The Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • Senator Doug Jones announces bipartisan solution to permanently fund HBCUs and simplify federal student aid application

    Legislation includes permanent funding for HBCUs and Minority-Serving Institutions by eliminating administrative costs associated with FAFSA
    WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.) today joined a bipartisan group of senators to introduce a solution to both permanently fund Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and to take a first step toward simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process. Annual funding for MSIs expired on September 30, 2019.The solution proposed today by Senator Jones and his colleagues amends his FUTURE Act legislation to permanently renew $255 million in annual funding for HBCUs and MSIs, and will also simplify the FAFSA by reducing it by up to 22 questions. The amendment is paid for through reduced administrative costs achieved by allowing FAFSA applicants to give permission to the Internal Revenue Service to securely share tax return data directly with the U.S. Department of Education.
    “The permanent renewal of federal funding is a huge win for our nation’s minority-serving institutions, which have faced growing uncertainty and anxiety since their $255 million in annual funding expired in September. Instead of making tough decisions to cut programs and staff this holiday season, they can now count on permanent funding that will enable them to plan long-term and focus on their educational mission,” said Senator Jones, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
    Senator Jones has long championed the renewal of funding for minority-serving schools and also for simplification of the burdensome FAFSA form, which has proven to be a significant barrier for students who need financial assistance in order to afford college. Last year, Senator Jones proposed an ambitious bill topermanently extend and increase federal funding for MSIs before it was set to expire on September 30 this year. In the new session of Congress this year, he proposed a bipartisan bill, the FUTURE Act, to extend the funding for two years and give Congress time to negotiate a permanent solution. As the September 30th deadline approached, and in the months since the Senate allowed funding to expire, Senator Jones has worked to bring attention to the bill and has repeatedly pressured Senate leaders to allow it to come to a vote.
    Senator Jones has also recently partnered with Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the HELP Committee, to introduce legislation that would reduce the FAFSA form from 108 questions to between 18-30. Today’s proposal is a necessary first step to lay the groundwork for the passage of the broader Jones-Alexander FAFSA reform bill.
    Senator Jones continued, speaking on the importance of FAFSA simplification, “With our proposal today, we also take an important first step toward simplifying our federal student aid application and helping more students achieve the dream of a college education. I thank my colleagues Senators Alexander and Murray for working to find a bipartisan compromise on two issues that deeply important to the people we serve.”
    Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined Senator Jones in introducing the amendment.

  • Newswire: World leaders gather for major climate confab in Madrid, Spain, with African countries in the spotlight

    Dec. 2, 2019 (GIN) – As world leaders gather in Madrid, Spain, for one of the largest global conferences on the environment, a new report from the U.S.-based Save the Children Fund warns that real world impacts of climate change are threatening tens of millions of people in East and Southern Africa with what it terms “climate shock.”
    Floods, landslides, drought and cyclones have put 33 million people at emergency levels of food insecurity. More than half of these are believed to be children, the report says.
    Another study, by the United Nations, also released this week, highlighted the urgent need for aggressive policies to curb emissions.
    “We have to learn from our procrastination. Any further delay brings the need for larger, more expensive and unlikely cuts,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, wrote in the report titled “Emissions Gap Report 2019.” “We cannot afford to fail.”
    “People think this climate change thing is a joke,” said an exasperated broadcaster on Nigeria’s ChannelTV. “They should come and ask us in Nigeria. We’ve seen rains like we’ve never seen before and heat like we’ve never seen before.”
    Climate change was most recently evident in Kenya where more than 100 people died as a result of mudslides and floods occasioned by heavy rains across the country in the last two months.
    Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said 350,000 people were in dire need of assistance.
    “The whole country has been affected by the downpour. Roads, bridges and other infrastructure have been destroyed,” Mr Oguna told journalists in Kapenguria, West Pokot County.
    Botswana, taking pro-active measures, says it will be developing a drought management strategy making drought a permanent feature of the national budget rather than an emergency.
    Malawi will be among five African countries invited to attend the Madrid conference. Ellen Matupi, chair of the Coalition of Women Farmers in Malawi who has felt the effects of climate change first-hand will attend and is expected to discuss government’s controversial subsidies for chemical fertilizers rather than climate resilient agroecology. Matupi trains other women farmers in these methods and advocates for their rights.
    Another report by the South African-based ActionAid – “Can Climate Change-Fuelled Loss and Damage Ever Be Fair?” – endorsed by nearly 100 community groups holds the US and EU jointly responsible for more than half the cost of repairing the damage caused by climate disasters in the Global South.
    The groups calculated countries’ ‘fair share’ of responsibility based on historic contributions to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions and their capacity to take climate action based on national income while taking into account what is needed to provide basic living standards.
    Senior members of the Trump administration are not planning to attend the meeting but Democrats are sending a delegation to the venue. The conference closes on Dec. 13.

