The Greene County Democrat

Category: Health

  • Newswire : Jane Goodall, iconic wildlife conservationist, has died at age 91

    Jane Woodall with chimps

    By N’dea Yancey Bragg and Kieth Matheny, USA Today

     

    Legendary chimpanzee researcher, Jane Goodall,  has died, the conservation organization she founded announced on Oct. 1.
    Goodall, 91, died due to natural causes while she was in California on a cross-country speaking tour, according to The Jane Goodall Institute.
    “Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” the institute said in a statement on social media.
    The British ethologist – a scientist who studies animal behavior within their habitat – had no formal training when she embarked on a study of chimpanzees in what would become Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, Africa, in the early 1960s. She skyrocketed to fame thanks in part to a National Geographic documentary about her fieldwork and used her science celebrity status to advance conservation efforts for chimpanzees and other endangered species through her eponymous foundation.
    “I passionately care about the natural world of which we are a part and which we depend. I love it,” Goodall told USA Today in 2021 . “I passionately care about animals. I want to fight the fact that many are becoming extinct, and I want to fight the cruelty.”
    Who was Jane Goodall?
    Born in London, England, in 1934, Goodall had a fascination with animals from a young age. In 1957, she traveled to Kenya where she met Louis Leakey, a Kenyan and British paleontologist and archaeologist whose fossil digs ultimately helped establish that humans evolved in Africa.
    Goodall became his secretary and eventually joined him on a field expedition studying chimpanzees on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in what is now Gombe National Park in Tanzania, East Africa.
    There she observed chimpanzees using grass stems to pull termites out of their mounds for food, which shattered the mainstream scientific belief that only humans made and used tools and is “considered one of the greatest achievements of twentieth-century scholarship,” according to the Jane Goodall Institute.
    The National Geographic Society funded more of Goodall’s chimpanzee research and sent along cameraman, Hugo van Lawick, to document her efforts. Goodall and van Lawick later married in March 1964, and the documentary, “Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees,” released in 1965, attracted an estimated 25 million viewers in North America upon its first broadcast on CBS.
    The couple had one son, Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick, known as “Grub,” and divorced in 1974. In 1975, she married Derek Bryceson, who died in 1980.
    Goodall, a United Nations Messenger of Peace, was appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 2003 and awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025.
    Goodall “worked tirelessly for our planet and all its inhabitants, leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity and nature,” the United Nations said in a post on social media mourning her death.

  • Newswire : Minority-Owned Businesses shut out as loan denials soar

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

     

    The doors of opportunity remain locked for too many. A new LendingTree analysis reveals that Black-owned businesses faced the highest rejection rate for financing in 2024, with 39% denied loans, lines of credit, or merchant cash advances. Hispanic-owned businesses followed at 29%. By contrast, just 18% of white-owned businesses were turned away.

    The figures draw a map of inequality, where capital flows freely to some and is dammed up for others. The report shows that one in five businesses overall—21%—were denied financing last year, a number nearly unchanged from 2023. But beneath that flat surface lies a story of disparity: while white-owned companies hit roadblocks less often, Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs carried the brunt of rejection. Size and age also stacked the deck. Firms with just one to four employees were denied 26% of the time, five times the rate of larger firms. Startups fared poorly, but even businesses with three to five years under their belts faced the highest denial rate, at 29%. By loan type, SBA loans and lines of credit proved the hardest to secure, with nearly half—45%—rejected.
    The reasons mirror a harsh economy. High interest rates, inflation, and an unsteady job market have made banks wary. Community development financial institutions, often praised as a lifeline for underserved communities, turned down applicants 34% of the time. Large banks followed at 31%. Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst, said the trend is part of a larger retreat by lenders.
    “Inflation, tariffs, high interest rates, and a slow job market are making things tough on small businesses and the customers they’re trying to attract,” he said. “[With] this uncertainty, banks pull back—as they tend to do in risky, unpredictable times. Standards for lending to consumers and businesses have generally been tight for some time, and that’s unlikely to change soon.”

