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On Aug.13, Mayor Sylvester Turner was chosen as the Democratic candidate to replace the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the Nov. 5 election.
The post Who Will Succeed Sheila Jackson Lee In Congress? appeared first on NewsOne.
Critics have called it a stunt to invite sympathy. Yet Amuriat says campaigning without shoes is a protest and that those who do not get its symbolism are missing a point.
Uganda is due to hold a general election on January 14. Amuriat and another opposition candidate, Bobi Wine have had their rallies violently dispersed by security forces or been arrested.
In mid-November, scores of people were killed as security forces attempted to quell protests against the arrest and detention of Bobi Wine.
Police has accused the candidates of addressing huge gatherings in contravention of regulations on COVID-19 prevention.
Swollen feet
In an interview with one of the dailies in Uganda, Amuriat said his feet hurt a lot and has to pour cold water on them in between campaign stops for some relief.
Doctors have cautioned him on the potential danger of contracting tetanus from cuts to his feet.
Yet Amuriat remains adamant. He says by refusing to wear shoes, he’s standing in solidarity with people whose wealth and opportunities have been stolen by the country’s longtime ruler Yoweri Museveni.
JUST IN: FDC presidential candidate Patrick Amuriat has been arrested at the border of Rubirizi and Bushenyi districts. The reason for his arrest is yet to be known📹 @MukhayeD#MonitorUpdates#UGDecides2021 pic.twitter.com/xopK4FMoD0
— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) December 4, 2020
Museveni, in power since 1986 is seeking a new term. In 2017, he changed the constitution to remove age limits that would have stopped him from seeking re-election.
FDC is Uganda’s largest opposition party. In 3 previous elections, the party fronted veteran activist and retired army colonel Kizza Besigye for president.
By TAMARA LUSH and EMILY SCHMALL, Associated Press
Arizona’s Republican governor shut down bars, movie theaters, gyms and water parks Monday and leaders in several states ordered residents to wear masks in public in a dramatic course reversal amid an alarming resurgence of coronavirus cases nationwide.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that he’s postponing the restarting of indoor dining because people have not been wearing face masks or complying with recommendations for social distancing.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said she will issue an executive order mandating the use of masks in stores and shops, restaurants, and in any situation where social distancing of 6 feet (2 meters) cannot be maintained, including outside.
In Texas, a group of bar owners sued on Monday to try to overturn Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s order closing their businesses.
One of Cuomo’s Republican counterparts, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, on a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House coronavirus task force, also asked Pence and Trump to issue a national call to wear masks.
With the demonstrations on countless streets and the conversations taking place in countless homes, bookstores are now experiencing a surge of interest in books about Black history, racism and social justice.
“The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race,” edited by Jesmyn Ward
National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward compiled this collection of essays and poems about race by contemporary writers including Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Edwidge Danticat, Kevin Young, Claudia Rankine and Honoree Jeffers.
The 13 Turner children span a generation — the oldest born during World War II, the youngest just months after the 1967 Detroit race riots — and the book is an immersive examination of the complexities of sibling relationships, the housing crisis’ impact on innercity families like the Turners, and how a house becomes the story of its inhabitants.
A key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston wrote many novels, stories, essays and poems, including two long-post-humous books: the nonfiction work “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” (published in 2018) and the short story collection “Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick,” published earlier this year.
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander
“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More” by Janet Mock
“So You Want To Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo
“Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor” by Layla F. Saad
“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson
“The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson
A press release sent out by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s office on Thursday had me stop the printing of our newspaper after learning what the Black man leading this city has decided to do — and on Juneteenth, to add insult to injury.
While organizations across the nation are REMOVING, and even vandalizing, racist statues, Mayor Turner has decided to remove two in Houston – but is relocating one of them to our beloved African American museum?
Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the City of Houston plans to relocate the Dowling and Spirit of Confederacy statues, which are currently both located in two City of Houston parks.
The Houston Endowment has provided a grant to transfer the Spirit of The Confederacy in Sam Houston Park downtown to be displayed at the Houston Museum of African American Culture in the Museum District.
“I’m grateful for the City of Houston Confederate Items Task Force’s guidance and the generosity of the Houston Endowment for their crucial roles in the plan,” Turner added.
