2017-05-31

Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877 - Genesis of the Jim Crow Era

Story by WETA-PBS TV Washington DC, History.com, and Encyclopedia 2

In 1876, the two major candidates running for President were Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, and Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat. The first returns indicated a victory for Tilden, who had won the popular vote with 4,284,020 votes to Hayes' 4,036,572. But Tilden's 184 electoral votes -- the votes that would decide the Presidency -- were still one short of a majority, while Hayes' 165 electoral votes left him 20 ballots away. The votes of three Southern states and one western state still had not been counted. The 20 electoral votes remaining in dispute were one from Oregon and 19 from the three Southern states that still retained Republican-controlled electoral boards -- Florida (4), Louisiana (8), and South Carolina (7).

What complicated the matter was that Democrats in these states had won the state elections, mostly by violence and fraud. Both parties claimed victory. The Republicans, who still held a majority on the electoral boards that would certify the election results, claimed that Hayes was elected because the Democrats' used fraud, violence, and intimidation in the Southern states. They "threw out" enough Democratic votes for Hayes to win in all three states.

The Democrats submitted their own list for Tilden. In Oregon, Hayes had clearly won but the Democratic governor had managed to confuse things by sending one elector in Tilden's favor. The conflict raged because the Constitution did not provide for a way of resolving the dispute.

The Electoral College controversy would drag on for months, not reaching resolution until almost the eve of the scheduled inauguration on March 5, 1877. To break the deadlock, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission, made up of five Senators, five members of the House of Representatives, and five Supreme Court justices. Congress originally hoped to have seven The dealock was finally broken when Southern Democrats agreed to support Hayes' claim for the presidency if he would agree to end Reconstruction.Republican members of the Commission, seven Democrats, and one independent. As it turned out, however, the actual membership turned out to consist of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The Commission voted along straight party lines 8 to 7 to accept all of Hayes' electoral votes and reject the Democrat's claims. The night before President Grant's term expired, the Senate announced Hayes had been elected President.

The deadlock was broken behind closed doors when Southern Democrats agreed to support Hayes' claim for the Presidency if he would support increased funding for Southern internal improvements and "agree to end Reconstruction", thus guaranteeing home rule -- meaning white control -- in the South. Hayes became President and the Southern Democrats could reverse with impunity the gains that blacks had made during Reconstruction. Hayes also pledged to withdraw federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana, thereby ensuring the de facto transfer of power in all the Southern states into the hands of the former slaveholders

From the late 1870s onward, southern legislatures passed a series of laws requiring the separation of whites from “persons of color” on public transportation, in schools, parks, restaurants, theaters and other locations. Known as the “Jim Crow laws” (after a popular minstrel act developed in the antebellum years), these segregationist statutes governed life in the South through the middle of the next century, ending only after the hard-won successes of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Read More:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_election.html
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Hayes-Tilden+Compromise+of+1877
http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/compromise-of-1877

Top Plays from the National Basketball Association (NBA)


Most Amazing Plays In NBA History (Source: NBAFreak)

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous Confirms Run for Maryland Governorship


Ben Jealous

Story by Trice Eney Wire
Written By Hazel Trice Edney

Former NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous, also former Black press executive, is now launching a political career.

Perhaps recently best known as a surrogate for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, Jealous confirmed this week that he is running for governor of Maryland. He cited his long record of civil rights and the diversity of the state of Maryland as being matched to his favor.

"When I was president of the NAACP I learned just how quickly my neighbors here were prepared to move forward on civil rights. In one year, we abolished the death penalty, we passed marriage equality, we passed the Dream Act. I'm running for governor because I believe we're prepared to move just as quickly in moving forward on our education, on employment, on the environment while continuing to protect civil rights," Jealous said this week in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire. "I'm running for governor because I believe we can do much better by our kids right now."

Jealous is entering a crowded field of seven other candidates for the Democratic primary to be held June 26, 2018. He believes disaffection for the scandal-laden Trump administration may cause voters to lean back toward Democratic leadership after electing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in November 2014. Hogan is eligible to run for re-election in the state where the Democratic base is actually two to one.

"Larry Hogan is governor of Maryland because in 2014, we had a high tide of Republican turnout and an ebb tide of Democratic turnout," Jealous said. He pointed out that Hogan won by 60,000 votes after 125,000 Democrats who had voted in 2010 didn't show up to vote in 2014.

"In this era of President Trump, they can only remember having a president that is competent to serve. And now they see the impact of having a president that is quite the opposite," Jealous said. "So long as we turn out Democratic voters who are used to voting in gubernatorial elections, there's almost no way that he can win."
The election will be held Nov. 6, 2018. But first Jealous must distinguish himself among the crowded Democratic field. In that regard, he may just have a not-so-secret weapon. If he can win an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders, it may bolster his chances significantly.

"Let's just see," was Jealous' only response when asked whether he expects to receive Sanders' endorsement.

Sanders won 36 percent of the vote in Maryland's Democratic presidential primary. If Jealous can win a majority of those voters; plus a significant portion of Maryland's 45 percent Black vote, he is a strong contender to win the Democratic nomination.

But the key will be to excite the Democratic base to the polls. Jealous believes he has the record to do just that. Maryland has a 45 percent White constituency and 10 percent that encompasses other races. Jealous believes his background and civil rights record could attract a following similar to the "Rainbow Coalition" that was amassed during the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign, for which Jealous also worked in 1988.

Jealous was born in Pacific Grove, Calif. But his parents, a mixed-race couple, had met in Baltimore where his mother grew up. His father, Fred Jealous, who was White, helped integrate lunch counters in the South. His mother, Ann Jealous, worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s. As a teenager, Jealous became steeped in civil and voting rights work and spent summers in Baltimore with his maternal grandparents.

"The combination of an activist rooted in the tradition of the NAACP and the civil rights movement and an activist rooted in the Bernie camp, gives us a broad base that looks like Maryland similar to what you saw of Doug Wilder in Virginia after the Jesse Jackson campaign," Jealous said.

Jealous' career has been woven with civil rights and politics. Between 2000-2004 he served as executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). Earlier in his career, he'd worked as an editor for the historic Jackson Advocate newspaper in Mississippi.

After NNPA, he became founding director of Amnesty International's U. S. Human Rights Program. In 2008, he became the historically youngest NAACP president at the age of 35, an office he held until 2012. He later became a venture capitalist with the Oakland, Calif.-based Kapor Center for Social Impact. He also played integral rolls in the presidential races of President Barack Obama.

"I'm blessed to have lived my life as a progressive in the Black community who is committed to fighting for a better life for everyone in our community and ultimately for everyone in every community...It's that life, that path that starts with Jesse Jackson '88 and goes all the way through Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign," he recounts. "It's that life that started with my parents and my grandparents rooted in the NAACP, raised in the NAACP; ultimately leads into the labor movement and the environmentalist movement and the LGBT movement and the women's rights movement. That's me, that's where I'm rooted and where this campaign is rooted."

If he wins, Jealous would become the nation's fourth Black governor in modern history. The others were Virginia's Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, elected in 1989; Massachusetts' Gov. Deval Patrick, elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2010; and New York's Gov. David Paterson who served two years after the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2008.
Jealous, 44, has two young children to whom he often refers when expressing concerns about the future of Maryland. Reflecting on the economic deprivation that became a national spotlight during the Freddie Gray case, he accuses Hogan of having ignored Baltimore during his tenure.

"This is a governor who has shifted millions of dollars away from public education and into voucher programs and who has toured the state with [Trump-appointed Education Secretary] Betsy Devos and has embraced Attorney General Sessions' foolishness of trying to revive the failed war on drugs by also investing millions of dollars in building up law enforcement to go after heroin addicts as law breakers rather than as people who need to be sent to rehabilitation," he says. "The only way to create a better future for Baltimore and its residents is to have a governor who is always for all of its residents; including Baltimore. Right now it feels too often that we have a governor who is always for all of Maryland except for Baltimore...You simply cannot starve a city that's supposed to be the economic epicenter of the state and have the state prosper."

Ultimately, the voters of Maryland must be inspired enough to believe the election even matters.

"It's going to take us deciding that our children's future, that our family's economic future is important enough for us to turn out," Jealous says. "And so, at the end of the day, we will do what it takes to turn out voters. Donald Trump will make that easier and Larry Hogan will make that easier still."