  • Newswire : Obama fills the leadership void in a fading Democratic Party

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent


    Former President Barack Obama has stepped back into the political arena, delivering some of his sharpest critiques yet of President Donald Trump as the Democratic Party struggles through one of its weakest moments in modern history. With the party’s leadership approval at historic lows and its ties to Black-owned media nearly nonexistent, Obama’s renewed visibility has exposed both the vacuum and the disillusionment threatening to fracture the Democratic coalition.
    In recent weeks, Obama has spoken out against Trump’s authoritarian-style intimidation of universities and the administration’s crackdown on the press, declaring that America must “resist being intimidated” and warning that protecting democratic values may require “sacrifice.” At Hamilton College, he admonished Trump’s White House for suspending security clearances and canceling contracts with law firms and schools tied to perceived political rivals.
    “That kind of behavior is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans,” Obama said. “Imagine if I had done any of this.” Days later, he took to social media to denounce media companies for capitulating to Trump’s threats. “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level,” Obama wrote, urging journalists and networks to “get a spine” and stand up for free speech.
    Late in September at London’s O2 Arena, Obama expanded his message beyond immediate politics, telling a packed crowd that true leadership means constant vigilance and the courage to “show up and speak out even when it’s uncomfortable.” He cautioned against complacency, arguing that progressives had grown “smug” and unprepared for the rise of authoritarianism.

    “True democracy is a project much bigger than any one of us,” he said. “It’s a job for all of us.” Obama’s renewed activism comes at a time when his party’s base has grown increasingly restless. A Pew Research survey found that 59 percent of Democrats disapprove of their party’s leadership—the highest level of dissatisfaction since the question was first asked more than a decade ago.

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s approval among Democrats has collapsed to 35 percent, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries remains little known to nearly four in ten Democratic voters.

    That lack of visibility and engagement has been felt most acutely within the Black community. At the Black Press of America’s annual Leadership Awards, where Jeffries and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke were to be honored, anticipation filled a packed ballroom. But neither showed up.

    Civil rights attorney Ben Crump had just pledged $50,000 to support the struggling Black Press, urging others to follow suit. “Typical of Democrats,” one attendee said afterward. “They don’t spend money with us. They don’t show up. And then they expect us to deliver their message for free.” The snub, just 18 months before the Black Press’s bicentennial, struck a nerve among publishers who have covered every chapter of America’s freedom struggle—from emancipation to civil rights—without the financial support they deserve. “Our ancestors built this press through every trial in this country,” said one Black publisher after the event. “The least Hakeem Jeffries could do was show up.”

    Obama’s reemergence has not gone unnoticed by voters—or by Trump. During a recent Navy celebration in Virginia, Trump attempted to incite the crowd to boo Obama, but the attempt backfired. As he invoked “Barack Hussein Obama,” the crowd met him with dead silence.
    Meanwhile, polls show that Obama remains the most admired living president. A Marquette Law School survey found Obama with a +17 net favorability, compared with Trump’s -15 and Joe Biden’s -24. Even so, Obama’s return to the spotlight underscores a sobering truth: the Democratic Party, battered by infighting and a failure to connect with its own base, still lacks a clear, trusted voice. Obama’s critiques of Trump’s policies—whether over healthcare rollbacks or media suppression—stand in contrast to the muted response from current Democratic leaders, who have failed to mobilize voters around issues that once defined their moral compass.

    Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act have revived Obama’s signature policy as the centerpiece of a national political showdown. Democrats, scrambling to extend ACA subsidies that prevent premiums from skyrocketing, have tried to make healthcare their rallying cry again—but without strong, unified leadership, the message has struggled to resonate.
    For all his measured tone, Obama’s message has sharpened into something closer to alarm. He warns that complacency, even within his own party, has opened the door to authoritarianism. “Progressives assumed our trajectory would bend inevitably toward progress,” he told the audience at the O2. “That complacency left us unprepared.”
    As Trump wields federal power to punish dissent, the former president’s words carry the weight of both warning and legacy. But even as Obama reasserts his influence, the party he once led remains uncertain and divided—still ignoring the independent Black media that carried it through generations and still searching for leadership that matches the gravity of this moment. Obama may have left office eight years ago, but in 2025, he appears to be the last Democrat still leading.

  • Newswire : Republicans Shutdown Government

    By April Ryan. NNPA White House Corespondent

    Democrats and Republicans are both pointing fingers, saying the shutdown is the other party’s fault. The government shutdown means that money has stopped flowing, and there is no continuing resolution to continue the funding for the government.

