As of January 17, 2023 at 10:00 AM
(According to Alabama Political Reporter)
Alabama had 1,602,891 confirmed cases of coronavirus,
(15,667) more than last report, with 20,846 deaths (70) more
than last report.
Greene County had 2,240 confirmed cases, 21 more cases than last report), with 53 deaths
Sumter Co. had 3,083 cases with 55 deaths
Hale Co. had 5,615 cases with 110 deaths
Note: Greene County Physicians Clinic has testing and vaccination for COVID-19; including the new bivalent booster for Omicron variants. Call for appointments at 205/372-3388, Ext. 142;
ages 5 and up.
Cong. Terri Sewell, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, and Senator Katie Britt toured tornado damage in Selma
By: Jacob Holmes, Alabama Political Reporter
Congresswoman Terri Sewell *D-AL7), Gov. Kay Ivey, and U.S. Sen. Katie Britt toured Selma and Autauga counties on Friday to see the damage and devastation left by a long-track tornado that hit both communities on Thursday. The tornado took the lives of six people in the Old Kingston area of Autauga County and caused “at least EF-3” damage shortly after causing destruction in Selma. “Our prayers continue to be with Alabamians across our state who were impacted by Thursday’s severe weather, especially those who have lost loved ones, those who have been injured, and those who have lost their homes and livelihoods,” Britt said. “We saw damage and destruction, but we also witnessed the best of Alabama – people from all walks of life coming together to help each other. My office is working alongside our partners in Alabama’s congressional delegation to support Governor Ivey’s request for an expedited federal major disaster declaration, and we will continue to work to ensure every possible federal resource is made available to affected Alabamians. “Thank you to the courageous law enforcement officers, first responders, and linemen who have been working tirelessly to serve their fellow Alabamians across impacted communities. We are grateful for the incredible volunteers, like those I visited with today, who are already giving their time, talent, and resources to help complete strangers get back on their feet.” Sewell, a Selma native, said seeing the damage was heartbreaking. “I am keeping my constituents and all those affected in my prayers,” Sewell said. “The people of the Black Belt are strong, and we will get through this together.” Sewell said Friday that she would be working to get federal funding to help in the recovery, and Sunday, President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state to open up that flow of funds. “I’m thankful that President Biden has heard our calls and expedited a declaration of major disaster for the State of Alabama following Thursday’s devastating storms,” Sewell said. “This declaration will free up critical federal resources to relieve, recover and rebuild. I look forward to continuing to partner with Gov. Ivey, Alabama’s congressional delegation, as well as state, local, and community stakeholders to use these resources as an opportunity to build back Selma and all the affected areas better for the people of Alabama.” “The outpouring of support for our communities has been truly heartening, and I join in thanking everyone who has offered their support now and into the future. This will be a marathon, not a sprint, but rest assured we will come back stronger than before.” Persons interested in assisting the Alabama tornado relief effort may contact the Black Belt Community Foundation, which is based in Selma at bit.ly/BBCFDisasterRElief; or if you wan6t to help rebuild Radio Station WBFZ 105.3 in Selma, may contact: https://gofundme/e692dbe4. Greene County hit as well by tornado
For the second time in six weeks, Eutaw, Alabama in Greene County, was struck by tornados again on January 12, after being hit on November 29. In the first storm 14 residents at Sagewood Apartments were displaced when the tornado sliced through their building. That storm also toppled many trees in the area behind Kirkwood.
For the latest storm, last week, many trees were knocked down and blocked streets until the city employees and volunteers could come with chain saws and clear a path for vehicles.
Mayor Johnson says she is talking with Congresswoman Sewell to get the Federal disaster declaration extended to include Greene County to make FEMA and Federal funds available.
Jan. 16, 2023 (GIN) Africa was ever on the mind of Martin Luther King Jr. and his concerns for the continent appear in in his many papers in the King Institute.
MLK spoke out about the Congo at an event celebrating the independence of Kenya. “There are many problems on a world scale today and one of them is the Congo.”