  • Newswire : Serena Williams builds schools in Jamaica, Africa

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

    Serena Williams


    While many deep-pocketed philanthropists and celebrities will write checks to support worthy causes, Tennis megastar Serena Williams routinely goes the extra mile.
    In a recently released video, Williams donned a pair of jeans, workboats, a hardhat and went to work on Salt Marsh Elementary School in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica.
    Williams, who has won a total of 39 Tennis Grand Slams – including Doubles titles, has also built grade schools in Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.
    Williams built the Marsh Elementary through a partnership with the nonprofit Helping Hands Jamaica, while the schools in Africa were in conjunction with Build Africa.
    It’s part of the mission of Williams’ Serena Williams Fund and her other charitable efforts, which include the Serena Williams Venture, where the tennis champion seeks to boost the bottom line of individual companies.
    “In 2014, I launched Serena Ventures with the mission of giving opportunities to founders across an array of industries. Serena Ventures invests in companies that embrace diverse leadership, individual empowerment, creativity, and opportunity,” Williams said in a statement posted on her organization’s website.
    “Serena Ventures focuses on early-stage companies and allowing them to be heard. As we grow, we hope to mentor young founders and take burgeoning entrepreneurs to the next level,” she stated.
    “Serena Ventures extends relationships, encourages collaboration among portfolio companies, and expands partnership opportunities across my vast network. Similar to many of the companies we have invested in, we are just getting started and are hoping to make a difference.”
    Also, according to Charity Buzz, the Serena Williams Fund was established to promote equity; through education, gender, race, disability, or anything else that stands in the way of someone achieving their goals and living their best possible life.
    “The mission of this charity is to help the individuals or communities affected by to violence, and [to ensure] equal access to education,” Williams stated.
    Knowing the value of creating strong partnerships with organizations with expertise in their fields, Williams counts as a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador. She has partnered with organizations such as Beyond the Boroughs Scholarship Fund, The Equal Justice Initiative, The Caliber Foundation, and Build Africa Schools.
    Jessica Curney of Borgen Magazine reported that before each of her matches, Williams reads and writes affirmations out loud from her diary about wanting to help people, kids, and work in Africa.
    “Through the Serena Williams Fund, Williams dedicates her off-season time improving access to education by building schools in underprivileged areas of the world,” Gurney reported.
    “She has done extraordinary tasks using her own resources and through partnerships with the Serena Williams Fund and other foundations dedicated to providing and improving education for those in difficult conditions or developing countries. Her active role has notably left a mark on those who have had their lives changed significantly through this act of kindness.”

  • Newswire: Counting children matters most: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on Census 2020

