East Point, GA — The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (“Federation”) is pleased to announce that on March 22, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously ruled to allow the Federation to intervene in the Miller v. Vilsack class action lawsuit currently pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The Miller vs. Vilsack case is a consolidated class action lawsuit by white farmers to stop the Secretary of Agriculture from implementing Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan which provided $4 billion of loan relief to “socially disadvantaged applicants” most of whom were Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color (BIPOC) farmers.
The lower Court had denied the Federation’s Motion to Intervene. The Federation, represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, Public Counsel and Winston-Strawn LLP, appealed the decision and the Appellate panel of Judges agreed with the Federation’s right to intervene in the matter.
Judges Southwick, Haynes, and Higginson wrote that the Federation’s interests are relevant to the case since any evidence of on-going or current race-based discrimination by USDA could be relevant to proving a “compelling governmental interest” in implementing the debt relief program. As a result, the lower Court’s denial of the Federation’s Motion to Intervene was overturned and returned to Judge O’Connor to allow the Federation to intervene as a party to the class action litigation.
Executive Director Cornelius Blanding was encouraged by the Court’s ruling stating, “The USDA’s Administration, under Secretary Vilsack’s leadership, has consistently expressed a commitment to racial equity. Working together as co-defendants of the constitutionality of the debt relief program will strengthen our shared goal of seeing the program fully implemented as originally announced.”
The case will be sent back to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas to allow the Federation to formally enter the litigation as co-defendants with the USDA.
“This is a critical decision,” advised Dania Davy, Director of Land Retention and Advocacy, “For the first time since these lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Section 1005 of the American Rescue Plan started to be filed, this Appellate Court was the first to seriously consider the devastating impact of the delayed implementation of the debt relief program on our member-farmers. By guaranteeing the Federation’s right to intervene, the Court ensured that the on-going, race-based discrimination our member-farmers continue to face can be entered as evidence in the litigation which will significantly strengthen the defense of this program’s constitutionality.”
The Department of Justice, on behalf of Secretary Vilsack, has continued its defense of the debt relief program and filed its Motion for Summary Judgement asking the Judge to allow the program to be implemented without a lengthy trial.
The Federation will not only continue to defend the Emergency Debt Relief for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers through this litigation, but will also continue to work with the USDA, the Federation’s legal counsel, partners, and coalitions to protect our member-farmers who should have received this debt relief last year from the looming threat of foreclosure and land loss.
Mar. 28, 2022 (GIN) – In anticipation of Earth Day on April 22, a blistering new study has emerged on the escalating climate crisis in Africa and the threat to water for millions of Africans.
Large-scale agricultural plantations have been drying up African lands, according to the California-based Oakland Institute in its newly-published report released on the eve of the Forum Alternatif Mondial de ‘Eau (FAME 2022) in Dakar, Senegal. The report sounds the alarm on a corporate water grab and calls for urgent action.
Researchers over the years have noted with concern the growing number of international investors profiteering from large-scale agricultural projects across Africa. “Financial flows going into agriculture are growing more and more institutionalized – and more and more private,” wrote the international nonprofit “Grain” in an article titled: “Barbarians at the Barn: private equity sinks its teeth into agriculture”.
“To be sure,” says Grain, “investing in agriculture has been going on since time immemorial. But since the mid 2000s, institutional investment in agriculture has really taken off.
“From seven agriculture-focused funds in 2004 to more than 300 today, the interest in capturing profits from farming and agribusiness on a global scale is real – and Covid-19 is not slowing things down.”
While governments justify granting access to land and water to investors to meet the needs of development and food security, a review of 15 large-scale agriculture projects across 11 African countries exposes the impact to be just the opposite,” Oakland Institute found.
“Projects have often led to the loss of streams and swamps — diverted or destroyed to establish plantations. The intensive use of chemicals and pesticides has not only polluted water sources, but also led to the loss of drinking water, crops, fish, and pastures. This disproportionately impacts women, who also bear the burden of collecting water,” they said.
“Investors typically want reliable access to water sources,” said Frédéric Mousseau, author of the report “Drying Out African Lands: Expansion of Large-Scale Agriculture Threatens Access to Water in Africa” and Oakland Institute’s policy director. “While they enjoy extensive freedom to use the land along with unlimited, cheap or free access to water, their promises of development, infrastructure, and services to the communities fail to materialize,” Mousseau said.
