The Greene County Democrat

Category: Newswire

  • Local board honored for School Board Appreciation Month – Superintendent questions state’s designation of failing schools in Greene County

    During his report at the regular meeting of the Greene County Board of Education, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017, Superintendent James Carter stated that Robert Brown Middle School and Greene County High School have been designated by the State Department of Education as failing schools based on tests scores from 2015-2016. “It has been determined that Greene County School System has two schools that fall within the bottom 6% of schools in Alabama. Any schools within this range are placed on the failing schools list as referenced in the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013, revised in 2015,” Dr, Carter said.
    Dr. Carter further explained that the state tests, the ACT Aspire in Reading and Math, were administered in the Spring of 2016 to grades 3-8 and grade 10. “We are not making excuses when we say that this was the first time these particular tests were administered to the schools.” He also noted that the tests results attributed to Robert Brown Middle School were from the former Carver Middle School and do not include students test results from the former Paramount School. Robert Brown Middle School began operations as a consolidated school from Carver and Paramount in August of 2016.
    “I am concerned that Robert Brown Middle School is called a failing school when Robert Brown Middle School did not exist when these tests were given,” Carter said. He also noted that Greene County High School was not on the failing list in the previous year. “ This is somewhat perplexing for them to be placed back on the failing list after being off the list last year,” he added.

    “The Alabama Accountability Act is just another scheme for tax credits and vouchers to be given to students’ parents who choose for their children to have a private school education,” Carter stated.
    According to state reports, the Alabama Accountability Act helps students move from public to private schools with scholarships funded by tax credits. Approximately 70% of the nearly 6,000 scholarships went to children who would not otherwise attend a failing school.
    Superintendent Carter also announced that the Robert Brown family has made a generous donation of $5,100 to the recently dedicated Robert Brown Middle School. Carter extended a deep appreciation to the family on behalf of the entire school system.
    In recognition of School Board Appreciation Month, the board received special recognition and salutes from the schools and Central Office Personnel. Eutaw Primary students presented a creative dance as well as other treats. Robert Brown Middle School students serenaded the board and presented other treats. The Child Nutrition Program personnel gave the board members fruit baskets. Parent Involvement Coordinator presented a special Certificate of Appreciation to each board member. Greene County High School announced that it will make special presentations to the board at its Honors Program scheduled for January 31.
    The board approved the following personnel items recommended by the superintendent.
    Employment of Mrs. Sondra Terry as part-time Science Teacher at Greene County Career Center; employment of Tren’D’Mis Davis as Bus Driver and adding Ms. Tanesha Lyons to the current CNP Substitute list for 2017-2018 year.
    The Administrative Services approved by the board included the following:
    * Expand wireless opportunities for schools following additional review.
    * Accept proposals for sale/lease of properties at former Paramount Jr. High and Carver Middle School.
    * Approve lease agreement with Norfolk Southern Corporation for use of Paramount parking lot for a limited period of time, pending legal review and approval by board’s attorney.
    * Payment of all bills, claims, and payroll.
    Bank reconciliations as submitted by CSFO.
    The following items were also presented at the meeting by Superintendent Carter:
    * Advertisement for sale or lease of properties at Paramount Jr. High and Carver Middle School.
    * Sale dates for surplus equipment at Carver and Paramount.
    * Restrooms at Robert Brown Middle School have been refurbished and the hallways painted.
    * Review of curriculum/instruction of Greene County schools.
    * Develop program to recognize outstanding students and employees.
    * Review each school’s master schedule to determine if maximum learning opportunities are provided to each student.
    * Develop system for scheduling maintenance /work orders in timely fashion.
    * Tutorial lab for primary grades and grades four and five.
    * Seek foreign language instructors for primary and middle school grades.

  • Desperate Gambian leader may find all exits now closed

     

    gambia

     #GambiaHasDecided sign

           Jan. 16 2017 (GIN) – Gambian President Yahya Jammeh hardened his position this week in defiance of December’s election results that put opposition candidate, Adama Barrow, squarely over the top. Now, as military loyalists peel off or are jailed, it appears he may have played his last card.

