The Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • Newswire: While struggling Americans await $1,200 Stimulus, Nation’s wealthiest reap windfall

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent


    While struggling individuals and families look forward to a $1,200 federal stimulus check, America’s wealthy have again made off with most of the cash.
    The $2.3 trillion coronavirus stimulus package includes a temporary tax change for individuals who make at least $1 million a year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The Joint Committee’s analysis shows 43,000 taxpayers in the highest income bracket, making more than $1 million a year, could save a combined $70 billion in taxes. Almost all benefits from the tax break go to people making more than $100,000 a year.
    The change in tax law reportedly suspends limits on how much money individuals can deduct against how much they owe based on lost income or business revenue, according to the committee.
    Still, millionaires and billionaires are set to reap more than 80 percent of the benefits because of the Trump tax law change, which alters what certain business owners are allowed to deduct from their taxes.
    It allows many of the country’s wealthiest to avoid nearly $82 billion of tax liability in 2020. Nearly 82 percent of the benefits from the tax law change will go to people making $1 million or more annually in 2020, according to the Joint Committee. Approximately 95 percent of those who benefit from the change make $200,000 or more.
    The government began sending out $1,200 stimulus payments to individuals making less than $75,000, and $2,400 for couples earning no more than $150,000.
    An additional $500 per child under 18 was provided to families while those high school and college students over the age of 17 were left entirely out.
    In all, taxpayers will lose nearly $90 billion from the change to the law, which suspends a restriction introduced in President Trump’s 2017 tax bill. The change allows owners of businesses known as pass-through entities to lower their taxes by deducting as much as they want against income unrelated to the company.
    “It’s a scandal for Republicans to loot American taxpayers amid an economic and human tragedy,” Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse noted in a statement.
    “This analysis shows that while Democrats fought for unemployment insurance and small business relief, a top priority of President Trump and his allies in Congress was another massive tax cut for the wealthy.”
    Whitehouse and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) sent a letter expressing their concerns to Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought.
    “We are specifically seeking information about whether any people in the Trump administration who were involved with developing the changes would also benefit from the provisions.” Several published reports said both Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner stand to reap millions as a result of the stimulus package and the change in tax law.
    So that Congress and the American public can better understand the provenance of these tax law changes, and assess whether any individuals within the Administration who stand to gain from these provisions were involved in their development, Whitehouse and Doggett have requested that Pence, and Vought provide the following information:
    · All communications from January 1, 2020, to the present between the White House, Department of Treasury, or the Office of Management and Budget and any nongovernment person or entity related to sections 2303 or 2304, or the policies modified by those sections.
    · All communications between the Department of Treasury and the White House, and between the Department of Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget, related to sections 2303 or 2304, or the policies modified by those sections, in the development of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
    · All studies, analyses, proposals, cost estimates, or other information considered by the White House, the Department of Treasury, or the Office of Management and Budget related to sections 2303 or 2304, or the policies modified by those sections, in the development of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
    ·
    “It’s a scandal for Republicans to loot American taxpayers in the midst of an economic and human tragedy,” Whitehouse noted in his statement. “Congress should repeal this rotten, un-American giveaway and use the revenue to help workers battling through this crisis.”
    Doggett added that the cost of the tax break is more than total new funding for all hospitals in America and more than the total provided to all state and local governments.
    “Someone wrongly seized on this health emergency to reward ultrarich beneficiaries, likely including the Trump family, with a tax loophole not available to middle class families. This net operating loss loophole is a loser that should be repealed,” Doggett said.

