Greene County Democrat

Category: Health

  • Medicaid, Medicare in Alabama would face cuts under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”

    Nonpartisan health policy institution KFF estimated 170,000 Alabamians will become uninsured if the “Big Beautiful Bill” is signed into law.

    By Chance Phillips, Alabama Political Reporters


    The budget proposal passed by House Republicans last Thursday, titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” would seriously reduce health insurance coverage in Alabama, according to several nonpartisan reports.
    On May 20, before a round of last-minute amendments was approved, nonpartisan health policy organization KFF estimated the bill would render around 53,000 more Alabamians uninsured. And if the current version is passed, which allows the ACA enhanced premium tax credits to expire, KFF placed the number of Alabamians that would be left without healthcare at around 170,000.
    Most of the cuts in healthcare funding would take the form of reducing spending on Medicaid, the United States’ health insurance program for low-income households, by $625 billion over ten years. This cut would largely be due to imposing novel work requirements on people who receive Medicaid because of the expansion of the program by the Affordable Care Act. States would also be required to establish and verify recipients’ eligibility more often.
    As a result of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, the budget could also trigger an automatic 4 percent cut to most Medicare spending due to trillions in lost tax revenue, drastically increasing the federal deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimated this would mean a cut to Medicare of “$490 billion over the 2027–2034 period.”

    Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, maintains that claims the bill would cut Medicaid are “misinformation.” In a recent CNN interview, he explicitly said Republicans “are not cutting Medicaid in this package. With work requirements and other changes, we are cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in the program.”

    However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the changes to Medicaid are likely to leave over 10 million people nationwide off of the program by 2034, with almost 8 million being left totally uninsured.

    During a press call last week, Allison Orris, director of Medicaid policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, compared the proposed new work requirements to ones implemented in the state of Arkansas in 2018 and 2019. She said that “even though there were a number of exemptions for people with disabilities, for people with chronic conditions, for certain parents, people still lost coverage in Arkansas and the exemption process didn’t work.” Orris then declared that House Republicans’ work requirements are “even worse” than the ones tried in Arkansas.
    Effects of the proposed changes to Medicaid, however, are likely to vary significantly with how much state governments are willing to use their tax dollars to replace federal funding, as well as when and how stringently states would enforce the new work requirements.
    As one of only a few states that has not expanded Medicaid, Alabama appears almost certain to have a conservative response to any federal cuts to social safety net programs. During the most recent legislative session, state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, already introduced two bills to further restrict eligibility for SNAP and Medicaid, but they failed to pass before sine die adjournment.

    While the budget passed by the House would balloon the federal deficit, increasing federal debt by as much as $3.3 trillion by 2034, Republican politicians maintain that changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are needed to both get people employed and reduce federal expenditures.

    Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Mehmet Oz, and two other Trump administration officials argued in an opinion piece in The New York Times earlier this month that work requirements are now a necessity. “For able-bodied adults, welfare should be a short-term hand-up, not a lifetime handout,” they wrote. “But too many able-bodied adults on welfare are not working at all. And too often we don’t even ask them to. For many, welfare is no longer a lifeline to self-sufficiency but a lifelong trap of dependency.”

    In a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Mike Johnson told reporter Margaret Brennan that “there’s a moral component to what we’re doing.” He emphasized that people who don’t work despite being able to are “cheating the system.

    Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville recently made a similar argument during a May 12 appearance on Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” where he said people living off of social safety net programs has “got to be over with.”

    But experts like Matt Bruenig of the People’s Policy Project and political science professor, Anne Whitesell, say that data shows there are very few able-bodied adults on programs like Medicaid and SNAP who could be working and aren’t already. “Given past experience with work requirements, it is unlikely [savings on Medicaid] would come from Americans finding jobs,” Whitesell writes. “My research suggests it’s more likely that the government would trim spending by taking away the health insurance of people eligible for Medicaid coverage who get tangled up in red tape.”

    Alabama’s two Democratic members of Congress, Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures, have repeatedly criticized the proposed cuts. Sewell proposed an amendment on Wednesday to increase the ACA tax credits that the current bill allows to expire. Her amendment was not adopted.
    Having already passed the House of REpresentatives, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act now needs to be approved by the Senate before it can be signed into law. While a reconciliation package only requires a simple majority to pass, the budget proposal may not sail through the chamber as is.