Lack of irrigation in Africa is a major factor holding back agricultural production and food security. When irrigation infrastructure is established, it benefits private firms for large-scale agriculture — often for export crops — instead of local farmers and communities.
“People living in drought stricken lands are severely impacted by large-scale irrigation projects that reduce available pastures, as fences and canals cut through traditional routes of people and livestock,” the Institute found.
Also highlighted in the report is the role of the World Bank and other financial institutions which have been guiding African governments to grant investors large plots of land and favorable water access for their large-scale projects. Tens of millions of acres of land and “underutilized” water resources are being sold off despite the devastating impact of these projects on local communities.
“This report sounds the alarm on the dire threat these large-scale agriculture projects pose to the water usage rights that family farmers, fishermen, and pastoralists have informally held for centuries,” said Leonard Shang-Quartey, Regional Coordinator of FAME 2022.
“Access to water is a basic human right,” he said, “which has to be preserved and prioritized over granting resources to corporations that have a long track record of social and environmental devastation.”
George Washington Carver Museum on campus of Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama
By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor
Shifting funds from the Department of Education to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities experiencing sporadic bomb threats, several top officials in the Biden Administration spoke out. Over the last two months repeated bomb threats have been made against several HBCUS including Morgan State, and Howard University. On March 16, in a small auditorium at the Old Executive Office Building next door to The White House, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke on the plan. The allocations, coming from existing money from the Department of Education budget, comes to about $150,000 per school. HBCUS have received a record amount of funding from the federal government over the last year into the billions. “At the Justice Department, we believe the time to address illegal threats is when they are made, not after tragedy strikes. We also know that the threat against HBCUs and their students has deep, historical roots… In the over 150 years since the founding of the Department, the threats posed by hate-fueled criminal acts have taken on many different forms. But our task remains the same: to use our resources and our legal authorities to prevent and confront bias-motivated violence and threats of violence,” the Attorney said in front of education officials, reporters and supporters of HBCUs. Black Press USA asked Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH) and Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond about the historic allocations. “If you look at our Administration, if you look at what we’re doing we’re making sure we empower our universities. They’ve done great with less for far too long,” Richmond said standing in the White House driveway. Members of the CBC received a briefing on the bomb threats from Department of Justice officials in early March. In an era of divisive politics and a former President, Donald Trump, who negatively openly targeted Black members of Congress and cities with large Black populations such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, concerns for HBCUs have remained high. “The threats made against our nations Historically Black Colleges and Universities are far from new, and I commend the Administration for finally allocating the necessary attention and resources to HBCUs as we work to end the string of threats and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson in a statement. “Our administration is sending a very clear message that intimidation will not stand and we will not be intimidated. We will do everything in our power to protect all our communities from violence and from hate,” said Vice President Harris. Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 21: U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill March 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, will begin four days of nomination hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If confirmed by the Senate, Judge Jackson would become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said out loud on Monday what many may have thought about the Supreme Court nomination hearings where Republicans verbally lynched Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. “Judge Jackson is a better person than me,” Durbin announced. As the committee advanced Jackson’s nomination and, with three Republicans announcing their support for the judge, it’s all but assured that a Black woman will sit for the first time on the highest court in the land. The final tally of 53-47 included GOP Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) expects final confirmation by April 9. “My support rests on Judge Jackson’s qualifications, which no one questions; her demonstrated judicial independence; her demeanor and temperament; and the important perspective she would bring to the court as a replacement for Justice [Stephen] Breyer,” Murkowski said. “She will bring to the Supreme Court a range of experience from the courtroom that few can match given her background in litigation.” On Twitter, Romney announced that Jackson is a “well-qualified jurist and a person of honor” who “more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity.” The most recent committee hearing appeared headed on a spiral toward earlier confirmation sessions when Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who three times had voted to confirm Jackson to other seats, spewed more venom. “[Jackson] is embraced by the most radical people in the Democratic movement to the exclusion of everybody else,” Graham spouted. He also referred to Jackson as an “activist” judge, noting that if the GOP controlled the Senate, she would already have been voted down. “If we get back the Senate and we