    By Khalil Abdullah


    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Ethnic Media Services
    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Within the African American community, the conversation about the upcoming 2020 census ranges from ‘why bother’ to ‘we’re all in.’ Let’s speak to the ‘why bother’ question.
    FAQ: Why should I bother with Census2020? I filled out the census form the last time and I didn’t see any improvements in my neighborhood or community.
    Answer: Whether or not you saw the improvements you expected, many benefits of the census still touched your life, your community, and the people you love and care about – especially children.
    If you have a sense of responsibility for the quality of life of children in your family or beyond, your participation in the census has a direct impact. Over 200 federal programs derive revenue from data gathered by the census. This list includes school lunch programs and the Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC) which provides direct monetary assistance for low income pregnant women and new mothers and their children. Other programs range from Section 8 Housing assistance to LIHEAP, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. LIHEAP helps families pay heating bills and assists with repairs to furnaces, insulation and weatherization costs.
    Without these programs, the cost of living for everyone in a neighborhood, city, or county would be higher. Take LIHEAP as an example. Without the financial subsidy to those in need, other ratepayers and customers like yourself, would likely face an increase in monthly utility bills.
    Just consider the funding that assists with the cost of schools, teachers, and education. The lives of children are profoundly affected by your decision to participate in the census. This is one reason why those who represent African American communities, be they clergy, elected officials, or social justice advocates, see engagement with the census as a moral
    imperative.
    FAQ: That still doesn’t explain why I don’t see the improvements promised
    during the last census in 2010 or even during the 2000 census.
    Answer: You know the saying, “all politics is local.” Almost nowhere does this apply more than when money is being allocated. There are layers of responsibility for how money is spent, including federal and state formulas as well as decisions made at the local level, often by elected officials. The census has a direct bearing on our election processes of redistricting and reapportionment which help determine how your vote is counted and who gets elected. We will take these up as separate FAQ topics.
    The immediate question is: will you fill out the census form?
    FAQ: What happens if I do not fill out the form? Is that a crime? If so,
    what’s the punishment?
    Answer: Not answering the census or providing false answers are each punishable by a fine of up to $5,000, but no one has been fined for failure to respond in recent censuses, according to the Census Bureau’s national spokesperson. But, as one census advocate said, it is a crime of sorts not to participate because is the children who suffer most without your
    full participation.
    FAQ: Can someone find out my private census responses?
    Answer: Your information is confidential and protected by Title 13 which brings heavy fines and possible imprisonment for anyone who divulges your personal information. The Census Bureau cannot, under penalty, share your information with the IRS, Homeland Security, immigration or law enforcement agencies or anyone else, including housing officials. However, census information is made publicly available after 72 years.
    FAQ: What if I participate in the census, but there are more people living in my home than I’m supposed to have according to my lease or rental agreement?
    Answer: The Census Bureau is trying to gather data. It is not seeking to determine whether you are violating your lease or local zoning codes, but you have raised an important point. Families are often fluid — grandparents taking care of grandchildren while parents are at work or away from home. Should you claim a student away at school in another state as a member of your household? There are many scenarios where family members should be reported, but African Americans were undercounted by 2.1 percent in the 2010 census and many of those missed were children. Why? In part because people were unsure whether they should report a child or whether that was someone else’s responsibility to do so. The best thing to do is ask the Census Bureau or one of the many organizations participating in partnership during Census2020.
    This article is a monthly column by Ethnic Media Services aimed to educate about the need to respond to the 2020 U. S. Census. Next Topic: If you’re all in, what to expect.

  • Newswire : Three Baltimore men exonerated after nearly four decades in prison

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

    Three men – Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins
    And Andrew Stewart were exonerated

    Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins and Andrew Stewart were released and exonerated after spending 36 years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.
    The men were teenagers when they received a life sentence in 1984 after being convicted of murdering 14-year-old DeWitt Duckett in Baltimore.
    “Everyone involved in this case — school officials, police, prosecutors, jurors, the media, and the community — rushed to judgment and allowed their tunnel vision to obscure obvious problems with the evidence,” said Shawn Armbrust, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which represents Watkins.
    “This case should be a lesson to everyone that the search for quick answers can lead to tragic results,” Armbrust stated.
    DeWitt reportedly was shot in the neck following a dispute over a jacket as he walked to class at Harlem Park Junior High School in Baltimore.
    Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, reopened the case earlier this year because of lingering questions and recent revelations of corruption in the city’s police department that allegedly stretched back for decades.
    Chestnut also sent a query to the city’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which the Washington Post said included exculpatory evidence that he uncovered in 2018.
    An assistant prosecutor who worked on the case in 1984 reportedly said that prosecutors had no reports at the time that would have cast doubt on the guilt of the three men.
    Following their conviction, court records were sealed, and it wasn’t until a year ago, that Chestnut had successfully obtained the related documents through a freedom of information request.
    According to the District Attorney’s office, the police records revealed that several witnesses told authorities that the person responsible was an 18-year-old who immediately fled the scene and dumped his weapon.
    Instead, the Baltimore police focused their investigation on Chestnut, Watkins, and Stewart. The alleged shooter was fatally shot in 2002.
    “On behalf of the criminal justice system, and I’m sure this means very little to you, gentlemen, I’m going to apologize,” Circuit Court Judge Charles Peters told the men at a hearing on Monday, November 25.
    Peters said the men are entirely exonerated.

  • Statue of Rosa Parks unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama on 64th, anniversary of her arrest, which started the Montgomery Bus Boycott

    By Frederick H. Lowe, BlackmansStreet.Today

    Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed unveil statue of Rosa Parks; and Aurelia Browder poses with statue of Rosa Parks
    Sunday, December 1 was Rosa Parks Day in Montgomery, Alabama.

