Source: Lake County Sheriff's Office Lake County Indiana
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Trailblazers in Black History: Terry McMillan
Terry McMillan was born and raised in Port Huron, Michigan, and
discovered her love of literature while shelving books at the local
library. She burst on to the literary scene in 1987 with her wildly
acclaimed New York Times bestseller Mama,
which won the Doubleday New Voices in Fiction award in 1986 and an
American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1987. Terry’s
signature humor, wisdom, and warmth made Waiting to Exhale, A Day Late and A Dollar Short, The Interruption of Everything, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Getting to Happy, Disappearing Acts and Who Asked You? all New York Times Best Sellers.
Click here for additional information on Ms. McMillan's career and life.
Source: The View and TerryMcMillan.com
Clinton Allies Announce New National Security Group to Counter Trump
Prominent national security voices aligned with
Hillary Clinton announced the formation of a new alliance aimed at
countering Donald Trump's military and foreign policy rhetoric.
The political arm of the Center for American
Progress, a liberal group allied with Clinton, announced Wednesday the
creation of the National Security Leadership Alliance. Prominent members
include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former CIA
Director Leon E. Panetta, former U.S. Senator from Michigan Carl Levin,
and former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
"We can't lead if we alienate our critical
allies," Albright said on a conference call with reporters. "We have won
every major war with powerful coalitions - not by going at it alone."
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
House GOP To Move on Measures to Block Terrorists from Buying Guns
The House will move next week on an
anti-terrorism package that will have a provision to stop terrorists
from buying guns, a source who participated in a House GOP Conference
call on Thursday morning tells NBC News.
The specifics of the legislation are unclear,
however, the terrorism package will likely include measures to help
prevent radicalization and recruitment of potential terrorists and a
provision to prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns. The full
House will also take up Pennsylvania Republican Rep.Tim Murphy's
committee-passed bill which seeks to prevent gun violence by providing
improved care for mental illness.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
RNC Rules Fight Begins With Plan to Lock In Donald Trump
The fight over rules that could upend the
Republican National Convention officially began in earnest Thursday, as
delegates began circulating the first proposed rule for this year's
convention in Cleveland.
A draft rule, obtained by MSNBC, would effectively lock-in Donald
Trump as the GOP nominee and kill the "Stop Trump" movement once and for
all.
Anti-Trump forces have talked up rules that
could let delegates vote against Trump, regardless of the primary
results. But the new rule would stop any and all of those efforts with a
silver bullet — freezing the 2012 rules so that no alternatives go into
effect this year.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
Poll: Trump Supporters More Likely to View Blacks Negatively
Supporters of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump are more
likely to describe African Americans as "criminal," "unintelligent,"
"lazy" and "violent" than voters who backed some Republican rivals in
the primaries or who support Democratic contender Hillary Clinton,
according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
Ahead of the Nov. 8 election to replace Barack
Obama, the first black U.S. president, the poll also showed significant
numbers of Americans in both the Republican and Democratic parties view
blacks more negatively than whites, harbor anxiety about living in
diverse neighborhoods and are concerned that affirmative action policies
discriminate against whites.
Republicans in the survey expressed these
concerns to a greater degree than Democrats, with Trump supporters
presenting the most critical views of blacks.
The poll, conducted between March and June,
interviewed 16,000 Americans and included 21 questions on attitudes
about race. It sought responses from voters who support Trump, the
presumptive Republican nominee, Clinton, the presumptive Democratic
nominee, and her rival U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. It also surveyed
supporters of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, the
last two Republican candidates to drop out of the race.
Click here for the full article.
'Hit the Share Button': Maryland Sisters-In-Law Work to Find Missing People of Color
Natalie Wilson and Derrica Wilson
Tamika Huston vanished in 2004, one year before Natalee Holloway.
Both
women disappeared under mysterious circumstances: Holloway, 18, during a
high school graduation trip to Aruba; Huston, 24, from her home in
Spartanburg, South Carolina.
But only Holloway became a household name. Her story dominated national headlines and was even turned into a television movie.