  • Newswire: African climate groups denounce bank funds for ‘exceptionally high-risk’ pipeline

    Apr. 13, 2020 (GIN) – A climate justice movement of over 100 major organizations in Africa and abroad has joined hands to press the African Development Bank (AfDB) to drop its support of an “exceptionally high-risk project” that threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in East Africa.
    In a letter to the Bank President, leaders of environmental and social groups from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and South Africa, among others, warned that the East African Crude Oil Pipeline posed global climate risks and environmental damage including harm to freshwater supplies and biodiversity in the region.
    At approximately 900 miles it would be the longest heated pipeline in the world, stretching from Uganda to Tanzania.
    Further, the project is being developed in a political climate in which human rights defenders and journalists expressing criticism of the project and associated facilities face harassment and threats of retaliation.
    The major risk is fossil fuel expansion, the group charged in an open letter to Bank President Akinwumi Adesina – and the resulting emissions that could harm the surrounding farming communities in both countries.
    Corruption and human-rights violations from large-scale land acquisition and resettlement, and threats to livelihoods, biodiversity and natural habitats along the pipeline route are other factors, the group said.
    “The bank should be seeking opportunities to fund renewables that can contribute to the region’s energy needs in a clean and rights-compatible manner,” said Diana Nabiruma of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), based in Uganda.
    “… The last thing that Africa’s premier development bank should be considering is the financing of a massive oil pipeline,” said Eugenie Cha, Africa Program Director for Inclusive Development International. “This project is not only wholly incompatible with the African Development Bank’s climate commitments, but it also poses unacceptable risks to local communities and ecosystems.”
    “We in the Democratic Republic of Congo are also concerned that this project could potentially endanger vitally important and biodiverse ecosystems, such as Virunga National Park,” said Bantu Lukambo of the DRC-based environmental protection group.
    Meanwhile, local officials in Uganda insist the pipeline project is not dead and still plan to start construction before 2021. As recently as August, Standard Bank said the project has “lots of interest” and that finding additional financing would “not be a problem”.
    The next meeting of the AfDB Boards of Governors is tentatively scheduled for May 26-29 in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast.

  • Newswire: Individual Stimulus Checks begin to arrive, What Should You Expect?

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent
    @StacyBrownMedia


    Payments from the $2.3 trillion federal coronavirus stimulus package have begun hitting individual bank accounts.
    In a memo, IRS Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the first round of payments were sent on Thursday, April 9, and should arrive in bank accounts beginning no later than Tuesday, April 14.
    Most Americans are eligible for and will receive stimulus payments, except for those who owe back child support payments.
    Single-filers who make less than $75,000 will receive $1,200, while married couples making less than $150,000 are scheduled to get $2,400. An additional $500 payment will be provided to households for each child under 17.
    The IRS will base the payments on the adjusted gross income of taxpayers’ 2019 return. If a 2019 return hasn’t been filed (the deadline has been extended for two months), the IRS will use information from the 2018 return. If the return doesn’t contain direct deposit information, or if the IRS doesn’t have returns from 2018 or 2019, a paper check will be issued later.
    Electronic payments also will go out to those receiving Social Security and disability, even if recipients don’t typically file a tax return.
    For those who haven’t provided the IRS with bank account information, paper checks are expected to begin reaching households in May, but, in some cases, recipients won’t receive payment until September.
    “If we have your bank information, you’ll get it within two weeks,” Mnuchin said. “Social Security, you’ll get it very quickly after that. If we don’t have your information, you’ll have a simple web portal, we’ll upload it. If we don’t have that, we’ll send you checks in the mail.”
    Treasury officials said they expect 50 million to 70 million Americans to have received directly deposited payments by April 15, which is one day later than what the IRS said it expects the deposits to become available.
    The IRS does plan to set up a portal on its website where filers can enter direct deposit information if the agency doesn’t already have those details. Those who have provided bank information on their 2018 or 2019 returns don’t have to do anything unless their information has changed.
    As for paper checks, the Washington Post reported that the IRS plan would distribute those to the lowest-income Americans first, prioritizing payments for individual taxpayers with incomes of $10,000 or less on April 24.
    Checks for earners of $20,000 or less would be in the mail May 1, followed by those with incomes of $30,000 on May 8, $40,000 on May 15, and continuing in income increments of $10,000 each week, according to the plan. The IRS plans to issue about 5 million checks each week.
    Stimulus checks would be issued on Sept. 4 to joint taxpayers earning $198,000, the maximum allowed under the stimulus. All others would be sent on Sept. 11, in most cases, because the IRS did not have prior tax information for them, and they need to apply for the checks.

