RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — “Twelve Years a Slave” actress Lupita Nyong’o is lending her star power to the opposition to a minor league baseball stadium in what was once the center of Richmond’s thriving slave-trading center.
Nyong’o has been posting anti-stadium opinions on social media to her millions of followers, and has personally appealed to Mayor Dwight C. Jones to withdraw support of the stadium that is the centerpiece of an economic development project.
“Evidence of America’s slave history simply must be preserved, as the legacy of slavery affects all American people,” she wrote in a letter dated Oct. 19 to Jones.
In response, Jones invited Nyong’o to visit the former capital of the Confederacy to see Shockoe Bottom and plans to preserve its slave-trading past.
“Our plans show where we want to invest in that history and lift that history up for future generations to learn from,” Jones wrote.
The stadium-centered project is proposed for Shockoe Bottom, the city’s oldest neighborhood and once the bustling center of the slave-trade. By some estimates, more 300,000 men, women and children were jailed, bought and sold in the Bottom and shipped throughout the Southern states in the decades leading to the Civil War.
The stadium proposal has unleashed pent-up frustration among those who believe the city has literally buried that shameful chapter of its history. The area is now home to nightclubs, restaurants, former tobacco warehouses transformed into townhouses and parking lots.
Nyong’o has a “12 Years a Slave” connection to the neighborhood. The celebrated film depicts the life of Solomon Northrup, who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. He is initially held in a Shockoe Bottom jail where slaves were chained before they were sold to growers in the Deep South.
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ARLINGTON, Texas —DeMarco Murray may have eclipsed former Cleveland Browns icon Jim Brown as the first back in league history to start a season by running for at least 100 yards in seven straight games.
But the fourth-year Dallas Cowboys workhorse knows he has a long way to go to reach the Hall of Famer’s elite level after his 128-yard, one-touchdown performance keyed a 31-21 defeat of the New York Giants Sunday.
“He’s probably one of the greatest running backs to ever play, and I have a lot of respect for what he’s done,” Murray said. “In no way am I trying to say I’m on his level by any means. He’s a great guy, a great activist in the community, a great player and a great person. And I’m not even in that category.
“I’m blessed to be mentioned.”
Murray, who leads the league in rushing with 913 yards and seven touchdowns, made history with his 1-yard run on the first carry of the fourth quarter, shaking off a gimpy right ankle that buckled on him late in the second quarter. He gave credit to his offensive linemen who kept prying open lanes against a Giants defense that stacked defenders in the box.
“That kid has had ‘professional’ written all over him since the day he walked in. He stepped back in there after wrenching his ankle and competed.”
And he’s the engine who makes these 6-1 Cowboys go.
In settling a federal civil rights suit, California prisons agreed Wednesday to no longer base lockdowns on inmates’ race or ethnicity.
The suit, filed in 2008 on behalf of male prisoners, alleged that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violates inmates’ constitutional rights by imposing excessively long modified programs and lockdowns.
Corrections officials have said in the past that segregation units are needed in maximum-security lockups to control prison gangs responsible for violence and crime.
Corrections officials have said in the past that segregation units are needed in maximum-security lockups to control prison gangs responsible for violence and crime.
Under the settlement, “lockdowns or modified programs may be (1) imposed on all inmates, and lifted from all inmates in the affected area, or (2) imposed and lifted from inmates in the affected area based on individualized threat assessments.”
Furthermore, if a modified program or lockdown lasts more than 14 days, the warden is required under the settlement to start giving outdoor activity to the affected inmates.
“We see this as a tremendous result,” said Rebekah Evenson, one of the attorneys representing inmates.
article by Lauren Raab and Paige St. John via latimes.com
BOSTON — Nine years old and orphaned by ethnic genocide, he was living in a burned-out car in a Rwandan garbage dump where he scavenged for food and clothes. Daytimes, he was a street beggar. He had not bathed in more than a year.When an American charity worker, Clare Effiong, visited the dump one Sunday, other children scattered. Filthy and hungry, Justus Uwayesu stayed put, and she asked him why.
“I want to go to school,” he replied.
Well, he got his wish.
This autumn, Mr. Uwayesu enrolled as a freshman at Harvard University on a full-scholarship, studying math, economics and human rights, and aiming for an advanced science degree. Now about 22 — his birthday is unknown — he could be, in jeans, a sweater and sneakers, just another of the 1,667 first-year students here.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Russian Tennis Federation President Shamil Tarpischev has been fined $25,000 by the WTA Tour and suspended from tour involvement for a year for questioning Serena and Venus Williams’ gender in comments on Russian television last week.
Tarpischev appeared on the Russian late-night show “Evening Urgant” alongside former WTA player Elena Dementieva last week. When Dementieva was asked what it was like to play against the Williams sisters, Tarpischev jumped in and referred to them as the “Williams brothers,” according to multiple reports.
After a back-and-forth with the show host and Dementieva, who did not laugh at the comment, Tarpischev reportedly continued: “It’s frightening when you look at them. But really you just need to play against the ball.”
The derogatory remarks by the head of the Russian Tennis Federation come out of nowhere and attacks not just two of the sport’s biggest stars, but the very foundation of the women’s game.
The WTA Tour said Friday that the $25,000 fine is the maximum allowed under tour rules and that it is seeking Tarpischev’s removal as chairman of the Kremlin Cup for one year. The tour also said Tarpischev owes the Williams sisters a personal apology.
Despite a low approval rating, Rolling Stone magazine has put President Barack Obama on its cover as one of the ““one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history.”
The declaration, made by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, is found in a story written by Krugman, who defends the commander-in-chief to prove why he’s been successful during his final two years in office.
“Obama faces trash talk left, right and center – literally – and doesn’t deserve it. Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history,” Krugman wrote. “His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward – and it’s working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it’s much more effective than you’d think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy.
As successful as he claims Obama has been, Krugman notes the criticism the President has received from various critics.
“First, however, let’s take a moment to talk about the current wave of Obama-bashing. All Obama-bashing can be divided into three types. One, a constant of his time in office, is the onslaught from the right, which has never stopped portraying him as an Islamic atheist Marxist Kenyan. Nothing has changed on that front, and nothing will,” he said Krugman. “There’s a different story on the left, where you now find a significant number of critics decrying Obama as, to quote Cornel West, someone who ”posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit.” They’re outraged that Wall Street hasn’t been punished, that income inequality remains so high, that ”neoliberal” economic policies are still in place. All of this seems to rest on the belief that if only Obama had put his eloquence behind a radical economic agenda, he could somehow have gotten that agenda past all the political barriers that have con- strained even his much more modest efforts. It’s hard to take such claims seriously.
“Finally, there’s the constant belittling of Obama from mainstream pundits and talking heads,” he continued. “Turn on cable news (although I wouldn’t advise it) and you’ll hear endless talk about a rudderless, stalled administration, maybe even about a failed presidency. Such talk is often buttressed by polls showing that Obama does, indeed, have an approval rating that is very low by historical standards.
“But this bashing is misguided even in its own terms – and in any case, it’s focused on the wrong thing.”
Donna Brazile, a key Democratic political strategist, author, and journalist has announced that she has donated her papers to the Special Collections Unit of the Louisiana State University Libraries. Brazile is a 1981 graduate of the university.
The collection includes 32 boxes of materials. Included in the archives are photographs, correspondence, drafts of speeches, memoranda, campaign management and research files, and memorabilia.
Brazile currently serves as vice chair for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. Previously, she was interim chair of the DNC and chaired its Voting Rights Institute. In 2000, Brazile was the campaign manager for the presidential bid of Al Gore. She has taught in the women’s studies program at Georgetown University, the University of Maryland-College Park, and the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.
Brazile is a nationally syndicated columnist and a political commentator for ABC News and CNN. She is the author of Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics (Simon and Schuster, 2004).
article via jbhe.com
A Brooklyn man who has spent the past 29 years in prison for murder is expected to walk free on Wednesday.
David McCallum, together with co-defendant Willie Stuckey, were found guilty of kidnapping and shooting Nathan Blenner, 20, in a Bushwick park in October 1985. The two 16-year-olds were sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars the next year.
Stuckey died in prison in 2001, but McCallum has had his innocence championed by late boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who served 19 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1966.
David McCallum, who was just 16 when he was found guilty of kidnapping and shooting a man in 1985, is expected to have his conviction overturned by a New York judge today. Just two months before Carter died in April he wrote an op-ed for the New York Daily News in which he called for Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson to review McCallum’s case.
“My single regret in life is that David McCallum… is still in prison,” Carter wrote. “Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release.”
J. C. Penney on Monday named a Home Depot executive, Marvin Ellison, as president and as its next chief executive, tapping a seasoned retail hand as it struggles to assure investors that a nascent turnaround after two years of heavy losses will be lasting.
Mr. Ellison, currently executive vice president for stores at Home Depot, will join Penney on Nov. 1 and will also be a board member, the company said. He will succeed Myron E. Ullman III as chief executive on Aug. 1, 2015, when Mr. Ullman will become executive chairman for one year — a carefully coordinated handover that appeared to stress stability and continuity after a rocky succession at the retailer last year.
Penney’s losses have slowed under Mr. Ullman. But Mr. Ellison, 49, is now charged with expanding the retailer’s business — a tough task in a market under siege by “fast fashion” juggernauts like H&M and Forever 21 and online retailers, as well as reinvigorated rivals like Macy’s and T.J. Maxx.
Mr. Ellison’s background suggests he will start with the fundamentals. An operations expert who oversaw Home Depot’s 2,200 stores in the United States, Mr. Ellison led a largely successful bid to cut costs and raise store productivity at Home Depot, analysts noted. Before his 12-year tenure there, Mr. Ellison served for 15 years in various positions at Target.
“Over the course of his career, he has proven his ability to produce results by improving operations, building customer loyalty, and motivating his teams,” Mr. Ullman said of Mr. Ellison in a news release. For his part, Mr. Ellison said that Penney was “moving in the right direction” and that as chief executive he would focus “on positioning the company to compete in a rapidly changing retail environment.”
Penney has been trying to chart a growth path by undoing many of the changes introduced by its former chief, Ron Johnson, who was hired from Apple to try to inject pizazz into the 112-year-old Penney. When his turnaround bid — built on a strategy that stressed designer boutiques and fewer discounts — backfired, and saddled Penney with heavy losses, the company abruptly fired Mr. Johnson and brought back Mr. Ullman, who had led the chain from 2004 to 2011.