Huston's
family, meanwhile, begged media organizations to cover her case. And
while local media outlets in Spartanburg picked up her story, Huston's
family could not get her case the widespread attention they knew it
deserved.
"I couldn't understand why I wasn't even getting, you know, 'Thank you
very much, but we're not interested in this story at this time,'"
Huston's aunt, Rebkah Howard, told NBC News in 2005.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
Violence, Settlements, Gaza Undermine Hope for Mideast Peace – U.N.
Reuters, 30/06 17:46 CET
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS
(Reuters) – Violence and incitement, settlement expansion and a lack of
control of Gaza by the Palestinian Authority are undermining hope for
Middle East peace, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday, citing a
report by the Middle East peace “Quartet”.
U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov briefed the U.N.
Security Council on Thursday on an eagerly awaited report by the
Quartet of sponsors of the stalled Middle East peace process: the United
States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations.
He said the report was likely to be released on Friday.
“The main objective of this report is not about assigning
blame,” Mladenov told the 15-member council. “It focuses on the major
threats to achieving a negotiated peace and offers recommendations on
the way forward.”
Click here for the full article.
Source: euronews.
West Cooperating Secretly with Damascus Against Militants – Assad
Reuters, 30/06 17:27 CET
AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar
al Assad said in an interview to be broadcast on Friday that Western
countries had sent security officials to help his government covertly in
fighting Islamist militants involved in Syria’s war.
Assad, in remarks to Australia’s SBS
News channel that were carried by Syrian state media, said Western
states – who are strongly opposed to his rule but also face the threat
of Islamist attacks at home – were secretly cooperating with his
government in counter-terrorism operations.
Click here for summary.
Source: euronews.
British American Tobacco Vows to Investigate Child Workers in Bangladeshi Farms
Reuters, 30/06 16:55 CET
By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – British American Tobacco (BAT),
the world’s second biggest cigarette company, vowed on Thursday to
investigate some of its supply farms in Bangladesh after a Swedish
campaign group uncovered the use of child workers to grow and process
tobacco.
Swedwatch, which surveyed three tobacco farming districts
in Bangladesh, said it found child labor was “widespread” in farms
supplying BAT and its local subsidiary British American Tobacco Bangladesh, jeopardising their health and education.
“Girls and boys of all ages are responsible for
irrigating and leveling the field. Some of them carry loads as well and
bring seedlings from the bed to the field,” said the study, which was
conducted between July 2015 and May 2016.
“After harvesting, they break the leaves, cut the stems, and help to monitor the kiln temperature while curing.”
Swedwatch said children were not only pulled out of
school to work for up to 16 hours a day during the harvest season but
were also engaged in tasks that exposed them to green tobacco plants,
dust from tobacco and smoke from kiln drying.
Click here for the full article.
Source: euronews.
Istanbul Attack: Suspected Bombers ‘from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan’
Click on map to increase its size.
By Sarah Joanne Taylor | With REUTERS
Video footage has emerged purporting to show a suspect shooting a
plain-clothes policeman at point blank range during Tuesday’s (June 28)
gun and bomb attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport.
According to a Turkish government official, the three suspected bombers are from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper also suggested Chechen
involvement. It reported the organiser of the attack was Akhmed
Chatayev, a male of Chechen origin.
A United Nations sanctions list names him as an ISIL leader charged with training Russian-speaking militants. Chayatev is listed as being wanted by Russian authorities.
Turkish officials have not confirmed his involvement.
Click here for video.
Turkey Defies EU Over Anti-Terrorism Laws After Istanbul Attack
By Reuters
Turkey
defied pressure from the European Union on Thursday to amend its
anti-terrorism laws, saying that a suicide bomb attack at Istanbul
airport this week that killed 42 people provided further vindication of
its tough stance.
But Turkish officials, in Brussels for further talks on their
country’s decades-long bid to join the EU, also argued that the bloc
needed Turkey, with its economic and geopolitical weight, more than ever
after Britain’s vote last week to leave.
Click here for video.
Source: euronews.
George Soros Says Brexit Can Lead to Positives for Europe
Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros has given his view of what happens now to Europe after the Brexit vote.
Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels,
he warned Europe’s banking system will be “severely tested” but he
does not believe the European Union will fall apart because Britain had
decided to leave.
Soros said: “The vote for Brexit was a great shock to me and, I
imagine, to most people in this room. Last Friday morning the
disintegration of the European Union seemed practically inevitable. But
as the initial disbelief wore off something unexpected happened and the
tragedy no longer looks like a ‘fait accompli’.”
Click here for video.
Source: euronews.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
The Obama Nominations: Jason D. Tulley
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, President Obama nominated Jason D. Tulley to serve on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
“I
am pleased to nominate Jason D. Tulley to serve on the Superior Court
of the District of Columbia,” said President Obama. “I am confident he
will serve the District of Columbia with integrity and a steadfast
commitment to justice.”
Jason
D. Tulley has served in the Public Defender Service for the District of
Columbia since 2003, where he currently serves as the Training
Director, a position he has held since 2015. Prior to that, he served
as Special Counsel, where he headed the organization’s Forensic Practice
Group, focusing on litigation of science issues, including DNA
evidence, fingerprints, and the psychology of eyewitness identification.
During his thirteen years at the Public Defender Service, Tulley has
tried a number of cases in the Superior Court of the District of
Columbia and also worked on forensic issues leading to the exoneration
of clients. From 2000 to 2003, Tulley was a Deputy Capital Defender for
the Capital Defender Office in New York City, where he represented
indigent defendants in capital cases.
From 1996 to 2000, he worked in
private practice in Baltimore, Maryland. He began his legal career as a
law clerk to the Honorable Theodore G. Bloom of the Court of Special
Appeals of Maryland from 1995 to 1996. He received his J.D., Order of
the Coif, from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1995 and his
B.A., with honors, from the State University of New York at Binghamton
in 1992.
Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
Oval Office Chat: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey
The
President spoke by phone today with Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to express his condolences on behalf of the American people and
to reaffirm the solidarity of the United States
with Turkey following the terrorist attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk
International Airport yesterday.
The President noted this attack, like
the March attack at Brussels Airport, was an attack on the international
community.
President Obama offered any and all
assistance to support Turkish authorities in their investigation and
pledged to continue working with Turkey and all of our partners and
allies to fight terrorism.
The
President also commended President Erdogan and his government for their
leadership this week in reaching a deal to normalize relations with
Israel and in taking steps to ease tensions
with Russia.
Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
Homeland Security and Counterterrorism: Lisa Monaco’s Call with Interior Minister Efkan Ala of Turkey
Assistant
to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco
spoke by phone today with Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala to
express condolences for
the horrific attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport and
offer U.S. support for continued Turkish efforts to combat the threat of
terrorism.
Ms. Monaco praised the bravery and professionalism of
Turkish security forces at the airport and Turkey’s
resilience in the face of this tragedy, as demonstrated by the quick
reopening of the Ataturk Airport today.
Ms. Monaco and Interior
Minister Ala agreed to continue their close counterterrorism
cooperation, and Ms. Monaco offered the full support of the U.S.
government to assist the Turkish government in its investigation of the
attack and in confronting the continued threat posed by terrorist
groups.
Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
Istanbul Ataturk Airport Terrorists Behaved Like a Special Forces Unit
By Clive Irving
A three-part attack beginning with a diversion is a new level of sophistication. That should scare the U.S. and Europe.
Three months after attacking Brussels airport, terrorists have shown in the attack on Istanbul’s international airport an alarming ability to stay one move ahead of the defenses put in place to stop them—an agility in planning that could present a new and serious threat to airports in the U.S.
Most experts agree that the Istanbul atrocity has the hallmarks of ISIS. Even then, the sophistication of how the attack was carried out has surprised them.
It
was carried out in a way that suggests the kind of advance
intelligence, careful study of a target, and cool execution that would
normally be practiced by Western special forces.
Click here for the full article.