  • Newswire: Trump points the finger of blame at another Black man for COVID-19

    President blames the World Health Organization for not providing timely information, WHO says coronavirus was public health emergency in January

    By Frederick H. Lowe

    Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebryeyeous


    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com


    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – President Trump has found a Black man other than former President Barack Obama to point the finger at for his and his administration’s failings.
    Trump is now attacking Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian-born head of the World Health Organization, one of the go-to organizations dispensing important data concerning the coronavirus pandemic.
    The U.S. is a major WHO funder, and Trump has threatened to cut the Geneva, Switzerland-based organization’s funding, charging that the WHO “really blew it,” being persuaded by China to downplay the coronavirus outbreak.
    “They could have called it much earlier,” Trump said at a coronavirus task force briefing Tuesday evening. “When they call every shot wrong, that’s no good.” He charged that the WHO was very “China-centric. “Fortunately, I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on…Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?” Trump posted in an April 7 tweet.
    Nearly 40,000 people have flown from China to the United States since the president imposed travel restrictions between the two countries.
    And others have piled on with the blame. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist, said on Fox News he will push to cut WHO’s U.S. funding unless there is a change in leadership. The U.S. provided $900 million in funding to the WHO in 2018 and 2019. Trump wants to cut it to $57.9 million and Graham wants to cut the funding to zero.
    During a virtual news briefing, Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said it wasn’t the appropriate time to cut funding during the ongoing pandemic. Dr. Ghebreyesus warned Trump not to politicize the pandemic.
    “If you want to be exploited and if you want to have many more body bags, then you do it. If you don’t want any more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it,” he said.
    Meanwhile, Dr. Ghebreysus released a timeline on WHO letterhead. The timeline begins on December 31, 2019, when China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province and the last date is March 18.
    The most important date is January 30, when the WHO declared the coronavirus a “public health emergency of international concern. The director general accepted the recommendation and declared a novel coronavirus outbreak.”
    On the other hand, President Trump confidently predicted the coronavirus did not present a serious threat to the U.S., assuring Americans: “It’s going to have very good ending.”
    Prior to January 30, the WHO issued dire warnings.
    On January 1, 2020, the WHO had set up the Incident Management Support Team across three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters, and country-level putting the organization on emergency status for dealing with the viral outbreak.
    From February 16 to 24, a WHO-China joint mission, which included participation from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Russia and Singapore, spent time in Beijing and also traveling to Wuhan where they talked to health workers and scientists. The joint mission released a report: //www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronavirus/who-china-joint-mission-covid-19-final-report.pdf.
    On January 5, 2020, WHO published in the first issue of Disease Outbreak News reporting on the new virus. This is a flagship publication that was given to the scientific and public health community as well as to the global media.
    There also is another racial component here.
    Dr. Ghebreyesus charged that Taiwan engaged in a racist smear campaign against him because
    he is Black, an accusation the country’s foreign minister has denied. He does, however, have strong support from Africa’s heads of state. Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, reaffirmed Africa’s support of WHO.
    Ethiopian President Sahle -Work Zewde, said “Our global priority is to save lives. WHO under
    Dr. Tedros’ effective leadership, is delivering on its mandate at a time we need them most.
    Dr. Ghebreyesus also has the support of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the White House’s point man on COVID-19.
    Trump, however, continues the game of shifting the blame on black men. He started blaming Obama for every Oval Office failing, and he hasn’t stopped.

