President Donald J. Trump puts GOP on its heels with 11th-hour stimulus demands, throws wrench into Georgia Senate race

Story by Fox News 

Written by Tyler Olsen 

By Tyler Olson | Fox News

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President Trump in a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday night demanded that lawmakers amend the coronavirus stimulus package they passed Monday to include $2,000 checks for individuals instead of $600 checks -- while also insisting that "wasteful and unnecessary" items be cut from the year-end spending package that was attached to the pandemic aid. 

The President, meanwhile, doubled down on his baseless claims that he won the presidential election in a "magnificent landslide" and attacked the two most powerful Republicans in the U.S. Senate because they've acknowledged that President-elect Biden won the election. 

Trump's broadsides against his own party, unproven election claims and 11th-hour stimulus demands after essentially being absent through the entire negotiating process continued his pattern of sowing chaos in the waning days of his presidency as he's failed to publicly accept that he will be leaving the White House in less than a month.

"I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple," Trump said in his Twitter video. "I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a package, and maybe that administration will be me."

Read More - Link: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-gop-coronavirus-stimulus-demands-georgia-senate-race 

Judge to Rule on Restoring Georgia’s Purged Voters By Khalil Abdullah

 

 

Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to restore the right to vote to nearly 200,000 Georgia residents.

 

 

Dec. 21, 2020  Judge to Rule on Restoring Georgia’s Purged Voters By Khalil Abdullah  Judge to Rule on Restoring Georgia’s Purged Voters By Khalil Abdullah Ethnic media Services  Arguments in federal court continued this week on whether Georgia’s secretary of state’s office, the defendant in a lawsuit, illegally purged an estimated 198,000 Georgia residents from the state’s voting rolls. U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones has promised a ruling in short order on whether those eligible voters could be restored to the rolls in time to participate in the January 5 run-off elections for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats.  “The urgency is there is an election and these people should be allowed to vote,” said CK Hoffler, board chair of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, CEO of the CK Hoffler Firm and president of the National Bar Association.  Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a plaintiff, as are the Black Voters Matter’s Fund, Transformative Justice Coalition, and the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project.  The deadline for registering to vote in the January election was December 7, but reinstatement on the rolls conveys the right to vote.  On September 1, the ACLU issued a report by journalist Greg Palast and The Palast Investigative Fund on the purge and brought that report to the attention of Secretary of State’s office. Once served notice, Georgia had 90 days to take action to investigate, remedy, or respond to the allegation before a lawsuit could be filed.  Raffensperger’s office “did nothing,” said Palast. On day 91, December 2, the plaintiffs filed the suit, contending that purges occurred in the runups to the 2018 and 2020 elections.  The lawsuit argues the purge was illegal under the National Voter Registration Act, because, for one, Raffensperger’s office used an unqualified vendor rather than one approved by the U.S. Postal Service which maintains the National Change of Address data set, NCOALink.  The Palast investigative team found that “When a USPS full-service licensee was used to check these same names, more than half of the 108,306 Georgians removed from the rolls by this flawed process, or fully 68,930 Georgia voters were found not to have filed NCOA notices and …. still have mailable addresses from where they initially registered.”  The lawsuit also challenges the constitutionality Georgia’s “use it or lose it law” which was in effect at the time of the purge. The suit states, “Under ‘use it or lose it’ law … the Secretary of State presumes people have moved if they have had (a) no contact with any election official for three years, (b) failed to return a confirmation postcard, and (c) then failed to vote in the next two federal elections, justifying their purge from the rolls. According to the experts in list hygiene, however, fully 79,193 of the 120,561 voters whose registrations were cancelled in 2019 continued to have a verified address to receive mail at their original address of registration.”  Thus, from the figures provided by the Secretary of State’s office, “Plaintiffs allege that 199,908 wrongfully lost their right to vote based on an incorrect assumption that they had changed their residence.”  Though some purged voters have moved outside the state and some have died, the remaining majority are likely to be predominantly Latino and African American. The latter tend to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Exit polls showed Latinos in Georgia favoring Biden over Trump, but by narrower margins than African Americans and by even smaller percentages for Democratic candidates over Republicans in down-ballot races.  Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats will determine which party controls the Senate in President-elect Biden’s first term. Republicans hold a 52 to 48 margin. Should both of their candidates lose, the balance would shift to 50-50, with Democratic Vice President-elect Kamala Harris wielding the tie-breaking vote. But, as the vice president only votes in the Senate when there is a tie, Republicans will still have a 51-49 edge should only one of their candidates win.  “No one expected a run-off election,” Palast said. He conjectured that the Secretary of State’s office decided, from September 1, to run out the clock on the 90-day period to respond, thinking that a definitive election victory in November would move the lawsuit to the backburner of consideration. Palast also noted that Georgia had legally purged 125,000 voters. “Many of these moved in Atlanta, but failed to re-register when they moved across a county line.”  Hollywood celebrities have been engaged to encourage Georgia residents to check their voter registration status.  The image of actress Rosario Dawson with that message now looms over downtown Atlanta on a 20 by 60-foot electronic billboard. She is also featured in a public service message while Zoe Saldana has ones circulating in Spanish.  Leonard DiCaprio has tweeted about the purge. “Live in #Georgia? Go to http://SaveMyVote2020.org to see if you have been removed from the electoral roll.” Star-power aside, Palast has a message of personal responsibility for Georgia residents and those in other states. “We have great lawyers, but you need to take care of your own vote.”

