Aug. 22, 2022 (GIN) – Government forces say they have put down a siege at the popular Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu that began Friday and has reportedly left over 20 casualties. It is the largest siege in the country since Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected president in May. The Hayat is an upscale hotel frequented by government officials, elders and people from the diaspora community. The director of Mogadishu’s main trauma hospital, Mohamed Abdirahman Jama, said the facility was treating at least 40 people wounded in the hotel attack and a separate mortar strike on another area of the capital. The founder and current chair of the Union for Peace and Development Party, President Sheikh Mohamud was previously a university professor and dean and was named in Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The weekend attack comes as Somali forces have stepped up operations against al-Shabab, and as Somalia’s President Mohamud has promised to eliminate the armed group. The al-Shabab leadership has also promised to topple Mohamud’s government. Earlier this week, the United States announced that its forces had killed 13 al-Shabab fighters in an air raid in the central-southern part of the country as the group was attacking Somali forces. The US has carried out several air raids on the group’s fighters in recent weeks. Last May, President Biden signed an order authorizing the military to once again deploy hundreds of Special Operations forces inside Somalia — largely reversing the decision by President Donald J. Trump to withdraw nearly all 700 ground troops who had been stationed there, according to four officials familiar with the matter. In addition, Mr. Biden approved a Pentagon request for standing authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group that is affiliated with Al Qaeda, three of the officials said. The decisions by Mr. Biden, described to Washington Post reporters on the condition of anonymity, will revive an open-ended American counterterrorism operation that has amounted to a slow-burn war through three administrations. The move stands in contrast to his decision last year to pull American forces from Afghanistan, saying that “it is time to end the forever war.”
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
American Airlines celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license – Bessie Coleman accomplished that feat in 1922. With an all-Black female crew, the airlines hosted the Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars tour, recognizing how Coleman bravely broke down barriers within the world of aviation and paved the path for many to follow. To help honor Coleman’s legacy, American Airlines hosted Gigi Coleman, Bessie’s great-niece, on a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Phoenix. An all-Black female crew – from the pilots and flight attendants to the cargo team members and the aviation maintenance technician – took the reins for the special occasion. “American is being intentional in its efforts to diversify the flight deck,” airline officials wrote in a news release. “Black women have been notably underrepresented in the aviation industry, especially as pilots, representing less than 1% in the commercial airline industry.” Through the American Airlines Cadet Academy, the airline said it’s committed to expanding awareness of and increasing accessibility to the pilot career within diverse communities. Coleman earned a pilot’s license in 1921 and performed the first public flight by a Black woman in 1922. She traveled to France to obtain her license when the U.S. refused her. Coleman then performed air shows in and around Chicago, according to federal records. Captain Beth Powell and First Officer Charlene Shortte led the American Airlines flight to observe the centennial of Coleman’s history-making journey.
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
According to a report from The Sentencing Project, current jail-based voter programs that rely on absentee voting often experience various logistical challenges. Increasingly, advocates and officials recognize that establishing a polling location will improve voter access and turnout far better than jail-based absentee voting initiatives. Sentencing Project researchers pointed to when after the Cook County jail in Illinois was turned into a polling location, approximately 2,200 people were able to cast their ballot. “Every year, hundreds of thousands of eligible incarcerated voters are unable to cast their ballot due to misinformation, institutional bureaucracy, and de-prioritization among government officials,” said Durrel Douglas, author of the report, and Jail-based Voting Initiative Organizer with The Sentencing Project. “This [report] provides many case studies that can help advocates increase ballot access for incarcerated voters and help jail officials and lawmakers expand ballot access in jails,” Douglas stated. “Our democracy works best when everyone eligible to vote can make their voice heard.” Researchers observed that the vast majority of those incarcerated are eligible to vote because they are not currently serving a sentence for a felony conviction but are incarcerated pretrial or sentenced to a misdemeanor offense. However, incarcerated voters often experience significant barriers to voting because of misinformation, the institutional bureaucracy that varies from one county or city to another, and de-prioritization among government officials, the researchers concluded. They said most states have underdeveloped practices for people incarcerated in prisons and jails to register or access absentee ballots or polling locations. Further, the report noted that many incarcerated residents could not freely communicate via phone or email with election officials to monitor their voter registration or ballot applications. The authors insisted that voter education for justice-impacted citizens is often limited and varies across states, resulting in too many Americans being left behind each election season. They said recent reforms and a growing civic infrastructure offer opportunities to strengthen voting access and ensure the franchise for every individual, regardless of incarceration status. “We, as an organization, would hope that every jail would either support a polling location in their facility in partnership with the local Board of Elections and or enable and support absentee voting systems,” Kristen Powers, executive director of the Benevolence Farm. This rural North Carolina nonprofit supports formerly incarcerated women by providing housing, employment, and wraparound services. Benevolence Farm also co-operates a Bail Fund that serves individuals incarcerated in the local detention center on low-level bonds of up to $2,000. “Elected officials