are in charge of this body, and there [are] judicial openings, we will talk to our colleagues on the other side, but she would not have been before this committee if we were in charge,” Graham railed. However, Durbin praised the nominee’s restraint in the face of unhinged GOP senators who many suggested posed questions that bordered on being racist and obscene. “She stayed calm and collected, showed dignity, grace, and poise. It is unfortunate that some moments in our hearing came to that. But if there’s one positive to take away from these attacks on her, it is that the nation saw the temperament of a good strong person ready to serve on the highest court in the land,” Durbin asserted. As most observers speculated, the Senate Judiciary Committee split down the middle, voting 11-11 along party lines on Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination. D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said while the vote to advance and ultimately confirm Jackson “is historic,” there’s still some emptiness for the District of Columbia. “D.C., as with every other SCOTUS nominee in history, will have no vote on confirmation even though D.C. and its residents are bound by the court’s rulings,” Norton stated. Still, Jackson’s confirmation remains on pace for a dramatic conclusion either on April 7 or 8. “We applaud the Senate Judiciary Committee for taking a critical step towards a U.S. Supreme Court that represents our communities and fulfills the promise of equal justice under law,” Wade Henderson, the CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, remarked. “At her hearing, Judge Jackson showed the nation why she will be a justice for all — her years of experience as an even-handed jurist, her brilliance and passion for the law, and her commitment to fairness and to upholding the constitutional rights of all,” Henderson said. “In the face of dishonest attacks and shameful attempts to derail her nomination, Judge Jackson demonstrated her thoughtful judicial temperament and perseverance. She is ready to serve on our highest court, and we call on the full Senate to confirm this distinguished and highly qualified nominee immediately.” Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) also praised Jackson. “The NNPA reiterates our strongest support for Judge Jackson to join the U.S. Supreme Court,” Dr. Chavis remarked. “It appears now that the U.S. Senate will do the right thing at the right time with the confirmation of Judge Jackson at a time in our nation where the racial divide has not been closed. Having Judge Jackson on the Supreme Court will at least give Black Americans and other communities of color a strong voice for fairness and equal justice.”
If you are boosted you are 21 times less likely to die from COVID-19
On March 30, 2022, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) issued an advisory stating, “In order to maintain the highest level of protection from vaccinations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized a second booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for individuals age 50 and older and certain immunocompromised individuals.
The ADPH issued this advisory because, “Protection offered by COVID-19 vaccine decreases over time, and cautions that even in times of low community transmission, the risk for older and immunocompromised persons to become severely ill with COVID-19 is not zero.”
The FDA previously authorized a single booster dose for certain immunocompromised individuals following completion of a three-dose primary vaccination series. This action will now make a second booster dose of these vaccines available to other populations at higher risk for severe disease, hospitalization and death. Emerging evidence suggests that a second booster dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine improves protection against severe COVID-19 and is not associated with new safety concerns.
In a recent briefing, sponsored by Ethnic Media Services (EMS), experts stated that two years into the pandemic, COVID-19 cases have decreased dramatically and 95% of Americans have some immunity either for having been vaccinated or previously infected with the virus.
However, experts from the Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention (CDC), warned that because it’s unpredictable to know when the next variant or the next pandemic is coming, vaccination remains the most important preventive measure for all age groups.
Dr. Shannon Stokley DrPH, Co-Lead of the CDC Vaccine Task Force said at the EMS briefing that:
“We’ve given more than 559 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and that’s three times the amount of vaccine that’s usually given in a flu season. A good majority of that has been mRNA vaccines that have been proven safe and effective at preventing complications from COVID-19, including severe disease, hospitalization, and death.”
“Currently there are multiple manufacturers that are conducting clinical trials to assess the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine among children younger than five years of age. Once complete, those manufacturers must submit an application to the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA will then review the data and if there’s good evidence of safety and effectiveness, they will authorize the vaccine under emergency use for children in this age group.”
“If you’re boosted, you are 21 times less likely to die from COVID-19. So, vaccination remains the most effective and safest way to prevent COVID-19.”
“Over time you’ll have waning immunity and that is why we’ve been recommending a booster dose of vaccine. What we’re really concerned about there is preventing hospitalization and death. And these vaccines are very good at preventing these severe outcomes.”
Dr. John T. Brooks, MD, CDC Senior Medical Adviser, added to the EMS briefing the following:
“BA2 variant represents 35% of circulating variants nationally… There is no evidence that BA2 variant results in more severe disease, nor does it appear to be more likely to evade immune protection. But it does have increased transmission in comparison to the related BA1 variant that circulated in the US peaking during January of 2021.”