“The Congo problem can be solved when there is a withdrawal of all foreign troops and mercenaries,” he said. “The problem must be solved by negotiations, with the United Nations offering its assistance.”
“We must not rest in any nation until the problem is solved in South Africa. I called for a massive boycott of that country because of the vicious regime existing there.”
In another speech in Stockholm Cathedral, Dr. King said there could be no peace in the world as long as conditions such as those in Mississippi and South Africa continued.
And at an Africa Freedom Dinner at Atlanta University at the end of a five week U.S. tour by Kenyan nationalist leader Tom Mboya, Dr. King observed: “Our struggle is not an isolated one. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.”
“As you well know,” he continued, “there is a great revolution going on all over our world. And we think of the fact that just thirty or forty years ago there were only two countries in Africa that had independence at that particular time—that was Liberia and Ethiopia. And today eight countries have been added to that number, and in 1960 four more will be added: Somalia, Togoland, the Cameroons and the largest country in Africa, Nigeria.
“This reveals that an old order is passing away. And our guest speaker is one of the great leaders in this struggle for freedom and independence.
“And in a real sense what we are trying to do in the South and in the United States is a part of this worldwide struggle for freedom and human dignity. Our struggle is not an isolated struggle; it is not a detached struggle, but it is a part of 1959 the worldwide revolution for freedom and justice.”
So we are concerned about what is happening in Africa and what is happening in Asia because we are a part of this whole movement. And we want Mr. Mboya to know, as he prepares to go back to Africa.” That we go with him iin spirit and with our moral support and even with our financial support.
“Certainly injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And so long as problems exist in Africa, or in Asia, or in any section of the United States, we must be concerned about it.”
“I hope as a result of this meeting we will go out with grim and bold determination to make the ideal of first-class citizenship a reality. And that we will go away with a new concern for Africa and Asia and all of the oppressed peoples over the world as they struggle to realize the dream of brotherhood and man’s love for all men.”
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
In a filing sent to the U.S. Supreme Court this week, the Department of Justice agreed with President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive student loans. In 2022, the president promised to forgive all outstanding student loan debt for millions of borrowers, up to a maximum of $20,000 each. Republicans are leading the way in suing the federal government to stop the plan. The Department of Justice, however, said last week in a court filing that Biden’s actions are perfectly legal. Lawyers from the Department of Justice said that Congress gave the president “clear permission” to go ahead with his plan. A federal judge in Texas invalidated a program in October that would have helped 40 million people with their student loan debt. Two people who didn’t qualify for aid under Biden’s scheme sued the initiative on behalf of the conservative Job Creators Network Foundation. At the time, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the government strongly disagreed. “The President and this Administration are determined to help working and middle-class Americans get back on their feet, while our opponents, backed by extremist Republican special interests, have sued to prohibit millions of Americans from getting much-needed relief,” Jean-Pierre remarked. The HEROES Act of 2003, according to the White House, gives the Secretary of Education the authority to forgive student debt. “The program is consequently an illegal exercise of Congress’s legislative power and must be vacated,” wrote Judge Mark Pittman, a Donald Trump nominee. “In this country, we are not dominated by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone,” he continued. Federal student loan debt of up to $10,000 will be forgiven for borrowers with yearly incomes of less than $125,000 in 2020 or 2021, and up to $200,000 for married couples or heads of households. Borrowers who also got a federal Pell grant might have up to $20,000 in their loans discharged. Six states with Republican governors sued to stop Biden’s plan to forgive debts. This made the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put a hold on the plan. One plaintiff in Texas lost her right to have her federal student loans forgiven because the federal government did not service her loans. Since the other plaintiff did not obtain a Pell award, the amount of debt relief to which he is entitled is just $10,000. They said they had no way of voicing their disapproval of the program’s regulations because the administration had not followed the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice and comment rule-making procedure. Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, stated in a statement, “This verdict supports the rule of law which requires all Americans to have their voices heard by their federal government.” According to CNN’s reporting, Bernie Marcus, the former CEO of Home Depot, and a key Trump donor, established the Job Creators Network Foundation. Two challenges challenging Biden’s debt relief plan will be argued before the Supreme Court in February. In February, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases. In its petition, the Justice Department said, “The lower courts’ decisions have wrongly taken away the Secretary’s legislative authority to give targeted student loan debt relief to borrowers affected by national emergencies.”