and the policies they implement affect incarcerated people every day. Incarcerated people are most proximate to the problem and, thus, should have input on the solution,” Powers wrote in an email. “Furthermore, they are taxpayers, and we firmly believe there should be no taxation without representation for all people in our country.” The Sentencing Project researchers said lawmakers and citizens could work with political candidates to host candidate forums at local jails. During the 2021 election cycle in Michigan, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson and the IGNITE – Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education – program co-hosted a candidates’ forum for residents at the jail. More than 20 city council candidates attended the “Meet the Candidates’’ town hall, where residents at the prison and candidates discussed ways to improve public education and support reentry programs. According to the Sentencing Project’s report, America’s mass incarceration problem has led to record levels of disenfranchisement. However, researchers found that many justice-impacted residents, including those in pretrial jail detention, incarcerated in certain states on a probation or parole violation, or sentenced for a misdemeanor, are eligible to vote while in jail. “Yet even when the law permits certain individuals to vote while incarcerated, many remain unable to vote because of obstacles to electoral participation, including lack of polling places and an inability to register to vote,” researchers wrote. They noted that individuals in jail are also often reluctant to exercise the franchise due to fear and lack of awareness. Democracy advocates and stakeholders must include incarcerated voters in their democracy initiatives to improve voting in jail practices. “With the end of felony disenfranchisement in Washington, DC, and the introduction of similar measures to expand voting to all persons with felony convictions in other states, building the infrastructure for democratic participation in local jails not only expands voter access to strengthen our democracy, it can also help guarantee ballot access for all incarcerated citizens in the United States,” the researchers asserted.
President Biden signs IRA as members of U.S. Senate and House look on
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed the historic $750 billion Inflation Reduction Act into law, a major accomplishment for the administration and a Democratic Party that’s now looking with more optimism toward November’s crucial midterm elections. The bill represents the most significant climate investment in U.S. history. It includes strengthening critical provisions of the Affordable Care Act, providing Medicare with authority to negotiate certain prescription drug costs, and administration officials anticipate it will create jobs with family-sustaining wages. Additionally, the law will reduce the national deficit. Biden said new taxes would pay for the bill, including a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and a 1% tax on stock buyback. Overall, it’s projected that the measure would result in the government raking in more than $700 billion over ten years while spending about $430 billion to help reduce carbon emissions and securing the extension of subsidies in the health care law. “This legislation is a game changer. It will create jobs, lower costs, increase U.S. competitiveness, reduce air pollution, and, of course, tackle the climate crisis,” former Vice President Al Gore told The Climate 202. “We have crossed a major threshold, and it’s going to have significant impacts on international climate action,” said Gore, long a crusader of environmental justice and a Nobel Prize winner for climate activism. The new law should primarily assist African American families. According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Black households are more exposed to inflation fluctuations than their white peers. Researchers concluded that if prices paid by white households increase by 7 percent over a year, calculations suggest that one may expect them to increase by 7.5 percent for Black families. “In our research, we examine how this informs the trade-off between inflation and unemployment stabilization for White and Black households,” the study authors explained. “The result implies that when evaluating trade-offs between inflation and unemployment, one ought to keep in mind that the costs of inflation may be borne disproportionately by the more disadvantaged group.” With gas, food, and other prices rising, the authors concluded that necessities such as groceries, electricity, and wireless phone service make up a larger share of Black families’ budgets. The study said that Black households also spend a more significant portion of their income on goods and services with prices that change more often. The result, according to researchers, isn’t a mystery: “Black families will suffer the worst effects of rising inflation because they lag behind their White counterparts in income, wealth, financial savings and home ownership.” Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr, NNPA President and CEO, emphasized, “Black America will definitely benefit economically and socially from the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act. “President Biden continues to keep his promise to our families and communities across the nation,” Chavis stated. “We also note that Black owned businesses including the Black Press of America will also have increased opportunities to expand economic development, innovation, advertising, and new workforce advances as a direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act.” “A large number of Black families live paycheck to paycheck and cannot easily escape the constantly increasing wealth gap between them and the other demographics, especially the white,” said Ellie Walters , CEO of Findpeoplefaster.com . “Inflation often makes this dilemma worse, since during inflation, wages are cut, and workers are laid off. These low-income earners, largely made up of Black community members, are trapped by an economic cycle that seems rigged against them.” Ronda Brunson, an expert in financial planning and credit restoration at Project Restore Bmore, agreed that Black households would continue to feel the impact of rising inflation. “Most Black homes with car notes are paying double-digit interest rates, same for credit cards. Yet, we are not conditioned to go for better but to be grateful for whatever approval without contesting,” Brunson asserted. According to the Brookings Institute, the median wealth of a white household is $188,200, which is 7.8 times more than the average Black household at $24,100. Two years ago, the homeownership rate for white Americans was about 73% compared to 42% for Black Americans.