2017-05-30

Tiger Woods found asleep in car at time of arrest; NO ALCOHOL found in breath test

Story by ESPN/AP
Written by Bob Hariq

The police had to wake up Tiger Woods when they approached his running vehicle prior to arresting him on a DUI charge early Monday morning, according to the police report.

According to the report, the officer said Woods "had extremely slow and slurred speech" and struggled with several roadside tasks. The report noted that the golfer changed his story about where he was going and where he was coming from.

Woods told police he was taking several prescriptions, including two painkillers. Police said Woods was "cooperative as much as possible" and that he agreed to take a breath test and a urine test. He blew a 0.00 in the breath test.

In a statement released Monday night, Woods had said alcohol was not a factor in his arrest, which he said stemmed from an "unexpected reaction" to prescription medication.

"I understand the severity of what I did, and I take full responsibility for my actions," Woods said in the statement. "I want the public to know that alcohol was not involved. What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications. I didn't realize the mix of medications had affected me so strongly."

The 14-time major champion was taken into custody at 2:49 a.m. ET on Monday, booked at 7:18 a.m. and released on his own recognizance at 10:50 a.m.

Woods' arraignment in Palm Beach County court is scheduled for July 5.

Woods announced last week that he had undergone a fourth back surgery in April that will keep him off the course for the rest of the 2017 season, and he is unlikely to engage in strenuous physical activity for months.

He attempted a comeback after more than a year away from the game late in 2016 but played in just three tournaments, missing the cut in January at the Farmers Insurance Open and withdrawing after one round of a tournament in Dubai in February.

Since his first back surgery on March 31, 2014, Woods has played just 19 worldwide events, with a single top-10 finish, seven missed cuts and three withdrawals.

John Mara says signing Colin Kaepernick would lead to fan backlash

Story by Pro Football Talk
Written by Michael David Smith

The NFL party line, as articulated by Commissioner Roger Goodell, is that Colin Kaepernick’s unemployment is football related, Giants owner John Mara has acknowledged off-field concerns contributing as well.

Mara told Jenny Vrentas of TheMMQB.com that the Giants didn’t discuss signing Kaepernick this offseason, and that they’ve heard from many fans who would be angry if they did.

“All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue,” Mara said. “If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game. It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, moreso than any other issue I’ve run into.”

The Giants signed kicker Josh Brown to a new contract after he was arrested for domestic violence, and kept him on the team last year after he was suspended for domestic violence. It’s extraordinary that Mara says he heard from more fans about Kaepernick — a player on another team, who didn’t do anything illegal — than about Brown.

Mara’s comments say a lot about Kaepernick’s continuing unemployment: For many teams, the decision not to sign Kaepernick may go beyond whether the coach or G.M. think Kaepernick can help on the field. It may go up to the owner, who fears Kaepernick would hurt the franchise off the field.

2017-05-26

Pop Singer Ariana Grande Says She’ll Hold Benefit Concert for Manchester Victims


Grande performs in Phoenix, Arizona, in February. Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Live Nation

Story by NBC News
Written by Kalhan Rosblatt
Video News Report by ABC News

Pop star Ariana Grande said today she would return to Manchester for a benefit concert to raise money for victims of the bombing that killed 22 people and injured 59 after her concert on Monday.

In the statement posted to Twitter, Grande wrote that she would return to the British city once she was able to confirm a date, and thanked her fans for their love and support.

"I have been thinking of my fans, and of you all, non stop over the past week," Grande wrote. "The way you have handled all of this has been more inspiring and made me more proud than you'll ever know."

She went on to say the love her fans have shown one another was the polar opposite of the "heinous intentions" of those behind the attack.

Grande said she intended her "Dangerous Woman" tour to be a "safe space" for her fans, where they could meet one another and enjoy her music.



"This will not change that. When you look into the audience at my shows, you see a beautiful, diverse, pure, happy crowd. Thousands of people, incredibly different, all there for the same reason, music."

She urged her fans to respond to the violence with love and kindness.

"I don't want to go the rest of the year without being able to see and hold and uplift my fans, the same way they continue to uplift me," Grande wrote. "Our response to this violence must be to come closer together, to help each other, to love more, to sing louder and live more kindly and generously than we did before."

Grande said other artists have reached out to her about performing at the benefit concert, but did not specify who.

2017-05-25

Dr. Olivia Hooker, one of the last survivors from the 1921 Black Wall Street Massacre in Tulsa Oklahoma, speaks candidly about it


Dr. Olivia Hooker is one of the last Survivors of the 1921 Black Wall Street Massacre in Tulsa Oklahoma. Hear her story in above interview

President Trump's Budget Eliminates Key Resource for Black Entrepreneurs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Krystal Glass
202-463-8722

We urge Congress to resist Trump's ludicrous proposal

Washington, D.C.- Today's release of the Fiscal Year 2018 budget by the Trump Administration is another failure to recognize the impact of Black business owners. The President's proposal calls for the elimination of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), a key institution at the Department of Commerce and the only program dedicated to advancing minority business enterprises.

The program, which accounts for less than .001% of federal spending, supports business centers throughout the country and has helped secure $36 billion in contracts and capital for minority-owned businesses, retaining 125,000 jobs.

Only three weeks ago, Congress saw fit to increase the program's funding to $34,000,000--legislation signed into law by President Trump. That funding followed USBC President Ron Busby's testimony submitted to House Appropriators about the importance of continuing funding for the Minority Business Development Agency. Following today's announcement, USBC President Ron Busby released the following statement:

"Yet again, the Trump Administration that campaigned on job creation turns its back on the very programs proven to spur minority business growth. Eliminating the only program dedicated to a diversity of job creators is an affront to the millions of minority entrepreneurs nationwide. We urge Congress to resist this ludicrous proposal and maintain their bipartisan support of the Minority Business Development Agency."

###

About USBC: The U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. (USBC) provides committed, visionary leadership and advocacy in the realization of economic empowerment. Through the creation of resources and initiatives, we support African American Chambers of Commerce and business organizations in their work of developing and growing Black enterprises.

2017-05-24

Congressman Elijah Cummings (Md.) Issues Statement on New Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Report on Trump's Health Care Plan



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 24, 2017

CONTACT: Jennifer Werner/Fabion Seaton
(202) 226-5181

Cummings Issues Statement on New CBO Report on TrumpCare
Link to CBO Report: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52752

Washington, D.C. (May 24, 2017)—Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its new report on TrumpCare:

“Today’s CBO report confirms yet again that TrumpCare would force tens of millions of Americans to lose their health insurance. Many more will have inadequate coverage at higher costs, particularly for older Americans and those with pre-existing conditions who may be priced out of coverage altogether.”

“What my Republican colleagues must remember is that these are not just numbers on a page. These are not just statistics in a report or estimates in a budget. These are real people and real families who will face daunting health crises and medical challenges. Ripping away their health insurance just to settle a political score is not only inhumane, but it will cause immeasurable pain for millions and millions of people across our nation.”

“The report highlights that this bill will affect Americans unevenly. Americans living in states that opt out of existing protections will be hardest hit. This week has made it clear that Republicans envision a health care system in America where your access to care is more dependent on your zip code than your need, and if you do not have the means to purchase care, there will be no safety net.

“Today’s CBO report comes just a day after President Trump issued his budget, which violates the President’s promise not to cut Medicaid or Social Security. These policies would be devastating for working class families in urban, suburban and rural communities—including those who voted for President Trump.”

The CBO report issued today estimates that the latest TrumpCare bill would:

• increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 23 million by 2026 (a total of 51 million people would be uninsured by 2026)
o 14 million by 2018 (total of 41 million)
o 19 million by 2020 (total of 46 million)
o 23 million by 2026 (total of 51 million)
• force 14 million Americans to lose their Medicaid by 2026 (a reduction of 17%)

The CBO report concluded: “Over time, it would become more difficult for less healthy people (including people with preexisting medical conditions) in those states to purchase insurance because their premiums would continue to increase rapidly.”

With respect to Essential Health Benefits (EHBs), CBO reported: “Services or benefits likely to be excluded from the EHBs in some states include maternity care, mental health and substance abuse benefits, rehabilitative and habilitative services, and pediatric dental benefits. In particular, out-of-pocket spending on maternity care and mental health and substance abuse services could increase by thousands of dollars in a given year for the nongroup enrollees who would use those services.”

Finally, the report stated: “CBO and JCT expect that, as a consequence, the waivers in those states would have another effect: Community-rated premiums would rise over time, and people who are less healthy (including those with preexisting or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive nongroup health insurance at premiums comparable to those under current law, if they could purchase it at all—despite the additional funding that would be available under H.R. 1628 to help reduce premiums.”