    For weeks, diplomatic overtures by various pan-African institutions offering a dignified departure were turned down. Offers of asylum from Nigerian MPs were left on the table. The stated wishes of the Gambian people to have a leader of their choice were overruled

    Finally, a last ditch effort to stop the inauguration of President-elect Barrow suffered a major setback this week as the country’s Supreme Court refused to hear a petition by Mr. Jammeh’s party.

    Emmanuel Fagbenle, the country’s chief judge, denied the petition on the grounds that it listed Fagbenle, who is the only Supreme Court Judge at the moment, as a party in the application, according to the Premium Times of Nigeria. Mr Fabgenle bowed out, saying he could not give an order against himself.

    Inauguration ceremonies are scheduled for this week but the unresolved matter of Mr. Jammeh has prompted neighboring countries to prepare for a military action. Nigeria reportedly has readied some 800 troops for a “rapid reaction” military incursion should the call be made for such a response.

    Close to a thousand Gambians have already crossed the borders to neighboring countries, telling media outlets they fear chaos and violence by the remaining Jammeh loyalists.

    As with other world leaders, Mr. Barrow has set up a Twitter feed called #GambiaHasDecided Also on Twitter, longtime human rights activist Kumi Naidoo of South Africa posted the following message: “Just finished a very inspiring meeting with Gambian civil society representatives and while challenges are huge so is courage & commitment.”

    Mr Barrow has found temporary sanctuary in neighboring Senegal at the advice of regional leaders, and will return home only when his inauguration is secured – possibly under the escort of West African troops.

    In the midst of the chaos, the president-elect learned to his chagrin that his eight year old son, Habibu, died after he was bitten by a dog near the capital Banjul.

    He was unable to return for his son’s funeral, which took place almost immediately, as required by Islamic law. Pictures posted on Twitter showed what appeared to be Habibu’s casket, covered in a black cotton shroud, being carried through a grove by mourners.

    Mr Jammeh, who ousted his predecessor Sir Dawda Jawara in a coup in 1994, once vowed to “rule for a billion years with the help of Allah.” Most recently he has shut independent radio stations, arrested activists and sent soldiers to storm the electoral commission.

    Declared Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita: “I dare to hope that African wisdom will convince our brother [to] understand the greater good for the Gambia, which does not need a bloodbath.” w/pix of GambiaHasDecided supporters

     

     

     

     

     

  • Repealing Obamacare will hurt Black women and their families

    Millions of Americans could lose access to quality healthcare services

    healthcare-photo

     

     by Carolyn Brown. Black Enterprise

     

    The 115th Congress convened this year with a promise to repeal or eliminate key policies. Policies on the chopping block include the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and other important public health and safety issues. Senate Republicans took the first steps to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. Women of color stand to lose access to the quality services that we need to create the families of our choosing.

    “The GOP-led Senate is acting recklessly and with disregard for the more than 20 million people that would potentially lose their insurance if the ACA is repealed—increasing the uninsured rate for black women by anywhere from 11% to 20%. We know there is not a replacement plan, and there will not be one anytime soon. And their personal vendetta against Planned Parenthood plain and simple is playing partisan politics with our healthcare,” said the National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda Founder and Executive Director Marcela Howell in a released statement.

    Women of color, low-income individuals, young people, LGBTQ-individuals, persons with disabilities are just a few of the vast majority of individuals that rely on the ACA for insurance coverage. “Our legislators have a responsibility to act in the best interest of the people.  Repealing the ACA without a replacement is not in anyone’s best interest. Defunding Planned Parenthood is in no one’s best interest,” she added.

     

    According to the press statement, 55 million women would lose access to no co-pay preventive services, including birth control, STI screenings, and life-saving preventive services such as breast cancer screenings and pap tests.