Source: The Daily Beast
'PAN! Our Music Odyssey' to Be Shown at Marcus Garvey Park
On July 5, 2016, at 6 p.m., the National
Black Programming Consortium, in association with the Historic Harlem Parks
Film Festival, will present PAN! Our Music Odyssey at Marcus
Garvey Park.
Since the evolution of pan-a musical
instrument crafted from oil drums as early as 1939 and perfected in
the1950s-steel bands have mushroomed in every corner of the planet. Each year,
philharmonic orchestras of over 100 musicians come to Trinidad from all
countries of the world to compete for the greatest Pan event: the
Panaroma.
Pan is the story of the men and women
throughout the Caribbean and the world who staked all on their art and whose
passion and daring has drawn them to the world championships. Their stories are
interlaced with re-enactments of the rags-to-riches tale of the steel band
movement, which was born in poverty and violence but climbed to the highest
levels of social and artistic acceptance without losing its life-or-death
urgency.
The film's production team includes Jérôme
Guiot, Thierry Teston and Kim Johnson, and it will be shown
free-of-charge at the park's amphitheater on 122nd Street and Mt. Morris Park
West.
Source: ImageNation Cinema Foundation
The Scales of Justice: Michigan Judge Goes Off on Cop Convicted of Beating Up Black Man
This video was originally published on YouTube on February 4, 2016.
Michigan Judge Vonda Evans went off on the now former Inkster police
officer, William Mendez, who was being sentenced for beating up a black
man. The judge — visibly upset about what occurred — let Mendez know
that he and his cohorts were a bunch of racist cops.
Mendez was sentenced morning for his involvement in a police brutality case. He was found guilty of misconduct of office and assault with intent to do bodily harm.
The charges stem from an incident which happened last January when he pulled over 58-year-old Floyd Dent for a minor traffic violation.
Black Women Await More Federal Research Into Fibroids
Uterine discomfort and heavy bleeding has been a constant presence in Renee Brown Small's life.
"I was in my 20's and I couldn't go to the beach with my girlfriends because of the bleeding," says Small.
Small is one of many African American women who
suffer with fibroids— non-cancerous uterine tumors that can grow as
large as a cantaloupe and often cause pelvic pain, along with other
symptoms.The prevalence of fibroids — especially among African American
women, who develop them at a higher rate — was a topic of discussion at
the recent White House sponsored United State of Women Summit.
Some 20 to 80 percent of women will develop fibroids by age 50,
according to the Office of Women's Health at the Department of Health
and Human Services. This year, The National Institutes of Health
estimates it will spend around $10 million dollars in research on the
condition — $4 million dollars less than in 2012.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
First Read's Morning Clips: Trump, Clinton Respond to Istanbul
OFF TO THE RACES: Trump on Istanbul: "You have to fight fire with fire"
Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump responded to the Istanbul terror attacks with reactions that exemplify the contrasts in their foreign policy approaches.
Trump: "You have to fight fire with fire," per NBC's Ali Vitali.
The New York Times
looks at how the broad contours of voter allegiances are getting
scrambled. "Whatever you think of Donald Trump, it is clear that this
election has the potential to reshape the allegiances of many white
working-class voters who have traditionally sided with the Democrats,
and many well-educated voters who have sided with the Republicans."
A new Quinnipiac University national poll shows a closer race than other organizations have shown, with Clinton only leading 42 percent to 40 percent.
Here's a wrap of last night's downballot primary results in New York and Colorado.
And as the Washington Post notes, the Colorado result represents an important lost opportunity for Republicans.
Click here for the full article.
Source: NBC News
David Cameron on the Hot Seat
The Prime Minister answered questions from members of his
party and the opposition. He answered questions on the U.K.'s decision
to leave the European Union.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
House Democrats News Conference on Planned Sit-ins on Gun Legislation
Congressional Democrats speak to reporters on Capitol Hill to discuss
planned sit-ins in their districts and when the House returns from the
July 4 recess to protest inaction on gun control legislation and force a
vote on their amendments.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
Senator Isakson on Zika Virus Legislation
Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) speaks about the Senate vote to block the
conference report for the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which included funding for
combating the Zika virus.
Click here for video.
Source: C-SPAN
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