The Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • Newswire : Congress moves to block Trump’s Assault on SSI and Social Security

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    In its nonstop assault on the most vulnerable Americans, the Trump administration is preparing to impose sweeping cuts to Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a program that provides a lifeline for the nation’s poorest seniors, children, and severely disabled adults. The proposed rule would strip eligibility from hundreds of thousands and slash monthly payments by as much as one-third, even as new data confirms Social Security’s trust funds are facing insolvency within the next decade.
    According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), nearly 400,000 people stand to lose critical income. That includes more than 275,000 who would see cuts of about $300 a month, and over 100,000 who could lose their benefits entirely. The changes target families already under strain, specifically SSI recipients living with relatives who receive SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

    Reversing Protections for Struggling Families

    The Biden administration had expanded the definition of “public assistance household,” shielding recipients from the harshest penalties. That safeguard ensured that low-income families receiving food assistance would not be punished for offering shelter to an elderly parent or disabled child. Trump’s rollback would erase that protection, returning to outdated rules from 1980. “Receiving food assistance from SNAP would no longer be enough to qualify a family as a ‘public assistance household,”
    CBPP analysts warned. “The resulting SSI benefit cuts would be felt in low-income households with disabled family members or older relatives across the country”. The typical multi-person SNAP household with an SSI recipient survives on about $17,000 annually—well below the poverty line. Under the new rule, a woman with Down Syndrome living with low-income parents could see her benefits plunge from $967 to less than $700 a month, with families forced to track and report household expenses line by line.

    Fallout Across the States

    Every state would be affected. California could lose benefits for 57,600 people, New York 35,900, Florida 30,800, and Texas 23,600. Even small states like Vermont, Wyoming, and Alaska face losses. Advocates warn that the proposal would drive more disabled people into institutions, increase homelessness, and add crushing red tape. The cuts come as Social Security marked its 90th anniversary. Nearly 70 million Americans depend on the program, but the latest Trustees’ report projects its trust funds will be depleted by 2034, triggering an automatic 23% cut to monthly checks unless Congress acts.

    Unions and Lawmakers Push Back

    Unions and community groups are mobilizing. The AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better in a Union” bus tour stopped in Bakersfield, California, where California Nurses Association president Sandy Reding blasted the Trump budget bill as “a cruel piece of legislation that will have disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable in our communities, including the patients I care for in Bakersfield.”
    In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President Everett Kelley pledged to fight Social Security staffing cuts. “Across the country, we are using our voice—as workers, as parents, as people who care about our communities—to demand that this administration and Congress do whatever it takes to protect Social Security,” Kelley asserted. “The American people deserve nothing less.”
    Democratic leaders are also taking action. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is preparing a September bill he calls the “Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act,” aimed at reversing Trump’s cuts, reopening shuttered field offices, and restoring staffing. “Social Security to me means my life,” said Ellen Carter, a New York recipient. “It means medicine gets paid; it means that I have a place to sleep at night.”
    Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a companion bill in the Senate that would add $5 billion in funding, restore staff, safeguard data, and launch an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency, which has overseen the Trump administration’s Social Security cutbacks. “Trump and his Republican allies have made it crystal clear—holding on to earned benefits requires vigilant defense,” Wyden said.

    The Stakes for Millions

    For the 7.5 million Americans who rely on SSI each month, including many with severe disabilities, the stakes are life and death. “For 90 years, we’ve kept America’s greatest anti-poverty success story alive,” Jessica Lapointe, president of AFGE Council 220, told reporters. “We serve widows, orphans, the elderly, disabled, every vulnerable soul in your families and your communities, and they deserve respect and dignity when they come for their earned benefits.”

  • Newswire : Trump calls for Lisa Cook to resign from the Federal Reserve Board

     Dr. Lisa Cook

    By Blackmansstreet Today

     

    President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on the US Central Bank on Wednesday with a call for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, the only Black woman on the Federal Reserve Board, to step down.

    “Cook must resign, now!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, sharing a Bloomberg news report on how the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s director has called for greater scrutiny of Cook over a pair of mortgages.
    Cook said she has no intention to quit .”I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” she said in a statement.