 

The Changing Face Of Podcasters Is Attracting More Diverse Audiences.

 Story by Inside Radio

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The podcast industry’s efforts to reach a wider spectrum of listeners are paying off. An analysis of the podcast audience by Nielsen finds the medium’s listeners are now more diverse than the population overall, despite a growing reach that is bringing in a greater number of listeners of all age groups.

Nielsen reports 41% of monthly podcast listeners aged 18 and older are non-white. That includes 19% who identify as Hispanic and 13% that are Black. That compares to the overall U.S. population that is about one third non-white.

“Podcasting is now more diverse than the U.S. population,” said Tony Hereau, VP of Cross Platform Insights at Nielsen. “It happens with diversity of programming. There is a zero barrier of entry for anybody to get into podcasting and that has served the industry well because it has allowed for lots of different voices to come into podcasting and add content that they don’t get anywhere else.”

Several podcast publishers have made special efforts to appeal to non-White audiences. This month iHeartMedia said the launch of a podcast network targeting the Latinx community will be a top priority in 2021 after the launch of The Black Effect Podcast Network this year. It earlier set a goal of investing half of its new shows in 2020 and beyond from diverse creators, including women, African-Americans and Hispanics.

The Nielsen data shows no ethnic group has grown at a faster pace than Hispanics, with the number of podcast listeners among that demo growing six-times since 2010. Podcasting’s reach among Hispanics has increased from 1.1 million to 6.8 million among those who said they had listened to a podcast in the past 30 days.

The Black and Asian American podcast audiences have both grown five-times during the same period. Among Blacks, the audience size has jumped to nearly 4.2 million who said they had recently listened to a podcast. And more than two million Asian Americans said the same. On a webinar this week, Hereau said the “other” category” also saw sizable gains. That breakout mainly includes Native Americans and Indian Americans, he explained.

Another positive for podcasters is that Whites – who make up 59% of monthly podcast listeners – are still a growing audience for the medium. Nielsen says there has been a four-times increase in the size of the White monthly podcast audience since 2010. “We’re talking about huge growth that we’re seeing in the podcasting space,” said Hereau.

The data helps reveal why a bigger portfolio of shows can work in the industry’s favor to reach more diverse audiences. Overall, Hereau said the Comedy genre typically attracts the most ears. But Nielsen’s data shows different ethnic groups are also more likely to gravitate to different podcast genres. History podcasts have the biggest appeal among Whites, while Music podcasts over index among African Americans. Technology podcasts appeal most to Asians and Hispanics are most interested in podcasts focused on Kids & Family.

“You see some podcast categories that are common, but you also see a lot of diversity with a lot of different content that appeals to people in different groups,” Hereau said.

The data is from the Nielsen Podcast Buying Power Service. Launched in July 2019, it relies on information collected from 37,000 Scarborough survey respondents who said they listen to podcasts. Nielsen then uses a recontact survey of those listeners to match up with other consumer data that it collects from those families to better understand the podcast listener.

One of the aims of the service is to help marketers determine how podcasting fits into their media plan. The data reveals that Black and Hispanic podcast listeners were more likely to report visiting a retail location that they heard advertised in a podcast than were Whites. And both Black and Hispanic podcast listeners were more prone to have called a telephone number they heard mentioned in a podcast ad.