     

  • Newswire : Remembering George Floyd

    Mural honoring George Floyd

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

     

    “The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse.

    It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

    The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden.

    Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

    In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process.
    “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who kneeled on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those nine minutes and 26 seconds on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill in a convience store in Minneapolis.

  • Newswire : A legend of Black Politics in Harlem and beyond, Congressman Charlie Rangel dies at 94

    Congressman Charlie Rangel unveiling portrait

    By Lauren Burke, NNPA Congressional Correspondent


    Charlie Rangel, the long-term Congressman and a heavyweight in New York politics as a member of Harlem’s ”Gang of Four”, has died at 94. His colorful and charismatic personality, bowties, and raspy voice made him a character on Capitol Hill who was impossible to forget. Rangel was simultaneously larger than life but also approachable and engaging.
    Rangel was the last living member of the “Gang of Four” made up of powerful African American leaders in New York: David Dinkins (1927-2020), Basil Paterson (1946-2014), and Percy Sutton (1920-2009). The four dealmakers were powerbrokers at a time when political decisions were made in smoke-filled rooms over poker games. In 2010, President Obama suggested that Rangel resign from Congress “with dignity” after he was targeted by an ethics investigation that would eventually mean he had to give up the Chairmanship of the Ways & Means Committee. “This guy from Lenox Avenue is retiring with dignity,” Rangel would later tell reporters as he departed Congress on his terms and at the time of his choosing.
    Rangel ignored Obama and remained in Congress for another six years with an aura that made many forget about the ethics investigation. Before serving Congress, Rangel did about every job in politics that existed. In 1961, Rangel was appointed by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to be an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. Rangel was also a legal counsel for the New York Housing and Redevelopment Board. Charlie Rangel was born in Harlem in 1930. He would go on to represent one of the most storied parts of Manhattan for 46 years in the U.S. Congress. Along with the late John Conyers, Rangel was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
    “We all have a large stake in preserving our democracy, but I maintain that those without power in our society, the Black, the Brown, the poor of all colors, have the largest stake not because we have the most to lose, but because we have worked the hardest, and given the most, for what we have achieved,” Rangel once said.  Rangel was the first African American to serve as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. As chair and as a member of the Committee, Rangel played a central role in shaping U.S. tax legislation. He advocated for progressive tax reform, closing corporate loopholes, and increasing tax equity.  Rangel was also a strong supporter of Social Security and Medicare and defended and expanded programs aimed at reducing poverty and supporting working-class families. The legendary Harlem Congressman also championed federal investment in affordable housing and urban infrastructure, especially for Harlem and other underserved communities.
    In a noteworthy policy move, Rangel also pushed to reinstate the military draft during the Iraq War—not to promote it, but to spark debate on the fairness of who bears the burden of war. Rangel earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service in the Army during Korea. Rangel served as a member of the New York State Assembly from 1967 to 1971 and went on to defeat another New York political legend — Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in a primary, before winning in the general election in 1970. Rangel retired from Congress in 2016 at 86 years old. At a time when many are discussing the age of members of Congress and the many who have died in office over the past two years.
    Rangel was an exception who departed on his terms.  Rangel’s seat in Congress would go to Dominican-born Adriano Espaillat. The moment represented a shift in Harlem’s demographics and the power of the Latino community in the Bronx. Rangel’s wife Alma Carter passed away last year. The two met in the 1950’s at the famous Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. They married in 1964 and have two children.

  • Newswire : Hate and chaos rise in Trump’s America

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 1,371 hate and antigovernment extremist groups operating across the United States in 2024. In its latest Year in Hate & Extremism report, the SPLC reveals how these groups are embedding themselves in politics and policymaking while targeting marginalized communities through intimidation, disinformation, and violence. “Extremists at all levels of government are using cruelty, chaos, and constant attacks on communities and our democracy to make us feel powerless,” said SPLC President Margaret Huang.

    The report outlines how hard-right groups aggressively targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives throughout 2024. Figures on the far right falsely framed DEI as a threat to white Americans, with some branding it a form of “white genocide.” After the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, a former Utah legislator blamed the incident on DEI, posting “DEI = DIE.”