    But she said she would take questions about her financial history “seriously” and was “gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”

    Trump — had reportedly written a letter to the US attorney general calling for an investigation of Cook while suggesting that she might have committed a criminal offense.

    Cook said she had learned about it in a post on social media, and that the mortgage application took place “before I joined the Federal Reserve.”
    The Trump administration has pursued allegations of mortgage fraud against high-profile Democrats who are seen as political adversaries of the president.

    It was not immediately clear if such a probe would take place targeting Cook to serve on the central bank’s board. The president is also legislatively limited in his ability to remove officials from the Central Bank.

  • Newswire : As Alabama faces $35 million SNAP (Food Stamps) budget gap, lawmakers consider cuts

    By Chance Phillips, Alabama Political Reporter

    The federal budget signed into law earlier this year will cut the share of SNAP’s administrative costs that the federal government pays from 50 percent to 25 percent, starting in late 2026. Based on numbers from the Alabama Department of Human Resources, this will increase the amount Alabama has to pay by around $35 million a year.
    According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over 735,000 Alabamians are participating in SNAP, and receive on average under $200 per person per month in benefits. One report produced by the USDA in 2023 found almost 40 percent of program beneficiaries in the state were children.

    State Senator Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, told APR during a July interview that state legislators “will need to find the money” this upcoming session to compensate for the reduction in federal funding.

    While the federal budget bill was still awaiting the Senate’s approval, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, currently the frontrunner in the gubernatorial race, expressed concern that Alabama couldn’t afford the cuts to SNAP being debated. Some of the cuts in the House’s initial bill were scaled back before the budget was signed into law, but the reduced share of administrative costs and an incentive program based around benefit cost sharing remained in the final bill.

    Ashley Murray of the Alabama Reflector reported that at a recent public appearance, Tuberville “vowed to reduce SNAP enrollment so that the program will not cost the state when he hopes to be governor.” He cited budgetary effects as a major concern. “It’s going to cost us $200 million my year of starting in terms of paying for SNAP,” Tuberville said at the event. “That’s not going to happen. We’re going to get that down.”
    “Sen. Tuberville believes SNAP should be used temporarily by those who fall on hard times,” Mallory Jaspers, the communications director for Tuberville’s gubernatorial campaign, clarified in an email to APR. “As Governor, he will make sure SNAP is a hand up, not a hand out.” Jaspers did not respond to questions about what data or studies have informed Tuberville’s views about SNAP.


    A report from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service found that nationwide almost 90 percent of SNAP beneficiaries lived in a household with a child, an elderly individual, or a disabled individual during the 2023 fiscal year.

    On Thursday, APR spoke with state Representative Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road, about the pending funding cuts for SNAP and the upcoming legislative session. Ingram also recently pre-filed a bill that would mandate the Alabama Department of Human Resources apply for a waiver allowing the state to exempt various unhealthy foods from the program.

    The representative told APR he believes restricting how beneficiaries can spend SNAP benefits will help the state deal with the cuts to federal funding. “You’re gonna have some attrition [in the program] when you’re cutting out the biggest part, when people can go in and buy four or five cases of Coca-Colas when they buy their groceries and stuff,” Ingram said.

    “I would say that 20 percent of that is probably going to be junk food that they were buying before, so if it’s going to be to where we’re going to limit it, I don’t mind cost sharing to make sure people don’t go hungry, by no means,” he continued. “We don’t want anybody going hungry, but it’s got to be a nutritional injection that we put in if we’re going to inject money into that program.”
    Ingram also said that Alabama’s ranking as the third-worst state by life expectancy inspired him to pre-file the bill. He added that House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter has tasked a committee of doctors and healthcare professionals with suggesting “what it’s going to take for Alabama to get back on their feet and turn this thing around.”
    However, LaTrell Wood, a hunger policy advocate with poverty-focused nonprofit Alabama Arise, said restricting what SNAP benefits can be spent on won’t save the state any money.

    Instead, it would “increase the amount DHR has to spend, because there are system design costs and outreach costs for state agencies,” Wood told APR. “We can’t afford to get distracted right now. Many members of our delegation in D.C. just voted to send the state a significantly large bill, while completely eliminating funding for SNAP Ed programs that encourage healthy eating, and unjustly policing people because of their income will not save money.” She suggested that stores might even opt out of accepting SNAP as a result, explaining that this could be an issue “particularly in rural areas that may only have a convenience store.” Wood also argued that further restrictions on spending SNAP benefits “turns what is a systemic issue into an issue of individual choice.”

    “Any policy approach that limits Alabamians’ access to food based on demographic, whether it is somebody’s income, race, or where they live, undermines the realities many of our communities’ members are facing when it comes to accessing affordable healthy options,” she wrote.
    Ingram and Orr both told APR they would not support measures like increasing taxes on unhealthy foods, or banning sugary drinks above a certain volume, to help promote public health.

     

  • Newswire: More countries plan to recognize Palestine

    The United Kingdom said it would recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire in Gaza by September. Canada said it will recognize Palestine without condition, as more children die in Gaza.This comes after France said it will recognize Palestine as a state during the United Nations General Assembly in September in an attempt to end the war in Gaza, where children are starving, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

    “In keeping with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,” Macron wrote.
    “I will solemnly announce this at the United Nations General Assembly in September this year,” he added.France, the largest and arguably most influential country in Europe, is the first to recognize a Palestinian state, after European Union members Norway, Ireland, and Spain indicated they would do the same.

     

    The decision by Canada, France, and possibly the United Kingdom angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Netanyahu has called out the leaders of France, the United Kingdom, and Canada, claiming they’re “emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever.”


    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will recognize Palestine as a state in September at the United Nations General Assembly, following similar announcements from the United Kingdom and France.

    “The deepening suffering of civilians leaves no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace, security, and the dignity of all human life,” Carney said in a statement Wednesday. 

    The UK says it will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.
    “I have always said that we will recognize a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a press briefing after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

    On Wednesday (23 July), more than 50 former British diplomats and UN officials, including UNA Chair Ian Martin, former Chairs Lord David Hannay and Sir Jeremy Greenstock, and Trustee Andrew Gilmour, signed an open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer urging the UK to recognise Palestinian statehood and uphold international law.

    The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said he is appalled and sickened by the plight of civilians in Gaza, after the Israeli government rejected an international statement which warned suffering has “reached new depths”.

    On Tuesday, Lammy told the BBC that Israel’s response was “hugely disappointing” and described the situation in Gaza as “grotesque.”

    It comes after the UK and 27 other countries called for an immediate end to the war, and accused Israel of “drip feeding” aid to Gaza’s population.

    A total of 147 out of 193 United Nations member states already recognise the state of Palestine, meaning the UK would join an overwhelming majority of countries that already support this. 


    It would mean the UK observes Palestine’s right to statehood and self-determination alongside Israel, while opposing Israel’s occupation in areas defined under international law. 

    It may further add weight in moving toward a two-state solution where Palestine and Israel can co-exist in two separate states — something that Israel has been staunchly against.


    Local hospitals say that at least two more Palestinians were reported to have died from Israel’s forced starvation in the last 24 hours.

    That brings the total number of hunger-related fatalities since Israel’s war began to 159.

    As we reported earlier, infants have been particularly vulnerable, with shortages of infant formula leaving new mothers with few options for feeding their babies.

    Of those who died from starvation, at least 90 were children. UN officials have repeatedly called on Israel to allow an uninterrupted flow of aid supplies.

     