    The city of Montgomery and Alabama, where the capitol is based, unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Parks who sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, one of the seminal events in civil rights history. The boycott, started by black women, broke the back of segregation on Montgomery’s city buses, which were owned by a Chicago company. Parks, a seamstress and an early civil rights activist involved the case of the Scottsboro Boys, refused to give up her seat to a white man and move to back of the back of the bus where seats and standing room were set aside for blacks as was the law at the time. Parks said in a number of interviews she was angry about what happened to Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago teenager, who was spending the summer in Money, Mississippi, when two white men beat him to death on August 24, 1955, for offending a white woman. Decades later, the woman, Carolyn Bryant, admitted she lied about the circumstances that led to Till’s brutal murder.
    The City of Montgomery dedicated a statue of Parks on Montgomery Plaza near the stop where she caught the bus that would drive her into history and unemployment. She caught the bus on November 26, 1955 and the boycott began on December 1.
    “To stand here today as Montgomery’s mayor where Mrs. Rosa Park stood defiant against systemic injustice infecting our community speaks to the magnitude of this moment and the progress achieved in our city,” said Steven Reed, Montgomery’s first black mayor. Montgomery had been the capital of the Confederacy for about a year during the Civil War.
    Montgomery County artist Clydetta Fulmer built the statue, which also contains four historic markers honoring the plaintiffs in the landmark Browder v. Gayle case. A three-judge federal panel ruled on June 5, 1956, that the enforced segregation of black and white passengers on motor buses operating in the City of Montgomery violated the Constitution and laws of the United States. Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith and Jeanette Reese were plaintiffs in the case. Freddie Gray, Alabama’s only black attorney at the time, filed the lawsuit. The statue doesn’t honor E.D. Nixon, a Pullman Porter and president of the local chapter of the NAACP, who bailed Parks out of jail. The statue also doesn’t honor Jo Anne Robinson, an English professor at Alabama State College, now Alabama State University, who came up with the idea of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, according to the book “The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow,” by Donnie Williams and Wayne Greenhaw. The boycott was supposed to last one day, but it was so successful, it continued for nearly 400 days. The boycott put Parks and a 25-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. into the history books. King later led the boycott.
    After the boycott, no one would hire Parks or her husband, Raymond, a barber, who also had been active in the Scottsboro Boys case. The couple moved to Detroit, and Michigan Congressman John Conyers gave her a job.
    Parks died October 24, 2005. She was 92.

  • Newswire : Harriet movie features a model of courage for today

    By Dr. Barbara Reynolds

    Poster of Harriet movie


    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – For a nation built on truth, abolitionist, freedom fighter, ex-slave Harriet Tubman should have the acclaim of a Paul Revere, or Patrick Henry whose courageous lines “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” guided the American Revolution.
    Tubman, whose battle cry was to ‘’live free or die” and revolt, guided another revolution. It was to end slavery which changed the color, content and character of America today.
    Finally, through the newly released epic movie Harriet, this revolutionary warrior,born into slavery in 1822 in Dorchester County, Md., has emerged from the back alley of history to take her rightful place as a larger than life action figure, a true American hero. Unlike the heroes spun from Marvel comic strips or the Terminator franchise, Harriet Tubman is not, fake, fantasy or make believe although her expansive accomplishments are more real than can
    be imagined.
    Don’t think you are going to see the serene, sedate elderly Harriet of our textbooks. This is the Harriet of her youth, jaunting up rocky cliffs, jumping off bridges and even shooting a White slave owner with her pistol.
    Through the skillful talent of British-born actress, Cynthia Erivo, the film – to be released Nov. 1 – features Tubman not only as yesterday’s heroine, but as a model of courage for today. Risking certain death if captured, often with a pistol in her waistband, she escaped from bondage on Maryland’s Eastern shore and returned often in disguise to rescue more than 70 family and fellow slaves. She became a leader in the anti-slavery Underground Railroad, the women’s suffrage movement in her long standing struggle against systemic gender and racial inequality.
    During the Civil War, she served as a nurse, scout and spy for the Union army and became the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war guiding the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 slaves. Unfortunately her heroism did not guard her from racism as she was originally denied the pension benefits granted to White soldiers.
    In heart-aching detail the movie does not sanitize the horror of slavery; nor does it gloss over the power of God in her life. Scenes of blood-soaked whips, scarred backs of enslaved men and women, screaming children torn from their families to be sold by Whites trading them as if they were dispensing sows from a pig pen – It’s all there. But there is another story that shines through, one of Black love, Black loyalty and a determination of the enslaved to live free or die and the eventual embrace of the long awaited freedom. It’s all there.
    In the movie, we see Harriet after learning she is to be sold South, which rumors say is more brutal than the plantations on Maryland’s Eastern shore, leave her family and the love of her life, her husband John Tubman, traveling 100 miles alone to freedom in Philadelphia through the aid of the Underground Railroad.
    Though the term railroad might prompt visions of nice cushy seats, this railroad Harriet traveled was a harsh pathway through snake-filled marshes, woods, and deep rivers. Often, the flight of this woman known to some as the SHEMOSES was made even more treacherous as armed posses with baying hounds chased her to collect the rewards for her capture. But they never caught her. She once boasted that her railroad never ran off track and she never lost a passenger.
    In the movie she declared she had only the North Star and we see her on her knees looking up to the heavens in deep communication with the God she depended upon to shield her from her enemies.
    My favorite scene is when the only choice for a band of freeing slaves was to either turn back or cross a treacherous river. While her family cowered, frozen on the riverbank for fear of following her and drowning, she lifted her pistol above her head wading in the deep water as she prayed aloud. Slowly the waters receded; as her feet touched dry land her family members jumped in and crossed over as well.
    The two -hour epic directed by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons who also wrote and directed Eve’s Bayou, sends the audience away with an inspirational song, entitled, “Stand up”, co-written by Joshuah Campbell and the film’s leading lady Erivo.
    The song sets just the right tone for Harriet enthusiasts to continue
    celebrating Harriet. President Obama had selected her to become the first person of color to be represented on any of the nation’s currency, replacing Andrew Jackson on the new $20 bill. Not surprisingly in June 2019 the Trump administration has delayed the launch.
    Nevertheless, in Maryland Harriet enthusiasts have other ways to celebrate her. Painted on the side wall of the Harriet Tubman Museum & Education Center in downtown Cambridge, Maryland—just a few miles from where Tubman grew up, is a 14’ X 28’ mural featuring Tubman offering an outstretched hand.
    In March 2017, the Maryland Park Service and Maryland government opened the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park & Visitor Center in the heart of the Choptank River Region where Harriet grew up. It’s a 17-acre facility that has already been visited by nearly 200,000 guests from all 50 states and over 60 countries. In her honor the Service has also established the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn, NY.
    Tubman is the only U.S. woman to be honored by the Service with two
    parks.

  • Newswire: Stephen Miller, White House adviser on immigration policy, sent racist and white supremacist emails, once served as communications director for Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions

    By: Asawin Suebsaeng, White House Reporter for The Daily Beast


    The Southern Poverty Law Center’s blog Hatewatch, recently exposed a trove of leaked emails showing how Stephen Miller spent years peddling vile white nationalist conspiracies and spreading xenophobic propaganda to justify violent immigration policy.
    In these emails, Miller trafficked stories from white nationalist websites promoting violent conspiracy theories, including everything from eugenics to “white genocide.” He panicked about confederate monuments being taken down in the wake of Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage killing nine parishoners in the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. And he praised a racist immigration plan from 1924 that was backed by Adolf Hitler.
    Stephen Miller is the mastermind of Donald Trump’s policy of family separation. As the architect of Donald Trump’s immigration policy, Miller built a system to keep people who do not look like him out of the U.S.
    President Donald Trump’s senior policy adviser didn’t need any reassurances from his boss or his colleagues that his job was safe. Practically everyone in the building already knew it. “Stephen is not going anywhere,” a senior White House official said on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the story started going viral. “The president has his back.”
    Since then, six other senior Trump administration officials with knowledge of Miller’s standing with the president and top staffers have all individually told The Daily Beast that the story did not endanger Miller’s position, or change Trump’s favorable view of him. Two of them literally laughed at the mere suggestion that the Hatewatch exposé could have toppled or hobbled the top Trump adviser.
    Katie McHugh, a disgraced former Breitbart staffer who provided Hatewatch with the trove of emails, told the blog that Miller had personally flagged for her in July 2015 an American Renaissance “article about crime statistics and race.” American Renaissance is a white-supremacist website beloved by fascists and alt-right adherents. McHugh added, “I responded in the affirmative because I had read it. Many of us [on the far-right] had read it. I remember being struck by the way he called it ‘AmRen,’ the nickname.”
    The Hatewatch story—and a follow-up, published last week—may have depicted, in graphic detail, the depths of Miller’s racist intellectual pedigree. The leaked emails between Miller and the pro-Trump website Breitbart show just how aggressively he was using his former position—while working in the office of then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)—to promote the genre of extremist, far-right agitprop that Team Trump will sometimes officially disavow. Still, the extent of Miller’s views and xenophobia have been on full public display for years now. Just look at his record and trail of policymaking in the Trump era.
    Since 2015, Miller has been instrumental in the honing of Trump’s anti-immigration fervor and racist rhetoric into actual policy. In the summer of that year, Trump’s presidential campaign put out a much-touted immigration policy “white paper,” which was released after receiving months of criticism that the campaign was all bluster and hadn’t detailed any real policies. As The Daily Beast previously reported, Miller was the principal author behind the white paper—even though he hadn’t formally joined the campaign yet.
    In the years since, Miller has been a main driver, if not the architect, behind some of President Trump’s most brutal policies and proposals, including the “Muslim ban” and the separation of immigrant families. Miller routinely advocates for dramatically cutting legal immigration, as well as imposing lower and lower caps on the number of refugees Washington will allow into the country.
    He pushed for a purge of top administration officials and fellow immigration hawks deemed insufficiently hardline. And toward the end of Trump’s first year in office, Miller successfully operated behind the scenes to kill a deal that the president had tentatively struck with Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill to shield DREAMers from deportation.
    In his past, working as a communications staffer for Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, he was widely known as a prominent source, ideological fellow traveler, and—as some would joke—“assignment editor” for conservative media outlets opposing the Obama-era momentum toward bipartisan immigration reform. The Obama years, of course, closed out without the passage of a comprehensive immigration reform law, in large part due to politicians, operatives, and activists like Miller.
    Several Democratic leaders, Senators and House members have called for Stephen Miller’s resignation or dismissal for his openly racist comments and problematic advice on immigration policies.
    Progressive organizations in Alabama are planning to confront former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, now that he is running to reclaim his Senate seat, for employing Stephen Miller and recommending him for service in the Trump White House.

  • Newswire: ‘Big John’ Williams, Lowndes County Sheriff, shot to death by white police officer’s son, while responding to a community disturbance

    Reports from: the Grio and AL.com


    Sheriff ‘Big John’ Williams of Lowndes County, Alabama


    A white teen is in custody following the death of popular Black Alabama sheriff, who was killed in the line of duty on Saturday night in Hayneville, Alabama, the county seat of Lowndes County, Alabama.
    “He was a wonderful man,” ALEA Trooper Sgt. Steve Jarrett said during a Saturday night press conference. “Everybody in law enforcement knew him. If you ever met him, you’d never forget him. He worked 24/7 and was an outstanding sheriff.”
    ALEA Secretary Hal Taylor also spoke to the media calling Williams, “a man you’ll ever find. He always had a kind word for everyone,” Wade said. “It’s just heartbreaking.”
    Following a three-hour manhunt, 18-year-old William Chase Johnson returned to the scene to surrender to police. AL reports that Johnson is from Montgomery and the son of a law enforcement officer; he also has a criminal history that includes his August charge for being in possession of brass knuckles and being a minor in possession of alcohol. Those charges were later dismissed.
    Law enforcement, court and even state officials mourned the loss of Williams, including Alabama Governor Kay Ivey who took to Twitter to express her condolences.
    “I’m saddened to hear about Sheriff ‘Big John’ Williams, who was tragically killed this evening in the line of duty. Through his service to our country in the USMC and his many years working in law enforcement, he dedicated his life to keeping other people safe,’’ she wrote. “He will be remembered as a consummate professional and pillar of his community. I offer my prayers and deepest sympathies to his family and the men and women of the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department.”
    According to AL, Williams was also known as the officer that arrested Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H Rap Brown during his time as a leader in the Black Power Movement of the 1960s, in 2000. Al-Amin was later convicted in the fatal shooting death of an Atlanta police officer.

  • Newswire: Congressional Black Caucus members visit U.S.-Mexico Border: Mistreatment of Black immigrants is another ‘stain on America’

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

    Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) (center), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) (fourth from left), and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) (far left), along with local Congressman, Rep. Juan Vargas (second from left), visited a shelter for African asylum-seekers in Tijuana November 22, 2019. Attorney Nana Gyamfi, the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (far right), joined the group at the border. (Photo: Screen capture KPBS / YouTube)


    Chairwoman Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) led a delegation of Congressional Black Caucus members to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday in San Ysidro, California, where they said they witnessed first-hand the deplorable treatment and plight of Black immigrants.
    Bass, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY), each said they wanted to examine the treatment – and call attention to the mistreatment – of African immigrants at the border, including the October 1 death of 37-year-old Cameroon immigrant Nebane Abienwi.
    Attorney Nana Gyamfi, the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, joined the group at the border.
    “It was a very frustrating experience today,” Bass said from the border during an exclusive conference call with publishers, editors, and writers for the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association that represents the newspaper and media companies that comprise the Black Press of America.
    “We crossed the border into Tijuana, Mexico, and we met with a group of Black immigrants from Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and other African countries. Some who have made unbelievable journeys,” Bass stated.
    The CBC Chair and her colleagues blasted the Trump administration and its policies toward immigrants, particularly those from countries that consist predominately of people of color.
    Bass described the sobering plight of a Black migrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The first child separated from her mother was from a family from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The child was sent to Illinois while the mother, who spoke French, was detained at the border,” Bass stated.
    “This happens as our country grapples with [a president] who makes it clear that he welcomes immigrants from places like Norway, but not ‘sh-thole’ countries. He’s breaking the law. International law states that if you are from a country that’s experiencing distress, you can request asylum. Trump has done everything he can to block that and to make the United States not compliant with international law,” Bass noted.
    In the case of Abienwi, the Cameroonian died in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after experiencing a hypertensive event at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
    Reportedly, he was unresponsive and appeared paralyzed on his left side when he arrived at the hospital. After undergoing treatment for a brain hemorrhage, Bass said Abienwi was taken off life support against his family’s wishes and died. Doctors listed his official cause of death as brain death due to a brain hemorrhage.
    “Thousands of African and Caribbean immigrants who immigrate to the United States of America are treated as if they are invisible,” Bass stated. “Many arrived in South America and then walked north, all to be dehumanized and mistreated at our southern border. We [went] to the border to hear what they have been through. They are an important piece of this story,” Bass said.
    In a statement, officials at ICE said they’re still in the process of reviewing Abienwi’s death. According to various published reports, the Department of Homeland Security records had revealed that Abienwi applied for admission into the country at the San Ysidro Port of Entry without proper paperwork on September 5. He was taken into custody by ICE on September 19, 2019. Bass said his death remains a mystery and is cause for concern.
    CBC members also pointed to a recent Pew Research Center study that revealed that there are more than 4.2 million Black immigrants in the United States, with Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America making positive contributions to the United States.
    However, those immigrants are at a higher risk for arrest, detention, and abuse because of racial profiling and racial bias, according to the Pew report. “We need to shed some light on what is taking place here as it relates to Black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa,” stated Lee, the chair and majority leader of the House Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity.
    “They came here fleeing from violence in their own countries, getting to a place where they thought they could be treated humanely,” Lee stated. “It’s been the opposite. They are dehumanized, treated in a racist fashion, and then stuck at a border town.
    “I hope the Black community understands that this is another example of Trump’s racist policies to make America White again. We see that every step of the way in this process. “Black America has to rise up. This has got to stop.” Lee added that she’s putting out a call to Black professionals, be it psychiatrists, social workers, and others that their help is needed to help people of color at the border.
    Clarke, the chair of the House Task Force on Immigration for the CBC, said it’s tough to fathom what Black immigrants face at the border. “These people are resilient, they have gone through quite a few things in their homeland that drove them to try and get to the land of the free and the home of the brave,” Clarke stated.
    “We have to speak for them. They don’t have a voice. These are people who will be persecuted if they return to their homeland where there is genocide, other hardships, and violence,” she stated. “We have to be their voices. The Trump policies are totally illegal.”
    Gyamfi, of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said she was moved by what she witnessed. “You can look in their eyes. They had a sense that finally, they’re looking at people who look like us, and who actually care,” Gyamfi stated.