Hereau said the findings should be especially helpful for podcasters as they look beyond just direct response advertisers to more traditional brand advertisers like retailers that have a physical location.

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HOUSE LEADERSHIP INTRODUCES RESOLUTION TO NAME U.S. CAPITOL ROOM IN HONOR OF JOSEPH RAINEY

 

	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 9, 2020 CONTACT: Hope Derrick, Hope.Derrick@mail.house.gov, 202-226-3210                       Erica Loewe, Erica.Loewe@mail.house.gov HOUSE LEADERSHIP INTRODUCES RESOLUTION TO NAME U.S. CAPITOL ROOM IN HONOR OF JOSEPH RAINEY WASHINGTON, D.C. –Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn introduced a House Resolution today recognizing the 150th anniversary of Joseph Rainey’s swearing in as the first African American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The resolution honors Congressman Rainey’s place in history and his remarkable service during Reconstruction by naming the former House Committee on Indian Affairs room in the Capitol in his honor. Congressman Rainey would have met in this room when he served on the Committee in 1873-1875. The future Joseph H. Rainey Room, H-150, is on the first floor of the Capitol near the recently-opened exhibit commemorating this important anniversary.  “As Speaker, I am honored to join Whip Jim Clyburn to introduce this resolution, which will ensure that Congressman Joseph Rainey takes his rightful place in the United States Capitol and in our nation’s history books,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “One hundred and fifty years after his swearing-in, Congressman Rainey remains one of the greatest heroes in House history.  This room will help ensure that the full story of American history is told in the halls of the Capitol, and in doing so, will inspire Americans to build the better, more just future for which Joseph Rainey fought.” “I thank the House leadership for honoring Joseph Rainey in this manner. This room will serve a permanent reminder of his historic life and career,” said Whip James E. Clyburn.  “As the first African American to represent South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1897, I know the difficultly of his journey to reach these hallowed halls.  I am in awe of Joseph Rainey’s service and sacrifice, and I am proud to see his legacy celebrated today.” The resolution is expected to be taken up by the House tomorrow. December 12th marks the 150th anniversary of Joseph Rainey officially taking office.  More information about Joseph Rainey can be found here. ### ** This is an unattended mailbox. Please send all media requests to Hope Derrick or Erica Loewe at the email addresses above. **

Radio One Founder Cathy Hughes Honored In Congress For ‘Amplifying The Voices Of Black People.’

 

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Story by Inside Radio

As the company she founded marks its 40th anniversary, Urban One Chairperson Cathy Hughes was honored on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday. In a speech by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Hughes was recognized for dedicating her career “to amplifying the voices of Black people and their perspectives through the airwaves.”

Norton’s speech walked House members through Hughes’ career and how she blazed a trail for African American women in the radio industry. “Throughout her career, her piercing optimism and resilience cut through obstacles of discrimination and discouragement, clearing a path to where she now stands as one of our country’s wealthiest self-made African-American women,” Norton said.

That all began in her bathroom as a child growing up in Omaha, where the aspirsing broadcaster hosted make believe radio shows. “Growing up among a family of entrepreneurs, as Hughes did, she was no stranger to hard work, business jargon and long hours,” Norton recounted. “Her father was the first African American to earn an accounting degree from Creighton University. Her mother played trombone.”

Hughes moved to DC in 1971 to work at Howard University’s School of Communications and went on to become General Sales Manager for the University’s WHUR-FM. “During her career she endured racism and sexism, but these were no match for her electric optimism,” Norton said.

In 1999, at the suggestion of her son, Alfred Liggins, now CEO of Urban One, Hughes became the first African-American woman to chair a publicly held corporation, following the sale of more than seven million shares of common stock to the public.

Norton’s speech touched on the litany of awards bestowed on Hughes, including the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2019, the Woman of the Year Award by 100 Black Men of America in 2018, and induction into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2016 the Cathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard University was named for her.

“I relish this opportunity to recognize and honor the work of Cathy Hughes,” Norton said in closing. “Her resilience, optimism and determination are true guiding lights through these difficult times. She has mentored countless women and her entrepreneurial energy has touched many, both in D.C. and across the nation.”

Read the entire speech HERE. Link: http://www.nab.org/documents/newsRoom/pdfs/120820_Cathy_Hughes_Floor_Statement.pdf