Greene County Democrat

Category: Politics

  • Newswires: Two more died last week 54 Alabama inmates have died in state prisons this year.

    By: Patrick Darrington, Alabama Political Reporter
    May 31, two incarcerated individuals in separate prison facilities in Alabama were found unresponsive in their cells and later determined to be deceased following unsuccessful life-saving measures.
    The two individuals were Tarrance Demetri Guyton, 56, and Steven Ray Harris, 65. ADOC confirmed that Guyton was reported dead at the St. Clair Correctional Facility and Harris’ death was reported at the Staton Correctional Facility.
    With their passing, at least 54 individuals have died in Alabama state prisons this year. The total is likely an undercount.
    Both Guyton and Harris are suspected of dying from drug overdoses, sources inside said, but ADOC did not confirm that. Their causes of death will be confirmed following an autopsy and investigation by ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division.

    With summer arriving, the conditions inside ADOC are anticipated to worsen. With a lack of air conditioning to combat the heat, tensions are expected to flare, leading to more violence.

  • Newswire : President Biden allocates $115 million to rebuild Jackson, Mississippi’s water system

    A Mississippi National Guard Soldier takes water to a person’s car at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds in Jackson, Mississippi, Sept. 1, 2022. Nearly 600 Mississippi National Guardsmen were set up across seven sites through Jackson for people to collect bottled water and non-potable water from water buffalo trucks. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Connie Jones)

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    President Joe Biden has announced the allocation of $115 million to support critical investments in reconstructing Jackson’s water infrastructure. The federal funds are part of the $600 million appropriations package Congress approved last year.
    The city of Jackson, with a population of nearly 150,000 residents and a majority-Black demographic, has been grappling with a severe water crisis caused by years of neglecting its infrastructure and exacerbated by significant flooding last summer.
    The collapse of the water system in August 2022 left residents without clean and safe drinking water for several days. Since then, ongoing water disruptions have plagued the city, necessitating emergency assistance and technical support from the federal government.
    In the latest development, a federal court ruling favored the U.S. Department of Justice, paving the way for installing an independent third-party manager as part of an agreement between the city and the Mississippi State Department of Health.
    The Biden administration said the collaborative effort aims to address the long-standing water issues in one of the nation’s poorest cities. President Biden emphasized the significance of ensuring that all Americans have access to clean and safe drinking water while acknowledging the suffering that the people of Jackson have experienced.
    He commended the progress in repairing the city’s water system but emphasized the need for further action.
Under his “Investing in America agenda,” the administration said it’s already channeling unprecedented resources to communities across the nation, focusing on replacing lead pipes, enhancing water quality, and fortifying the country’s drinking water infrastructure to withstand the impacts of the climate crisis.
    Biden stressed the significance of this endeavor, stating, “Until all our children can safely drink water from the tap, our fight for clean water must, and will, continue.”
By awarding $115 million to Jackson, the President said he desires to provide the necessary resources and support to tackle the deep-rooted water crisis that has plagued the city for decades.
    The Jackson water crisis resulted from systemic issues that have persisted for many years. The system nearly broke last summer when significant flooding made the city’s already vulnerable water infrastructure even more susceptible due to aging pipes and infrastructure neglect.
    The initial failure in August 2022 left residents without access to clean and safe drinking water, creating a state of emergency that required immediate intervention.
Jackson’s status as one of the poorest cities in the United States has compounded the difficulties faced by its residents, as they have had to bear the consequences of aging infrastructure.
    
With President Biden’s allocation of $115 million, officials said Jackson could rebuild its water infrastructure and ensure its residents have access to clean and safe drinking water. “While we have made a lot of progress, there is much more work to do to ensure that all Americans have access to clean water,” Biden said.
    “Thanks to my Investing in America agenda, we’re already deploying record resources to communities all across America to replace lead pipes, improve water quality, and rebuild the nation’s drinking water infrastructure, ensuring it can withstand the impacts of the climate crisis,” the President stated. “Until all our children can safely drink water from the tap, our fight for clean water must, and will, continue.”

  • $2.2 billion in assistance for farmers who experienced discrimination in USDA Farm Loan Programs will soon be available

    Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Biden, in August 2022, provides in Section 22007, an authorization of $2.2 Billion to compensate farmers who “experienced discrimination in USDA Farm Loan Programs, prior to January 1, 2021”.