    Republicans are in charge of the House, Senate, and White House and do not want to open borders or focus on healthcare to expand the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Firings are expected after an Office of Management and Budget memo during this shutdown, with no end in sight. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went on social media after midnight, saying, “Democrats are on duty, ready to sit down with anyone, any time, and at any place to reopen the federal government and pass a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people.”

    However, Jeffries chastises Republicans, saying they are not a “credible partner” right now. He goes on to say,” We will not support a partisan republican spending bill that guts the healthcare of the American people. Not now! Not ever! In a statement, the Congressional Black Caucus emphasized” Today, our country is facing a crisis entirely of the Republican Party’s making and, unfortunately, Black communities will be forced to bear the brunt of their political games.”
    During the 2018-2019 shutdown, the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history, the Postal Service, Medicare, and Social Security payments continued. Still, according to reports, some SSA services could be impacted during this shutdown. Federal courts, border security, disaster aid, banks, air traffic control, federal law-enforcement agencies, prison staff, the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard remain open.
    Due to the shutdown, the National Museum of African American History and Culture posted on Instagram that it will remain open until October 6th, using existing funding to stay open until Monday.

    When it comes to airports, TSA agents are working without pay. However, once the government reopens and funding is flowing, TSA workers will receive their pay retroactively. Airports around the nation have had to delay planes because of the lack of air traffic controllers on certain days and times. Also, the nation’s veterans will receive health insurance during the shutdown from Veterans Affairs.

  • SOS to sponsor Black Belt Caravan on October 10; also ‘No Kings Rally’ in Selma on Oct 18 at 3:00 p.m.

    The Save Ourselves Movement for Justice and Democracy (SOS) together with other social justice organizations is sponsoring a Caravan from Selma to Marion to Eutaw on Friday, October 10, 2025.The purpose of the Caravan is to alert people in the western Alabama Black Belt of the many funding cuts in Federal programs and services that are coming in the Budget Reconciliation Act, passed by Congress in August.
    This legislation, which President Trump calls, “My Big Beautiful Bill” makes cuts over the coming years in healthcare (Medicaid, Medicare, cancer research), SNAP (Food Stamps) and other nutrition programs, including school lunches, LIHEAP (a program to assist people to pay their utility bills), HUD housing subsidies, education programs including Title I, Pell grants and others, all programs directed toward assistance to poor, Black, Brown and other vulnerable people.
    The SOS “We Care Caravan” scheduled for October 10, 2025, will alert people at the grassroots level of these coming cuts and onerous requirements to work 20 hours per week to get certain benefits like SNAP.
    The Caravan will begin with a rally at 9:00 AM in Selma at the Monument Park, at the Montgomery side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Then the caravan of cars with signs, will drive through neighborhoods in Selma and drive through Uniontown en route to Marion. The caravan will travel through Marion neighborhoods and hold a rally at Noon in Marion.
    The Caravan will leave Uniontown at 1:00 PM after the rally, wend its way through Greensboro and Sawyerville on its way to Eutaw in Greene County. From 2:00 to 3:00 PM, the caravan will drive through low-income communities of Eutaw. At 3:00 there will be a rally at the William M. Branch Courthouse in Eutaw, Greene County to alert people to the coming cutbacks.
    At 4:00 the Caravan will return to Selma through Demopolis. The Caravan will distribute materials on the coming cutbacks at every stop. The first 25 people at each rally will receive a lucky $2 bill for attending. People from around the state are invited to join the caravan at any point along the way.

    No Kings Rally in Selma on October 18th at 3:00 PM

    SOS will also be sponsoring a rally, with other groups, on No Kings Day, Saturday, October 18, 2025, from 2:30 to 5:00 PM at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge – west side, to protest the authoritarian, illegal and unjust policies and practices of the Trump-Vance Administration. This rally is in conjunction with over 2,000 similar actions across the country to resist the actions of the Trump-Vance Administration.
    The October 18th. ‘No Kings Rally” will be a follow-on to a similar rally held on June 14th in the same place. SOS invites members of Alabama New South Coalition which will be holding its Fall Convention, that same day in Selma, to also attend the protest rally.
    Persons with questions about either event may contact, John Zippert for more information at 205-657-0273.