As of June 3, 2020 at 9:00 AM
Alabama had 18,717 confirmed cases of
coronavirus, with 653 deaths
Greene County had 95 confirmed cases
with 4 deaths
Sumter County had 227 confirmed cases with 7 deaths
and Hale County had 182
cases with 9 deaths
Montgomery, AL – The Save OurSelves Movement for Justice and Democracy held an Alabama State Capitol Body Bag Memorial Caravan as well as a press conference on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol on Thursday, May 28, 2020.
The caravan and press conference included body bags to symbolize and memorialize all the lives lost and the lives that will be lost in Alabama due to COVID-19 as well as additional deaths due to state leaders’ failure to take action to expand Medicaid.
These body bags also represented the 700 or more people dying each year in Alabama from the failure to expand Medicaid and provide health care to 340,000 working poor people.
These body bags on the steps of the Capitol represent the deaths of hundreds of people in Alabama because, as of today, there have been 583 deaths in our state attributed to the coronavirus, and doctors believe there are even more.
Alabama needs to be consistent and take the federal funds to expand Medicaid now and improve the health and save of the lives of the people of the state.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Voters rebuffed President Donald Trump and nominated two Republicans he opposed to House seats from North Carolina and Kentucky on Tuesday.
Calls in higher-profile races in Kentucky and New York faced days of delay as swamped officials count mountains of mail-in ballots.
First-term state legislator Charles Booker was hoping a late surge would carry him past former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath for the Democratic Senate nomination from Kentucky.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., won renomination, cementing her rise from obscurity to progressive icon status when she ousted Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley, on track to become speaker, from the New York City district.
In the big New York and Kentucky contests, Democrats watched whether nationwide protests sparked by last month’s killing of George
Floyd by Minneapolis police would translate to a decisive turnout by African American and progressive voters.
Today, the Georgia Election Protection Coalition released a joint statement about the Georgia State Board of Elections’ rules amendments ahead of the August 11th runoff. The rules, which allow counties to set up 24/7 absentee ballot drop boxes for the runoff and give counties the ability to begin processing absentee ballots ahead of election day, will give more Georgians the Continue reading \"Georgia Voting Rights Activists: Expansion Of Absentee Voting Drop Boxes Is Important, But More Can Be Done\"
Having been officially sworn in on Dec. 2, new Queens Borough President Donovan Richards got to enjoy some pomp and circumstance with an official inauguration
Benjamin Sterling Turner, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Alabama during the Reconstruction period, was born on March 17, 1825 in Weldon, North Carolina. He was raised as a slave and as a child received no formal education. In 1830 Turner moved to Selma, Alabama with his mother and slave owner. While living on the plantation he surreptitiously obtained an education and by age 20 Turner was able to read and write fluently.
While still a slave Turner managed a hotel and stable in Selma. Although his owner received most of the money for Turner’s work, he managed to save some of his earnings and shortly after the Civil War he used the savings he had accumulated to purchase the property. The U.S. Census of 1870 reported Turner as owning $2,500 in real estate and $10,000 in personal property, making him one of the wealthiest freedmen in Alabama.
Turner also became a teacher in 1865 and helped establish the first school for African American children. Two years later he became involved in politics. After participating in the Republican State Convention in 1867, Turner was named tax collector of Dallas County. The following year he won his first elective office when he became a Selma City Councilman. In 1870 Turner was elected to the United States Congress as the first African American Representative in Alabama history.
While in office Turner proposed bills that contributed funding for Civil War-related damages to several federal buildings in central Alabama and St. Pauls Episcopal Church. Turner was also appointed to the House Committee on Invalid Pensions and was responsible for issuing pensions to Union war veterans. Through his influence African American veterans received a pension of eight dollars a month.
Benjamin S. Turner fought for impoverished black farmers. In February of 1872 he called for the elimination of the tax on cotton because it was harmful to many of his constituents. He also argued that the tax was unconstitutional because it singled out a specific cash
… of early ballots cast by African-American voters has reached 85 percent …
New Findings Reveal Stark Racial Disparities and Barriers to the Ballot
WASHINGTON, DC –Leading civil rights organizations today released a new analysis that reveals stark racial disparities and troubling patterns in voter turnout during Wisconsin’s April 7, 2020 primary, held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The analysis, “COVID-19 Silence Voters of Color in Wisconsin,” was conducted by data experts from Demos and All Voting Is Local, a project of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Reviewing voter data from last month’s Wisconsin primary, the groups found significant gaps in voter participation across the state – exposing existing flaws in our election system and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and brown voters who already face significant structural barriers at the ballot box.
