Stacey Abrams said that she will not be running for the United States Senate next year following news that Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) would retire. Her spokes person released the following statement:
Statement from my spokesman: pic.twitter.com/0smIAb5ptA
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 28, 2019
Barbie® recognizes all female role models. The Inspiring Women™ Series pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time; courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.
Rosa Louise Parks led an ordinary life as a seamstress until an extraordinary moment on December 1, 1955. When she refused an order to give up her seat to a white passenger and move to the back of the bus, Mrs. Parks’ act of defiance became the catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks’ quiet strength played a notable role in the civil rights movement, but it would still take another nine years and more struggles before the 1964 Civil Rights Act overruled existing segregations laws. Hailed as “the Mother of the Modern Civil Rights Movement,” Rosa Parks earned worldwide recognition and numerous awards including the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal of Honor.
Celebrate Rosa Parks and her impact on the civil rights movement with this Inspiring Women™ Series Rosa Parks Barbie® doll. Includes doll stand, Certificate of Authenticity and doll wearing fashion and accessories. Colors and decorations may vary.
Instead of the complaining about the long lines at Popeyes as everyone waited to try their chicken sandwich, 17-year-old David Ledbetter of North Carolina took the opportunity to make some real change in his community.
Ledbetter was seen this weekend standing outside a Charlotte Popeyes registering people to vote.
Ledbetter himself is not even old enough to vote but said he wanted to push for others to get involved in local politics.
"I decided to register people to vote after I saw there was a lack of young people politically involved," Ledbetter said.
On Saturday, the Meyers Park rising senior said he proudly registered 16 people to vote.
“I believe that it is our duty to vote as American citizens and it would be wrong not to exercise our political voice," Ledbetter said.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement condemning the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposal to weaken a key aspect of the Fair Housing Act, the disparate impact standard, under which defendants can be held liable for policies or practices that have a discriminatory impact without proof of malicious intent.
“For too long, the federal government played a heavy hand in the institutionalization of overt racism and systemic inequality in our housing market through redlining practices, residential segregation, and lax industry regulation. While great strides have been made since the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, housing discrimination continues to exist, and we must remain diligent in the face of artificial intelligence, algorithms, and other innovations in our housing market that can perpetuate discriminatory outcomes.
“Since January 2019, the Committee on Financial Services has held a variety of hearings that have demonstrated that housing discrimination remains persistent and threatens our economic prosperity as a country.
“Rather than taking these fair housing concerns seriously, Secretary Carson has proposed a rule that represents yet another egregious step by this Administration toward the dismantling of key civil rights protections in America. The proposed rule would make it substantially more difficult for victims of housing discrimination, including persons with disabilities, families with children, and racial minorities, to prove their case in a court of law and thereby hold bad actors accountable for their actions.”
Congresswoman Elaine Luria (VA-02) today announced that her bill naming a Virginia Beach post office after Ryan Keith Cox has been signed into law .
A White House official notified Congresswoman Luria Wednesday evening that the President signed the bill after swift bipartisan and bicameral passage in the House and Senate last month.
Now law, the bill honors Cox, one of 12 people killed in the shooting. According to witness accounts, he sacrificed his own life to save colleagues during the shooting. Rejecting coworkers’ calls to take refuge, Cox stood his ground in a hallway and said: “I’ve got to see if anybody else needs help.”
“Virginia Beach and our entire Commonwealth will never forget Keith Cox’s courageous efforts to save his fellow Virginians,” Congresswoman Luria said. “The post office building will serve as a permanent reminder of his bravery and sacrifice. It’s an honor to recognize a true community hero.”
Located at 2509 George Mason Drive, the currently unnamed post office will be known as the Ryan Keith Cox Post Office Building. The full Virginia congressional delegation supported the legislation.
99-year-old Thomas Franklin Vaughns served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946 as a mechanic for the Tuskegee Airman and was also later drafted into the Korean War.On August 21, 2019 Vaughns received five long overdue military medals.
From school custodian to principal. That's the trajectory for 38-year-old Michael Atkins, the new principal at Stedman Elementary School in Denver, Colorado.
60-year-old Brig. Gen. Ondra Berry; a 32-year veteran of the National Guard has been named as Nevada’s first African-American adjutant general in its 154-year history.
Gov. Steve Sisloak announced Berry’s appointment on Monday.
He says Berry's exemplary military experience combined with his background in senior leadership roles in law enforcement and business gives him an invaluable perspective on the qualities and skills necessary for the job.
Berry served 25 years as a Reno police officer. He retired as assistant chief in 2005 and became senior vice president for diversity and inclusion at MGM Resorts. He’s been the Nevada Air Guard’s assistant adjutant general since 2015.
Berry says he’s honored and humbled to be selected to replace retiring Brig. Gen. William Burks effective Sept. 1.
Kawhi Leonard, the L.A. Clippers Foundation and non-profit community partner Baby2Baby, announced this morning a gift of one million backpacks intended to reduce stress on low-income families headed back to school across Southern California. Every single student in the Moreno Valley Unified, Inglewood Unified and Los Angeles Unified School Districts will receive a new backpack to start the school year. Leonard made the announcement at Cloverdale Elementary School in his hometown of Moreno Valley, and was joined afterwards by Baby2Baby Ambassadors Zooey Deschanel, Busy Philipps and Nicole Richie and Co-Presidents Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein at 107th Street Elementary School in Watts to distribute backpacks in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
“My goal this year is to make a meaningful contribution both on and off the court. This felt like the right way to get started. It was important to me to make this announcement in my hometown of Moreno Valley at my former Elementary School, but the benefits this program will have across all of Los Angeles makes today even more special,” said Leonard.
In LAUSD alone, last year 80% of K-12 students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, meaning they come from a low-income family, are homeless, or are in the foster program. This gift is the largest in LAUSD history impacting every single student. It will allow hundreds of thousands of families to take the money they would spend on a backpack and use it instead on essential items like food, rent, utilities and more, which can make a major difference in a family’s livelihood. Today is the first day of school for more than 600,000 LAUSD students.
“We are overwhelmed with gratitude to the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard for this record-breaking donation to every student in Los Angeles Unified School District and beyond. Baby2Baby serves hundreds of thousands of children in poverty in Los Angeles, and backpacks are consistently one of the most highly-requested items for the school-aged children in our program,” said Sawyer Patricof and Weinstein. “For many of these children who are homeless or in foster care, backpacks not only hold their school books and homework, but also all of their personal belongings. If they have a backpack at all, it is often falling apart, and when a child does not have one, they resort to using a grocery or trash bag. The Clippers' donation will make these children feel the pride they deserve and give them the confidence they need to start the school year off on the right foot.”
“There are a lot of families throughout the L.A. region working hard every day to earn everything in their lives. This program is our effort to extend a hand to make heading back to school a little easier,” said Gillian Zucker, President of Business Operations, L.A. Clippers. “Our deepest appreciation goes out to Kawhi Leonard and Baby2Baby’s incredible network of ambassadors who walk the walk when it comes to using their platforms and voices to provide real solutions to impact the everyday lives of the people around us.”
In a historic stride forward to grow the game of golf, six-time NBA All-Star and Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation co-founder, Stephen Curry, announced his commitment to Howard University today, with a pledge to support the establishment of the university’s first NCAA Division 1 golf program for the next six years.
Inspired by Howard senior and golfer, Otis Ferguson IV, whom Curry met during a campus visit earlier this year, Curry was compelled to act when Ferguson shared that his impassioned solo crusade to get a golf team at Howard proved unsuccessful. An avid golfer himself, Curry tapped into what is increasingly becoming his defining trait— the distinctive ability to connect and empathize with anyone, anywhere, and made the unprecedented decision to help bridge the gap between talent and opportunity. Utilizing his unique position, Curry will introduce and increase access to elite golf at a historically black college, furthermore calling on sport and community giants like Under Armour, Callaway, Eat. Learn. Play., among others, for help with equipment, uniforms, and more.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed what it is believed to be one of the toughest laws in the country regulating when police officers can use use deadly force.
The signing of Assembly Bill 392 concludes a legislative battle between law enforcement lobbyists and civil rights groups who, until May, could not agree on how strict the state’s deadly force law should be.
It was shaped by a string of deadly encounters between law enforcement officers and unarmed black men, including the March 2018 shooting of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police. Clark’s death shook the city, with a protest shutting down Interstate 5 one evening and another march leading to mass arrests in East Sacramento this spring.
During the ceremony, Newsom said AB 392 will reduce the number of lives lost by deadly force.
The law “stretches the boundaries of possibility and sends a message to people all across the country that they can do more,” he said. “Training matters, yes. Accountability matters, certainly. Transparency, indeed. But culture. Changing hearts changing minds, changing our approach to dealing with one another.”
The new standard instructs officers to use lethal force only when it is “necessary” based on the totality of circumstances they encounter. That’s considered a stricter standard than today’s practice, which instructs police that they can use deadly force when it is “reasonable” to do so.
The legislation also requires evaluating an officer’s conduct before and after deadly force is used and it emphasizes deescalation tactics as effective alternatives to pulling a trigger.
Read more: California police shooting law propelled by Stephon Clark’s death wins Newsom’s signature.
During an interview for ABC's This Week Stacey Abrams, said she will continue to make the fight against voter suppression her foremost mission. Watch her full interview on the topic of voter suppression below.
A tennis club for African American players that hosted International Tennis Hall of Famers Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe is being honored with a historic marker.
The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker will be dedicated Thursday at the site of the Algonquin Tennis Club, which was created in 1922 by the American Tennis Association. The association was formed to support African American players who were then banned from the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association.
The members met in private homes for 12 years before the Algonquin Tennis Club House was purchased in 1934.
The club closed in 1964, and its historic clubhouse burned down several years later. The ceremony will be held at the W.D. Hill Recreation Center, located in the same area.
The Durham Committee on Negro Affairs was formed at the club in 1935 and remains active today as the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.
U.S. Cory Booker (D-NJ) released the following statement via Twitter regarding the Newark Water Crisis:
Newark’s water emergency demands our federal government’s immediate attention. Everyone deserves clean, safe water—it's shameful that our national crisis of lead-contaminated water disproportionately hits poor black and brown communities like my own.
The letter read in part, "...Each of you despicable BLACK democrats should be tarred and feathered and run out of town (my town) on a rail..."
Watch this story below.
Former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams (D) isn’t running for president in 2020, but she said she’s open to being vice president for any of the candidates.
Abrams, who was narrowly defeated in the Georgia governor race last year by Republican Brian Kemp, told The New York Times that she has no plans to run for Senate or president in 2020 but is “certainly open to other political opportunities.”
When pressed on whether such an opportunity might include the vice presidency, Abrams said she would be “honored to be considered” for the position by any candidate. However, she said her focus at the moment is on the primary and fighting voter suppression.
“In the end, no matter where I fit, no matter which ones of our nominees win, if we haven’t fought this scourge, if we haven’t pushed back against Moscow Mitch and his determination to block any legislation that would cure our voting machines, then we are all in a world of trouble,” she told the Times.
NJ Congressman Donald Payne Jr. released the following statement concerning the Newark Water Crisis:
”As a resident and representative of Newark, I’m very concerned about this development. Traditionally, Newark has been known for the quality of its water and had been known for some of the cleanest water in the country. We need to find out what is happening in the pipes that carry this water from the aquifers to our faucets to solve and rectify this issue immediately.
The greatest threat with this water issue is the health of our children. I introduced a bill in 2016 that would establish stronger tests for lead in school drinking water to avoid such problems in the future. The bill received 44 co-sponsors and I hope more of my colleagues support and pass it soon.
But I’m not going to wait for that bill to help improve Newark’s drinking water. I’ve called Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, personally to ask what I can do. I’m going to call Grace Napolitano, chair of the Subcommittee on Water Resource and the Environment and my colleague on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, to discuss solutions on a national level. We need to work tirelessly and immediately to guarantee what happened in Flint, MI. doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