  • Newswire : Barack Obama endorses Joe Biden for President

    By: Bruce C. T. Wright, Newsone

    Barack Obama with Joe Biden


    Barack Obama’s official and long-awaited endorsement of Joe Biden on Tuesday was likely greeted by a collective sigh of relief from the Democratic establishment. But what was largely seen as Obama’s inevitable support for his vice president’s White house ambitions might not mesh that well with the so-called Bernie Bros — loyal supporters of Bernie Sanders — even after the Vermont senator suspended his own campaign and theoretically cleared the path for Biden to be the presumptive Democratic nominee.
    The endorsement could prompt them to reluctantly rally around Biden as a means to defeat the person who Sanders has called “the most dangerous president in modern history.” Or, more perilously, the endorsement could make them even more resolute in their support for their preferred candidate, who made no secret of keeping his name on the ballots for the remaining primaries.
    Regardless, Obama could not have been more clear or more urgent in his endorsement of Biden.
    Without mentioning Donald Trump’s name, Obama spelled out the country’s future based on the present if voters re-elected the incumbent president.
    “Right now, we need Americans of goodwill to unite in a great awakening against a politics that too often has been characterized by corruption, carelessness, self-dealing, disinformation, ignorance, and just plain meanness,” Obama said matter of factly.
    While Obama has been largely playing the sidelines during the primary process, his role has been understated, according to a New York Times report published Tuesday. Obama “had at least four long conversations with” Sanders before the Vermont senator suspended his campaign on Wednesday. The New York Times also reported that Biden was hesitant to involve Obama too much in his campaign, something that stood in stark contrast to the repeated requests from the Democratic National Committee for him to play a larger role.
    “But the former president, often communicating through Eric Schultz, a political aide who has also served as a bridge to the Biden campaign, insisted that his best use would be as a passive peacemaker,” the Times reported.
    Now, with Biden as the only Democratic candidate who has not suspended his campaign, Obama has also been cleared, so to speak, to factor much more heavily in a race against Trump that was expected to turn nasty.
    It may be up to Obama to figure out a way to bridge the divide between Biden and Sanders’ supporters, many of whom have threatened to either withhold their votes or cast ballots for another candidate to demonstrate their displeasure with the Democratic Party as a whole. That was true for Sanders’ youngest supporters, especially the Black ones, two demographics that helped power Obama to victory in both of his presidential elections.
    A Sanders ad tried to bridge the disconnect between him and Obama, but it was greeted with skepticism and called “disingenuous” on social media.
    In reality, Sanders and Obama have had more of a complicated relationship.
    According to The Atlantic, during Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012, multiple sources reported that Sanders considered running against him in the primaries before ultimately supporting Obama’s reelection. Sanders’ deputy campaign director Ari Rabin-Havt denied these reports, telling CNN, “This never happened. Bernie Sanders never considered a primary challenge to Obama. Bernie was running for reelection in 2012 and that’s what he was focused on.”
    However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that Sanders has disagreed with Obama immensely on political stances or actions. For example, back in 2017, he called the former president’s speech at a Wall Street-sponsored event “distasteful,” according to Time. This was an event where Obama accepted $400,000 to speak. Sanders explained, “I think at a time when people are so frustrated with the power of Wall Street and the big-money interests, I think it is unfortunate that President Obama is doing this.”

  • Newswire: Civil Rights lawyers demand state numbers with ‘all deliberate speed’ as African-Americans die disparately from COVID19

    By Hazel Trice Edney

    Attorney Kristen Clark, CEO Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights


    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – It is often said that when America gets a cold, Black America gets pneumonia – or far worse. That has proven to be the case once again this week in the wake of reports that Black people are contracting and dying from the Coronavirus in much greater numbers than other races.
    “We are deeply concerned that African American communities are being hardest hit by the COVID19 pandemic, and that racial bias may be impacting the access they receive to testing and healthcare,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Equal access to healthcare is a critical civil rights issue, and during this novel pandemic, the public deserves nothing less than full transparency from this Administration and state public health officials. To fully confront this pandemic, we must ensure that communities of color receive equitable health care and treatment during this crisis. Comprehensive and publicly-available racial data is a necessary weapon in the fight to confront COVID19.”
    Clarke said in a phone conference with reporters this week that the Lawyers Committee hopes to obtain volunteer responses and compliance by federal agencies and the states.
    “But we’re prepared to use every tool in our arsenal as we move forward” if those responsible for the data do not move with “all deliberate speed.” She implied that the situation could end up in court based on Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race discrimination by any program or activity that receives funds or financial assistance from the federal government as do hospitals and states.
    Clarke announced that the Lawyers Committee and more than 400 medical professionals have sent a letter to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services demanding “the release of daily racial and ethnic demographic data related to COVID19 testing, cases, and patient outcomes,” according to a news release.
    Medical experts say the elderly and people with diseases that compromise their respiratory and immune systems are most vulnerable to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 25,000 in the U. S. as of this week. African-Americans are already disparately in this vulnerable category. However the Lawyers Committee appears to be angling to assure that blatant race discrimination is not playing a roll in the disparate deaths. Some states appear to be refusing to release the numbers by race.
    “Recently analyzed health data indicates that African Americans in some states and counties are being infected and dying from COVID19 at higher rates than whites,” says the release, which gives the following statistics:
    In Illinois, African-Americans make up 14.6 percent of the population, but 29.4 percent of confirmed cases and 41.2 percent of deaths as of April 6.
    Similarly, Michigan’s population is 14 percent Black, but African-Americans currently make up 34 percent of COVID19 cases and 40 percent of deaths.
    On April 3rd, Pro Publica reported that in Milwaukee County, where the population is 26 percent Black, African-Americans currently comprise “almost half of [the] County’s 941 cases and 81 percent of its 27 deaths.”
    “The data coming out of these states is likely indicative of the disproportionate impact that COVID19 is having on Black communities and other communities of color throughout the country,” the release states.
    The Lawyers Committee points out that the “CDC is not currently publicly reporting racial or ethnic demographic data for COVID19 cases or tests performed across the country. Yet, the CDC requests this critical information from health departments through the COVID19 Case Report Form “to track the impact of the outbreak and inform public health response.”
    Dr. Uche Blackstock, founder & CEO, Advancing Health Equity says the COVID19 crisis will bring racial health disparities to the forefront of health policy issues.
    “Despite significant advances in healthcare and health technology over the last five decades, racialized health disparities have been both persistent and profound. Black Americans have carried the highest burden of chronic diseases, shortest life expectancies, and highest maternal and infant mortality rates,” Blackstock said in a release. “As we have already seen, the COVID19 pandemic has and will undoubtedly amplify racialized health inequities, further devastating Black and other marginalized communities. Collecting racial and ethnic demographic data on testing, cases, and health outcomes will be imperative to mitigating the effects of the COVID19 pandemic on our already vulnerable populations and will ensure healthcare resources are allocated equitably.”
    In the press call held Monday, reporter Stephon Johnson of the New York Amsterdam News asked why New York State would release infection numbers by counties, by borrough and zip code; yet has not taken the extra step to release the numbers by race since that can be deduced by zip code.
    “It’s hard to understand intent,” Clark responded. “What we do know is that we face a grave crisis. And everything that we have seen, including reports from health professionals on the front lines and the data that have emerged from pockets of the country, all make clear that this crisis is having a starker impact on African-Americans. We hope that officials will find the political will to do their part and to bring transparency to the crisis to shine a light on all of the ways in which the crisis is impacting communities.”
    She continued, “We have seen data along lines of geography and gender. We’ve seen it broken down by day. And it’s critical that officials right now take the next step and shine a light on the racial impact that COVID19 is having across the country.”