  • Newswire : Ben Jealous fired as Sierra Club’s first Black Executive Director; Many say racism at play

    by Jason Ponterotto, Amsterdam News 


     (New York Amsterdam News/Trice Edney News Wire) – The Sierra Club board of directors voted unanimously to fire its first Black and overall person of color executive director, Benjamin (Ben) Jealous, after he was placed on leave in July. 
    Club Board Chair Patrick Murphy announced the August 11 decision to terminate the employment of Jealous with cause in an email to staff. It comes after public disagreements between Jealous and staff members from local chapters.
    The Sierra Club has operated as one of the largest and oldest environmental justice organizations in the United States since its founding in 1892. Jealous took on the role in 2023. Jealous wrote a weekly column on environmental issues of concern to Black and other people of color. The Greene County Democrat regularly  published his column.
    Representatives from the group have not provided details about why Jealous was terminated. However, Jealous released a statement pushing back. He highlighted his record in his short tenure, including bolstering membership and staff positions in several red states where there had been none.
    “It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support. I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail,” Jealous said. He has also retained legal representation in the case.
    Jealous, 52,  has a prominent career in civil rights and activism, having served as president of the NAACP from 2008 to 2013 and People for the American Way from 2020 to 2022. He also had an unsuccessful bid in the Maryland gubernatorial race in 2018. In environmental justice, he began as a forest protection activist in high school. There are no previous scandals of note regarding his leadership. 
    Former Club board members Aaron Mair and Chad Hanson released a statement in support of Jealous, calling the decision wrongful and discriminatory, and citing a smear campaign from specific union groups. 
    “Where past white executive directors followed particular procedures and practices that were treated as sound, acceptable, and wise, Ben has been severely criticized for following the very same fiscally prudent and professional practices,” the statement in defense of Jealous reads. 
    “Instead of recognizing and appreciating the fact that Ben is both a civil rights leader fighting for racial justice and a longtime defender of wild places and lover of Nature, Ben’s vision was met with a troubling resistance from some who made the racist assumption that he would shift the organization away from environmental work, simply because he is Black and was a former NAACP executive.”
    Mair and Hanson discussed a “Phantom Staff Letter,” used to oust Jealous, that was allegedly signed by 117 club staff members, to which they point out there is no way of verifying any signature, because no names were included. They also called out the Progressive Workers Union (PWU), a separate group that says it represents around 200 national and state chapter employees and volunteers, although there has not been verification.
    “The Sierra Club’s first Black Executive Director is being treated like a fall guy, unfairly blamed for Board and past management decisions made before he began his job,” the statement reads. 
    Some of the issues of contention that PWU has highlighted with Jealous’s leadership include the multiple rounds of layoffs at the organization, supposed mismanagement of the budget, dismantling the Equity Department, halting the work of the Restorative Accountability Recommendations Tracking & Implementation Team, and “gutting” the Healthy Communities program, which provided funds for much of the chapters’ work on the ground. 
    In a letter released on August 12, the PWU BIPOC Caucus responded to the allegations of racism against Jealous. “BIPOC staff and allies alike have been voicing our concerns about Mr. Jealous’s leadership and actions, not because of his identity, but because of the impacts of his choices. We believe the former Board Members making these accusations are weaponizing racial justice in an attempt to silence those raising concerns, including BIPOC staff,” the statement read. 
    The caucus claims, based on their independent analysis, that nearly half of the firings under Jealous involved BIPOC staff. 
    Jealous’s claims of racism corroborate other claims of similar treatment in the organization by former employees. 
    Montravius King, who served as South Carolina chapter director from 2023 to 2025, told the AmNews he experienced several hurdles, including racial discrimination, in attempting to lead his chapter, and that the local board of the Sierra Club in South Carolina was never responsive. 
    Virginia Sanders, 82, who has worked with the Sierra Club in volunteer and staff roles on and off since 1981 in South Carolina, said she saw firsthand how racism affected both Jealous and King’s tenures. She cited an instance where news of Jealous’s appointment in 2023 was intentionally kept silent from South Carolina members and another where he was not invited to a Freedom Fund Banquet. 
    “The welcome mat was not laid out for Ben Jealous,” Sanders told the AmNews. According to Sanders, she has long been pro-union but that her experience with PWU was that they were inexperienced and focused on complaining instead of using resources.
    Other officials, including Dr. Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, chair and manager of the Delta Chapter, have expressed frustration with the decision.
    “Honestly, this process has been cloaked in such silence and lack of transparency and communication and empty platitudes,” Bradford said. “Patrick’s announcement email appears to reflect very little understanding of the gravity, impact, grief, and humiliation tied up in the vastness of this decision to fire the Club’s first Black ED. This is tragic. Not a ‘moment of renewal.’’’
    Others, including Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network, have reacted to the firing, releasing a statement calling for an independent party to mediate a resolution between both sides. 
    “There are serious racial implications in firing a Black man of Ben’s caliber, in this fashion, at a time when diversity is under attack,” Sharpton said.

  • Newswire : Honoring Emmett Till

    By: Blackmansstreet.today.com
     Emmett Till would have been 84 this year.

    On August 28-30, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center will be hosting Remembering Emmett, a series of programs commemorating 70 years since Emmett Till’s murder and Mamie Till-Mobley’s courage in sharing her son’s beaten corpse with the world. 

    The programs will be held on the campus of Mississippi Valley State University with a concluding event on August 30 in Drew, Mississippi.
    For more information and to register for the event, visit 
    https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/1

    Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old Black boy who was visiting from Chicago, was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling and touching Carolyn Bryant, a White woman, in her family’s grocery store. 

    Outraged, Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, abducted Till and tortured him to death. 

    The two men were indicted and tried in September 1955. During the three-day trial, prosecutors presented courageous testimony from Moses Wright, Till’s great-uncle, who witnessed his abduction, and Willie Reed, an African American sharecropper who overheard Bryant and Milam torturing Till. An all-white jury set the men free.


    Following the trial, Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market went out of business when locals boycotted the store. 

    The remaining structure barely stands today, and is just four crumbling brick walls with trees growing inside of them. 

    A sign was installed in 2011 to signify that the location was part of the Mississippi Freedom Trail. 

    Since then, the marker has been destroyed by bullet holes, and a second sign was vandalized in summer 2017. Despite efforts to revitalize the dilapidated property as a true Civil Rights landmark, the current owners are unwilling to sell the building to preservationists. 

    The brutality of Till’s murder and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. 

    Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement.


    Five decades later, according to a new book, she confessed to a Duke University historian, “That part’s not true.” that never touched for whistling at her. Carolyn Brant died at 88 on April 27, 2023.

    Till became an icon of the civil rights movement.
    July 25 of this year marked what would have been Emmett Till’s 84th birthday and the two-year anniversary of the monument’s designation.
     

  • Newswire : As Democrats return to Texas, Republicans get closer to erasing the seats of four Black Members of Congress

    By Lauren Burke, NNPA Congressional Correspondent

    Republicans in Texas, on orders from President Donald Trump, are now closer to approving a new congressional map that would eliminate five seats’ Democrats have won over several cycles. The hyper-partisan move is designed to assist Democrats in boosting their chances in the midterm elections in 2026, as Democrats in Texas ended a two-week boycott aimed at stalling the plan.
    The Texas Republicans’ reaction to their boycott turned bizarre today as Texas Republicans who control the Texas House, led by GOP House Speaker Justin Burrows, mandated that police would escort Democrats over the next two days if they wanted to depart the Capitol. Much like the rising levels of disrespect that white Republican lawmakers in the south demonstrated in Tennessee towards Black Democrats Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson in 2023, Texas Republicans appear to be operating on a level of partisanship that is racially driven — though lawmakers on the right deny it.
    Texas Democrats left the state to delay the play — but not to stop it — on August 3. A disagreement emerged among the Democrats about whether to return with a segment of the group, arguing that winning national attention was the goal of their August 3 departure. Other Democrats in the Texas House regard the moment as a loss and say that a “moral victory” is not satisfactory.
    “We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape,” said Texas Rep. Gene Wu, Chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, in a statement on August 18.
    After leaving Texas for two weeks to stall the Republicans’ redistricting plans, the Democrats have now returned. Their return means that Republicans can procedurally move forward with changes in congressional maps that are likely to flip and/or eliminate at least four seats now held by Democrats. They include the seats of Congressional Black Caucus members Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Marc Veasey.
    Texas Republicans also moved the seat of Rep. Al Green, a Black Democrat who protested President Trump during his address to Congress on March 4, 2025, even further to the right. That change in the maps revealed on August 18 will make it even more difficult for Rep. Green to be re-elected.
    Republicans are in the majority in the U.S. Congress with 219 members versus 212 Democrats. The 2026 elections in the U.S. House are all but guaranteed to be close. As President Trump’s polling numbers fall, he remains fully aware that, as Gov. Newsom put it, his “presidency is over” if Democrats win the majority in the U.S. House starting in January 2027.
    The moment represents one of the most unheard-of partisan moves in modern politics. Texas Republicans are barely shielding the intended purpose of their unprecedented mid-decade redistricting. Congressional redistricting usually takes place every ten years in tandem with the annual CENSUS.
    But the moves by Texas Republicans will be challenged in court. The question is, will the challenge be met with the same partisan results as the maps that have been redrawn — and if the case makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, will they remain consistent with the previous precedents regarding racially redrawn districts?

  • Newswire : Trump targets Black-led cities despite record crime declines

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington, D.C.’s police force and his threats to extend the same approach to other Black-led cities are being denounced as racially motivated and tied directly to the Project 2025 blueprint. The facts tell a different story: under Black mayors, these cities have recorded some of the most dramatic drops in violent crime in decades.
    In the nation’s capital, Trump declared what he called “liberation day in D.C.,” vowing to “wipe out crime, savagery, filth, and scum.” But his rhetoric is at odds with his own Justice Department’s data, which shows the District reached a 30-year low in violent crime in 2024. Overall violent crime fell 35% from the year before. Homicides dropped 32%, robberies 39%, and armed carjackings an astonishing 53%. Assaults with dangerous weapons also declined, continuing a trend of steep reductions since a post-pandemic peak in 2023.
    Chicago has seen similar success. Mayor Brandon Johnson noted that the city reduced homicides by more than 30% and shootings by almost 40% in just one year, calling the progress historic. The results reflect investments in youth employment, community outreach, and neighborhood-based violence prevention programs.
    In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass reported that homicides dropped 14% between 2023 and 2024, crediting expanded gang intervention programs and community-based initiatives aimed at preventing retaliatory shootings. Bass dismissed Trump’s federal intervention as nothing more than a “power grab,” a political stunt meant to undercut local leadership.
    Baltimore has also posted consecutive annual declines since 2022. Officials report that homicides and nonfatal shootings have fallen significantly, carjackings were down 20% in 2023, and other major crimes decreased further in 2024. Only burglaries saw a slight rise. Mayor Brandon Scott pointed to the city’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan, launched in 2021, which treats violence as a public health crisis and invests in community interrupters, victim services, and neighborhood stabilization. Scott accused Trump of using crime as a “wedge issue and dog whistle” while cutting federal support for anti-violence programs.
    Oakland stands as another example. According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, homicides fell 21% and all violent crime dropped 29% in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. The gains are credited to the Department of Violence Prevention, created in 2017, as well as partnerships with grassroots organizations. “The things we are doing are working,” said Nicole Lee of the Urban Peace Movement, while warning that Trump’s threat to send in troops or impose youth curfews would only create “an environment of fear” and put young people of color in the crosshairs.
    Despite the hard data, Trump has smeared these cities as “crime-ridden” and “horribly run.” His words have been matched by actions — stripping authority from local leadership in D.C., deploying National Guard troops on city streets, floating youth curfews, and threatening to replicate the model elsewhere. For Black mayors, the motive is clear. “It was not lost on any member of our organization that the mayors either were Black or perceived to be Democrats. And that’s unfortunate,” said Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, president of the African American Mayors Association.
    Trump’s moves track directly with the hardline agenda of Project 2025, which aims to consolidate federal power and weaken local autonomy. Black mayors say they will continue to stand together and defend the progress their cities have made. “We need to amplify our voices to confront the rhetoric that crime is just running rampant around major U.S. cities,” Johnson stated. “It’s just not true. It’s not supported by any evidence or statistics whatsoever.”