     

    Republican Sen. Rand Paul is urging Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare. He recently wrote in an op-ed published by Rare that it would be “wise” to vote on a replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act as they repeal the law. “If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare. For mark my words, Obamacare will continue to unravel and wreak havoc for years to come,” he wrote.

     

    Many lawmakers have said they support keeping some aspects of the ACA, including a provision that allowed children to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26. Paul, however, is against a “partial repeal” stating that it would “only accelerate the current chaos.”

     

    Repealing the Affordable Care Act is a move that just 1 in 4 Americans supports, according to a survey from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been tracking public attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act since 2010. DNC Deputy Communications Director Eric Walker points out, “most Americans who have received care through the Affordable Care Act live in Republican-led districts, meaning that Ryan and his fellow Republicans are stabbing their own voters in the back with this repeal vote.

     

    Countless Republicans are getting cold feet over their own party’s “repeal-and-delay” plan because they know that despite the political rhetoric, their constituents depend on the lifesaving care that the ACA provides. Republicans will regret attempting to take healthcare away from millions of

  • Congresswoman Terri Sewell appointed to serve on House Ways and Means Committee

    terri-sewell

    Washington, D.C. – On January 11, 2017, Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (AL-7) was appointed to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee by the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and approved by the full Democratic Caucus.

    “I am honored to sit on the prestigious House Committee on Ways and Means. Since my election to Congress in 2010, I have maintained a strong interest in serving on this coveted committee because of its profound impact on the health and welfare of my Alabama constituents.  From healthcare and Medicare to Social Security and tax reform, the issues before the Ways and Means Committee directly affect the everyday lives of the people I represent and the concerns I have fought so passionately to defend.

    “As the second African American woman ever to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee, I hope to bring a unique voice to the Committee that is further enhanced by the perspective of representing underserved communities in the industrial and rural South.  Given the Republican agenda in the 115th Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to privatize Medicare and to undermine Social Security, it will be imperative to have strong advocates who will fiercely protect the social safety net that provides a lifeline for so many Americans.

    “ If Democrats are to win back the South, we have to understand the plight of the unemployed white coal miner, the disaffected single mother and the struggles of everyday Americans to earn a decent wage, educate their children and dare to live the American dream.  It is this missing perspective that I will represent at the policy table by my appointment to the House Committee on Ways and Means.”

    The Committee on Ways and Means is the oldest and most powerful committee of the United States Congress, and is the chief tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives. The Committee derives a large share of its jurisdiction from Article I, Section VII of the U.S. Constitution, which declares, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.”

    Since 1865, the Ways and Means Committee has continued to exercise jurisdiction over revenue and related issues such as tariffs, reciprocal trade agreements, and the bonded debt of the United States. Revenue-related aspects of the Social Security system, Medicare, and social services programs have come within Ways and Means’ jurisdiction in the 20th century.

    The roster of Ways and Means Committee members who have gone on to serve in higher office is impressive. Eight Presidents and eight Vice Presidents have served on Ways and Means, as have 21 Speakers of the House of Representatives, and four Justices of the Supreme Court.

  • More than 50 House Democrats join John Lewis boycott of Trump inauguration

     

    By: Greg BlueStein, Atlanta Journal Constitution

    congressman-john-lewis

    Cong. John Lewis

    A growing number of House Democrats, 50 as of this writing, say they won’t attend Donald Trump’s inauguration after he criticized Georgia Rep. John Lewis as “all talk” and insulted his Atlanta-based district.

    Trump called the district a “crime infested” area that is “falling apart,” a day after the Democrat told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he will skip Trump’s inauguration next week because he doesn’t see him as a “legitimate president.”

    Other Democrats are citing that early-morning Twitter barrage for their decision to avoid this week’s inauguration festivities. California Rep. Mark Takano, California Rep. Ted Lieu and New York Rep. Yvette Clarke all said on Twitter Saturday they will not attend the swearing-in ceremony to stand in solidarity with Lewis. “For me, the personal decision not to attend Inauguration is quite simple: Do I stand with Donald Trump, or do I stand with John Lewis?” Lieu said in a statement. “I am standing with John Lewis.”