  • Newswire: Legendary soulful singer Bill Withers dies at 81

    By Bruce C.T. Wright, Newsone

    Bill Withers


    Bill Withers, whose smooth and soulful voice brought positive messages of upliftment with his award winning music had died. He was 81. The cause of death was attributed to “heart complications.”
    Some of Wither’s most recognizable hits include the songs “Lean On Me” , “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lovely Day.”
    Wither’s family released a brief statement confirming his death:
    “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved, devoted husband and father. A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other. As private a life as he lived close to intimate family and friends, his music forever belongs to the world. In this difficult time, we pray his music offers comfort and entertainment as fans hold tight to loved ones.”
    The West Virginia native rose to fame after self-financing his musical endeavors when he arrived in Los Angeles in 1967 at the age of 29. “This resulted in the album Just As I Am with the Grammy-winning ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and the much-loved ‘Grandma’s Hands,’” according to Withers’ official website. “The pragmatic Withers — who was now able to leave his straight gig at an aircraft company — subsequently assembled the remaining members of the Watts 103rd Street Band for U.S. and international tours.”
    Withers’ music would go on to influence later musical generations including hip-hop as producers reliably looked used portions of his songs — or samples — to provide the musical basis for their productions.
    One of his signature songs, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” peaked at number 3 on charts in 1971 and lives on as an indelible anthem tat Withers said was inspired by two characters in the 1962 movie “Days of Wine and Roses.” The characters “were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It’s like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren’t particularly good for you. It’s just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I’m not aware of,” Withers said about the song, which was also his first hit single.
    Another of his classics, 1979’s “Just The Two Of Us,” performed with Grover Washington, Jr., became an anthem for lovers everywhere and went on to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.
    While he led a private life, he left the public with plenty of amazing music and a number of poignant quotes, including the following examples:
    “I write and sing about whatever I am able to understand and feel. I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you.”
    “When you have a talent you know it when you’re five years old– it’s just getting around to it.”
    Some of the rappers who achieved chart-topping hits by sampling Withers’ music include Jay-Z, Kanye West, 2Pac and DMX.
    Withers death came days after it was announced that another musical legend — Ellis Marsalis Jr. of New Orleans — had also died.
    May Withers rest in eternal peace as his music lasts for the same amount of time.

  • Newswire: CENSUS must move forward during COVID-19 pandemic

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

    Census 2020 graphic
    This year, the Census Bureau is making preparations to complete the huge task of counting everyone in the U.S. The U.S. population is now over 330 million people. Interest groups had just begun to seriously push people to complete CENSUS forms and be counted.
    CENSUS results decide the allocation of congressional seats and monetary resources.
    People in the U.S. must be counted every ten years. The CENSUS count is mandated in the U.S. Constitution and has been going on every ten years for over 230 years. But the limitations on mobility and personal contact mandated on the national and state levels because of the deadly coronavirus have now shifted years of planning.
    Almost 40 percent of U.S. households have responded online to the CENSUS since March 10. In 2010, over 98 percent of households that were sent CENSUS forms were recorded. But minorities and children were undercounted and 16 million people missed being counted.
    Mail service continues and now advocates are doing what they can to encourage people to fill out CENSUS forms knowing so many Americans are in their homes and not at work. Those who do not fill out the 12-question form will be reminded with postcards. On May 27, over 500,000 CENSUS takers are scheduled to begin tracking down people who don’t fill the forms out. Federal law mandates that people must respond to the CENSUS though no one has been fined for not responding since the 1970s.
    The CENSUS Bureau is pushing to get people to respond early because tracking down those who don’t respond is expensive and made more difficult because of COVID-19.
    “The truth is, there are so many within this nation who are disenfranchised from receiving adequate and affordable care due to socio-economic circumstances,” said NAACP president Derrick Johnson. “This virus will have dire consequences on so many, but specifically African-Americans, who suffer from higher rates of chronic illness. When the administration is not working for communities, those communities can suffer. We want to make sure to get the information out to our communities as much as possible,” Johnson concluded.
    “We cannot forget about the census. The majority of young people across the country do not remember the other censuses that were conducted throughout their lifetimes, because the census is held every 10 years. Many weren’t old enough to participate in the last one. For the first time in our lives, we will be filling them out for our own households and ensuring that we are counted in our communities,” noted an article in Crisis Magazine.
    April 1 was CENSUS day and advocates redoubled their push to get as many people to fill out CENSUS forms. Whether COVID-19 will impact the count will not be known until June.