    USDA is working now to develop the regulations and the claims process for farmers who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs to receive these funds. USDA has designated a national administrator for the process -the Midtown Group; and two subsidiary groups, Windsor Group for the counties east of the Mississippi river and Analytic Acquisitions for the western half of the nation.

    The Section 22007 process is for farmers who experienced discrimination in the USDA farm loan programs, this includes racial and ethnic discrimination against Black farmers, Latino, indigenous, Asian-Pacific islanders, gender discrimination against women and LBGQT persons, religious discrimination and other forms of discrimination, which farmers may wish to assert in their claims.

    Dania Davy, an attorney who heads the Federation of Southern Cooperative’s Land Retention Program said, “There is a lot of misinformation already about the Section 22007 program. This is not a new
    class action lawsuit. This is not the re-opening of any prior lawsuit or settlement process. This is a new process for people who were discriminated against in USDA Farm Loan Programs. We are awaiting the regulations and the claim form, which USDA plans to release next month in June. They hope to complete this process in the next six months by the end of 2023.”

    Davy further commented that, “USDA is saying you will not need a lawyer to fill out the claim form. You will not have to pay a fee for getting assistance in filling out these claim forms. The Federation and other community-based organizations with agricultural experience and knowledge of USDA programs, will be contracted to provide technical assistance in the filing of claim forms for Section 22007 funds. If you choose to employ your own attorney to file your claim, you will need to pay for these services out of your award.”

    The maximum claim can be up to $500,000 but the average claim will be much less and closer to the $50,000 basic claim assistance offered in the
    prior discrimination settlements.

    Farmers who experienced recent discrimination in USDA programs, may contact the Office of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR), Information Research Service, at (866) 632-9992 (toll free) or send an email to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at CR-INFO@usda.gov.

    USDA has set up a website for information on the Section 22007 process, which is: http://www.farmers.gov/22007, that will have up to date information on the process going forward, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

    The Federation, Rural Coalition, Intertribal Agriculture Council and many other community-based organizations who work with BIPOC farmers are awaiting the release of the regulations and claim form for the 22007 discrimination process. Once this critical information is released then these groups plan to implement strategies to assist farmers with their claims.

    The Federation can be reach through their website at; http://www.federation.coop or by phone at 404/765-0991 at the Atlanta administrative office or 205/652-9676 at the Rural Training and Research Center in Epes, Alabama.

  • Newswire: Dangerous growth of violent groups confronts new Nigerian President

    Muslim rebels in Nigeria


    May 30, 3023 (GIN) – Bolu Ahmed Tinubu, who eked out a controversial win in the nation’s recent elections, now faces a near insurmountable challenge – to quell the violence gripping the country, wielded by various groups of assorted loyalties.
     
    “The degree of insecurity in Nigeria is unprecedented,” wrote Charles Kwuelum and Iyabo Obasanjo in Foreign Policy magazine.  “It’s not just former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell, who are arguing that Nigeria is a failed state. Nigerian public and government officials regularly say as much themselves.”
     
    Tinubu takes over from Muhammadu Buhari, who claims to be leaving the country in a better state that when he took power in 2015. 
     
    “Our battle to ensure that all Nigerians live in a safe and secure environment has achieved considerable results,” the 80 year old Buhari said in a televised address.
     
    But contrary to Buhari’s remarks, the 71-year-old Tinubu inherits a tide of violence, from the northeast to the southeast.  “At least sixty-three thousand Nigerians have been killed in various acts of state and nonstate extrajudicial violence, with attacks by Islamist insurgents, assorted armed bandits, and kidnappers claiming the most lives,” wrote Ebenezer Obadare in a recent blogpost.
     
    “Numbers aside, a real sense of lawlessness pervades, with a growing recourse to vigilante justice signaling popular frustration at law enforcement and the judicial system.”
     
    “The country’s kidnap-for-ransom industry has surged: between January and March this year alone, 1,484 people were abducted. In some cases, security agencies have been accused of complicity with criminal groups,” added Obadare.
     
    “Attacks by herdsmen on farming settlements seem driven by land degradation or desertification, compounded by intensified drought due to climate change. Herdsmen reportedly killed 2,539 people in as many as 654 attacks. As much as 60 percent of land in Nigeria is under pressure of desertification.
     