     

    In an interview with Meet the Press on Friday, Lewis said he felt that Donald Trump was not a legitimate President because of the involvement of Russia in the elections. Lewis who was very active in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s said he would not attend Trumps’ Inauguration. Trump responded on twitter criticizing Lewis as a person who just talks and should do more to improve his district.

    Clarke tweeted: “When you insult @repjohnlewis, you insult America.”

    Several other Democrats, including Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and California Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, had previously announced plans to boycott the event.

    Some Republicans are urging them to reconsider. Among them is Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, one of the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP, who wrote that the inauguration isn’t about Trump but “a celebration of peaceful transfer of power.”

     

  • Obama cuts sentences of hundreds of drug offenders

     

    By Kevin Liptak, CNN White House Producer

       president-barack-obama   

    President Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 reduced or eliminated the sentences for hundreds more non-violent drug offenders.

    The move brings Obama well beyond his most recent predecessors, who used their commutation powers more sparingly. He’s now reduced sentences for 1,385 individuals, the vast majority of whom are serving time for crimes related to distribution or production of narcotics.

     

    Many of those whose punishments he’s reduced were incarcerated for crimes involving crack cocaine, which came with mandatory sentences that were longer than those for the powdered version of the drug. The discrepancy — a facet of a decades-long war on drugs — overwhelmingly affected African-Americans.

     

    Obama had hoped for legislation to permanently end the disparities in sentencing laws. While an unlikely group of activists have pushed in Congress for a bill that would alter mandatory minimums and reform the prison system, a rancorous political climate during last year’s presidential campaign prevented progress.

     

    Instead, Obama encouraged Americans serving lengthy terms to apply for clemency, prompting a flood of applications to his Justice Department. A group of legal aid groups established the Clemency Project to help screen applicants and complete the required paperwork.

     

    An onslaught of requests required Obama’s aides to establish a process for vetting applications, which began backing up in the Pardon Attorney’s office.

    At the beginning of 2017, 13,568 petitions for clemency were still pending. The Obama administration has received more than 30,000 petitions over eight years.

     

    The power to grant pardons and commutations is written into the US constitution as one of the president’s clearest unilateral prerogatives. With large batches often coming in the final weeks of an administration, an act of clemency cannot be challenged in court or overturned by Congress.

     

    President George W. Bush granted 189 pardons and 11 commutations, including reducing the prison term for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the probe of the leak of the name of a CIA operative.

     

    President Bill Clinton issued a flurry of pardons on his final day in office, including for financier Marc Rich and the president’s half-brother Roger Clinton. In sum, Clinton ordered 396 pardons and 61 commutations.

     

    No recent commander-in-chief, however, has used the powers as liberally as Obama to enact a criminal justice reform agenda. Writing in the Harvard Law Review earlier this month, Obama said his push toward eliminating mandatory minimum sentences and offering clemency to non-violent drug offenders was informed by his own history.

     

    “This is an effort that has touched me personally, and not just because I could have been caught up in the system myself had I not gotten some breaks as a kid,” Obama wrote, recalling meetings at the White House with recipients of his clemency grants who had turned their life around.

     

    “By shifting the narrative to the way clemency can be used to correct injustices in the system — and reminding people of the value of second chances — I worked to reinvigorate the clemency power and to set a precedent that will make it easier for future presidents, governors and other public officials to use it for good,” Obama wrote.

     

    While President-elect Donald Trump has yet to detail his planned use of clemency powers, there’s little optimism about criminal justice reform advocates that he’ll continue Obama’s efforts. Trump ran on a “law and order” platform, though rarely addressed issues of clemency or sentencing on the campaign trail.

     

    “I’m looking at various predictors to try and decide where he might go. He wants to make America safe again. We know based on data that locking up low-level offenders won’t make America safe,” said Jessica Jackson Sloan, the national director and co-founder of #cut50, a group committed to reducing the US prison population by half. “I’m hopeful that we’ll be surprised,” Sloan said.