2017-05-23

New Orleans, Louisiana's Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Address on Removal of Four Confederate Statues


Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s Address on Removal of Four Confederate Statues

Trump budget seeks huge cuts to science and medical research, disease prevention


The Trump administration is expected to introduce its 2018 budget proposal on May 23, which will likely include major cuts to programs for low-income Americans. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Story by Washington Post
Written by Joel Achenbach and Lena H. Sun

President Trump's 2018 budget request, delivered to Congress on Tuesday with the title “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” has roiled the medical and science community with a call for massive cuts in spending on scientific research, medical research, disease prevention programs and health insurance for children of the working poor.

The National Cancer Institute would be hit with a $1 billion cut compared to its 2017 budget. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute would see a $575 million cut, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would see a reduction of $838 million. The administration would cut the overall National Institutes of Health budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion.

The National Science Foundation, which dispenses grants to a variety of scientific research endeavors, would be trimmed $776 million, an 11 percent cut. NSF had not been mentioned in the administration's earlier budget outline, the so-called “skinny budget,” which was released in March.

“The National Science Foundation last year used your taxpayer money to fund a climate change musical. Do you think that’s a waste of your money?” asked the director of Office of Management and Budget director, Mick Mulvaney, during a White House briefing on Tuesday.

He also noted the cuts to climate change research, saying that, under President Barack Obama, the “pendulum went too far to one side” and the government spent too much on climate science.

“Does it mean that we are anti-science? Absolutely not,” he said. “We are simply trying to get things back in order to where we can look at the folks who pay the taxes and say, 'Look, yeah, we want to do some climate science. But we're not going to do some of the crazy stuff the previous administration did.”

The proposed cuts to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drew an unusually sharp rebuke from former CDC director Tom Frieden, who went on Twitter to describe the administration's CDC request as “unsafe at any level of enactment. Would increase illness, death, risks to Americans, and health care costs.”

In a separate tweet, Frieden listed what he sees as the dire ramifications of the Trump proposal, saying, for starters, that it “Devastates programs that protect Americans from cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and other deadly and expensive conditions.”

Steven Houser, president of the American Heart Association, called Trump's budget “devastating” and “unconscionable.” He urged Congress to boost funding for NIH by $2 billion rather than cut it by nearly $6 billion.

Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said the Trump budget is short-sighted, particularly in assuming that economic growth won't be hampered by cuts in government-funded research.

“There's this rosy optimism that somehow growth will magically occur, and yet it cuts the principal source of that growth,” Holt said. The proposal “savages research. Economists are clear: That’s where we ultimately get our economic growth.”

The full budget document was scheduled to be released Tuesday morning, but the administration inadvertently posted the section dealing with the Department of Health and Human Services late Monday afternoon.

Slashing programs that normally have enjoyed bipartisan support is part of the Trump administration's effort to trim trillions of dollars in spending over the next decade while at the same time paying for tax cuts and increases in military spending.

OMB's March “skinny budget” had delivered a number of surprises, including a call to cut nearly one-fifth of National Institutes of Health budget and nearly one-third of the Environmental Protection Agency funding. Lawmakers appeared to ignore that budget request entirely when putting together a spending plan for the rest of fiscal 2017, which runs through September. Much of that spending plan had been in the works before the November election.

Congress has the power of the purse and could essentially ignore the more detailed budget request. Early reactions on both sides of the aisle have been generally unfavorable. One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, flinched at the thought of cutting NIH and such programs as Meals on Wheels. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), head of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, said of Meals on Wheels, “I’ve delivered meals to a lot of people that perhaps it’s their only hot meal of the day.”

OMB director Mulvaney, briefing reporters, said the administration had produced a “taxpayer-first” budget, saying that compassion should be offered not only to the needy who receive government resources but also to the people who pay the taxes to fund such programs. “Compassion needs to be on both sides of that equation,” Mulvaney said.

The administration's detailed budget request calls the termination of many research-related programs, such as the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Project Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's grant and education program, which has $262 million in 2017 funding, would be zeroed out. “These grant and education programs generally support State, local, and/or industry interests, and these entities may choose to continue some of this work with their own funding,” the administration's budget document states.

Also terminated would be NASA's Office of Education, as well as five NASA Earth Science missions that the administration considers to be low-priority. The administration said killing those Earth Science missions would save $191 million. The Trump administration is also declining to put in money for a robotic probe to land on Jupiter's moon Europa, even though that it required under the NASA authorization act recently signed into law.

NASA acting administrator Robert Lightfoot, taking the stage in an auditorium at NASA headquarters, gave an upbeat assessment of OMB's budget request, which includes a modest cut to the agency's funding but keeps most major programs intact. “What this budget tells us to do is keep going,” Lightfoot said.

Among key health-care changes:

Planned Parenthood would be barred from receiving any HHS funding, according to a fact sheet accompanying the budget release — a prohibition that would apply not just to Medicaid but to all programs. The fact sheet notes that this move “follows through on a campaign promise” to block federal dollars from “certain entities that provide abortions, including Planned Parenthood.”

Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would be slashed by at least 20 percent for the next two fiscal years. According to the budget document, the administrator favors a renewal of CHIP, a program created 20 years ago for the children of lower-working class families and which currently insures 5.6 million children.

The spending plan would, however, eliminate an element of the Affordable Care Act that increased by 23 percent the portion of the program’s costs that is paid for with federal money, leaving states to shoulder a larger share. It would also for the first time essentially limit states’ eligibility levels to qualify, saying that the government would no longer help cover children from families with incomes of more than 250 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, 18 states plus the District of Columbia allow families with incomes higher than 300 percent of the poverty line to sign up their children for CHIP, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Trump budget cuts $1.2 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which responds to disease outbreaks in the United States and around the world, makes sure food and water are safe, and helps people avoid heart disease, cancer, stroke and other leading causes of death. The 17 percent cut is the lowest CDC budget in more than 20 years, Frieden said.

The president's budget seeks an $82 million cut at the center that works on vaccine-preventable and respiratory diseases, such as influenza and measles. It proposes a cut of $186 million from programs at CDC’s center on HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis prevention. One of the biggest cuts, $222 million, is to the agency’s chronic disease prevention programs, which are designed to help people prevent diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and obesity.

Some of those funds are being channeled into a new $500 million block grant program to states and territories to focus on “leading chronic disease challenges specific to each state.” Critics have said block grants allow states to plug holes in their budgets, without accountability that federal programs require.

The agency’s center on birth defects and developmental disabilities also gets a 26 percent cut to its budget at a time when researchers have yet to understand the full consequences of Zika infections in pregnant women and their babies and the underlying causes of autism.

The budget calls for a 17 percent cut to CDC’s global health programs that monitor and respond to disease outbreaks around the world. It also cuts about 10 percent from CDC’s office of public health preparedness and response.

The budget document highlights $35 million that the CDC spends on childhood lead poisoning prevention. But the overall spending on environmental health would under Trump's plan be cut by $60 million, down to $157 million, according the document.

Trump administration officials have also proposed the establishment of an Emergency Response Fund to respond quickly to emerging public health threats. In the wake of the Ebola and Zika epidemics, U.S. officials have repeatedly called for the need for such a fund. The budget does not provide a specific amount. It says HHS would have “department-wide transfer authority to support the Fund in the case of a natural or man-made disaster or threat.” The fund would be available to receive a transfer of up to one percent of any HHS account, without any limitation on the total, for use in emergency preparedness and response.

The Food and Drug Administration would see a cut in federal funding from $2.74 billion to $1.89 billion. To offset the reduction, user fees paid by manufacturers of drugs, devices and other medical products, which now total $1.2 billion and cover nearly half the cost of all medical-product activities, would be increased by more than $1.1 billion. As a result, the agency's overall funding would increase by more $400 million.

But hiking industry fees isn't likely to go anywhere on Capitol Hill. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the chairman of the health committee, has said he does not want to reopen negotiations with the industry over fees that it pays to support FDA activities. His committee recently approved legislation that ignores the administration request for higher user fees.

The budget retains the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which had been threatened with virtual extinction, with a $368.5 million budget, a small decrease from its 2017 funding. In an email sent to full-time employee earlier this month, Richard Baum, the acting director of the office, said the administration’s proposal for the fiscal year that begins in October would reflect “a nearly 95 percent” cut in the agency’s budget. That appears to have been largely reversed.