    “As soon as he takes office, the new president will face significant security problems,” notes Emeka Okoro, security analyst for the analysis group SBM Intelligence, and he will have to tackle three major fronts.
     
    The most urgent and priority is that of central and northwestern Nigeria, said Okoro. In these agricultural and poor regions, the fierce competition for land frequently degenerates into deadly clashes between farmers and herders, where the absence of justice and protection from power has contributed to the birth of armed gangs, responsible for mass killings and kidnapping for ransom.
     
    “The bandits invade a community, kill the inhabitants, and destroy their property, with little or no resistance from the security forces “, charged Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, Sultan of Sokoto, one of the most heavily attacked regions.
     
    For researcher Idayat Hassan, director of the Center for Democracy and Development , the new administration will have to move away from “the enemy-centric, weapon-centric approach”, which prevailed under President Buhari, to “adopt a non-military approach”, tackling the underlying problems, such as “unemployment, poverty, the fight against marginalization” and “reform justice.” 
     
    Matthew Hassan Kukah, the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Sokoto, Nigeria, said that “we stare at an imponderable tragedy as the nation unravels from all sides.” And former President Olusegun Obasanjo remarked: “A situation where you are not safe on the road, you are not safe on the train, you are not safe at the airport, shows a very serious situation.”

  • Newswire : Tina Turner, trailblazing ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ who dazzled audiences worldwide, dies at 83

    Tina Turner performing on stage

    By Daniel Arkin, NBC News

    Tina Turner, the exuberant, heel-stomping, wild-haired rock goddess who sold out stadiums, earned a dozen Grammy Awards and won the adoration of fans around the world in an electrifying music career spanning five decades, died Wednesday at her home near Zurich after a long illness, according to her publicist.
    She was 83.
    “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” Turner’s publicist, Bernard Doherty, said in a statement. Doherty added that there will be a private funeral ceremony for close friends and family members. He did not specify a cause of death.
    The arc of Turner’s high-flying but tumultuous life was music industry legend — as well as the basis for a hit 1986 autobiography (“I, Tina”), a Hollywood biopic (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”) and a Broadway jukebox show (“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical”).
    She ascended from rural roots to the heights of national stardom, blasting into public consciousness as one half of the sensational rhythm-and-blues duo Ike & Tina Turner and later establishing herself as one of the most popular Black female solo artists in the world.
    She was the first woman and the first Black artist to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone — in just its second issue — and her massively successful solo career broke barriers for future generations of Black women in music.
    But along the way, Turner experienced personal upheavals and private traumas. She alleged that Ike Turner, her ex-husband and artistic collaborator, subjected her to years of horrific physical abuse and tried to take control of virtually all aspects of her life.
    “It was my relationship with Ike that made me most unhappy. At first, I had really been in love with him. Look what he’d done for me. But he was totally unpredictable,” Turner wrote in “I, Tina,” a memoir co-authored by music critic and MTV News correspondent Kurt Loder.
    In the late 1970s, Turner managed to extricate herself from her husband and set out on her own. In the ’80s, Turner pulled off one of the most triumphant comebacks in modern rock music, reinventing herself as a gleefully liberated hit-maker who topped the Billboard charts.
    Turner, a supremely talented vocalist who belted out songs with abandon, recorded one chart-topping song after another in the ’80s, but one track in particular made her a superstar: “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” a show-stopping anthem off the 1984 album “Private Dancer.”
    Turner’s other big hits from the era included “Better Be Good to Me,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome),” “Typical Male,” “The Best” and “I Don’t Wanna Fight.” 
    In the decades that followed, she toured around the world, racked up awards, occasionally acted in films and remained one of the signature musical personalities of the late 20th century. She decided to retire in 2009 after having wrapped up her 50th anniversary tour.
    “I’ve done enough,” Turner announced to a crowd of 75,000 people at Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich that year. “I’ve been performing for 44 years. I really should hang up my dancing shoes.”
    Turner earned eight competitive Grammy Awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame prizes and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement trophy. She was a two-time inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — first with Ike Turner (1991), then as a solo artist (2021). 