     

  • Immigrant rights advocates hold rally against Jeff Sessions in front of his Birmingham office


    On Saturday, January 14, 2016, the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ) supported by other organizations held a rally on the steps of the Vance Federal Building in Birmingham, Alabama to protest Trump’s nomination of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to become the U. S. Attorney General.

    200 protestors gathered on the street in front of the building, which houses Jeff Sessions district office. The protestors held signs with quotes from Jeff Sessions showing his bias against immigrants, children were dressed with butterfly wings and a giant puppet of Trump with a red hat with the words “Make America Alabama Again!” on it.

    Several speakers, who were hard working immigrants, who had been in Alabama for many years spoke out about Jeff Sessions support for Alabama’s draconian HB56 anti-immigration law. Parts of the law have been challenged and beaten in the courts but the law was the strictest in the nation and forced many undocumented immigrants to flee the state. Speakers addressed their fears that if Sessions is confirmed as U. S. Attorney General that he will support policies that will lead to the deportation of many more immigrants and break up families who have been in this country for many years.

    Several of the speakers were young people who were brought to this country as children by their parents and who participated in President Obama’s DACA program which allowed them to go to college and to work without fear of deportation. These young people are often referred to as “dreamers” because they fought so hard for this program to grow up and become educated and productive U. S. citizens.

    One young lady on the DACA program said, “ I came to this country at three years old. I have lived in Alabama as long as I can remember. I am a participant in the DACA program. I am going to college here in Birmingham and I am fearful of the future if Jeff Sessions becomes Attorney General. I am an Alabamian and I want to live here and contribute to society and my community here. I am undocumented and fear what President Trump assisted by Attorney General Sessions will do to me to end my dreams.”

    Other speakers spoke to Senator Sessions voting record in the U. S. Senate in opposition to voting rights, civil rights, womens rights, labor rights and many basic rights enjoyed by people in this country.

  • Dylann Roof sentenced to death for Charleston Church Massacre

    JON SCHUPPE and JAMIE MORRISON

    An admitted white supremacist was condemned to death Tuesday for massacring nine black worshipers who’d invited him to study the Bible with them at a Charleston, S.C., church, ending a two-phase federal trial that exposed the killer’s hate-fueled motives and plumbed the chasms of grief left by the victims’ deaths.

                The jury, the same that convicted Dylann Roof in the murders last month, announced its verdict after deliberating less than three hours.

    170110-dylann-roof-mn-1406_4f73cdf611a47da154c8846f9d399b70-nbcnews-ux-2880-1000Dylann Roof speaks in the courtroom in Charleston on Jan. 10. Robert Maniscalco

    Roof, 22, who represented himself in the penalty phase, did very little to persuade the panel to spare his life. He declined to present any witnesses or evidence, blocked standby defense lawyers’ attempts to raise questions about his mental health, and suggested in his closing statement that arguing for life in prison wasn’t worth the effort.

    As the verdicts were announced, Roof stared straight ahead, or looked down. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel scheduled formal sentencing for Wednesday morning. Roof then asked for a lawyer to help file a motion for a new trial, which Gergel said he’d consider before the sentencing, but added that the request didn’t seem justified.

    Melvin Graham, whose sister, Cynthia Graham Hurd, was among the nine killed, said after the verdict that his family had received justice. But he added, “This is a very hollow victory because my sister is still gone.”

    Graham said he did not argue with the death penalty for Roof.

    “He just took them away from us because he wanted to. He decided the day, the hour, the moment, my sister was going to die. And now someone is going to do that for him,” Graham said.

    Graham also argued that if Roof had a Muslim sounding name, he would have been called a radicalized terrorist. “He was radicalized, but not in the way some people think. He radicalized himself to think he had to act on it just like any other terrorist.”