“Our analysis shows how COVID-19 has exaggerated problems in our election system,” said Dr. Megan A. Gall, All Voting is Local’s national data director, “We know African Americans and Latinos have long faced barriers to the ballot.
The analysis further highlights that for wards with higher Black and Hispanic populations in Milwaukee, average voter turnout was 30 percent lower than the average voter turnout in white wards.
Ex-military man Waluke bites bitter maize
Friday, June 26, 2020 0:01
By SAM KIPLAGAT
John Koyi Waluke at a Nairobi court.
Prior to the fraud case that resulted in his conviction this week, Mr Waluke was largely known for his political battles especially in Bungoma where he desperately sought election to Parliament for many years.
Evidence in court was that his company won a tender in August 2004 to supply 40,000 metric tonnes of maize.
On Monday, Mr Waluke together with 79-year-old co-director Wakhungu were found guilty of five counts, among them fraudulently receiving money from NCPB.
She said the company had no capacity to commence the process but the firm jumped the gun and went ahead and secured the maize on August 4, 2004, a day before the tender was awarded, imported the commodity and stored it without the letter of credit
Evidence presented to court showed that Ms Wakhungu owned some 1,000 shares in the company while Mr Waluke and Juma owned 500 shares each.
Most Americans support making Juneteenth a national holiday, a new HuffPost/YouGov survey finds.
Another YouGov poll, in which respondents were asked whether or not the day should be a federal holiday, found a smaller plurality in support.)
Black Americans support it by a 64-point margin, the HuffPost/YouGov poll finds, with white Americans backing it by a 30-point margin, Democrats by a 69-point margin and Republicans by a 10-point margin.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted June 15-17 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling.
Dr. Thomas F. Freeman, a legend, educational icon, and sage to innumerable students at Texas Southern University, passed away on Saturday, June 6, following a brief illness at age 100.
Dr. Freeman was an esteemed debate coach, faculty member, orator and minister at Mount Horem Baptist Church in Houston.
Prior to his arrival at TSU, Dr. Freeman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Virginia Union University in Richmond, VA; a Bachelor of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, MA; and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, IL.
Dr. Freeman received many awards during his career, including the Doctor of Humane Letters from Eastern Massachusetts University (1980 and 2000); American Performance Theatre Award (1992); Houston Urban League, Margaret Ross Barnett Leadership Award (1992); TSU’s International Recognition Award (1992); Martin Luther King Drum Major Award (1995); Educator of the Year Award presented by the Black Caucus of the Texas Legislature (1995); Houston Trail Blaze for the Negro Heritage Foundation (2000); Trail Blaze Award from Houston Community College System (2003); and Doctor of Divinity from Bishop King Theological Seminary (2002).
Donations to the Dr. Thomas F. Freeman Memorial Fund will be for the purposes of advancing the TSU Debate Team program.
Sam Skardon won the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sandy Senn for the state Senate Dist.
Democrats James Johnson and Deon Tedder will compete in a June 23 runoff to succeed David Mack in House Dist.
Incumbent Wendell Gilliard outpaced Regina Duggins with 77 percent of the vote to retain his seat in House Dist.
Chardale Murray handily won the Democratic nomination to succeed Robert Brown in House Dist.
Incumbent Brantley Moody handily won the Republican nomination to remain seated in Dist.
But this year, the retired teacher and community advocate has recalled this moment to remind Americans of the importance of Juneteenth, the official end of slavery in the United States, as the cry for freedom continues.
Four years ago, Lee made headlines for her campaign to make Juneteenth a national holiday, in which she visited towns from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., walking a few miles in each city, and attending Juneteenth festivities along the way.
Courtesy of Opal Lee
Opal Lee and her supporters for the campaign to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
This year, Lee will walk 2.5 miles from the Fort Worth Convention Center to the Will Rogers Coliseum, leading a caravan of cars to celebrate Juneteenth.
Hella Juneteenth is also pushing for companies to designate the day as a paid holiday, highlighting the work of Black people and businesses and ultimately working toward a national holiday.
The story from Tuesday's Georgia Senate runoff is that Democrats improved their vote margins in many of Atlanta's most-populous counties.
Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday announced a 45-member task force to review Houston Police Department practices, weeks after local and nationwide protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans killed by police.
The task force also includes Trae tha Truth, Houston rapper and former friend of George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police on May 25.