  • Newswire: State of Emergency declared for Black America as public health experts reveal Coronavirus is airborne

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent
    @StacyBrownMedia

    Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton
    While many medical doctors maintain that the novel coronavirus is transmitted through droplets from coughs or sneezes, more and more medical experts and officials who work primarily with infectious respiratory illnesses and aerosols are convinced that the disease is airborne.
    Today, as a result of recent medical research and data, The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. has issued a solemn national public warning and alert to nearly 50 million African Americans. “Black America is now in a state of emergency as a result of the disproportionately deadly impact of the coronavirus pandemic on our families and communities across the United States,” Chavis stated. “The coronavirus is now airborne. That means that the coronavirus can be in air that we breath.”
    “Black Americans should stay at home and only leave home for critical life-essential reasons,” Chavis emphasized. “In fact, all Americans should stay at home to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. But I must emphasize that because before the spread of the coronavirus, Black Americans were already disproportionately burdened with multiple preexisting health conditions, including asthma, diabetes, and heart disease, our communities are more vulnerable to the impact of the coronavirus, including higher rates of fatalities.”
    A Pro Publica report revealed that African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and 81 percent of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is only 26 percent Black. Milwaukee is one of the few places in the United States that is tracking the racial breakdown of people who have been infected by the novel coronavirus, offering a glimpse at the disproportionate destruction it is inflicting on Black communities nationwide.
    In Michigan, where the state’s population is 14 percent Black, African Americans made up 35 percent of cases and 40 percent of deaths as of Friday, April 3. Detroit, where a majority of residents are Black, has emerged as a hot spot with a high death toll. As has New Orleans, according to Pro Publica.
    Louisiana has not published case breakdowns by race, but 40 percent of the state’s deaths have happened in Orleans Parish, where the majority of residents are Black.
    Illinois and North Carolina are two of the few areas publishing statistics on COVID-19 cases by race, and their data shows a disproportionate number of African Americans were infected, according to the report.
    “We know in the US that there are great discrepancies in not only the diagnosis but the treatment that African Americans and other minorities are afforded,” stated Dr. Ebony Hilton, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Virginia Health Systems.
    “So, I want to make sure that in this pandemic, that Black and brown people are treated in the same way and that these tests are made available in the same pattern as for white people,” Dr. Hilton said.
    Medical experts have also sounded the alarm that the virus could well be transmitted through the air.
    “Currently available research supports the possibility that (COVID-19) could be spread via bioaerosols generated directly by patients’ exhalation,” Harvey Fineberg, who heads a standing committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, wrote in an April 1, 2020 letter to Kelvin Droegemeier, the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). “One must be cautious in imputing the findings with one respiratory virus to another respiratory virus, as each virus may have its own effective infectious inoculum and distinct aerosolization characteristics,” Fineberg wrote.
    “Studies that rely on PCR to detect the presence of viral RNA may not represent virus in sufficient amounts to produce infection. Nevertheless, the presence of viral RNA in air droplets and aerosols indicates the possibility of viral transmission via these routes.”
    Fineberg penned the letter in response to a request from the White House OSTP. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a standing committee of experts to help inform OSTP on critical science and policy issues related to emerging infectious diseases and other public health threats. The standing committee includes members with expertise in emerging infectious diseases, public health, public health preparedness and response, biological sciences, clinical care and crisis standards of care, risk communication, and regulatory issues.
    “The results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing,” Fineberg wrote.
    He noted an airflow modeling study that followed a coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong in the early 2000s supports the potential for transmission via bioaerosols.
    In that study, the significantly increased risk of infection to residents on higher floors of a building that was home to an infected individual indicated to the researchers a pattern of disease consistent with a rising plume of contaminated warm air.
    “In the mind of scientists working on this, there’s absolutely no doubt that the virus spreads in the air. This is a no-brainer.” Lidia Morawska, at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, told the medical website, nature.com.
    A March 2020 Cambridge Research study of those with influenza revealed that 39 percent of individuals exhaled infectious aerosols, which experts noted that, as long as an airspace is shared with someone else, breathing in the air they exhale, it’s possible for airborne transmission of the coronavirus.
    “It’s airborne,” Dr. Angela Guerrera, an emergency medicine specialist in New Jersey, told NNPA Newswire. “If someone has the disease, they don’t have to cough and sneeze or spit. If you then go into their space, you can probably get it,” Dr. Guerrera stated.
    Some experts said they are convinced that a primary reason that governments and organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have shied away from stating that the virus is in the air is to prevent panic and because it could take years and cost hundreds of millions of lives before indisputable evidence can be presented.