“We’re watching the signals in Western Europe and the UK and then also in parts of Asia. The situation in the US has an important difference from those: we have very high levels of immunity in this country, 95% of Americans have some evidence of either having been vaccinated or previously infected with COVID. We think that’s very high compared to some other places in the world.”
“We live in one world, and we’re only as safe as a plane ride away. It’s important that we protect everyone in our world community. Untreated COVID-19 infection is the source of new variants. People who are not vaccinated and become infected can become the source of new variants to emerge. These are good reasons to want to provide the vaccine to everyone possible.”
“This pandemic is not over and we have to be prepared to take care of ourselves and to take care of others. Should there be a resurgence? or should there be another pandemic coming after this one? History has shown us over and over this is not the last one. My message here is to be prepared for the future.”
Persons in Greene County interested in more information or to make an appointment for a vaccination or a booster, may call the Greene County Public Health Department at 205-372-9316; or the Greene County Physicians Clinic at 205-372-3388, Ext. 4.
Mar. 28, 2022 (GIN) – Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the head of the World Trade Organization, is warning that skyrocketing global food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine could trigger food riots from people going hungry in poor countries.
WTO Director General Okonjo-Iweala urged food-producing countries against hoarding supplies and said it was vital to avoid a repeat of the Covid pandemic, when rich countries were able to secure for themselves the bulk of vaccines.
In an interview with The Guardian of the UK, the WTO director general noted the dependence of many African countries on food supplies from the Black Sea region.
“I think we should be very worried. The impact on food prices and hunger this year and next could be substantial. Food and energy are the two biggest items in the consumption baskets of poor people all over the world,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
“It is poor countries and poor people within poor countries that will suffer the most.”
Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, said 35 African countries were dependent on food imported from the Black Sea region, adding that Russia and Ukraine were responsible for 24% of global supplies of wheat.
After being strongly critical of the “vaccine apartheid” that affected Africa during the pandemic, she said WTO member states had to resist the temptation of protecting their own food stocks.
“It is a natural reaction to keep what you have – we saw that with vaccines. But we shouldn’t make the same mistake with food.”
The last time rising food prices sparked food riots was between 2006 and 2008. Protests broke out in developing countries as prices in a wide range of food, oil and other primary commodities increased in dramatic fashion, in some cases more than doubling within a few months. Policymakers were presented with the challenge of simultaneously addressing hunger, poverty, and political instability.
In Africa, food riots swept across the continent, from Egypt and Tunisia in the North, to Burkina Faso and Senegal in the West, and Madagascar and Mozambique in the South.
The crisis reinforced the extent to which oil and food markets have become highly interdependent, and highlighted the relative inability of national governments and the international community to adequately deal with dramatic surges in food prices.
“We must make sure we learn the lessons from vaccines and previous food crises,” Ms. Okonjo-Iweala said. “I am not sure we can fully mitigate the impact of the war in Ukraine because the numbers involved are huge, but we can mitigate some of it.”