    Tactics ranged from local policy manipulation to threats of violence. The SPLC documented bomb threats at 60 polling places in Georgia, traced to Russian email domains. Similar threats hit Jewish institutions and Planet Fitness locations after far-right social media accounts attacked them for trans-inclusive policies. Telegram, which SPLC describes as a hub for hate groups, helped extremists cross-recruit between neo-Nazi, QAnon, and white nationalist spaces. The platform’s lax moderation allowed groups like the Terrorgram Collective—designated terrorists by the U.S. State Department—to thrive. Militia movements were also reorganized, with 50 groups documented in 2024. Many, calling themselves “minutemen,” trained in paramilitary tactics while lobbying local governments for official recognition. These groups shared personnel and ideology with white nationalist organizations.
    The manosphere continued to radicalize boys and young men. The Fresh & Fit podcast, now listed as a hate group, promoted misogyny while mocking and attacking Black women. Manosphere influencers used social media algorithms to drive youth toward male-supremacy content.
    Turning Point USA played a key role in pushing white nationalist rhetoric into mainstream politics. Its leader Charlie Kirk claimed native-born Americans are being replaced by immigrants, while the group advised on Project 2025 and organized Trump campaign events. “We know that these groups build their power by threatening violence, capturing political parties and government, and infesting the mainstream discourse with conspiracy theories,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “By exposing the players, tactics, and code words of the hard right, we hope to dismantle their mythology and inspire people to fight back.”

    To read the report in full: visit http://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/year-hate-extremism-2024.

  • Newswire : South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, asks for answers and contradicts Trump on White Killings

    Ramaphosa and Trump in White House meeting

    By April Ryan
    NNPA White House Correspondent

    The build-up for the Oval Office meeting between South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Donald Trump resulted in a spectacle of a Presidential show and tell. President Trump worked to support the alleged claims that thousands of white South African Farmers have been killed with nothing done to remedy the situation.
     Leaders from both countries, Elon Musk, world-renowned white Golfers from South Africa, and reporters attended the highly publicized press event in the Oval Office. Before the president showed a video, a reporter in the Oval Office sternly questioned Trump, asking, “What would it take for you to be convinced that there is no white genocide in South Africa?” President Ramaphosa immediately answered the question as President Trump said, “ I’d rather have him answer.” “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends,” said the South African president. Ramaphosa also emphasized it would have to take place at a “quiet” table so he could hear the facts.
    Another telling moment in the meeting was when President Trump could not answer South Africa’s president’s question about the location of some parts of the video he showed in the Oval Office. Ramaphosa said calmly with concern, “I would like to know where that is. Cause, this I have never seen.”
    However, Trump continued his assertion that white farmers are being killed throughout the meeting and warned the president of South Africa that before the November G-20 summit in South Africa, the issue must be handled. Ramaphosa said, “There is criminality in our country; people who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people. Most people killed are Black people.”
    Trump, in a passing moment in that press event, recognized the wrong of the deadly apartheid system in South Africa when the country was white minority rule from 1948 to 1994. During the deadly apartheid system, the white-led government enforced strict racial segregation rules against the Black majority in housing, employment, government, social gatherings, and facilities.
    Observers noted that President Ramaphosa kept his cool during the meeting and calmly corrected some of Trump’s false assertions with clear assertion of facts and requests for documentation of the charges of ‘white genocide’ being perpetrated by the Black controlled South African government.

  • Newswire : Tariffs, Boycotts slam Target’s bottom line

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Target Corporation is projecting a decline in annual sales and profits for 2025 as the retail giant struggles with fallout from its decision to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, pressure from new tariffs, and organized boycotts by Black consumers and media. The company reported first-quarter net sales of $23.8 billion, a 2.8% drop from the same period last year, and revised its full-year outlook downward, now forecasting a low single-digit decline in sales and adjusted earnings per share of $7.00 to $9.00.

    Adjusted earnings for the quarter fell nearly 36% year-over-year to $1.30 per share, down from $2.03, when excluding a one-time $593 million pre-tax gain from a credit card interchange fee settlement. “Our team navigated a highly challenging environment and focused on delivering the outstanding assortment, experience, and value guests expect from Target,” Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said during an investor call. “While our sales fell short of our expectations, we saw several bright spots in the quarter, including healthy digital growth, led by a 36 percent increase in same-day delivery through Target Circle 360, and our strongest designer collaboration in over a decade,
    Kate Spade for Target.” Cornell also acknowledged the backlash, saying, “We’re not satisfied with current performance and know we have opportunities to deliver faster progress on our roadmap for growth. This morning, we announced the establishment of a multi-year acceleration office led by Michael Fiddelke and several leadership changes. These steps forward are intended to build more speed and agility into how we operate and position key capabilities to drive long-term profitable growth.”
    Yet those changes are landing amid heightened scrutiny and organized resistance. In addition to financial pressures from tariffs, Target is now the focus of a national selective buying campaign launched by the Black Press of America after the company announced in January that it would phase out its DEI commitments. In a joint op-ed made available to millions of readers, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), and Bobby R. Henry Sr., NNPA Chair and publisher of the Westside Gazette, issued a searing indictment of the company’s direction. “As far back as October 2024, we sent a formal letter to Target CEO Brian Cornell detailing the company’s persistent refusal to invest in Black-owned newspapers and media outlets. That letter was met with silence. Silence, in the face of truth, is complicity. By ignoring our appeal, Mr. Cornell and Target have made clear that they do not value the voices, institutions, or the economic power of Black America,” they wrote. “Let us be clear: we will not shop where we are disrespected. Our dollars will not finance our own marginalization.”

    Tanya Milton, Vice President and Advertising Director at The Savannah Tribune said the boycott is making an impact and that Target’s disengagement speaks volumes. “Their continued silence could mean them hoping not to draw attention to their losses,” Milton said. Asked how Black consumers should interpret the company’s decision to end its DEI programs, she added, “If they just got on board three years ago, then it’s not a big deal to them. Black consumers shopped there before they were onboard.”

    She also addressed the broader consequences of Target’s failure to invest in Black-owned media. “Being visible helps to make your brand a household name,” she said. Target’s troubles continue to ripple through Wall Street. Shares fell nearly 7% after the earnings announcement and are down 33% year-to-date. Despite its digital gains and successful designer collaborations, Target reported a comparable store sales decline of 5.7%, even as digital sales grew 4.7%. Cornell told investors the company has “many levers” to mitigate the effects of tariffs, and that raising prices would only come as a “very last resort.”
    Still, for many, the damage is already done. “We therefore announce the continuation and intensification of the target-TARGET national selective buying campaign,” Chavis and Henry stated. “We call upon all freedom-loving people from across all segments of society who believe in economic justice, media equity, and corporate accountability to join us.”

  • Newswire : FY 2026 Budget Plan cuts and guts education dollars and programs

    By Charlene Crowell

    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – In the first 100 days of the current Trump Administration term, over 250,000 federal employees have had their jobs cut, planned to be cut, or have taken a buyout, according to a recent New York Times tally.  With a 46 percent staff reduction – 1,380 employees – the Department of Education is among the hardest hit agencies.

    The recently released FY 2026 budget plan underscores the administration’s determination to shutter the agency and eliminate programs that support the nation’s strides to remain educationally competitive and economically viable in a global economy.

    “The President’s Skinny Budget reflects funding levels for an agency that is responsibly winding down, shifting some responsibilities to the states, and thoughtfully preparing a plan to delegate other critical functions to more appropriate entities,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon in a related statement. “The federal government has invested trillions of taxpayer dollars into an education system that is not driving improved student outcomes – we must change course and reorient taxpayer dollars toward proven programs that generate results for American students.”

    For the fiscal year that begins October 01, an additional 15.3 percent agency cut would drop education funding another $12 billion from FY 2025’ $78.7 billion. Among these proposed cuts are programs that speak to 21st Century dynamics affecting higher education:

    $980 million – an 80 percent reduction to the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program;
    $75 million for Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) for campus-based childcare services to parents of low-income parents enrolled in postsecondary education;
    $64 million cut to Howard University, only federally chartered Historically Black College and University; and
    $49 million from its Office of Civil Rights, a 35 percent reduction to the office that investigates claims of race, sex and other discrimination in schools.

    These specific and modest programs respond to the needs of today’s college students that are quite different from those of yesteryear. The historical 4-year completion rate for an undergraduate degree at a young age has been shrinking for several years. Instead, the growing percentage of college students trend older in age, take longer to graduate, and in the case of Black students, often have children to care for as well.  Even after graduation, today’s marketplace demands an ongoing challenge to update skills and education to remain competitive.

    According to a recent policy brief by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Development:

    “Black college students are more likely to be parents than other racial groups at both community colleges and four-year institutions. Over one in three (36 percent) of Black students enrolled in community colleges in 2020 were parents. Forty percent of Black women in college are raising children. Black single mothers comprise 30 percent of undergraduate students who are single mothers, and nearly 70 percent of Black single-mother students are first-generation college students. Black fathers make up 19 percent of student parents and are less likely to have access to childcare assistance than fathers of other races.”

    CCAMPIS is designed to address this growing need. Competitive federal grant administered by the U.S. Department of Education, help colleges fund on-campus childcare for Pell-eligible students. Unfortunately, the program’s funding has never been enough to meet student parents’ needs. Fewer than 4,000 parent students have benefitted from the program when there are approximately 1.5 million student parents who have children under the age of six, according to the D.C.-based New America.

    For now, the popular Pell Grant program continues to serve more than 6 million students from low-income households. But its maximum award per student is $7,395 for the 2025-2026 school year – not enough to cover the anticipated family contribution many schools expect for tuition and other expenses.

    With this kind of demonstrated need for college assistance, it’s hard to understand why the Federal Work Study program would face the budget ax. Through its part-time jobs for undergraduate and graduate students with financial need, the monies earned lessen the need to borrow loans, while also encouraging work related to the student’s course of study or community service – with a very modest government investment.

    When 78 percent of Black student parents have no family financial support for college, as the Joint Center report found, funding college financial support is not only good for Black America – it’s in the nation’s long-term interest.

    The budget bottom line should recognize the huge difference between a handout and a hand up.

    Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org” 