  • Newsire: Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell and Senator Doug Jones urge Gov. Kay Ivey to Expand Medicaid due to corona virus crisis

    Terri Sewell and Doug Jones


    Birmingham, AL – U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) called on Governor Kay Ivey today to expand the state Medicaid program. With mandatory closures due to shelter in place orders in many of Alabama’s cities to prevent the spread of COVID-19, many businesses have been forced to lay off or furlough workers, jeopardizing their employer-based health coverage. Nearly 94,000 Alabamians have filed for unemployment benefits in the last three weeks, according to the Alabama Department of Labor.
    “Ultimately, the crisis before us is a matter of public health. Fighting and beating this virus depends on Alabamians’ ability to receive the testing and care they need,” Sewell said. “Uninsured Alabamians – many of whom have lost their jobs and health coverage as a result of the COVID-19 crisis – should not be forced to choose between getting tested, treated and seeking care to protect themselves, their families and our communities from further spread of the virus and being faced with hundreds of dollars in medical bills.”
    “With President Trump’s refusal to re-open the Obamacare marketplace during these difficult times, it is more important than ever that Governor Ivey and the Alabama State Legislature act swiftly to expand Medicaid,” Sewell continued. “Not only would expansion provide affordable health care to more than 340,000 Alabamians, it would also serve as an economic boon, adding about $1.7 billion a year to our economy. All Alabamians stand to benefit from Medicaid expansion and, especially, the most vulnerable in our communities.”
    The Kaiser foundation projects the cost of inpatient admissions for COVID-19 treatment could exceed $20,000. This is an extraordinary financial constraint that could prevent Alabamians from seeking testing or treatment, potentially furthering the spread of the virus.
    After commending Gov. Ivey for instating a “Stay at Home Order”, senator Doug Jones stated, “I also continue to emphasize Alabama must take all steps necessary to expand Medicaid immediately so we can provide health coverage for an additional 326,000 Alabamians. This crisis has shown us that we’re all in this together, but it has also shown us that too many people can fall through the cracks of our health care system. I have been advocating for this for years, but now more than ever I hope folks understand the need to expand the program and help the most vulnerable in our community. It’s simply the right thing to do—for our health and for our economy—and I hope our state leaders can set aside whatever politics has blocked this in the past to get this done now.”
    Sewell and U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) worked to include in the CARES Act, Congress’ third coronavirus response package, legislation they have introduced to ensure that all states that expand Medicaid coverage under the terms of the Affordable Care Act receive an equal federal match for expansion, regardless of when a state chooses to expand Medicaid coverage. While their efforts were scuttled by Senate Republicans, they remain committed and are actively working with Democratic leadership to push to have it included in any future coronavirus response legislative packages.