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Two kindergarteners in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, tried their best to pick a fight, throwing feeble punches at an older and much larger boy who insulted one of their mothers. Police, having seen the fight online, couldn’t determine which boys were part of these mundane events but arrested 11 other kids – all were Black and all of them in elementary school – who purportedly were there and watched the fight unfold. According to The Sentencing Project, the children, some of them in handcuffs, were brought to the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center. Authorities ran them through an undefined “filter system” that determined some needed to be locked up. In Rutherford County, roughly half of the arrested kids are detained. According to Rutherford County Judge Donna Scott Davenport, who approved the detentions, “Being detained in our facility is not a picnic at all. It’s not supposed to be. It’s a consequence for an action.” Children alleged “action” – watching a fight and not breaking it up – isn’t a crime in Tennessee. But it folds nicely into new data from the Sentencing Project, which revealed that youth detentions and commitment revealed sharp racial and ethnic disparities. According to the report titled “Too Many Locked Doors,” youth of color encounter police more often than their white peers and are disproportionately arrested despite modest differences in behavior that cannot explain the extent of arrest disparities. The disparities in incarceration begin with arrests but grow at each point of contact along the justice system continuum, the authors of the 27-page report found. In roughly one-quarter of delinquency cases throughout the decade, a youth was detained pre-adjudication. Moreover, the authors determined that children of color are more likely to face detainment than their white peers when arrested. Despite states and counties’ traditional reliance on detention when responding to misbehaviors and offenses committed by youth, the scope and impact of youth incarceration in the United States are not fully understood, and traditional counts understate its size. “Every time juvenile courts decide to confine a young person, even for short stays, devastating and life-long consequences may result,” said Josh Rovner, Senior Advocacy Associate, and the author of the new report. “Understanding the full scope of kids’ incarceration is critical to protecting youth and ensuring equal justice for youth of color,” Rovner noted in a news release. The Sentencing Project said the report offers a fresh look at nationwide juvenile courts data, such as the frequency of youth detention after encounters with law enforcement and out-of-home placements after court hearings. More than one in four youth are detained upon their arrest, a ratio that has slightly worsened over the last decade. In 2019, officials recorded nearly 200,000 instances of youth detained upon their arrest, often for less than two or three weeks. In addition, more than 55,000 times youths were sent to out-of-home placement after their court hearings. Every other year, a one-day count occurs to provide a snapshot of the extent of youth incarceration; that count overlooks more than four out of five instances of a child or adolescent being removed from their home. “Too Many Locked Doors” offers a more comprehensive view of youth incarceration. According to the report, overall, there is far fewer youth in detention and commitment than a decade ago, due primarily to declines in youth offending and arrests. However, when American children and adolescents are arrested, the juvenile justice system too often detains and commits them. In addition, the youth of color face even more harsh treatment than their white peers.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday, March 29, signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022, which makes lynching a federal hate crime. Earlier this month, the bipartisan measure passed both chambers of Congress. Named after Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American savagely murdered by a group of white men in Mississippi in 1955, the legislation received push back from three Republicans – Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and Chip Roy of Texas. Each were the lone votes against the bill. Emmett Till’s murder sparked the civil rights movement which ultimately led to bills like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other social justice laws. “I could not have been prouder to stand behind President Biden as he signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law,” National Urban League President Marc Morial stated. “The act of lynching is a weapon of racial terror that has been used for decades, and our communities are still impacted by these hate crimes to this day,” Morial continued. “This bill is long overdue, and I applaud President Biden and Members of Congress for their leadership in honoring Emmett Till and other lynching victims by passing this significant piece of legislation.” According to the bill’s text, “Whoever conspires to commit any offense … shall (A) if death results from the offense, be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.” “(B) In any other case, be subjected to the same penalties as the penalties prescribed for the offense of the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.” Specifically, the legislation makes lynching a federal hate crime, punishable by up to life in prison. The measure had faced defeat for more than 100 years, with lawmakers attempting to pass the legislation more than 200 times. The House finally passed the bill on a 422-3 vote. It passed unanimously in the Senate. “This is a moment of historic consequence. Despite more than 200 attempts to make lynching a federal crime over the past 120 years, it has never before been done,” added Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). “We are proud Congressman Bobby Rush remained steadfast in championing this critical legislation,” Beatty asserted. “This bill clearly conveys our nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our history, and the full force of the U.S. federal government will be brought to bear against those who commit this heinous act.” Lynching counts as a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of racial terror that has for decades been used to maintain the white hierarchy,” said Rush (D-Illinois). “Perpetrators of lynching got away with murder time and time again — in most cases, they were never even brought to trial. Legislation to make lynching a federal crime and prevent racist killers from evading justice was introduced more than 200 times, but never once passed into law,” Rush stated. The founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Rush previously promised to do all he could to push the legislation through before his retirement. The congressman recalled that he was 8 years old when he saw photos of Emmett Till’s brutalized corpse in Jet Magazine. “That shaped my consciousness as a Black man in America, changed the course of my life, and changed our nation,” Rush affirmed. New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker noted that between 1936 and 1938, the national headquarters of the NAACP hung a flag with the words “A man was lynched yesterday.” “That was a solemn reminder of the reality Black Americans experienced daily during some of the darkest chapters of America’s history,” Sen. Booker remarked. “Used by white supremacists to oppress and subjugate Black communities, lynching is a form of racialized violence that has permeated much of our nation’s past and must now be reckoned with,” the Senator continued. “Although this bill will not undo the terror and fear of the past, it’s a necessary step that our nation must take to move forward.”