  • GCS Homecoming draws large crowd

    Greene County Schools celebrated Homecoming with the crowning of kings and queens at their annual coronations. The Homecoming parade included: Greene County High Band, numerous brightly decorated floats, majorettes, football players and horse riders. Coach Rodney Wesley served as 2025-26 Homecoming Grand Marshall. A large number turned out to enjoy the parade and the game.

  • County Commission demands removal of derailed train cars near County Rd. 107

    The Greene County Commission has recently received a response from Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway, LL (AGR) following repeated inquiries concerning the train derailment that occurred on March 21, 2025 near Greene County Road 107. After six months and reportedly numerous attempts by the county’s engineer’s office the derailed train cars had not been removed.

    On September 25, 2025, County Attorney, Mark Parnell, on behalf of the Commission, submitted a communication to Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway citing the derailed railcars are obstructing the right-of-way and posing public safety, environmental and infrastructure risks and required the following of the Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway: “AGR and/or its contractors and insurers are the responsible parties for removal, remediation and all damages arising from the incident. Demand is nearby made that, within 48 hours, AGR mobilize appropriate crews and equipment to remove all derailed rolling stock, debris and spilled materials from the right-of-way and adjacent areas and provide the contact information for your on-scene incident commander and slain lead.”

    On September 26, 2025, a representative of AGR communicated that the process of removal of the railcars is the responsibility of a third party and the process has begun.

    Commissioner Roshanda Summerville, who represents District 5 where the trainer derailment occurred, remarked that the county has been working diligently to expedite the clean-up. “We are very concerned about school buses and other motorists that travel that route crossing the tracks daily. We need an immediate cleanup process,” she said.

     

  • School Board selects Darryl Aikerson as interim superintendent

    The Greene County Board of Education met in a called session, Wednesday, September 24, 2025 and selected Mr. Darryl Aikerson as interim superintendent, effective immediately in order to allow for a smooth transition with Dr. Corey Jones, whose last official day as superintendent is September 30, 2025.
    Following the preliminary opening, including removing the executive session item from the agenda, Mr. Aikerson was asked to give a presentation to the board, staff and community members present. He noted that he has served in multiple leadership positions in public education, including teacher, principal and superintendent. Specifically, he served for six years as superintendent of Tuscumbia City Schools (2015-2021). Prior to that, he served as Director of Federal Programs for the Bessemer City Schools for 21 years.
    More recently, Aikerson served three months in 2024 as interim superintendent for the Selma City School System. According to Aikerson, Selma City Schools were having financial challenges once the ESSER Funds were depleted. “Much of these funds had been applied to high salaries, which the system could not continue,” he said. He also stated that he left the Selma City Schools in a good condition.
    Responding to board inquiries on his style of administrative leadership, Aikerson noted the following: Leadership starts with building relationships; that always comes first; that’s more important. I will communicate regularly with individual board members, meet principals and administrators, connect with parents including attending PTA meetings, athletic and other school events.”
    In closing, Aikerson said, “ I am available to contract with the board as a consultant to help with the seamless transition with the new superintendent.”
    Following questions from the community members, Board Vice President, Veronica Richardson, moved to accept Mr. Aikerson as interim superintendent. Ms. Carrie Dancy seconded. There was unanimous approval. A second motion, authorizing the Board President Leo Branch and Vice President Richardson, along with Board Attorney Hank Sanders, to work out the details with Mr. Aikerson, was made by board member Brandon Merriweather, seconded by board member Veronica Richardson. The board gave unanimous approval. President Branch stated that the timeline of the arrangements with Mr. Aikerson will be worked out in the negotiations.
    The meeting was adjourned.


    School board calls meeting to transfer investments and update bank signatures

    The Greene County Board of Education held a called meeting on Thursday, September  25, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. in the Central Office Auditorium with a focus on administrative issues.  Board member present included Robert Davis, Veronica Richardson, Brandon Merriweather and Board President Leo Branch. Carrie Dancy was absent.  Administrative items  included: – Closure of a Certificate of Deposit (CD) with Synovus as of September 23, 2025.
    Opening of Certificate of Deposit (CD) at the 13 month term rate with Merchants and Farmers Bank in Eutaw and necessary signature updates; out of state travel of GCHS football team and coaches to attend Atlanta Falcon game on November 16, 2025. Richardson made a motion to approve the items as a blanket; Davis seconded, and there was unanimous approval.  The meeting was adjourned.  

  • Newswire : Revolutionary Fighter For Black Liberation Assata Shakur Dies At 78

     Assata Shakurs’s NJ mug shot;
    Assata Shakur later in life in Cuba –  Delphine Fawandu

    By Jack Linly, Newsone

     


    Activist, revolutionary, Black Panther Party leader and member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), Assata Olugbala Shakur, has died at age 78, according to her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, meaning the ancestors have gained a fierce warrior in the fight against white supremacy.
    Shakur, born JoAnne Deborah Byron on July 16, 1947, in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, New York, was the sister of fellow Black liberation movement icon Mutulu icon  Shakur, who died in 2023 at 72, and the godmother and step-aunt of late legendary rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, whose mother, Afeni, was Mutulu’s wife.
    Assata represents one of the most iconic names associated with the Black Panthers and the fight to truly liberate Black people from white overseers. That is how Black American people see and celebrate her. 
    For America, she’s a far more controversial figure, and to many, she’s a notorious criminal who broke out of prison and fled the country after murdering a police officer, an act that kept her on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and New Jersey’s Most Wanted List until her dying day. According to EBSCO Knowledge Advantage, she was the first woman to be placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
    On May 2, 1973, Shakur and two other BLA members were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike by State Trooper Werner Foerster and another highway officer. A confrontation occurred between the officers and Shakur’s group, which resulted in a shootout that left Forrester and another individual dead. In 2019, FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Gregory Ehrie characterized the shooting as “a heinous execution of a law enforcement officer, cut and dry.” 
    “This is without dispute,” Ehrrie continued.
    Oh, but this certainly has been disputed. 
    In fact, supporters of Shakur have and continue to argue that the trial was flawed, citing a lack of physical evidence and eyewitness inconsistencies, and the history of efforts by law enforcement, including the FBI, to undermine and outright sabotage the civil rights movement and Black power movements.
    At any rate, Shakur escaped from prison in 1979 and ultimately sought asylum in Cuba, where she lived out her life.
    As written by our sister site, Bossip: But despite the government’s efforts to silence her, Assata Shakur’s words and work lived on. Her 1988 autobiography Assata became a blueprint for resistance and self-determination, widely studied by activists, scholars, and young people searching for a voice in the struggle. Her life inspired movements like Assata’s Daughters in Chicago, and her name was shouted in protests in Ferguson and across the world. Assata was a human rights activist and freedom fighter who stood in solidarity with oppressed people worldwide — and for that, her legacy will endure.
    “People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave,” Shakur once said, according to her book,  Assata: An Autobiography.
    In honor of her legacy, here’s the beautiful tribute to Assata Shakur, her story and her legacy, “A Song for Assata,” by Common.
    Rest well, Assata, and be free.

     

     

     

  • Newswire :107 Days: Kamala Harris’ book rockets off the shelves in first week

    By Lauren Burke, NNPA Congressional Correspondent

     

    Publisher Simon & Schuster announced that the campaign memoir of former Vice President Kamala Harris, 107 Days, has sold 350,000 copies in one week. The sales total includes print, ebooks, and audiobooks.
    The numbers released by the publisher reflect that Harris’ book will be the top political book of 2025. The book goes into the details of Harris’ unexpected 107-day 2024 presidential campaign. The former Vice President became a famous nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race for The White House on July 21, 2024. Biden dropped out after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden appeared confused and was slow to answer many questions and many attributed his issues to his age.
    Shortly before Biden’s withdrawal there was internal debate on whether there should be a hastily put together Democratic primary. But with only a short time left in the campaign before Election Day — Vice President Harris became the nominee. But the campaign was only 107 days because of Biden’s late timing in exiting the race. While there has been internal criticism within the Democratic Party pushing back against what Harris relays in her book, the strong interest and response by the public in the form of strong book sales and packed appearances is evidence of strong public interest.
    According to Simon & Schuster, the book has already been ordered for a 5th printing. A 5th printing of “107 Days” will bring the number of hardcover copies in print to 500,000. Harris’ book has a chance to be a historic best seller. Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming” is widely considered the most-read political memoir of all time. The 2018 book sold over 8 million copies globally and discussed issues of identity, race, ambition, family, and public service.