Greene County Democrat

Tag: President Obama

  • Superintendent Carter honors retired school personnel School Board approves 4% pay raise for all its employees

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    School Superintendent, Dr. James Carter, presented Certificates of Recognition of Service to the school system to six retirees of 2016. L to R: School Board President, Leo Branch; retiree Mrs. Dorothy Branch; retiree Mr. Charles Carter. Honored retirees not shown are: Mr. Otis Crawford, Mrs. Jerdin Gray, Mrs. Billie Jean (BJ) Wallace, and Mrs. Fannie Aaron.

    At the monthly Greene County Board of Education meeting held June 13, 2016, the board approved a 4% pay raise for all employees of the school system. The Alabama State Legislature approved a 4% raise for school employees with annual salaries of $75,000 and less and a 2% raise for school employees with annual salaries above $75,000. Individual school systems could opt to give the 4% increase to all employees, making up the difference for the upper pay levels with local funds. Superintendent James H. Carter stated that seemed to be the most equitable way to handle the raise. School personnel had not received a pay raise since 2008 and that raise was only 2%.

    Dr. Carter presented special acknowledgements and certificates of appreciation to six retirees including Mrs. Dorothy Branch for 27 years in the school system; Mr. Charles Carter for 20 years; Mr. Otis Crawford for 25 years; Mrs. Jerdin Gray for 35 years; Mrs. Fannie Aaron, for 31 years and Mrs. Billie Jean Wallace for 25.5 years. Dr. Carter noted that efforts are continuing in preparation for the consolidation of middle school grades beginning with the next school session in August. “ The transformation continues with the consolidation of Paramount Jr. High School and Carver middle School into one campus. This should provide our middle school students, grades 4-8, with more course offerings and a nicer facility to teach and learn in for students and staff,” Dr. Carter said.
    In his report, Dr. Carter remarked that he was pleased with the number of students enrolled in summer school, but he was perplexed that more students weren’t enrolled in the enrichment program. He stated that approximately 167 students are enrolled in summer school.
    Superintendent Carter also gave a recap of the initiatives of the previous school year including choir, band, Performing Arts Program, Learning Academy, chess program, additional sports teams such as volleyball, softball, baseball and track. “At every stop, we saw most teachers using proven best practices in ways to engage students. We saw students who were more than capable, serious and focused and facilities that are conducive to learning,” stated Carter.
    The board approved the superintendent’s request to declare as emergency projects the renovations needed at the former Greene County High School and the Peter J. Kirksey Vocational Facility. Carter explained that this action would speed up the process with the State Department of Education. The board also approved moving the Greene County Learning Academy from the former Greene County High School facility to the Peter J. Kirksey Vocational Facility.
    In other business, the board approved the voluntary transfers of the following teachers for the 2016-2017 school term:
    Katoya Quarles from 6th grade Math teacher at Carver Middle to 7th and 8th grade Math teacher at the consolidated middle school; Majorie Duncan from 5th grade teacher at Carver to 7th grade reading intervention teacher at the middle school; Rebecca Coleman from 2nd grade teacher at Eutaw Primary to computer science teacher at the middle school; Elona Washington from kindergarten teacher at Eutaw Primary to 1st grade teacher at Eutaw Primary; Sheila Tillman from 1st grade teacher at Paramount Jr. High to kindergarten teacher at Eutaw Primary; Charlease Smith from 3rd grade teacher at Eutaw Primary to 2nd grade teacher at Eutaw Primary; Cheryl Morrow from kindergarten/1st grade teacher at Paramount to 2nd grade teacher at Eutaw Primary.
    The board approved a probationary 11 month contract for Toice Goodson as Principal of Greene County High School 9th Grade Academy.
    The board also approved employment of the following for the middle school: Henry Miles, Jr. as elementary teacher; Frank Jackson as auto mechanics teacher 1/2 time; Migeual Catlin as long-term Math substitute. Employment for Greene County High School: Frank Jackson, auto mechanics 1/2 time; Jamar Jackson from custodian 11 months to custodian 12 months. Employment in Performing Arts: Vassie Brown, adjunct instructor, Theatre; Angel Cordona, adjunct instructor, Dance.
    The superintendent recommended and board approved the recall of Shekitha Crowell as 5th grade teacher for the middle school and Jerome Franks as physical education teacher (TBA). The non-renewal recommendation of Cassandra Allen as business education teacher at Carver was also approved.
    The board approved the following additional service contracts at Greene County High School for the 2016-2017 school term: Rodney Wesley, Head Basketball Coach (boys); Kendra Payne, Head Basketball Coach (girls); Gentrell Eatman, Head Football coach; Janice Jeames, Girls’ Volleyball Coach; Frederick Holmes, Band Director; Jerome Franks, Head Baseball Coach (boys); Jacob Sullivan, Head Softball Coach (girls); Walter Taylor, Assistant Football Coach. Dorris Robinson, Cheerleader Sponsor.
    Additional service contracts approved for the middle school include: Corey Cockrell, Athletic Director, Head Football Coach, B-Team Basketball Coach (boys); Jacob Sullivan, Assistant Football Coach; Jeffery Wesley, Head Basketball Coach (boys); Marjorie Duncan, Head Basketball Coach (girls); Drenda Blackman, Cheerleader Sponsor.
    Teachers employed for the Summer School Program include Carla Durrett, Gentrell Eatman and Angel Cordona for June 6 – June 17. Gloria Lyons was employed as manager for the Summer Feeding Program at Eutaw Primary for June 20 – June 30, 2016. Angela Harkness was employed as after school tutor – Special Needs, Summer School Teacher.
    On the recommendation of the superintendent, the board declared various items from the Child Nutrition Program as surplus to be removed from the CNP inventory. Several buses were also declared as surplus to be sold and removed from the inventory of the School Bus Shop.
    Various Out-of-State travel requests were approved for students, faculty and staff.
    The board approved the summer school contract for the Resource Security Officers.

  • Black comedians react to Larry Wilmore’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner jokes

    By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA News Wire Contributing Writer)

    Larry WilmoreLarry Wilmore

    President Obama drops mic

     President Obama drops mic

    President Barack Obama dropped his microphone at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, acknowledging what everyone had already concluded: he slayed it!  Larry Wilmore didn’t do so bad as host, either, at least depending upon who is doing the review and if you’re among those willing to dismiss his use of the N-word.   But, leave it to comedians like George Wallace to really sum up the evening – in Wallace’s case, probably better than anyone else. “Please come to my 2:17am show at the Waffle House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Wallace wrote on Twitter, right after the event ended.
    “I’m getting from [Larry Wilmore] what I wanted and didn’t get from Chris Rock at the Oscars: Peak truth-telling…” said Erica Williams Simon, a comedian in her own right and a self-described recovering D.C. political strategist and activist.
    Comedian Akilah Hughes had even more to say. “Someone come through with the ‘White Feelings about Larry Wilmore’ Bingo card,” Hughes tweeted as she followed the monologues and skits at the dinner. The comedian was even more impressed with Obama’s mic drop. “Literal mic drop from Mr. President #ObamaOut,” Hughes said.
    Chris Acuff took note of those who were not laughing at Wilmore’s jokes.“D.C.-based journos, Republicans [and] everyone at CNN,” Acuff noted on his Twitter feed.
    However, Rev. Al Sharpton called Wilmore’s remark in which the comedian saluted Obama by using the term “My N—-a,” distasteful. “It was in bad taste,” Sharpton said. Comedian Dick Gregory also said Wilmore could have done without the obscene word. “I wouldn’t have done it,” Gregory said.
    Philip Lewis, an editorial fellow at the Huffington Post, tweeted that pundits should “save your N-word, think pieces. We don’t want them.” Lewis then signed his tweet, “Sincerely, the Black community.”
    Brandon Patterson of Mother Jones, however, had a different take. “I wish White people were as offended by police brutality and mass incarceration as they are by black people using the N-word,” Patterson tweeted.
    By dropping the N-word on Obama, Wilmore broke the cardinal rule of cutting-edge humor – he wasn’t funny,” said Leonard Greene of the New York Daily News.
    However, Matt Wilstein wrote in “The Daily Beast” that, “Wilmore proved exactly why he was the perfect choice to host Obama’s final White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Even if the crowd of journalists in attendance didn’t seem to agree.” Wilstein continued: “More than ever before, the president was an impossible act to follow. Not only did Obama deliver a slew of jokes at Donald Trump’s expense, but he also presented an elaborate ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’-style video that included an epic John Boehner cameo.
    Wilmore began by welcoming the guests in the house once again to the event, ‘or as Fox News will report, two thugs disrupt elegant dinner in D.C.’ He introduced himself as ‘a Black man who replaced a White man who pretended to be a TV newscaster,’ before adding, ‘so yeah, in that way Lester Holt and I have a lot in common,’ to groans from the crowd at Brian Williams’s expense.”
    He was even more harsh to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, saying, ‘Hey, Wolf, I’m ready to project tonight’s winner: Anyone who isn’t watching ‘The Situation Room.’”
    Perhaps, no one else captured the historical sentiment of the evening better than former Attorney General Eric Holder after Obama finished his speech in grand style. “Dropped the mic!! Obama out. POTUS killed at WHCD. You’re going to miss my man America,” Holder wrote on Twitter. “Consequential – and funny. #POTUS2016”

  • Obama: Black Lives Matter movement “can’t just keep on yelling”

    JASON SILVERSTEIN, NEW YORK DAILY NEW

    britain-obama

    President Obama speaking at a town meeting in Britain.

    President Obama criticized the Black Lives Matter movement during a town hall meeting in London Saturday — saying the activist group “can’t just keep on yelling” about the issues it wants to change. Obama’s comments came during day two of his visit to Europe, at a Q and A event for young people. One audience member asked Obama if he felt his administration had done enough to discourage racial profiling at airports. His answer led him to discussing social justice movements, with Obama specifically naming the Black Lives Matter movement. He said he admired such groups for being “really effective in bringing attention to problems” of racial injustice — but he also showed those movements some tough love.
    “Once you’ve highlighted an issue and brought it to people’s attention and shined a spotlight, and elected officials or people who are in a position to start bringing about change are ready to sit down with you, then you can’t just keep on yelling at them,” Obama said. “And you can’t refuse to meet because that might compromise the purity of your position. The value of social movements and activism is to get you at the table, get you in the room.”
    Black Lives Matter did not respond to his remarks.
    Obama has openly supported the Black Lives Matter movement in the past. At a White House forum in October, he dismissed the popular “all lives matter” rebuttal to the national group, saying: “I think everybody understands all lives matter…They were suggesting was there is a specific problem that’s happening in the African-American community that’s not happening in other communities. And that is a legitimate issue that we’ve got to address.”
    Obama in February praised prominent Black Lives Matter activist Deray McKesson for an “outstanding” job leading the movement in Baltimore, where McKesson is now running for mayor.
    Black Lives Matter groups have consistently clashed with presidential candidates on the campaign trail.  Several members have been assaulted at Donald Trump rallies, while Hillary Clinton has had heated exchanges with protesters accusing her of racial insensitivity.

  • The Obamas play the roles of mom and dad perfectly at Easter Egg Roll

    By: Jamie Feldman, Style Editor, Huffington Post

    Michelle

    Obama with Easter Bunny at White House
    Easter Egg Roll

    President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have a few months left to dress up for events at the White House, but there’s one job for which they’ll always know how to dress the part: Mom and Dad. After a whirlwind few weeks of sartorial stunners, the Obamas arrived at the 138th Easter Egg Roll on Monday looking more like America’s parents than anything else. Michelle wore a grassy green top, a long jacket and what appears to be leggings and sneakers, while Barack donned that gingham shirt and, well, dad jeans.
    They then proceeded to do incredibly mom- and dad-like things: a dramatic reading of “Where the Wild Things Are,” delivering high-fives, making jokes about the whip and nae nae and listening to mom-and-dad favorite Idina Menzel sing the national anthem.

  • Malia Obama helps translate for her father during first family’s trip to Cuba

    By: Eun Kyung Kim, NBC Today

    Malia Obama translates for her father

    Malia Obama translates for her father, President Obama in visit with people in Cuba

    Her father may be president, but Malia Obama just proved he doesn’t always know best — or in this case, more.
    The president’s 17-year-old daughter served as her dad’s personal interpreter during a visit with locals on their historic trip to Cuba, according to White House photographer Pete Souza. “The President and Malia share a laugh as Malia translates Spanish to English for her dad at a restaurant in Old Havana,” Souza wrote in the caption of the photo, which he posted on Instagram.
    The first family arrived in Cuba on Sunday evening. The three-day trip marks the first time a U.S. president has visited the island nation in 88 years.
    In addition to Malia, the president and first lady, Michelle Obama, brought their younger daughter, 14-year-old Sasha. Both girls are on spring break from school.
    It’s been an eventful few weeks for the Obama girls. Earlier this month, they attended their first black-tie gala, a White House state dinner to honor the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
    Malia, who is a high school senior, will head to college in the fall.

  • Obama urges rejection of violence at campaign rallies

    By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and GARDINER
    HARRIS, NY Times

    Obama gives speech

    President Obama delivers remarks on campaign

    WASHINGTON — President Obama said on Tuesday that the violent scenes playing out at rallies for Donald J. Trump threatened to tarnish “the American brand,” and he called on politicians in both parties to reject them. Speaking at the Capitol for the annual “Friends of Ireland” luncheon with lawmakers, Mr. Obama did not mention Mr. Trump by name, but he criticized the protesters who have interrupted the candidate’s campaign events and the violent response from Mr. Trump’s supporters.
    Violence has broken out at Trump rallies in Chicago, North Carolina and Ohio as protesters increasingly seek to disrupt the events.
    On Friday, Mr. Trump canceled a rally in Chicago, sending thousands of people home, after his supporters clashed with protesters at an arena there.
    Mr. Obama said the actions of both sides damaged American politics and the nation’s reputation around the world. Politicians should think of the effect their language has on children who are watching, he said.
    “We should not have to explain to them this darker side” of the political system, Mr. Obama said as lawmakers — including the leaders of the Republican Party — sat nearby.
    The audience remained hushed for Mr. Obama’s remarks, listening as the president turned to address the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, who was the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2012.
    Mr. Obama told Mr. Ryan that he disagreed with him on most policy issues. “But I don’t have a bad thing to say about you as a man,” he said. Mr. Ryan nodded in agreement as Mr. Obama continued. “I know you want what’s best for America,” the president said.
    Mr. Obama’s comments about the rallies echoed remarks he has made repeatedly about Mr. Trump, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination, in the last several weeks. On Friday, Mr. Obama mocked him during remarks at a Democratic fund-raiser in Austin, Tex., criticizing Mr. Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail.
    “We’ve got a debate inside the other party that is fantasy and schoolyard taunts and selling stuff like it’s the Home Shopping Network,” Mr. Obama said, referring to a news conference in which Mr. Trump showed off an array of products bearing his name.
    The president said Republicans should not be surprised by the language Mr. Trump and some of his rivals were using in an effort to win the nomination.
    “They can’t be surprised,” Mr. Obama said, “when somebody suddenly looks and says: ‘You know what? I can do that even better. I can make stuff up better than that. I can be more outrageous than that. I can insult people even better than that. I can be even more uncivil.’ ”
    Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Obama had decided to criticize Mr. Trump during the annual Capitol Hill celebration of Irish heritage because the camaraderie and fellowship at the event “is in stark contrast to the kind of vulgarity we see on the campaign trail.”
    Mr. Earnest noted that the event celebrated immigration, an issue that has become politically toxic among Republican presidential candidates.
    “After all, Irish immigrants have thrived in America,” Mr. Earnest said. Borrowing part of Mr. Trump’s slogan of “Make America Great Again,” he added: “The president has long believed that’s an important part of what makes America great.”
    Mr. Earnest said Mr. Obama was likely to speak again about divisive campaign language.
    “I think the president is concerned about the corrosive impact of the tone of the political debate,” Mr. Earnest said.
    Responding to a statement by the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, urging Mr. Trump to condemn violence regardless of its cause, Mr. Earnest said Republican leaders should not condemn Mr. Trump’s divisive statements while also supporting his bid for the presidency.

  • Obama had some strong words for a gun-store owner who confronted him at a town-hall event in Indiana

    By Jeremy Berke, Business Insider

     

    President Obama at PBS Town Hall Meeting

    President Obama addresses PBS Town Hall Meeting

     

    President Barack Obama stuck around after a PBS Newshour town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, on Wednesday to answer a few questions.

    He had some strong words for a gun-store owner who asked him why he and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, want to supposedly restrict and control the use of guns for the “good guys.”

    “First of all, the notion that I or Hillary or Democrats or whoever you want to choose are hell-bent on taking away folks’ guns is just not true,” Obama said. “And I don’t care how many times the NRA says it.”

    Obama then claimed there have actually been more guns sold since he has been president than any time in US history. And it’s true: Gun sales — based on the number of FBI criminal-background checks — increased by 65% over the period between 2008 and 2013, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

    Obama continued: I just came from a meeting today in the Situation Room in which I got people who we know have been on ISIL Web sites, living here in the United States, U.S. citizens, and we’re allowed to put them on the no-fly list when it comes to airlines, but because of the National Rifle Association, I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun.

    This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathizer. And if he wants to walk in to a gun store or a gun show right now and buy as much — as many weapons and ammo as he can, nothing’s prohibiting him from doing that, even though the FBI knows who that person is.

    “So, sir, I just have to say, respectfully, that there is a way for us to have common sense gun laws,” Obama said. “… but the only way we’re going to do that is if we don’t have a situation in which anything that is proposed is viewed as some tyrannical destruction of the Second Amendment.”

  • Obama commutes 348 prison sentences, the most of any President in recent history

     prison

    Prison Cells

    Written By NewsOne Staff

              Underscoring his calls for criminal justice reform, President Barack Obama on Friday commuted the prison sentences of 42 people who were locked up as non-violent drug offenders.

    The harsh prison terms were doled out under “outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws,” the White House said in a statement. Most were “small-time drug dealers who received long sentences under a code shaped by the government’s war on drugs,” the report says:

    Some were serving life sentences. Held in various prisons across the country, they will be released between October 1, 2016 and June 3, 2018.

    Obama has now commuted sentences for 348 people, more than the total amount issued by the previous seven presidents combined.

    Obama has called for legislation to reduce sentences and provide alternative punishments for small-time offenders. “There remain thousands of men and women in federal prison serving sentences longer than necessary, often due to overly harsh mandatory minimum sentences,” the White House said.

    An estimated 2.2 million people are locked away behind bars in the United States, including “the mentally ill and drug addicts,” who are often people of color.

     

     

  • The Obama family will live in a 9 bedroom, $5.3 million D.C. mansion after presidency ends

    BY LINDSAY KIMBLE           obama's house in Washington, D. C.-800.jpg

    Home Obama family will lease in Washington, D. C. 

    The Obama family will be served a White House eviction notice come January, but luckily, they’ve already found new digs to lay down roots.

    President Barack Obama, wife Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha, will lease the Kalorama, D.C., mansion of Joe Lockhart and Giovanna Gray, according to Politico. The home, which is 8,200 square feet, was built in 1928 and has nine bedrooms, in addition to eight and a half baths.
    White House officials, contacted by PEOPLE, had no immediate comment on the story.

    According to public record, Lockhart bought the mansion in 2014 for $5,295,000. Lockhart, the former White House Press Secretary for President Bill Clinton and current EVP of communications for the NFL, and wife Gray, a Glamour editor, have relocated to Manhattan, Politico reported.
    The president announced his plans to stay in D.C. after his term ends earlier this year. The family will stay at least until daughter Sasha, who is a sophomore, finishes high school, Obama said.

    Before moving into the White House in 2009, the family lived in Chicago, where Obama was an Illinois state senator and where the family still owns a home.

     

     

  • What difference will Obama’s plan to bring power to Africa make?

    By: BBC Africa News

    Obama at solar expo

    President Obama talks with African solar AFP

    In February US President Barack Obama signed an agreement to bring electricity to 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020. Neil Ford asks, even if this is possible, how many will still be left in the dark?
    Perhaps the most remarkable things about the Electrify Africa Act of 2015 are that it commits the US to increased foreign aid at a time of economic uncertainty and cuts through sharp political divisions.The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, worked with Democrat Eliot Engel for two years to drive the bill through Congress.
    The act commits the US government to supporting President Obama’s Power Africa initiative. Although headlined as a $50bn scheme, the US authorities will contribute just $7bn.
    Other governments, development agencies and private sector companies are expected to provide the remainder in public-private partnerships.This will be difficult to achieve during a global economic downturn.
    Even if it succeeds in its aim of bringing electricity to 50 million Africans by 2020, more than 10 times that number will still be without power.
    So the Power Africa initiative is not a magic bullet, but it has at least highlighted Africa’s power supply problems.
    It is easy to take electricity for granted. Most African homes lack fridges and electric cookers but even a single electric light bulb can bring security and allow children to do their homework after dark.
    Mobile phones encourage economic growth but the lack of electricity makes recharging them yet another hurdle to be cleared.
    According to the latest World Bank data, 35% of sub-Saharan Africans have no access to electricity.
    This is a far lower figure than in any other region.
    The next lowest rate is 22% for South Asia, while all five North African countries claim 100% coverage.
    Most Africans use wood and kerosene for fuel, causing deforestation and thousands of fatal accidents every year.
    The 35% figure masks huge variations, with electrification rates ranging from 5% in South Sudan up to 100% in Mauritius.
    Connection rates in rural areas are typically worse than 10%. Most of those with electricity at home live in cities, supplied by grids that were developed in colonial times but which have failed to expand with urban growth.
    Even many of those connected to the grid suffer from unreliable supplies. So those who can afford them, buy their own expensive diesel fired generators.
    While South Africa relies on coal-fired plants, most African countries depend on large hydro schemes to generate electricity.
    Yet unreliable rainfall means that hydroelectric production varies even during a good year and is even worse – as at present – during an El Nino event.
    The main problem is a lack of revenue. Most consumers are unable to afford to pay a commercial rate for electricity.
    This prevents power utilities from earning enough money to pay for new generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure; generation capacity to produce electricity; transmission to move it across big distances; and distribution to get it into people’s homes and businesses.
    Either people need to become richer, or power needs to be cheaper.
    Luckily, a solution may be at hand. The price of photovoltaic (PV) solar power panels is falling, while solar cells are becoming more efficient, so PV is becoming a cost-effective option. Such off-grid solutions avoid the need for expensive transmission and distribution infrastructure.
    Power Africa is already supporting very small-scale solar PV. It has awarded part-funding to 28 off-grid projects, along with the technical support that small-scale developers often lack. Many more will now follow suit.
    Most of these projects involve solar PV or biomass, which involves using agricultural waste as a power generation feedstock.
    Power Africa describes the first kWh people gain access to as the “the most valuable” because it provides at least a single source of electric light and the ability to charge mobile phones and radios.
    With its commitment to providing “cleaner power generation”, many of the on-grid ventures backed by Power Africa also involve renewable energy.
    In some cases, it is directly funding generation projects, such as the 152 MW Sarreole wind farm in Senegal. More often, it will supply technical support and dedicated advisors.
    It has already helped Ghana to tap its newly discovered gas reserves for thermal power production by providing regulatory advice.
    New projects will be identified as more of the funding is made available.
    It may be that a single grand scheme cannot solve Africa’s power problems but Power Africa can help provide local solutions, one at a time.