  • Newswire : Poll shows Affirmative Action supported by majority of Americans as Supreme Court set to rule

    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Most U.S. adults believe colleges should be allowed to consider race as part of their admissions process.
    However, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research poll also indicated that only some people think race should play a significant role in the final decision.
These findings are critical as the Supreme Court is currently deliberating the fate of affirmative action in higher education.
The May poll, which surveyed a diverse range of participants, demonstrated that 63% of respondents believe the Supreme Court should not prohibit colleges from considering race or ethnicity during admissions.
Remarkably, the poll found that this sentiment was not significantly divided along political or racial lines, indicating a broad consensus on the issue.
While respondents supported considering race in admissions, they placed greater importance on factors such as grades and standardized test scores.
Sixty-eight percent of adults stated that race and ethnicity should not be a significant factor in college admissions decisions.
This preference for academic merit over racial considerations was consistent across different demographic groups. The poll results suggest that Americans support affirmative action as a policy, even if its future remains uncertain.
The Supreme Court appears ready to rule on lawsuits challenging the admissions systems of prestigious institutions like Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
With a conservative majority on the court, many college leaders are bracing for a decision that could potentially limit or eliminate the use of race in admissions.
Interestingly, Americans’ views on race in admissions align with the practices colleges claim to follow.
Many colleges, particularly selective ones, assert that race is just one of the numerous factors considered when selecting students for admission. They emphasize that race is not a dominant influence but can occasionally provide an advantage to underrepresented students in close decisions.
College administrators defend this practice, asserting that racial diversity benefits all students by fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment.
The poll shed light on the uncertain landscape of race-conscious admissions, as the extent to which colleges consider race in their admissions processes remains unknown. Notably, nine states, including California, Michigan, and Florida, have outlawed the use of race in admissions.
Among all respondents, 13% believed that race should be a very or extremely important part of the admission process, while 18% considered it somewhat important.
Black and Hispanic adults expressed a stronger belief in the importance of race in admissions compared to other racial groups. The poll also revealed similar attitudes toward considering gender in admissions. Only 9% of adults regard gender as very important, with 14% perceiving it as somewhat important.
Men and women shared similar views regarding the role of gender in college admissions.
By contrast, most Americans (62%) believed that high school grades should carry substantial weight in admissions, with 30% considering them somewhat important.
Nearly half of the respondents indicated that standardized test scores should be highly important.
Historically, the Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action in its decisions since 1978. The ongoing lawsuits against Harvard and UNC accuse these universities of discriminating against white and Asian students. However, lower courts have upheld the admissions systems of both schools.
The poll also examined the significance of other factors in college admissions, such as athletics and family ties. Interestingly, most Americans believed that athletic ability should have little influence on admissions (9% very important, 29% somewhat important).
Some participants believed family ties should be a significant factor in the admissions process. Legacy preference, the practice of granting preferential treatment to the children of alums, has faced criticism in recent years for allegedly favoring wealthy, white students.
Some prestigious institutions, like Amherst College and Johns Hopkins University, have discontinued this practice.
If the Supreme Court strikes affirmative action, some experts speculate that more colleges will follow suit and abandon legacy preferences, thereby removing potential obstacles for students of color.
The poll also gauged public confidence in the Supreme Court as a whole. Following the court’s controversial Dobbs decision last year, which overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to impose severe restrictions on abortion, confidence in the court has diminished.
The poll found that only 12% of Americans expressed great confidence in the court, while 48% had some confidence, and 39% had hardly any. As the Supreme Court deliberates its decision on affirmative action, the poll results indicate a nuanced perspective among Americans.
While there is broad support for considering race in admissions, it is clear that most individuals prioritize academic factors and want to avoid race being a determining factor in the final admissions decisions.

  • Newswire : Vice President Harris, the first woman to deliver the commencement address at West Point,extols the virtues of a diverse military

    By: Donna Brazille

    Vice President Kamala Harris hands out diplomas after delivering the keynote speech at Michie Stadium during West Point’s graduation ceremony on May 27, 2023 in West Point, New York. Harris is the first woman to give a commencement address in the military academy’s 221-year history. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)


    Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Saturday and said that “our military is strongest when it fully reflects the people of America” in its diversity.
    “You stand on the broad shoulders of generations of Americans who have worn the uniform,” Harris told some 950 graduating cadets, receiving a standing ovation for her remarks. She told the graduates they will play a vital role in defending the United States and thanked them for being willing to risk their lives to selflessly serve our nation.
    “The power of America’s military not only rests on our technology, our weaponry, our hardware, it rests on the character and the resolve of our people,” Harris said.
    President Joe Biden spoke to graduating seniors at West Point in 2016 when he was vice president. Biden will deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Thursday. 
    Harris spoke to the graduating class at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy last year and to graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy in 2021.
    Black Americans have served in the American military and defended our nation in combat since the Revolutionary War, at a time when many were enslaved. Even long after, Black service members — including my own father, who served in the Army during the Korean War — returned home to face segregation and racial discrimination.
    Racism was rampant at West Point throughout much of its history. In its first 133 years, the academy graduated more than 10,000 white men and only three Black men. Women, who were first admitted in 1976, now make up about a quarter of the student body and over 5,000 have graduated from West Point. 
    Henry Ossian Flipper, who was born enslaved and was emancipated at the end of the Civil War, became the first Black graduate of the academy in 1877 and went on to command Black troops (the Army wasn’t desegregated until 1948). 
    While at West Point, Flipper and the few other Black cadets (most of whom were pushed out before graduating) “endured physical and emotional abuse and racist treatment from their white peers and professors … [and] were ostracized, barred from social activities with other cadets, and spoken to only when officially necessary,” Patri O’Gan wrote on the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
    Racism resulted in Flipper being unjustly court-martialed in 1881 on charges of embezzlement and “conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.” Although Flipper was acquitted of embezzlement, he was dismissed from the Army in 1882. It wasn’t until 1976 that his descendants secured an honorable discharge for him, followed by a full pardon from President Bill Clinton in 1999.
    More than 100 years after Flipper became the first Black graduate of West Point, Patricia Walker Locke and Joy Suzanne Dallas Eshelman became the first Black women to graduate from the academy in 1980. Locke retired from the Army in 1995 and went on to serve as president of a foundation serving underrepresented communities. Eshelman retired from the Army in 2001.

  • Children’s Policy Council hosts UA New Faculty Engagement Tour

    On May 11, 2023 the Greene County Children’s Policy Council hosted the University of Alabama New Faculty Engagement Tour at the Robert Young Community Center in Eutaw, Alabama. The tour”s – Exploring New Places, Meeting New People, and Engaging New Communities – purpose is to encourage new community -university partnerships. Six panelists from Greene County discussed their programs making a difference in Greene County and what type of additional community-engaged research or service partnerships with the University of Alabama faculty, staff, and students would be helpful to address priorities within the County.
    The panelist on the program were Christopher Jones, Director, Greene County Ambulance Service, Dr. Corey Jones, Superintendent, Greene County School System, Mildred Morgan, Facilitator, Strengthening Family Program, Mollie Rowe, Director, Eutaw, Housing Authority, John Zippert, Chairman, Greene County Health System Board and Lillie Jones-Osborne, Chairman, Greene County Children’s Policy Council.
    This is the fifth New Faculty Community Engagement Tour to visit Greene County. According to Dr. Samory Pruitt, Vice President of Community Affairs at the University of Alabama, “ Community-engaged scholarship exists at the intersection of teaching, research, and service, the three pillars of the University of Alabama’s mission. The tour plays an important role in advancing that mission by providing opportunities to connect, and for the community members to become the teachers while members of the University community embrace the role of learner.”
    Judge Lillie Jones- Osborne served as the facilitator and site coordinator for the group. She stated, “We are always happy to host the group and to sit down and have new dialogue with the faculty and staff to encourage new partnerships.” She further stated that several partnerships have developed over the years because of the engagement tour. The tour visited several other areas in the Black Belt and in West Alabama over a three-day period.

  • State Senator Bobby Singleton submits Constitutional Amendment for historic horse racing on computerized machines in Greene Co.

    State Senator Bobby Singleton submitted a bill, SB 324, to the Alabama Senate’s Local Legislation Committee for a Constitutional Amendment to legally allow for pari-mutuel wagering on historic horse racing on computerized machines in Greene County.

    The bill also provides for levying a tax on pari-mutuel betting on the computerized historic horse racing machines of up to 4% for local distribution and 1% to the State of Alabama. The amendment includes the licensure and operation of a racetrack, and the distribution of fees, taxes and other funds collected, by the Greene County Racing Commission.

    If this legislation passes during this legislative session and is signed by the Governor, it will then be subject to a referendum by the voters of Greene County at the primary election in 2024 or at a special election if one is held before 2024.