Manchester Arena attacker named as Salman Ramadan Abedi

Story by the Guardian

Manchester police say 22-year-old was responsible for suicide attack that killed 22 and injured 59 at Ariana Grande concert

The man who murdered 22 people and injured 59 others has been named as Salman Ramadan Abedi, a Mancunian of Libyan descent.

Police confirmed the 22-year-old’s identity after officials in the United States passed it to news reporters, apparently against the wishes of the police and security services in the UK.

Earlier, armed police sealed off Elsmore Road, a street in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester, and then carried out a controlled explosion at the terraced house where Abedi lived.

Officers also searched the home of his brother Ismael in the Chorlton area of south Manchester. They arrested a 23-year-old man near an address where the family had previously lived, prompting speculation that Ismael Abedi had been detained.

Salman Abedi is thought to have been known to both the police and the security services. A few hours after the attack, Islamic State claimed it had been carried out by “a caliphate soldier”.

A police helicopter hovered over Elsmore Road, and a fire engine was parked nearby as police searched the property where they had carried out the controlled explosion, apparently to blow off the front door.

Even before Abedi was named, several members of south Manchester’s Libyan community wondered whether the suicide bomber would turn out to be one of their own: perhaps one of the young men who had fought in Libya during the 2011 revolution, some of whom came home traumatised, angry and unsettled.

But none appear to have suspected that Abedi – a slightly withdrawn, devout young man, always respectful to his elders – would become a mass murderer.

“Salman? I’m astonished by this,” one member of Manchester’s Libyan community told the Guardian. “He was such a quiet boy, always very respectful towards me. His brother Ismael is outgoing, but Salman was very quiet. He is such an unlikely person to have done this.”

The brothers worshipped at Didsbury mosque, where their father, who is known as Abu Ismael within the community, is a well-known figure. “He used to do the five and call the adhan. He has an absolutely beautiful voice. And his boys learned the Qur’an by heart.

“Abu Ismael will be terribly distraught. He was always very confrontational with jihadi ideology, and this Isis thing isn’t even jihad, it’s criminality. The family will be devastated.”

Abu Ismael Abedi, who worked as an odd-job man in Manchester, is thought to be in Tripoli. His wife, Samia, is thought to be in Manchester. “He comes and goes between here and there,” the family friend said. “I can’t believe he would have been radicalised in Tripoli. All those types have been driven out of the city. It must have happened here.

“But what was he doing, murdering all those people. There must have been somebody influencing him. It’s terrible. He was off his head.”

Neville Edwards, who lives near the house where the controlled explosion was carried out, said: “There was a lot of police activity and the avenue was cordoned off. There was a controlled hard entry by the police who blew the front door off using controlled explosives.”

Edwards said his mother’s house in the next street was shaken by the blast. “She felt the ground beneath her shake. She was absolutely terrified.”

Tina Ward, 32, who lives on the same road as the raided house, said she came out of her home at around midday to see about 30 armed police entering the front garden of that house. She said it was home to a large Asian family with sons.

“They seem to be quiet,” she said. “I’ve been in my house 10 years and they’ve been there longer than me.”

Farazana Kosur said she and her children had lived on Thelwall Ave, around the corner from the house that was raided on Elesmore Rd, for four years. She knew the family in the house, she said, though not very well.

The family had sons in their 20s, and a younger son and daughter, and the older sons would wear religious dress and attend a mosque. The mother was a “very nice woman” and taught Kosur’s friend’s daughter to read the Qur’an.

“It’s terrible,” she said. “I hate the bombing and everybody is scared. It’s a nice area. We’ve had no problems.”

Islamic State’s claim of responsibility was posted in Arabic and English on channels that the group uses on the encrypted Telegram instant messaging service.

The English version read: “A solider of the Khilafah managed to place explosive devices in the midst of the gatherings of the Crusaders in the British city of Manchester, in revenge for Allah’s religion, in an endeavour to terrorize the [infidels], and in response to their transgressions against the lands of the Muslims.

“The explosive devices were detonated in the shameless concert arena, resulting in 30 Crusaders being killed [sic] and 70 others being wounded. And what comes next will be more severe on the worshippers of the Cross and their allies.”

2017-05-22

Sea lion grabs girl off dock, pulls her into harbor



Story by ABC

A young girl feeding a sea lion on a dock in Steveston Harbour in Richmond, Canada, in British Columbia, was yanked into the water by the massive marine mammal, and the terrifying moments were caught on video that was posted to YouTube.

The girl was with her family on the dock, feeding the sea lion, when it rose from the water toward her face. She then sat on a railing at the edge of the dock, and the animal lunged up, grabbed her by her dress and pulled her into the water.

"Thank goodness, the young lady wasn't hurt, but let it be a warning to everybody: Do not do this," Bob Baziuk, a spokesoman for the Steveston Harbour Authority, told ABC News.

He said it appears that the sea lion in the video was about 1,200 pounds.

A man jumped into the water immediately after the girl was pulled in and rescued her, and people on the dock helped pull the two out of the water. Both were uninjured.

Killing at University of Maryland probed as possible hate crime


Richard Collins III (HANDOUT/Facebook)

Story by CBS

The FBI is investigating if race played a role in the murder of a black man by a white student on the campus of University of Maryland, College Park, one of the nation's largest universities. Police say 23-year-old Richard Collins III was stabbed and killed by Sean Urbanski while waiting for an Uber.

Urbanski is being held without bond. Police say the attack that took the life of Collins, a Bowie State University student, was completely unprovoked.

"Sean Urbanski, with a knife, stabbed Richard Wilbur Collins and killed him," said David Mitchell, chief of police at University of Maryland.

Police now have reason to believe Urbanski, a student at the University of Maryland, may have used race as a motivator in the alleged murder of Collins. The FBI has been called in to help with the investigation, which centers around a racially-charged Facebook page for the group "Alt-Reich: Nation." Urbanski was a member.

"It shows extreme bias against women, Latinos, members of the Jewish faith, and especially African-Americans," Mitchell said of the group.

Saturday morning's murder shocked Maryland's campus as the community gathered for commencement weekend. Dr. Wallace Loh, president of UMD, called it a "senseless and unprovoked assault."

Collins was preparing to receive his diploma from Bowie State University this week and serve his country. He completed his ROTC training and was commissioned last Thursday as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army last Thursday. Collins was about to join the "intelligence division" of the U.S. Army.

"Hate has no place in America. Hate has no place on a college campus," said Artie Travis, Bowie State University's vice president of student affairs.

As of this morning, the Alt-Reich Facebook page appears to have been taken down.

2017-05-19

Judge rules that Prince's six siblings are his heirs

Story by AFP
Written by Shaun Tandon

A judge ruled Friday that Prince's six siblings are the heirs to his estate, a key step in the more than year-old battle over the pop legend's fortune and vast trove of unreleased songs.

Kevin Eide, the judge in Carver County, Minnesota, where Prince died suddenly in April 2016 at his Paisley Park estate, said that the "Purple Rain" star's heirs were his sister Tyka Nelson and five half-siblings.

"The heirs of the estate are determined to be Omarr Baker, Alfred Jackson, Sharon Nelson, Norrine Nelson, John R. Nelson and Tyka Nelson," the order read.

In practical terms, the ruling will not immediately hand over Prince's fortune -- which is estimated to be worth up to $300 million -- to his siblings.

Instead, it starts a one-year process in which people who claim to be related to Prince can still make their appeals, but be definitively excluded if the judge does not accept their case.

"I'm finally my brother's legal sister again," Tyka Nelson, herself a singer but with much less success than Prince, wrote on Facebook. "It's a happy day!"

The ruling comes nine days after a hearing in which the siblings pressed for a resolution, and following months of sometimes colorful claims by people who say they are Prince's descendants.

Among the claims received by the court were one from a woman who said she had a secret wedding to Prince in Las Vegas, and a little-known musician who alleged that Prince agreed on a tour bus to hand him his whole estate.

- New dispute with label -

The judge's ruling could also provide more clarity on control of Prince's storied vault of unreleased songs, with question marks already rising over deals reached since Prince's death.

The judge separately scheduled a hearing for May 31 to hear a proposal to cancel a contract between Prince's estate and Universal, the world's largest music label conglomerate.

Universal in February announced with fanfare that it had secured the rights to Prince's catalog after the mid-1990s, when the artist exited rival label Warner, as well as unspecified recordings from Prince's earlier heyday.

But Comerica Bank and Trust, which has been assigned to handle the estate's interests, conceded that the recordings under Universal's $30 million contract may overlap with Warner's assets.

"Universal has been misled and defrauded in connection with the license agreement and insists upon rescission of the agreement and the return of its money, full stop," a label executive was quoted as saying in a partially redacted filing.

Comerica asked the court to be let out of the contract, saying the estate otherwise faced the likelihood of litigation.

Complicating matters, only three of the heirs have been working with L. Londell McMillan, Prince's longtime lawyer who has advised the estate on deals.

Other siblings including Tyka have accused McMillan of mismanaging a tribute concert last year to Prince, charges that the lawyer denies.

Prince was a sworn foe of music industry conventions and in the mid-1990s wrote "slave" on his cheek and changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol after Warner tried to put the brakes on his prodigious output.

Prince reconciled with Warner late in his life and the label will put out a new edition of his iconic 1984 album-soundtrack "Purple Rain," complete with previously unreleased tracks, to mark birthday next month.

The pop legend died from an accidental overdose of powerful painkillers.

The 57-year-old -- outwardly a model of health who did not drink, advocated a vegetarian diet and fired musicians who abused drugs -- left no will and had no living children who were recognized.

Federal Communications Commission Moves To Eliminate Studio Rule

Story by Radio Ink

As expected, the FCC is moving forward with a plan to eliminate the Main Studio Rule. At its regularly scheduled meeting, Thursday, the Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, proposing to eliminate the main studio rule, which requires each AM, FM, and television broadcast station to have a main studio located in or near its local community. The Notice also proposes to eliminate the requirement that the main studio have full-time management and staff present during normal business hours, and the requirement that it be able to originate programming.

Chairman Ajit Pai said things have changed since the FCC first conceived the main studio rule almost 80 years ago. “Back then, perhaps, this made sense. But today, the rule appears outdated, unnecessary, and unduly burdensome. Community access and engagement remain important in the digital era, but technology has rendered physical studios unnecessary for those purposes. That’s because such activities are much more likely to occur via social media, email, or phone rather than through an in-person visit to a broadcast studio. Furthermore, broadcasters have shown that the main studio rule is a continuous cost that keeps them from serving their local communities in meaningful ways, like broadcasting additional local programming.”
_____________________________________________

STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MIGNON L. CLYBURN
Re: Elimination of Main Studio Rule, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, MB Docket No. 17-106

For years, you have heard me speak about the unique role broadcasters play in local communities.
NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith reinforced this view in his 2014 Congressional testimony by
stating that “Localism underpins each of our FCC licenses . . . Our stations demonstrate their commitment
to this promise in times of every emergency, reminding us of broadcasters’ important role as first
informers.”

So I find it perplexing that those very same broadcasters are advocating to absolve themselves
from maintaining local roots in their community of license. A broadcaster’s main studio is often the only
physical tie to a community. Broadcasters are often among the first to report an emergency, and when it
comes to radio, that physical presence means they actually know and are experiencing first hand, what
their local listeners want and need to hear. By tentatively proposing to eliminate the Commission’s main
studio rule however, it seems to me that we are embracing a world in which automated national
programming is the new normal. When the community wants to know what is going on in their backyard,
my question is, will simulcasting fill the gap?

Now I understand the economic challenges facing many stations, particularly in small and midsized
markets. And if elimination of the main studio rule is what gives that small market station with just
five employees, the chance to keep the lights on and continue producing local programming, then I am
empathetic. But we need to think long and hard about the practical implications of eliminating this rule
altogether.

While it is true, that with the public file now accessible online, members of the public have one
less reason to visit a station’s main studio. And yes, a local or toll-free telephone number is a good thing,
but if nobody is there to answer that call, and the only option is to leave a voicemail, how often will it be
checked, when will that call be returned, and who is going to report if, heaven forbid, there is, say, a train
derailment and hazardous chemicals are spilled, jeopardizing the safety of the surrounding community?
This was indeed the case in 2002, during the Minot train derailment, when it took several hours to locate
station managers.

I thank Chairman Pai for hearing my concerns, and including a series of questions focused on
whether eliminating the main studio rule will impact a station’s ability to communicate time-sensitive or
emergency information to the public. The NPRM also asks at my request, whether a station’s phone
number should be staffed during the hours in which that station is on the air. This would provide a means
for the public and local officials to communicate life-saving information during an emergency. I am also
grateful for the inclusion of questions on what impact elimination of this rule would have on LPFM and
non-commercial stations.

So while I admit that I remain skeptical about moving forward with an outright elimination of this
rule, I believe that the NPRM tees up the appropriate questions needed to build a fulsome record. For
these reasons, I will vote to approve today’s NPRM.

My thanks once again go to the staff of the Media Bureau for working with me to ensure that
broadcasters remain a core part, of every local community in this country.

2017-05-18

Lew Dickey Raises $207M, Readying To Buy Media Company

Story by Inside Radio

Is Lew Dickey jockeying to get back into the radio business? Or is his radar focused on an acquisition elsewhere? Either way, the former Cumulus Media CEO just raised $207 million in the public markets for some type of deal.

Less than a week after announcing the pricing of a $180 million IPO, Dickey’s newly formed Modern Media Acquisition Corp. formally closed the offering this afternoon. “Demand was strong,” Dickey told Inside Radio. “I’m now hard at work looking for a company in media, entertainment or marketing services [with a] value approaching $1 billion. It will be a ‘platform company’ where we expect to make follow-on acquisitions and will be listed on NASDAQ.”

Dickey is again working with Macquarie Capital, which had a long-term relationship with Cumulus. It was Macquarie, along with Crestview Partners, that helped bankroll Cumulus’ $2.4 billion acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting in 2011. This time Macquarie is the sole “book runner” for the newly launched IPO.

The once-ousted CEO formed a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) branded as Modern Media Acquisition Corp. Also known as a “blank check company,” it’s essentially a blind pool of money that’s going public. Investors are betting on the longtime radio exec to find, buy and operate a business in the media, entertainment or marketing services industries. According to a press release, MMAC was “formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, recapitalization or other similar business combination with a target company.”

Last week it announced the pricing of the IPO, offering 18 million units at $10.00 a pop. Each unit consists of one share of common stock, the right to buy an additional one-tenth of a share “upon the consummation of the Company’s initial business combination,” and one-half of a warrant to buy one share of MMAC common stock at $11.50 per share.

After being ejected as Cumulus CEO on Sept. 29, 2015, during the Radio Show in his hometown, Dickey used some of his downtime to analyze the “dramatic and accelerating” changes in the media business. Dickey toldInside Radio last fall the outcome of that reflection—the book “The New Modern Media,” published by Tourbillon International, a unit of Dickey-owned Modern Luxury Media—is also a roadmap for what he intends to do next.

Dickey resigned his position as vice chairman of the Cumulus board of directors in late March, right around the time his 18-month non-compete agreement expired. Now he plans to use the IPO proceeds to buy a target company.

The stock began trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market as “MMDMU” last Friday. Later on, the common stock, rights and warrants comprising the units will begin trading separately under the ticker symbols “MMDM,” “MMDMR” and “MMDMW,” respectively.

Early Bird Capital, Cowen and Company and I-Bankers Securities are co-managers of the offering.

2017-05-17

Congressman Elijah Cummings Issues Statement on Reports that President Asked FBI Director Comey to End the Flynn Investigation



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2017

CONTACT: Jennifer Werner/Aryele Bradford
(202) 226-5181

Cummings Issues Statement on Reports that President
Asked Director Comey to End Flynn Investigation

Washington, D.C. (May 16, 2017) – Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement in response to press reports that President Donald Trump asked FBI Director James Comey to shut down the federal investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn in a February meeting in the Oval Office:

“This is an explosive allegation, and it appears like a textbook case of criminal obstruction of justice.

We need to hear testimony immediately from Director Comey—in public. When Director Comey held his press conference last summer announcing no charges against Secretary Clinton, Chairman Chaffetz had Director Comey in the witness chair before the Oversight Committee for an emergency hearing within 48 hours. We should do exactly the same here.

We also obviously need to get Director Comey’s memos immediately, as well as all associated records, including any audio tapes, and notes, if they exist.

In addition, in March—just a month after this meeting between the President and Director Comey—I sent a bipartisan letter to the White House with Chairman Jason Chaffetz requesting documents relating to General Flynn. But the White House has obstructed our congressional investigation, covered up for General Flynn, and refused to provide a single document.

These actions raise a host of questions. Is this what the White House has been hiding? Were there conversations or emails within the White House about the President asking Director Comey to drop the investigation? Why has our Committee refused to follow up at all to demand these documents from the White House? We need a vote this week on a subpoena to the White House to demand the documents that Chairman Chaffetz and I requested in March.”

On April 27, 2017, all Democratic Members on the Oversight Committee pressed Chairman Chaffetz to get the White House documents relating to General Flynn.

All Democrats on Oversight and Judiciary Committees Demand Immediate Investigation of President, Attorney General, and Top White House Aides

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2017

Contacts
Jennifer Werner/Aryele Bradford: 202-226-5181(Cummings)
Shadawn Reddick-Smith: 202-225-6906 (Conyers)


Washington, D.C. (May 16, 2017)—Today, all 34 Democratic Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Committee on the Judiciary sent a detailed letter to their respective Republican Chairmen outlining their demand for an immediate investigation into the actions of President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and top White House aides:

“We are writing to request that the Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee launch an immediate joint investigation into whether President Donald Trump and his top officials are engaged in an ongoing conspiracy to obstruct the criminal, counter-intelligence, and oversight investigations currently being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and Congress into members of his presidential campaign and their contacts with Russian officials.”

The letter explains:

“Given the gravity of the events that have occurred over the past several weeks, there is simply no reasonable question that the Oversight Committee and Judiciary Committee should already be conducting a robust investigation of these issues that includes public hearings, document requests, and interviews and depositions. It is unacceptable to continue ignoring these scandals.”

With respect to the Oversight Committee’s lack of action to date, the letter states:

“Although Chairman Chaffetz recently sent a letter to the Department of Justice Inspector General, we believe that response is anemic—especially for the Oversight Committee, which claims to be the premiere investigative body in the House of Representatives—and particularly in comparison to the multiple ‘emergency’ hearings he called and the unilateral subpoenas he issued as part of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

With respect to the Judiciary Committee’s lack of action to date, the letter states:

“On several occasions—through at least four letters to Chairman Goodlatte, and in debate on three separate resolutions of inquiry debated in the Judiciary Committee—we have called for the Majority to take action ‘to ensure the integrity and independence of both the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’.”

The Members conclude:

“We are concerned that the continued failure of House Republicans to take action in the face of this onslaught of allegations will cause significant damage to the faith that the American people have in the credibility and integrity of our Committees and the House of Representatives. We have a solemn obligation under the Constitution to act as a check on the Executive Branch and to hold President Trump accountable. It is time to do our job.”

The letter requests an immediate public hearing with Director Comey and copies of all of the FBI Director’s memos relating to the President, as well as all associated agency and White House records, including any audio tapes, and notes, if they exist.

The letter also requests that the Oversight Committee schedule an immediate vote on a motion to subpoena the White House to produce documents it has been withholding in response to the bipartisan request from Ranking Member Cummings and Chairman Chaffetz on March 22, 2017. All Democratic Members of the Oversight Committee sent a letter to Chairman Chaffetz on April 27, 2017, insisting that he press the White House to produce these documents, but the Chairman refused to even hold a meeting.

Link to read the full letter: https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/All%20Oversight%20and%20Judiciary%20Dems%20to%20Chairs%2005-16-17.pdf

List of Members Signing Letter

Elijah E. Cummings John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member Ranking Member
Committee on Oversight and Committee on the Judiciary
Government Reform

Carolyn Maloney
Eleanor Holmes Norton Jerrold Nadler
Wm. Lacy Clay Zoe Lofgren
Stephen F. Lynch Sheila Jackson Lee
Jim Cooper Steve Cohen
Gerald E. Connolly Henry Johnson
Robin L. Kelly Luis Gutierrez
Brenda L. Lawrence Karen Bass
Bonnie Watson Coleman Cedric Richmond
Stacey E. Plaskett Hakeem Jeffries
Val Butler Demings David Cicilline
Raja Krishnamoorthi Eric Swalwell
Jamie Raskin Ted Lieu
Peter Welch Pramila Jayapal
Matt Cartwright Bradley Schneider
Mark DeSaulnier Theodore Deutch
John Sarbanes

2017-05-16

WSRB Move Ends Tom Joyner’s 40-Year Windy City Run.

Story by Inside Radio

After more than four decades, Tom Joyner is ending his run on the Chicago airwaves—and not by choice. Crawford Broadcasting urban AC “106.3 Chicago’s R&B” WSRB has opted to not renew his syndicated morning show contract there after eight years. The NAB Marconi winner’s “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” is distributed by Reach Media.

As veteran Chicago radio columnist Robert Feder reported Tuesday, WSRB is seguing to local programming in AM drive. Starting June 5, Mike Love moves from afternoons to mornings, replacing Joyner from 6am-9am weekdays. The new “Mix Mornings with Mike Love” will feature “rush-hour mini mixes by some of Chicago’s most popular DJ’s delivering the hottest R&B hits and throwback hip-hop from the ‘80s, ‘90s, and today,” according to the station.

Joyner “catapulted to fame and fortune as the legendary ‘Fly Jock’ in the market in the 1980s,” Feder writes. He earned national recognition and seven million frequent flier miles, along with the moniker “The Hardest Working Man In Show Business” during the eight years he commuted between mornings at urban contemporary “K104” KKDA in Dallas and afternoons at urban contemporary “WGCI FM (107.5) in Chicago.

Perhaps it is no mystery why Joyner is being replaced. Feder notes that in the Nielsen Audio survey for April released Monday, WSRB ranked 28th in mornings among all listeners with a 1.5 share.

2017-05-15

FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn: Media Ownership Changes ‘On the Fast Track’

Story by Inside Radio

FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn says an effort to change media ownership regulations to allow further media consolidation is “on the fast track of becoming reality.” Speaking to the California Women’s Conference last week she warned that it comes even as fresh statistics show women and minority broadcasters have made up little ground in joining ownership ranks.

Clyburn pointed to the just-released report from the FCC based on 2015 ownership data showing women own just 8.6% of the 11,919 radio and television stations in the U.S. And she told the Long Beach, CA gathering that among the top 100 rated radio talk shows, only 13 are hosted by women. “This lack of diversity is reflected in who own the major media companies, those in front of the camera, as well as those behind-the-scenes,” Clyburn said. “Simply put, men dominate every single media platform, from television and film, to radio, newspapers and online sources.”

Clyburn put much of the blame on the 1996 Telecom Act, which allowed big broadcast groups to become even larger. “Across the board, deregulation and other actions since the Act was passed, have led to increased media consolidation and fewer opportunities,” she said. “The result is women and minority media ownership remains at shockingly low levels.” One move that should be embraced to offset any impact on women and minority ownership is the resurrection of the tax certificate program, according to Clyburn, who said it can help offset the “extraordinarily expensive” reality facing many women and minorities attempting to break into ownership. By one estimate, Clyburn said, it costs $10 million just to sign on a single big market radio station.

Legislation introduced last month by Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) to revive the tax certificate program, which would allow an existing broadcaster to defer the payment of federal income taxes if the station was sold to an underrepresented buyer. “Passage of this bill would be an important step forward to increasing media diversity and the opportunities available to small businesses, including those owned by women,” Clyburn said, adding she believes bipartisan support for the long-dormant program remains. The proposed Expanding Broadcast Ownership Act H.R. 1883 (https://democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/BUTTER_003_xml.pdf) also directs the FCC to create an incubator program to help minority and women broadcasters get off the ground with financial, programming and technical support from an existing operator who in exchange could receive a waiver to certain ownership restrictions. Details would be filled in later through an FCC rulemaking.

The tax certificate program was created in 1978 and it remained in place until 1995 when abuses led Congress to abolish the effort. During that 17-year existence it helped minority radio ownership rise from just 40 radio and TV stations in 1978 to 288 radio and 43 TV stations according to the FCC. That was accomplished through the issuing of 287 tax certificates to radio stations and 40 certificates to television stations. Even though the program has been gone for a generation it has never lost support among broadcasters and media activists who frequently called for its resuscitation. The last time legislation was introduced was in 2007, and while it drew no opposition among lawmakers, there was also limited support with lingering fraud concerns that had sidelined the program earlier.

Even if the tax certificate program or formal FCC incubator proposals fail to gain traction once again, Clyburn urged broadcasters to support women-owned businesses nevertheless. “While the lack of diversity in media is glaring, we rarely hear solutions or answers to the question of how we transform this dismal reality of the present into a future that offers abundant opportunities for women,” she said. “I believe there are concrete actions that the FCC can take to promote a more diverse media landscape.”

2017-05-12

Florida NAACP calls for Bethune-Cookman president to resign

Story by The Grio
Video by Fox 35

The NAACP Florida State Conference is now calling for the resignation of the president of Bethune-Cookman University following the decision to invite Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to speak at its commencement ceremony.

The NAACP strongly stated that they not only disagreed with the choice of commencement speaker but were also lawyering up in defense of students and administration who had spoken up against DeVos who were reportedly being intimidated or punished for their outrage.

–Graduates boo, turn in protest of DeVos during HBCU commencement–

“The NAACP Florida State Conference is calling on Bethune Cookman University President Dr. Edison Jackson and Board Chairman Dr. Joe Petrock to resign effective immediately. Since our initial public outcry last week, multiple allegations have surfaced including faculty intimidation demanding their silence or risk termination and threats to students by potentially withholding earned degrees and fines for freedom of expression. If these allegations are proven, this contrasts the public statements of university administration who opposes suppressing voices by welcoming U.S. Education Secretary DeVos but lends indirect support to these actions against faculty and students,” the chapter said in a statement.

The NAACP went on to say that it still objected to the decision to have DeVos speak in light of the administration’s recent actions.

“We still believe Secretary DeVos should not speak at commencement and that she has no record supporting an honorary degree by Bethune Cookman University. With the recent comments of President Trump suggesting federal funding for HBCU’s is unconstitutional; this validates our view of a horrible decision by the university inviting Secretary DeVos, who still has not pledged to drastically increase funding for all historically black colleges and universities. The university leadership has drastically fumbled and should resign” said Adora Obi Nweze, President of NAACP Florida State Conference and member of the National Board of Directors.

Radio Talent Plays Across Platforms at New Urban One


Story by Inside Radio

In an effort to keep up with its radio, TV and digital platforms, and reflect its position as an ever-evolving African-American-centric media company, the former Radio One is transforming into Urban One. While the radio division, which operates 57 stations, will retain the Radio One name, the charter will be to accentuate the cross-platform strengths of the company.

Urban One officially transitioned to its new name on May 5, the 18th anniversary of the company’s IPO, when it was a radio-centric company. In the years since, as the company has grown and expanded, executives have said it outgrew the Radio One name. Urban One was selected for its “inherent ability to encompass all things black,” said Yashima AziLove, VP of corporate communications.

Noting that Urban One chairman Alfred Liggins often characterizes the company as being in the “black people business,” AziLove says the company is now positioning itself to be a dominant player in the African-American media landscape, celebrating black culture and creating content that gives the community an outlet and a voice.

The company’s radio stations and Reach Media syndication unit are a linchpin for that strategy. As Urban One, company executives said that there will be more interplay between platforms, and Jay Stevens, Radio One’s senior VP of programming says both local station personalities and national hosts such as Tom Joyner or Erica Campbell will be featured on radio, TV and digital to help attract audiences and engage advertisers.

“People still love radio but their time spent listening is now being shared with a variety of sources, but we’ve got something that music streaming and other automated services don’t have: we are live, we are local and we have some of the biggest brands and talent on the radio. We’re local, urgent, topical, engaging, entertaining and live. I won’t mention those services, but they don’t have that.”

Stevens says it is incumbent on everyone that works in the radio division to create content that can be shared across the Urban One family. Such shared content across the portfolio, which also includes several recently acquired national digital brands like Bossip and Madam Noir, will help Urban One stand out in a competitive and crowded media industry, Stevens said.

“With radio, digital, audio and video, we can now create the most compelling content for our listeners and we’re doing that now,” he said.

Congressman Elijah Cummings Demands Documents from Vision Property Management promoting Lease-to-Own Housing Scheme



Cummings Demands Documents from Company
Promoting Lease-to-Own Housing Scheme

Vision Property Management Claims
Exemption from Landlord-Tenant Laws That
Protect Families Against Lead and Other Hazards

Washington, D.C. (May 12, 2017)—Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to the CEO of Vision Property Management demanding the company produce documents relating to its abusive business model of purchasing foreclosed properties at bargain-basement prices from the Government Sponsored Enterprises and then leasing them out under lease-to-own agreements that place all responsibility for upkeep on tenants. Cummings also sought documents pertaining to the potential physical harms Vision’s business model may be inflicting on families across the country.

“I have grave concerns about the physical and financial well being of tenants in leases with Vision and any consumers who may be considering leasing properties currently offered by Vision,” Cummings wrote. “It appears that Vision reaps significant financial rewards by obtaining foreclosed properties at bargain-basement prices, leasing them ‘as is’ under lease-to-own agreements, and requiring tenants to pay many times the purchase prices over the course of their leases while bearing all of the costs of repairing and maintaining the properties. It also appears that Vision boosts its profits by ignoring state and local laws requiring it to ensure the habitability of its properties and protect tenants from lead and other hazards.”

Cummings insisted the company provide information and documents first requested in his January letter as well as documents requested by Committee staff in March. Vision has produced limited information relating to its purchase of foreclosed properties across the country and has produced no documents indicating that it inspected properties for the presence of lead paint before leasing them out, as Maryland and Baltimore laws require.

Cummings also wrote a letter requesting that the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) take action to protect consumers by restricting investors from purchasing real estate owned (REO) properties from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while shirking their legal responsibilities as landlords and property owners to maintain the properties’ habitability and safety. He also asked FHFA to take steps to increase sales of REO properties to nonprofit and public entities, including by backing loans to those entities.

Link to the Letter to Vision Management:
https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2017-05-11.EEC%20to%20Vision.pdf

Link to read Letter to FHFA:
https://democrats-oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2017-05-11.EEC%20to%20FHFA.pdf

2017-05-11

Statement from the Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.), and top Judiciary Democrat John Conyers (D-Mi.) on White House Voter Fraud Investigation



For Immediate Release:

May 11, 2017
Contact: Shadawn Reddick-Smith, Shadawn.Reddick-Smith@mail.house.gov (Conyers)
Kamara Jones, Kamara.Jones@mail.house.gov (CBC)

STATEMENT FROM CBC CHAIRMAN & TOP JUDICIARY DEMOCRAT ON WHITE HOUSE VOTER FRAUD INVESTIGATION

WASHINGTON – Today, the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressman Cedric Richmond (D-La.), and the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), released the following statement on President Trump’s creation of the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity to investigate voter fraud. Vice President Mike Pence will be the chair of the commission and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will be the vice chair.

“President Trump says this commission is an effort to protect voting rights but it is really an effort to suppress and intimidate African-American and other minority voters. Instead of supporting an investigation into fake issues like voter fraud that pose no threat to the country, the Trump Administration should support an investigation into real issues that do – real issues like Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, campaign collusion and cover-up, and voter suppression and intimidation.

“This announcement and the timing of it is no accident; President Trump is, once again, trying to distract us from these real issues. But, as the CBC urged last week, Americans must ‘stay woke’ during this time of fake news and alternative facts. This commission is a waste of taxpayer dollars and government time and will only do what President Trump wants it to do: encourage and empower public officials like Attorney General Sessions and Kansas Secretary of State Kobach who have a history of allowing voter suppression and intimidation.”

Most cases of so-called voter fraud are the result of clerical and other errors made by lawful voters and election officials. In a 2014 investigation, led by Justin Levitt of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, researchers found 31 instances of voter fraud out of more than one billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014. That is the equivalent to one instance of voter fraud out of every 32 million votes cast.
On January 25, 2017, in a letter to President Trump, Conyers and Richmond urged that if an investigation was going to be completed in regard to President Trump’s voter fraud allegations, that it be completed by a non-partisan independent body and that it also focus on voter suppression in the wake of the 2013 Supreme Court Shelby v. Holder decision.

Full text of the letter is below.

Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to express our deep concerns with regards to your unsubstantiated claims that widespread voter fraud cost you the popular vote in the recent election. On Monday, at your first meeting with Congressional leaders you stated “3-5 million” unauthorized immigrants had robbed you of a popular vote majority. Further, you tweeted today that,

“I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!”

These statements come on top of unsubstantiated claims that you made both as a candidate that the election was “rigged” and after the election that you

“…won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

As President, you bear a responsibility to uphold the principles of our democracy. The recklessness with which you’ve chosen to spread this misinformation will erode faith in our elections and needlessly destabilize the most important democracy in the world.