  • Charity Days provide $116,00 in grants Greene County Racing Commission distributes $720,000 for first 2 quarters of 2025

    Front Row – Commissioner Donald F. Means, Commissioner Linette Brown, Commissioner Morris Hardy, State Representative Curtis Travis Back Row – Johnny Isaac, Lameka Bryant, Cortnei Hood, Mollie Rowe, Reginald Spencer, Marquita Lennon, Christopher Jones, Marcia Pugh, Andrea Woods, Charlie McAlpine, Miriam Leftwich, Darlene Robinson, Johnnie Knott, Marilyn Gibson, Brandon Merriweather, Hodges Smith, Hattie Samuel, Howard Crawford, James Morrow, Teresa M Atkins, Brenda Burke, Anita Lewis.

    The Greene County Racing Commission (Linette Brown–Chairperson, Morris Hardy–Vice-Chairman, and Donald Means–Secretary), was joined by Alabama State Representative Curtis Travis, legal counsel Brenda M. Pompey, Esq., and Office Manager Gerry Coleman on August 8, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. to welcome recipients of its 2025 Charity Awards disbursements. Also, welcomed were recipients of disbursements under Senate Bill #40, Act No. 223-206 (“Bill”) for the first and second quarters of 2025. These awards were made possible through proceeds generated from licensed gaming activities at the Palace.
    Chairperson Brown explained that the Racing Commission hold two charity days each year – one in March and one in July – which are advertised approximately two weeks in advance. The funds raised during these events make up the money distributed as charity disbursements. The Commission’s goal is to assist as many qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations as possible that provide vital services to the community. These organizations offer a range of support, including health initiatives, food drives, parenting and adoption guidance, housing assistance, youth development and camps; fire and emergency services, educational, and social services. The Racing Commission encourages everyone to support charity days at the Palace.
    This year, the Racing Commission was proud to support a total of 12 charities, including the Greene County Volunteer Fire Association which represents 14 volunteer fire departments. Chairperson Brown said, “We’re proud to support the important work being done across our communities, and we recognize the impact these funds have for those in need.” The Commission remains committed to ensuring that these proceeds benefit organizations that align with its mission to promote public welfare and community enrichment. The total amount for charity this year was $116, 500.00.
    The second group of disbursements, based on the Bill, covered both the first and second quarters of 2025. Under the Bill, each recipient’s percentage is determined by legislation. Chairperson Brown reminded the mayors representing the various municipalities across Greene County of the importance of encouraging their constituents to complete the Census survey, as each municipality’s award is determined by its population – the larger the population, the larger the award.
    The Statement of Distribution details the amounts allocated to each recipient under the Bill. The distributed for the first two quarters of 2025 was $720,000.00.
    Future allocations under the Bill will be made quarterly, subject to the continued availability of funds. The Commission has requested that the Greene County Commission issue payments within the next 10 days (by August 18th) to recipients who receive funds under the Bill.
    On behalf of the Greene County Racing Commission, Chairperson Brown said, “Though it’s been a long time coming, the Commission is grateful that the road has led to this moment, where we can give back to the people of Greene County. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank the citizens of Greene County for their patience, kindness, and support along the way. Every bit of the funds shared today is meant for the citizens of Greene County, and for the good of the county we all call home.”
    Chairperson Brown thanked everyone for attending, for the work they do in their communities, and for their continued partnership. She said the Racing Commission looks forward to seeing the positive impact these funds will make in our county.
    Linette Brown, Chairperson
    Morris Hardy, Vice-Chairman
    Donald F. Means, Secretary

     

     

  • Rally to “Fight for the Vote” held August 6 in Selma

    Over two hundred people attended the “Fight for the Vote” rally in Selma at the Civil Rights Memorial Park at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on August 6, 2025.
    The event was sponsored by twenty organizations across the state including the NAACP, Save Ourselves Movement for Justice and Democracy, Alabama New South Coalition, Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Black Voters Matter, Lift the Vote, Foot Soldiers Park, Bridge Crossing Jubilee, Ordinary Peoples Society, Southern Poverty Law Center and many others.
    The rally was held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, and to plan and fight to strengthen the VRA based on the challenges and attacks by the Supreme Court (Shelby vs. Holder) and many state legislatures.
    Speakers from the sponsoring organizations were interposed with rap and hip-hop performances, raffles of cash and other door prizes. There was food and a giveaway of children’s books and school supplies.