    This Constitutional Amendment closely parallels one that created a racing commission and greyhound dog racing in Greene County in the 1980’s. When live dog racing ended, simulcasting of dog and horse racing continued at Greenetrack, under the pari-mutuel wagering rules, supervised by the Greene County Racing Commission, appointed by the Greene County legislative delegation.

    The voters of Greene County then authorized the playing of electronic bingo, under the licensing and supervision of the Greene County Sheriff, in Constitutional Amendment 743. The Sheriff licensed a number of bingo charities and bingo operators, four of which remain. They are: Bama Bingo, Frontier, Palace and River’s Edge.

    Greenetrack, which pioneered the development of electronic bingo in Greene County, was forced to give up its bingo machines earlier this year, when the Alabama State Department of Revenue assessed the company with a $76 million dollar sales tax bill. Greenetrack contested the sales tax assessment as illegal and unfair. The state tax was based on all funds wagered on bingo machines rather than the resulting profits generated for the operator and charities.

    Electronic bingo in Greene County is under threat from a lawsuit by State Attorney General Steve Marshall, which is working its way through the courts. This case will eventually wind up in the Alabama Supreme Court, which in other cases defines bingo as a game played on paper cards and regards the electronic bingo machines as illegal slot machines. At a recent hearing, retired Circuit Judge Arthur Haynes, set a trial date in the Greene County case for October 2023. The future of bingo in the county is unclear and unsure.

    Greene Entertainment Company, headed by Luther Winn, the prior main stockholder in Greenetrack, secured a license, earlier this year, from the Greene County Racing Commission, to operate pari-mutuel historic racing machines at the former Greenetrack facility.

    The proposed Constitutional Amendment, submitted by Senator Singleton and Representative Travis would allow the voters of Greene County to set the framework for computerized historic horse racing in the county and the distribution formula for any revenues derived from these pari-mutuel wagering opportunities. The voters of Greene County will have a say in the matter, when they vote to approve or disapprove the proposed amendment at a future election.

    The Democrat, received a statement from J. W. McFarland Jr. of the TS Police Support League, the charity connected with the Palace Bingo operation, objecting to Senator Singleton’s filing of SB324. McFarland argues that Greene Entertainment is trying to set up a monopoly control of electronic historical horse racing in Greene County. He also argues that Greene Entertainment was set up by Greenetrack to avoid paying the state sales tax debt and that the Greene County Racing Commission should not be working with a corporation that will not pay taxes owed to the state of Alabama.

    The distribution formula for revenues generated by computerized horse racing in Greene County is spelled out in detail. Most of the public agencies like the County government, School Board, Hospital, Ambulance Service would share in the funding. Other smaller non-profits and groups getting assistance from electronic bingo are also included in the bill for some portion of the funds to be distributed.

    The current Greene County Racing Commission, consisting of Linette Brown, Donald Means and Morris Hardy are in strong support of the legislation and urge Greene County citizens to contact their legislators and others in Montgomery to pass this proposed Constitutional Amendment.

    Efforts at press time to reach Senator Singleton and Representative Curtis Travis to get an assessment of the status and chances for passage of the legislation were unsuccessful.

  • Newswire : South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott announces presidential campaign

    Senator Tim Scott


    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, a longtime and devoted ally of former President Donald Trump, has thrown his hat into the 2024 presidential ring.
    With Trump already declared and the presumptive frontrunner, Scott joins a growing Republican candidate list that includes another Trump ally, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
    Ironically, Haley appointed Scott in 2013 to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate after the retirement of Jim DeMint.
    The GOP already has a crowded field of candidates, including former tech and finance guru Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Many expect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce his candidacy soon, and former Trump VP Mike Pence hasn’t ruled out a run.
    Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, ex-national security advisor John Bolton, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are also said to be weighing a run for the GOP nomination.
    “Under President Biden, our nation is retreating away from patriotism and faith,” Scott said, announcing his bid. “Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb. And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America.”
    While Biden remains popular among Black voters, Scott, an African American, has drawn the ire of Blacks and other minorities, with many in the community deriding the senator as “Uncle Tim,” a takeoff of the self-hating Uncle Tom.
    “Tim Scott is 2024’s Herschel Walker, just more articulate,” commentator Eddie Smith wrote on Twitter. There was a side-by-side image of Scott and the made-up cartoon character Mush Mouth with the post.
    Some knowledgeable political observers have suggested that Tim Scott and some of the other Republican candidates are actually running to be selected as Trump’s vice-presidential candidate.