  • Superintendent submits end-of-school personnel and program adjustments

    Greene County School System gets Clean Report from State Examiners Office

    The Greene County Board of Education held its monthly session, Monday, May 19, 2025 with all board members present, with the exception of Mr. Brandon Merriweather.
    The first presentation to the board was the FY 2024 State Audit Report given by Ms. Shelly Patrenos of the State Examiners Office. The audit review focused on Title I Federal Program and the Child Nutrition Program. Ms. Patrenos applauded the board and staff for having a ‘clean report.’ She commended CSFO Ms. Marquita Lennon for  the excellence and transparency of her work. The full State Audit report will be available to the board by the end of June.
    The board acted on the personnel and administrative items, presented by Superintendent Dr. Corey Jones, which signal the usual procedures for ending the regular school term and initiating programs and project for the summer session.
    The board approved the following administrative service items recommended by the superintendent.
    * Quote from Glenwood to teach a 2-day MCS class for up to 10 staff members in the Greene County School System in the amount of $3,300.
    * Agreement between Greene County Board of Education and Stericycle for biohazards pick up services for a pickup fee of $53.33 a month.
    * Quote from Allianz Solutions for ACT Bootcamp June 9 -12 for up to 25 students per session in the amount of $8,100
    * Quote from C & J Resources for ACT Bootcamp July 7 – 10 in the amount of $4,060.
    * Permission for Black Scholars Committee to use 2 buses to transport students from Greene County to Stillman College June 23 – July 18.
    * Code Explorers Partnership agreement with the Alabama State Department of Education’s Computer Science for Alabama Initiative and Southeastern Center of Robotics Education (SCORE) at Auburn University for the following teachers: (Teachers will receive compensation via the program): Carolyn Beck – Kindergarten; Danielle Sanders-Williams – 1st grade; Montoya Binion – 2nd grade; Walter Taylor – 2nd grade.
    * 4-day work week for all extended employees beginning June 2, 2025, and ending July 26, 2025.
    * Payment of all bills, claims, and payroll.
    * Bank reconciliations as submitted by Mrs. Marquita Lennon, CSFO.
    * Certified bid from Game Day Athletic Surfaces, Inc., the only bidder, in the amount of $1,683,748.00 for athletic improvements (Phase I Track).
    Superintendent to hire legal representation for personnel matter.
    The personnel service items approved by the board included the following:
    * Retirement of Trudi Finley, Kindergarten teacher at Eutaw Primary School, effective June 1, 2025.
    * Resignations of Lorrisa Holder, Science TEAMS teacher, effective June 3, 2025.
    Employment of Lorrisa Holder, Career Counselor at Greene County Career Center (10-month). * Letters of termination for “Additional Services” contracts to the following employees: (Separate Contract): Greene County High School – Janice Jeames-Askew – Athletic Director; Corey Cockrell – Head Football Coach; Zaddrick Smith – Assistant Football; Tracey Hunter – Head Girls track; Torethia Mitchell – Head Girls Basketball & Volleyball; Patricia Maiden – Assistant Volleyball; Rodney Wesley – Assistant Boys Basketball (JV), Head Baseball; Howard Crawford – Head Boys Basketball/Head Boys Track; Lorrisa Holder – Assistant Girls Basketball;Kirin Greene – Band Director; Paula Calligan – Dance-line Coach; Drenda Morton – Cheerleader Sponsor. 
    Personnel for Summer Learning program at a rate of $50 an hour for Educators and $25.00 an hour for Aides, June 2-30, 2025, Monday – Thursday, 8:00 am -1:00 pm. Eutaw Primary School: Pamela Pasteur; Pamela McGee; Keisha Williams; LaShaun Henley; Gwendolyn Webb – Aide; Mary Hobson, Special Services Aide; Carla Durrett. Robert Brown Middle School:Vanessa Bryant; Demetria Lyles; Talicia Williams; Raven Bryant; Felecia Smith. Greene County High School-Credit Recovery: Janice Jeames Askew; Drenda Morton – Aide; Angela Harkness; Jacqueline Edwards, Custodian.
    * Non-renewal of the following employees: Eutaw Primary School– Shana Lucy, Third grade Teacher; .Katina Mickens, Special Ed. Teacher. Robert Brown Middle School – Dena Jordan, 7th/8th grade Math TEAMS teacher; Cedric Murry, 7th/8th grade Business teacher; Dawn Cook, 6th grade teacher.
    * Personnel for CTE Camp to be paid at a rate of $40.00 per hour – June 23 – 27, 2025: LaMonica Little; Shamyra Jones.
    Personnel to participate in AMSTI training sessions on July 29 and 30, 2025 from 8:30 am-3:30 pm with a stipend to be paid to educators at $37.50 per hour: Robert Brown Middle School – Annie Howard; Demetria Lyles; Vanessa Bryant; Akia Williams; Henry Miles; Tavaris Lacy; Breshayla Hoskins.

    CSFO Marquita Lennon presented the following financial snapshot for the period ending April 30, 2025. General fund balance totaled $8,116,154.66 (reconciles to the summary cash report.) Accounts payable check register totaled $322,328.95. Payroll register totaled $931,658.39 (total gross pay to include employer match items). The combined ending fund balance totaled $8,243,402.36. In operating reserves, the school system has 7.79 months in combined general fund research; 7.79 months in cash reserve. All bank accounts have been reconciled. Then local revenue report showed $124,171.05 in property taxes; $86,572.81 in sales taxes and $5,040.96 in other taxes, all totaling $215,784.82.
    Superintendent Jones’ report to the board gave overviews of the various closing of school activities. He also noted that the Eutaw Primary ACAP test scores were complete, but the results are still in embargo, not officially released. Jones proudly stated that the scholars demonstrated 100% growth improvement.

  • Newswire : South Africans dispute claims of genocide against white farmers in their country

     

    Afrikaner refugees from South Africa, at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., on May 12.Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP

    By Curtis Bunn, NBC News
    A day after 59 white South Africans were welcomed to America as refugees, more than 86,000 South African farmers — who are mostly white — are gathering this week at the NAMPO Harvest Day trade fair, an annual agricultural exhibition considered the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. 
    Over four days, the attendees will discuss innovations in technology, collaborations and various other elements of an industry that last year generated nearly $14 billion in revenue. 
    Notably, according to one participant, there is no planned discussion of violence against white farmers or “Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored, race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation” without compensation, as President Donald Trump wrote in a Feb. 7 executive order that opened the way for the 59 South Africans to come to U.S., despite a ban on refugees from other nations. That ban includes refugees from Afghanistan and Iraqi, who served as interpreters and aides to U. S. armed forces.
    The executive order referenced South Africa’s Expropriation Act enacted last year, which in some cases allows the government to seize unused land without compensation, something Cyril Ramaphosa, the country’s president, said has not happened. 
    The act awakened a profoundly troubling argument over land rights. South Africa’s dark history of racism includes the confiscation of land from Black residents, both before and during the apartheid. Afrikaners, the minority white descendants of Dutch and French settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600s, were leaders of the apartheid regime that ended in 1994.  
    The purported goal of the Expropriation Act is to shrink the vast land ownership disparity that came with the oppressive rule. According to the organization Action for Southern Africa, 72% of farms and agricultural holdings are owned by whites, who make up 7.3% of the population. Black Africans, representing 81.4%, own only 4% of the land. 
    Trump asserted on Monday, ahead of the refugees’ arrival in the U.S., that “white farmers are being brutally killed and the land is being confiscated in South Africa.” 
    Yet Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said that the spirit of NAMPO this week reaffirms that “genocide” of white South African farmers “was imaginary and not happening in our country.” 
    “We’re all disturbed that the U.S. side is alleging that there’s genocide and mistreatment of white farmers in South Africa. It is incorrect,” said Sihlobo, who is also co-author of the book “The Uncomfortable Truth About South Africa’s Agriculture.” 
    “If anything, the sector continues to flourish. [Trump’s] comments are misinformed and not mirroring the reality on the ground in the country,” he said.

     

  • Newswire : DOJ charges N.J. congresswoman with assaulting law enforcement at ICE facility

    Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., with Rep. Rob Menendez and Rep. Bonnie Watson Colemen holds a press conference on May 9, 2025 after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested while protesting at Delancey Hall ICE detention prison, in Newark, N.J.Angelina Katsanis / AP file

    By Raquel Coronell Uribe and Ryan J. Reilly, NBC News

    WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has filed charges against a Democratic member of Congress, alleging that she assaulted law enforcement officers during a protest outside an immigration detention facility in New Jersey earlier this month. 
    Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., faces two counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officials in connection with an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, according to court documents made public on Tuesday. 
    Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, who served as Trump’s personal attorney and previously worked as counselor to the president, announced the charges against McIver on X on Monday night, before they were made public. On Tuesday, McIver told NBC News that she had learned of the charges on social media after Habba posted about them. 
    “It’s political intimidation, and I’m looking forward to my day in court,” she said Tuesday. McIver had called the charges “purely political” in a statement on Monday night and said she looked forward “to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”
    “Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district. We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka,” she said. 
    Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche backed Habba’s statement, writing on X that “assaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated.”
    Habba also said her office had dropped trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a candidate for New Jersey governor who was arrested on May 9, the day McIver and two other House Democrats were at the facility. “After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward,” Habba said.
    An affidavit by Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Robert Tansey said that McIver made physical contact with another Homeland Security Investigations special agent as well as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer when they protested Baraka’s removal.
    An affidavit by Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Robert Tansey said that McIver made physical contact with another Homeland Security Investigations special agent as well as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer when they protested Baraka’s removal.
    Baraka was arrested during a chaotic scene that involved a protest outside the ICE detention center in Newark known as Delaney Hall. McIver was one of three Democratic members of the New Jersey congressional delegation present who have repeatedly said they were on site to inspect the facility in their capacity as lawmakers conducting federal oversight.
    Trump administration officials have accused the lawmakers of “storming into” the facility. “Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said May 9.
    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem argued Monday night in a statement on X that “a thorough review of the video footage of Delaney Hall and a full investigation” by her department supported the charge against McIver.
    House Democratic leaders condemned the charges against McIver in a joint statement Monday night, calling them “morally bankrupt” and saying they lacked “any basis in law or in fact.”
    “By visiting the detention center in Newark, Rep. McIver and two other Members of Congress were upholding their oath of office. They didn’t assault anyone, but were themselves aggressively mistreated by illegally masked individuals,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Pete Aguilar and Ted Lieu of California and Joe Neguse of Colorado.
    “The proceeding initiated by the so-called U.S. Attorney in New Jersey is a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate Congress and interfere with our ability to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch,” they said, adding that House Democrats will “respond vigorously in the days to come at a time, place and manner of our choosing.”