Greene County’s legislative delegation, consisting of State Senator Bobby Singleton and State Representative Curtis Travis, made recent appointments to the Greene County Racing Commission, including the re-appointment of Linette Brown and the new appointments of Morris Hardy and Donald Means. The Commissioners were sworn in on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. Brown will continue to serve as Chairperson. The Racing Commissioners serve a three-year term, and can be re-appointed. The former Commissioners, Prince Hines and Lottie Gibson had been in office for the past 17 years. Gerry Coleman serves as office manager for the Racing Commission. In 1975, the Alabama Legislature adopted Act No. 376, known as the Racing Act, which created the Greene County Racing Commission and invested this body with regulatory, licensing, and supervisory authority over pari-mutuel wagering on dog races in Greene County. Among its other provisions, the Racing Act provides that licensees must pay the Commission a license fee of up to $1,000 a year and a 4 percent tax on the total contributions to all pari-mutuel pools conducted or made on any race track licensed under the Racing Act. According to Racing Commission rules, only one facility in the county can be licensed for pari-mutual racing. Greenetrack has been the sole licensee of the Commission since obtaining its facility in 1995, and currently holds a 10 year license.
Jan. 9, 2023 (GIN) – A check may soon be on its way for some of the last surviving African soldiers who fought in French wars around the world but were forced to live in France six months of the year in order to qualify for the pensions they were owed.
As a result of the six month rule, many retirees could not spend their last days in Africa with their wives and children. With the regulation now to be lifted, they will continue receiving their pension payment even if they move away permanently.
The decision on the long-awaited pensions was confirmed on Jan. 4.
“After long years of fighting, we finally won,” Aïssata Seck, president of the Association for the Defense of Senegalese Tirailleurs’ Rights (Senegalese Riflemen), tweeted.
According to Seck, there are currently less than 80 living tirailleurs. All of them are very old, with the youngest of them aged 90. A dozen live in separate rooms in a home in the Paris suburb of Bondy, where Seck serves as an elected official.
The decision, applying a “principal of tolerance” for the veterans, will be formalized in a government letter to be published in coming days.
Meanwhile, a new film featuring Omar Sy, best known for the Netflix crime series “Lupin”, highlights the forgotten heroism of African riflemen from France’s former colonies who fought in the frontline trenches of the first world war.
Inspired by the true stories of 200,000 men drafted from French colonies, the work has personal resonance for the actor who was born and raised in France by parents of Mauritanian and Senegalese origins.
Tackling the film’s anti-war theme, the magazine Le Parisien asked Sy whether he found the current conflict in Ukraine upsetting.
Sy replied that Ukraine had not been “a crazy revelation” and that other conflicts taking place further afield had already touched him in equal measure.
“A war is a dark shadow over humanity, even when it’s on the other side of the world. We remember that man is capable of invading, of attacking civilians and children. It feels like we had to wait for Ukraine for us to wake up to this.”
“When it’s far away, they say over there, they’re savages, we’re no longer like that. It’s like at the beginning of Covid, when people said, It’s only the Chinese.”
At the Cannes film festival last year, director Mathieu Vadepied said the film aimed to rectify France’s failure to recognize the riflemen and tell their story.
In Senegal, the head of the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War said the decision was overdue.
“For a long time veterans have asked to return with their pensions but were not successful. This decision will relieve them. These veterans live alone, they live in extremely difficult conditions,” said Capt. Ngor Sarr.
Sarr, 85, fought for the French military in Algeria and Mauritania and then moved to France in 1993 so he could receive his pension. He said he then lost it when he returned to Senegal 20 years later.
“Many soldiers died, they didn’t get this opportunity despite the role they played in liberating France,” said Mamadou Lamine Thiam. His father also fought in Algeria and died in 2015, aged 85.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
The great-grandchildren of the African American couple Willa and Charles Bruce, whose land in Southern California was taken in 1924 and returned to the family last year, have opted to sell it back to the local government for $20 million. In the 1920s, the beach resort was extremely popular with African American tourists. At that time, Black people were not permitted on white beaches. The site became famously known as “Bruce’s Beach.” The children and grandchildren of Charles and Willa Bruce fought for decades to get back the land. Chief Duane Yellow Feather Shepard, a family historian and spokesman for the Bruce family, stated in a 2021 interview, “It was a very significant location because there was nowhere else along the California coast where African Americans could go to enjoy the water.” The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists often threatened the Bruce family, but they kept the resort open and took care of the land. In 1924, the municipal council used eminent domain to take the land to build a park. But, according to a TV show called “The Insider,” the area wasn’t used for many years. Willa and Charles Bruce fought back in court, but their compensation was only $14,000. In recent years, local officials have estimated the property’s value to be as high as $75 million. The area contains two coastal properties and is currently used for lifeguard training. Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, revealed that the family would sell the property back to the local government. Hahn stated that the price was set through an appraisal. Hahn stated, “This is what reparations look like, and it is a model I hope governments around the country would adopt.” The statement made by Hahn may or may not be exactly what the Bruce family desired in addition to the restitution of their land. In 2021, Anthony Bruce, the great-great-grandson of Willa and Charles Bruce, told The New York Times, “An apology would be the least they could do.”
Jan. 1, 2023 (GIN) – A Dutch court has upheld a payout to residents of the Niger Delta of US$15.9 million for oil spills that contaminated land and waterways in three communities.
In the case brought by Friends of the Earth, Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary was found to be responsible for the spills that occurred between 2004 and 2007. The payout will benefit the communities of Oruma, Goi and Ikot Ada Udo that were impacted by the four spills.
“The settlement is on a no admission of liability basis, and settles all claims and ends all pending litigation related to the spills,” Shell said.
The case was brought in 2008 by four farmers seeking reparations for lost income from contaminated land and waterways in the region, the heart of Nigeria’s oil industry.
After the appeals court’s final ruling last year, Shell said it continued to believe the spills were caused by sabotage. But the court sided with the farmers, saying Shell had not proven “beyond reasonable doubt” that sabotage had caused the spill, rather than poor maintenance.
Shell is the largest oil operator in the Niger Delta, Africa’s largest oil-producing region. Its residents face high poverty rates and a largely degraded environment, owing to hundreds of spills every year.
“We have groundwater polluted with benzene 900 times above World Health Organization level, we have farmlands with poor yields, rivers that are barely fishable, neonatal deaths numbering thousands yearly as a result of spills. We have reduced neuroplasticity of the brain as a result of oil pollution,” Niger Delta activist Saatah Nubari told CNN.
“The Niger Delta is a graveyard of the living,” said Nubari, “and we will never know how much harm has been done until we audit the entire environment”.
In 2012, in a similar case, members of the Bodo community in Nigeria filed a lawsuit against Shell for two oil spills and losses suffered to their health, livelihoods, and land.
They also requested clean-up of the oil pollution. In 2015, Shell accepted responsibility for the spill and agreed to pay US$83 million in an out of court settlement and to assist in clean up.
An earlier offer by Shell of less than $5,000 to settle the case was rejected unanimously as “derisory” by the community. Some 15,600 Bodo residents have benefited from the larger settlement, receiving over $2,500 each.
Meanwhile, Donald Pols from Friends of the Earth Netherlands commented on the compensation award. “It’s the most beautiful experience to see all the happy faces. Everybody is enormously happy.”