    Roof’s relatives said in a statement that they would “always love Dylann” but would “struggle as long as we live to understand why he committed this horrible attack, which caused so much pain to so many good people.”

    His defense lawyers, sidelined for much of the trial, said the sentenced meant that “this case will not be over for a very long time.” They also expressed dismay that the trial “shed so little light on the reasons for this tragedy.”

    Roof now becomes the 63rd person on federal death row, and the first to be put there since Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted in 2015.

    Nevertheless, it will likely be years before he is put to death; the federal government has put executions on hold out of concerns about lethal injection drugs, and appeals could put off the date even further. The last federal execution took place in 2003.

    And Roof still faces a second trial, by the state of South Carolina, where he also faces the death penalty. The date of that trial has not been determined.

    From the start of the trial, Roof’s guilt was hardly in doubt.It took the 12-person jury a little over two hours to convict Roof last month on all 33 counts, including two dozen that fall under federal hate crime statutes.

    During that phase of the trial, defense lawyer David Bruck put no witnesses on the stand and raised no objections when prosecutors played In it, Roof admitted he was guilty and that the motive was to spark a race war. He told the FBI men he was surprised he was able to kill as many people as he did with his .45-caliber Glock pistol.

    Witnesses included two women who survived the shooting, Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, who testified that Roof told her, “I’m going to leave you here to tell the story.”

    For the penalty phase, a judge allowed Roof to represent himself, but only after conducting a competency hearing that remains under seal. Roof told the jury that “there is nothing wrong with me psychologically,” and that he chose to mount his own defense to prevent lawyers from presenting mental health evaluations.

     

  • Obama offers optimism — and warnings – in farewell address

     

    By Kevin Liptak, CNN White House Producer

     president-barack-obama

     President Barack Obama

     

    Chicago (CNN) Popular but politically humbled, President Barack Obama said goodbye to the nation Tuesday night, declaring during his farewell address that he hasn’t abandoned his vision of progressive change but warning that it now comes with a new set of caveats.

    His voice at moments catching with emotion, Obama recounted a presidency that saw setbacks as well as successes. Admitting candidly that political discourse has soured under his watch, Obama demanded that Americans renew efforts at reconciliation.

    “Democracy does not require uniformity,” Obama said. “Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity — the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.”

    In a concession that, for now, his brand of progressive politics is stalled in Washington, Obama admitted “for every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back.”

    He implored his backers to be vigilant in protecting basic American values he warned could come under siege. “Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear,” he said. “So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are.”

    And he warned against turning inward, telling Democrats that only by involving themselves in a real political discourse could they hope to renew the hopeful vision he brought to the White House eight years ago. “After eight years as your President, I still believe that,” he went on. “And it’s not just my belief. It’s the beating heart of our American idea — our bold experiment in self-government.”

     

    Obama’s speech is the capstone of a months-long farewell tour, manifested in extended magazine interviews, lengthy television sit-downs, and the White House’s own efforts to document the President’s waning administration. Through it all, Obama has sought to highlight the achievements of his presidency using statistics showing the country better off now than eight years ago.

     

    As he spoke before a rowdy crowd of supporters, Obama was interrupted often with screams of “I Love you Obama.” When a protester holding a “Pardon All of Us” sign, chants of “four more years” drowned out the shouts.

    Obama sought to corral his crowd, listing the accomplishments of the last eight years ranging from health care to marriage equality, all while insisting that his work isn’t finished.

    He recognized his successor Donald Trump, saying he was committed to a peaceful transition of power. But he warned that going forward Democrats shouldn’t fall in line with their commander-in-chief.

    Obama, who has addressed race with varying degrees of force during his time in office, used his farewell to insist Americans work harder to understand each other’s struggles. After presiding over eight years that saw race relations enter a fraught new era, Obama demanded that differences be identified and reconciled.

    “Brown kids will represent a larger share of America’s workforce” in the years ahead, Obama proclaimed, calling for better rules that will help the children of immigrants succeed.

