Victor Glover: 1st Black astronaut on International Space Station for extended stay

Victor Glover just made history.

Early Tuesday morning (Nov. 17), the 44-year-old NASA astronaut came aboard the International Space Station, becoming the first African American ever to begin a full six-month stint on the orbiting lab.

Glover and three crewmates — fellow NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi — left Earth on Sunday evening (Nov. 15) aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule "Resilience." The launch kicked off Crew-1, SpaceX's first-ever contracted, fully operational astronaut mission to the space station for NASA.

Crew-1 is even more historic thanks to Glover's milestone, which is long overdue considering that rotating astronaut crews have been living aboard the orbiting lab continuously for 20 years now. In typical astronaut fashion, Glover has been self-effacing about his place in history, deflecting the spotlight onto his crewmates and the other people who have worked hard to make Crew-1 a success.

"It is something to be celebrated once we accomplish it, and, you know, I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced crew," Glover said during a news conference last week, before Crew-1 got off the ground. "And I look forward to getting up there and doing my best to make sure that, you know, we are worthy of all the work that's been put into setting us up for this mission."

Glover isn't the first African American astronaut to spend time on the station. A handful of others visited the orbiting lab during space shuttle missions, but those were brief jaunts lasting just a few weeks. Glover will spend more than six months in orbit, serving as a crewmember on the space station's Expedition 64 and Expedition 65 missions.

As The New York Times noted, more than 300 NASA astronauts have reached space to date, but Glover is just the 15th African American member of this exclusive club. (Crew-1 is the first spaceflight for Glover, a U.S. Navy commander and pilot who was selected as an astronaut in 2013.)

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

Rep. Cedric Richmond joining the Biden administration

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) is joining the Biden administration.

Richmond will serve as senior adviser to the President and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Calling it "one of the hardest decisions" of his life, Richmond said, "I am not leaving the people of Louisiana. I am not leaving the people of the second Congressional District. I am New Orleans through and through. I bleed black and gold."

Barack Obama speaks out on politics, life in the White House, and Donald Trump

In his first television interview since the election of Joe Biden as the 46th President, former President Barack Obama sits down with "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King to discuss the first volume of his memoirs, "A Promised Land." He talks about the enormous opposition he experienced as he entered the White House; the impact of his political career on his family; and why he campaigned for his former vice president – and spoke out so vociferously against his successor, President Donald Trump.

What happened to Quawan “Bobby” Charles

It's been two weeks since 15-year-old Quawan "Bobby" Charles disappeared from his father's Baldwin home in St. Mary Parish (Louisiana) and 10 days since officers discovered his body in the rural Iberia Parish village of Loreauville. Little information has been released by law enforcement in the case, which gained widespread attention after Bobby's family released a graphic image they say was taken while confirming the teen's identity to authorities.

Kentucky Democratic Party elects first African American chairman

The Kentucky Democratic Party will have an African American chairman for the first time in its history.

A party news release says Colmon Elridge was elected chairman of the party on Saturday after Gov. Andy Beshear nominated him for the position.

Elridge is a Cynthiana native and served as a special advisor to former Gov. Steve Beshear from 2007 to 2015. He also recently was the government relations director for the Kentucky Education Association and has served in Democratic Party-related roles.

Elridge will replace Ben Self, who became chairman in 2017 and announced in September that he would resign at the end of the year.

Elridge graduated from Transylvania University, holds an MBA from Sullivan University and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Cumberlands.

“As a Black man who was the first person in his immediate family to have been born with the right to vote, it is an honor to be able to make history today,” Elridge said in the news release.

In a statement, Beshear lauded Elridge as a “devoted father and husband who is committed to trying to build a better world for his kids and all of Kentucky’s kids.”

[SOURCE: KENTUCY.COM]