The only documented sources you have cited in these repeated misstatements are a 2014 Old Dominion study concerning registration by non-citizens and a 2012 Pew Research study concerning out of date and inaccurate voter registrations. However, neither of these studies have been shown in any way to support your conclusions. The 2014 study has been thoroughly debunked due to concerns about small sample size, confusing questions, and errors in self-reporting. The 2012 Pew Study did not even concern voter fraud and the primary author confirmed that the report found no evidence that voter fraud resulted.”

Numerous members of your own party have disagreed with your statements, including Speaker Ryan who said that that “I have no knowledge of such things [widespread voter fraud],”and just yesterday stated, “I’ve seen no evidence to that effect. I’ve made that very, very clear.” And in a legal filing in Michigan on your behalf stated that “All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.”

The watch-dog group ProPublica, with more than 1,000 individuals watching on Election Day found no evidence of widespread vote fraud in the 2016 election. “We have data that show that [Trump’s assertions about voter fraud is] simply not true. If anything happened on the scale he’s implying, we would’ve seen it.” A recent Washington Post review of allegations found there have been just four documented cases of voter fraud in the 2016 election. It is also important to note that a five year investigation the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush found there was no evidence of organized voter fraud in U.S. elections.

At the same time, there is real and tangible evidence that efforts to combat mythical and unproven voter fraud have actually had the result of targeting and suppressing minority voting rights. For example, in NAACP v. McCrory, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found there is almost no evidence of voter fraud in recent elections, but that the North Carolina voter ID bill represented “one of the largest restrictions on the [voter] franchise in modern North Carolina History.” A recent academic study by professors at University of California San Diego and Bucknell also found that strict voter ID laws “have a differentially negative impact on the turnout of Hispanics, Blacks, Asian Americans and multi-racial Americans.”

If you insist on conducting an investigation of these issues, we would request that it be performed by an independent and non-partisan body, and that it be fully transparent. We would also request that the investigation not only consider your claims of voter fraud, but review the ongoing problem of voter suppression and examine the impact of the weakening of the Voting Rights Act following the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013.

Given that your allegations strike at the heart of the legitimacy of your administration, we would expect that you would agree to follow the independent investigation where it may lead, including vigorously enforcing existing voter protections and working with us to enact laws necessary to protect our citizens’ right to vote.

We look forward to your consideration of these matters.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member
House Committee on the Judiciary

Cedric Richmond
Chairman
Congressional Black Caucus

Congressman Elijah Cummings (Maryland) Issues Statement on the President’s Voter Fraud Executive Order



Washington, D.C. (May 11, 2017)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement on President Donald Trump’s executive order to “investigate” the voter fraud myth:

“Today, President Trump is resuscitating his voter fraud investigation in a desperate attempt to retroactively prove his completely baseless claim that up to five million unauthorized immigrants cast illegal votes in the 2016 election—a claim that even his Republican colleagues admit is patently false. This appears to be a weak and transparent effort to distract from the President’s firing of FBI Director Comey just as he was accelerating his investigation into the President’s campaign and its ties to Russia, as well as the storm of controversy that is now enveloping the White House as a result.”

“However, the President is taking taxpayer dollars away from critical law enforcement functions that Americans rely on every single day and is squandering them on this partisan effort to lay the groundwork to justify new restrictions on the right of American citizens to cast legitimate votes. The President should rename his panel ‘The Commission on Suppressing the Vote and Disenfranchising American Citizens.’ Our nation’s leaders should be expanding the ability of eligible voters to participate in our democracy—not degrading it.”

On January 23, 2017, President Trump used his first meeting with congressional leaders to “falsely claim that millions of unauthorized immigrants had robbed him of a popular vote majority, a return to his obsession with the election’s results.” He also asserted that “between three million and five million unauthorized immigrants voted for Mrs. Clinton.”

These claims followed a tweet by the President on November 27, 2017, claiming with no evidence: “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” In fact, Secretary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 million votes.

The Washington Post Fact Checker gave the President’s claim its worst rating—Four Pinocchios—and called his assertion “bogus.” Similarly, FactCheck.org concluded: “Trump still has offered no evidence to support his contention that ‘millions’ voted illegally.”

Even Republican leaders agree that the President’s claims are false. For example:

• Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) said: “I’ve seen no evidence to that effect. I’ve made that very, very clear,” when asked about the President’s claims.

• Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said: “Look, there’s no evidence of that and I think that those who allege that have to come up with some substantiation of the claim.”

• Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) said: “I haven’t seen evidence of that.”

• House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said: “On the voter fraud issue, that really happens at the county level. I don’t see any evidence.”

Similarly, a 2007 Brennan Center report found that voter fraud incident rates were only between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. In 2014, the Washington Post investigated voter fraud and found 31 credible instances from 2000 to 2014 out of more than 1 billion votes cast. The Department of Justice examined votes cast between 2002 and 2005, finding that just 0.00000013% of the votes cast resulted in voter fraud convictions or guilty pleas.

While there is bipartisan agreement that widespread voter fraud is a myth, statehouses nationwide have used this myth to pass more restrictive voting requirements.

Fourteen states had restrictive new voting laws in place for the first time in a presidential election last year. This included New Hampshire, where the Republican legislature overrode the Democratic Governor’s veto, and Virginia, where a Republican Lieutenant Governor broke a tie in the evenly-divided Senate. These include cuts to early voting, restrictions on registration, and ID and citizenship requirements that unduly burden young voters, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and the homeless.

In a decision last July about a series of new voter suppression laws in North Carolina, a 4th Circuit panel found that “the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision” and “impose cures for problems that did not exist.”

It was reported that in 2014, a federal court found that more than 600,000 registered voters in Texas at the time did not have the voter IDs that the state newly required to vote.

In another ruling in Wisconsin in 2014, a federal court found that more than 300,000 registered voters in the state did not have the strict form of ID required to vote.

Meanwhile, Republican leadership in Congress fail to update the voting rights formula and restore the full protection of the Voting Rights Act, even though Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle introduced legislation to do so.

For example, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, which did not see movement despite a discharge petition filed last summer with 181 signatures, and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015, which also saw no movement out of committee even after he wrote a scathing critique in the New York Times of his own party’s failure to address voting rights.

Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will be the Chair and Vice Chair of the Presidential Commission on Voter Integrity.

Last June, Cummings joined Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA) and Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-SC) to launch an investigation into the unilateral approval by one of Kobach’s former employees of his request to begin requiring proof of citizenship on federal voter registration forms in Kansas. A federal judge blocked the action in September after finding that it could disenfranchise legitimate voters.

2017-05-10

The 10 cities where Black Families are doing the best economically.



Forbes Magazine’s list of cities where Black Families are doing the best economically.

10. San Antonio, Texas (tie)
Median household income: $41,681
Home ownership rate: 40.8%
Share who are self-employed: 9.3%
Change in population, 2000-13: 43.3%

9. Richmond, Va. (tie)
Median household income: $38,899
Home ownership rate: 47.8%
Share who are self-employed: 12.7%
Change in population, 2000-13: 17.9%

8. Miami, Fla. (tie)
Median household income: $36,749
Home ownership rate: 44.9%
Share who are self-employed: 11.2%
Change in population, 2000-13: 32.4%

7. Orlando, Fla.
Median household income: $33,982
Home ownership rate: 43.8%
Share who are self-employed: 11%
Change in population, 2000-13: 58.9%

6. Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Va.
Median household income: $40,677
Home ownership rate: 43.8%
Share who are self-employed: 13.2%
Change in population, 2000-13: 34.6%

5. Charlotte, N.C. (tie)
Median household income: $36,522
Home ownership rate: 43.9%
Share who are self-employed: 13.6%
Change in population, 2000-13: 14.8%

4. Baltimore, Md. (tie)
Median household income: $47,898
Home ownership rate: 46.2%
Share who are self-employed: 15%
Change in population, 2000-13: 15.6%

3. Washington D.C.-Va.-Md.-WV.
Median household income: $64,896
Home ownership rate: 49.2%
Share who are self-employed: 15.1%
Change in population, 2000-13: 19.7%

2. Raleigh, N.C.
Median household income: $42,285
Home ownership rate: 46.7%
Share who are self-employed: 12.8%
Change in population, 2000-13: 55.9%

1. Atlanta, Ga.
Median household income: $41,803
Home ownership rate: 46.9%
Share who are self-employed: 17.1%
Change in population, 2000-13: 49.9%
Top reason to move here: "Peaches and festivals."