    He warned that “laws alone won’t be enough” in resolving persistent differences between Americans. “Hearts must change,” he said. He called on African-Americans and minorities to view with empathy “the middle-aged white man who from the outside may seem like he’s got all the advantages, but who’s seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change.”

    And he urged whites to regard the protests of minorities as a fight “not demanding special treatment, but the equal treatment our Founders promised.”

    “Regardless of the station we occupy, we have to try harder,” Obama said. “To start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.”

    In coming to Chicago, Obama hoped to capitalize on a well of goodwill that’s expanded in the final year of his tenure. He discarded the staid Oval Office or East Room for his last formal set of remarks, choosing instead the city where his political rise began and where he declared victory in 2008 and 2012.

    Inside a vast convention hall packed with more than 20,000 of his most ardent supporters and former staffers, the mood was wistful. Ahead of his address, aides described the normally unsentimental commander in chief as nostalgic.

    Over the past several weeks, Obama has offered a rational view of Trump’s election and rarely let on to any apprehension about his future as an ex-president.

    First lady Michelle Obama has articulated a more candid view in a scaled-back version of her own farewell. She sat for an hour-long interview with Oprah Winfrey, frankly admitting that Democrats were now “feeling what not having hope feels like.”

    And she became emotional during her final set of formal remarks at the White House Friday, her voice quaking and eyes welling with tears as she told a crowd of educators: “I hope I made you proud.”

    During his speech Tuesday, Obama voice quaked when describing his wife’s service. “You took on a role you didn’t ask for and made it your own with grace and grit and style and good humor,” he said. “You made the White House a place that belongs to everybody.”

    The President had been planning his speech for months, aides said, formulating the broad themes while on vacation over the holidays in Hawaii and developing drafts starting last week.

    He told aides months ago that he preferred to deliver his farewell address in his hometown, a first for a departing President. George W. Bush, unpopular and facing a financial crisis, delivered his final prime-time address in the White House East Room to a crowd of 200 supporters and aides.

    Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter all used the Oval Office — a setting Obama has long spurned for formal remarks. George H.W. Bush traveled outside of Washington to West Point for a departing address after failing to secure a second term, though he didn’t actually bill it as a farewell.

    The tradition extends back to George Washington, who issued warnings against unchecked power and partisan entrenchment in a written address to the nation in 1796.

     

     

  • Coretta Scott King wrote 1986 letter opposing federal court nomination of Jeff Sessions, letter not entered in record at that time by Strom Thurmon

     

    By Wesley Lowery , Washington Post

    coretta-scott-king

    Coretta Scott King

    The widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. urged Congress to block the 1986 nomination of Jeff Sessions for federal judge, saying that allowing him to join the federal bench would “irreparably damage the work of my husband,” according to the letter written by King that was previously publicly unavailable and obtained on Tuesday by The Post. The full letter may be read on the Internet.  “Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts,” King wrote in the cover page of her 9-page letter opposing Sessions’s nomination, which failed at the time.

    “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.”

    Thirty years later, Sessions, now himself a senator, is again undergoing confirmation hearings as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, and is facing fierce opposition from civil rights groups.

    In the letter, King writes that Sessions’s ascension to the federal bench “simply cannot be allowed to happen,” arguing that as a U.S. attorney, the Alabama lawmaker persused “politically-motivated voting fraud prosecutions” and that he “lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.” She said Sessions’s conduct in prosecuting civil rights leaders in a voting fraud case “raises serious questions about his commitment to the protection of the voting rights of all American citizens.”

    “The irony of Mr. Sessions’ nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods,” she wrote, later adding: “I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system in Alabama, but also on the progress we have made toward fulfilling my husband’s dream.”

    During the 1986 hearing, the letter and King’s opposition became a crucial part of the argument against Sessions’s confirmation. Current Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has not previously released the letter, which committee rules grant him the sole authority to reveal.

    Buzzfeed News first reported the existence of the letter earlier Tuesday, noting that it was never entered into the congressional record by then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond.