not charged anybody with such a crime.

  • Newswire : Congressional Black Caucus sounds alarm to protect SNAP benefits

    CBC members hold press conference on Capitol steps to counter SNAP cuts

    By Lauren Burke, NNPA Newswire
    During a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on March 25, members of the Congressional Black Caucus spoke out with concern about budgetary threats to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). CBC Chair Yvette Clarke spoke of “grave concerns” about the “Republican scheme to cut billions of dollars to cut SNAP benefits that help millions of American families.”
    “Twenty percent of Black households have faced food insecurity compared to 7 percent of their white counterparts. Forty-two percent of all SNAP recipients are children. In fact, 4 in 5 SNAP households include a child, an elder, or an individual with a disability,” the CBC Chair added. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as the Food Stamp Program began during the Great Depression but has changed significantly over time. In 2008, the Food Stamp Program was renamed SNAP. The 1980s saw budget cuts and stricter eligibility requirements under President Ronald Reagan. In the 1990s, a welfare reform push under President Bill Clinton led to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. That legislation mandated work requirements and restrictions on certain groups such as non-citizens.
    Today with a push towards billions in cuts by President Trump and continuous talk of cuts to social programs by Elon Musk, Republicans in the U.S. House have been positioning to cut programs to free the budget up for a tax cut focused on the top 1 percent in the U.S. “It is outrageous that Republicans have spent all their time working to dismantle the social safety net including SNAP,” Rep. Clarke said outside of the Capitol today. “SNAP is not a handout, it is a lifeline,” she added.
    One of the lead members of the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA). “SNAP’s effects go beyond just the people in need — it’s also the farmers and the businesses that provide the food,” Rep. Bishop said standing in front of ten of his colleagues as tourists and school groups listened nearby. If there are big cuts to SNAP, “over 285,000 jobs would be at risk” Rep. Bishop pointed out. “Real people are going to be hurt if the $230 billion in SNAP cuts are forced upon the American people,”
    Rep. Bishop added. In 2023, approximately 36.8 million people in the U.S. were living in poverty, representing an official poverty rate of 11.1%. This figure reflects a slight decrease from the previous year’s rate of 11.5%, equating to about 37.9 million individuals in poverty in 2022.