In his announcement, Turner said his “Task Force on Policing Reform” consisted of “members who represent a cross-section of our very diverse community,” and he addressed any potential critics of the plan.
“People in our city want good policing and they want accountability and transparency within the Houston Police Department,” Turner said at a Wednesday press conference.
People in our community want good policing, accountability, and transparency within the Houston Police Department.”
Commission Chairlady Ms Halima Ismael Ibrahim, alias Halima Yareey, on Saturday spoke to members of the Lower House of Parliament (better known as Golaha Shacabka – the people’s hall), proposing two methods of conducting the election.
One method will involve voters being registered on election day as they vote, while the other involves pre-registration of voters on a roll before the election day.
The method of registering voters on election day is simpler and requires less time and resources, Ms Yareey told the MPs.
But if the leaders opt for voter registration before elections, this mode will require at least 13 months’ preparation, Ms Yareey told the MPs.
“This process must ensure that all eligible citizens receive voter cards,” she said, adding that all political parties would also be required to have proper registration before the election.
As the official voting day for Georgia’s Senate nears, the state has already seen a whopping turnout. 1,470,764 Georgia voters have already cast their vote via absentee ballot or early in-person voting. The Senate races come down to two contests; Sen.David Perdueand Democrat candidateJon Ossoffthen Sen.Kelly Loefflerand Democrat Rev.Raphael Warnock. Runoffs sparked between the candidates last month […]
The post Over 1.4 million votes have already been cast in Georgia runoffs appeared first on DefenderNetwork.com.
Henry McNeal Turner was born on what is now Hannah Circuit, near Newberry, which was then in Abbeville County, South Carolina. Young Turner was bound out to the hardest king of labor in the cotton fields and the blacksmiths trade in Abbeville until his manhood at age 12.
He possessed an insatiable craving for knowledge. In some way he procured an old Websters Blue Back Spelling Book. An elderly white lady and a boy with whom he played taught him the alphabet and to spell as far as two-syllable words, but he no farther then as he was caught in the unspeakable act of learning to read. He found an old slave who did not know a letter, but was a prodigy in sounds and could pronounce anything spelled to him. This helper to Henry was moved to another plantation, and he was again left to his own resources. His mother hired a white lady to give him lessons every Sabbath, but the neighbors were so indignant that they threatened to have the law on her, as it was then against the law to teach a Negro the alphabet.
Three years later, at the age of fifteen, Henry was given work in a lawyers office at the Abbeville Court House. The men in the office were impressed with his excellent memory and taught him, in defiance of the law, to read accurately, history, theology, and even works on law. He continued to pursue his studies alone, and later went to New Orleans, then to Missouri, and still later to Baltimore, where he had charge of a small mission. Here he studied grammar, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, and theology under eminent teachers.
Reverend Turner joined the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1848 and was licensed to preach in 1853. He was ordained Deacon in 1860 and Elder in 1862. At the beginning of the Civil War (which was called War of the Rebellion at that time), he was commissioned by President Abraham Lincoln as the first Negro Chaplain in the United States Army, and served with distinction throughout. In 1865, the Reverend Henry McNeal Turner, later elected to Bishop, moved to Georgia from South
Opposition Leader Mark Golding has defended choosing Peter Bunting, the former Manchester Central member of parliament who launched a failed bid for the presidency of the People’s National Party (PNP) last year, to fill the vacant Senate seat on...
ATLANTA — In a telephone press briefing, leaders from All Voting is Local, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Coalition for the People’s Agenda, Common Cause Georgia, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, Georgia NAACP, and the New Georgia Project, urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and State Election Board members to do their job to ensure the devastating failures of Tuesday’s primary are not repeated in November.
Raffensperger and state officials denied counties the necessary resources to run free and fair elections, silencing voters, many of them Black and Brown.
Despite postponing the election twice, the state officials failed to prepare, resulting in chaos including: more than 7 hour wait times to cast a ballot, polling places not having basic equipment like ballot paper or functional voting machines, and police showing up at polling places to attempt to remove volunteers who were helping voters.
“Institutional racism is alive – we need not look further than our failing elections,” said Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director of All Voting is Local.
“We have to ensure that our election officials do the job and the proper planning that they should have done, so that we would not have these barriers in our communities,” said Helen Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda.
Two days after Jubilee Party leader Uhuru Kenyatta carried out a brutal purge in the Senate that saw him sack high-ranking members, including the deputy speaker Kithure Kindiki, ODM leader Raila Odinga is this week set to de-whip a number of legislators from committees in the National Assembly.
Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa (Ford Kenya), who became the deputy minority whip courtesy of Nasa, the coalition of Ford-Kenya, Wiper, ANC and ODM in the last polls, is likely to be removed at the Parliamentary Group Meeting (PG) on Thursday chaired by Minority Leader and ODM Chairman John Mbadi.
Mr Mbadi told the Sunday Nation that the changes are “normal” and no one is being targeted, adding that the party will only make minimal changes in the reorganisation of the committees to put the best foot soldiers in key committees.
The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee is currently under firm grip of DP Ruto’s allies, as it is chaired by Baringo North lawmaker William Cheptumo, with the vice-chairperson being Kandara MP Alice Wahome.
The Sunday Nation has learnt that the Orange party is considering bringing on board Rarieda MP Otiende Amolo and Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang’ into the Justice Legal Affairs Committee and CIOC.
Article: Nina Turner's Loss Is Oligarchy's Gain - The race for a vacant congressional seat in northeast Ohio was a fierce battle between status quo politics and calls for social transformation. In the end, when votes were counted Tuesday night, transactional business-as-usual had won by almost 6 percent.
Akpa Francis, a public affairs analyst interrogates the current succession plan into public offices in Enugu State, which excludes people of Greater Awgu cultural group from the zoning arrangement
There is no doubt that the phrase 'zoning arrangement' in Enugu state has become a tradition that has been deceitfully planted in the minds of Ndi Enugu without concrete evidence to back it.
The question is, what happened to the four cultural groups in Enugu State which include: Nsukka Cultural group, Agbaja Cultural group, Nkanu Cultural group and Greater Awgu Cultural group?
If Agbaja and Ndi Awgu cultural groups are lumped into one senatorial zone, that does not vitiate their specific cultural identities.
During the 2019 election, Hon. (Mrs.) Cecilia Ezeilo from Agbaja cultural group was selected for deputy governor position, same group that produced an outgoing governor (Barr.
Nsukka cultural group has produced two governors, Agbaja cultural group has produced two, Nkanu cultural group has also produced two, Awgu cultural group has produced no governor of Enugu State yet.
The citizens of the Turks and Caicos Islands will be heading to the polls in a general election on February 19.
BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic’s main opposition coalition on Sunday demanded the Dec. 27 general election be postponed due to violence by armed groups outside the capital Bangui, while the government insisted the vote would go ahead. On Saturday, the authorities accused former president Francois Bozize of plotting a coup after his candidacy was rejected, as U.N. peacekeepers dispersed armed rebel groups occupying roads and towns near Bangui. Fighting was ongoing in several towns, including Mbaiki, about 100 km (62 miles) from Bangui, according to one security source and two humanitarian sources. The opposition alliance, called Cod2020, which includes Bozize, said violence was preventing presidential and parliamentary candidates from campaigning and had led to the destruction of electoral materials and threats in almost all provincial centres, without providing details. In a statement, it “noted the impossibility of pursuing an electoral campaign in current insecure conditions,” and demanded the postponement of the vote until stability is restored. In response, the government said it was doing everything possible to ensure the vote could take place as planned, deploying troops alongside U.N. peacekeepers to regain control of occupied towns. “There is no plan B, the elections will take place on December 27,” said government spokesman Ange Maxime Kazagui. President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who has struggled to maintain stability, is seeking re-election. Bozize was ousted in 2013 by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militias and plunging the country into a civil war. U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed since 2014, including over 12,800 in uniform. The violence has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, displacing over 600,000 people within the country while a further 600,000 live as refugees in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, and elsewhere, according to U.N. figures. - Reuters
With the historic passage of a bill granting the District state-level sovereignty despite Republican opposition, statehood advocates are planning a Senate strategy for the remaining months of this congressional session and the next, regardless of the results of the November general election.
On Friday, June 26, the House passed the Washington, D.C. Admission Act of 2019 on a 232-180 vote becoming the first chamber of Congress embracing District statehood.
The legislation would admit the non-federal enclaves of the District as the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, named after famed city resident abolitionist Frederick Douglass, to the union.
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine joined Bowser's assessment of the District's statehood aspiration.
With this ill-conceived move for D.C. statehood, Democrats will allow the new Washington, Douglass Commonwealth to have a position of superiority over the federal government in contravention of the original intent of the founders of this country.\"
