TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Newark Mayor Cory Booker formally announced today he’s in the race to finish the U.S. Senate term of the late Frank Lautenberg. The 44-year-old Democrat made his candidacy official at a news conference Saturday in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city. He was joined by former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, a former pro basketball player who for 18 years held the seat Booker is seeking.
Bradley, who endorsed Booker, called him “the right person for the right office at the right time.” Booker began raising money for a Senate run even before Lautenberg, who died Monday, announced retirement plans in February. He had raised $1.9 million by the end of the last reporting period in March.
Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt are also planning to enter the Democratic primary. Booker is considered the early front-runner. Pallone, 61, had $3.7 million in his campaign coffers at the end of March and has deep union support. Holt, 64, a former research physicist, had $800,000 on hand.
Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, announced this week that there would be party primaries Aug. 13 and a special general election Oct. 16 The only Republican running so far is Steve Lonegan, a former Bogota mayor who runs the New Jersey office of Americans for Prosperity.
Booker, 44, has 1.4 million followers on Twitter — or five for every resident of the city where he’s the mayor. He tweets frequently, answering questions about city services, posting about his workouts and, perhaps most often, trying to provide inspiration.
Posts published in “Politics”
Former Ward 2 Councilman and civil rights activist Chokwe Lumumba, 65, is the new mayor of Jackson, Miss., winning the general election on Tuesday with 87 percent of the vote, reports Fight Back! News.
He will succeed Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., who finished third in this year’s Democratic primary. Lumumba ran as a mainstream candidate who would represent all city voters. He defeated businessman Jonathan Lee in the Democratic primary runoff last month.
Lumumba spent part of the ’70s and ’80s as vice-president of the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for “an independent predominantly black government” in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery. He wrote on Facebook Tuesday night, “Thank you, Jackson. None of this would be possible without faith and your support.” He went on to say, “This is the people’s victory. Together we will make Jackson rise!”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s top national security adviser Tom Donilon is resigning and will be replaced by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. who has been a lightning rod for Republican criticism over faulty explanations for the attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
Donilon has been a key foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama. But the 58-year-old had been expected to depart sometime this year, with Rice seen as the likely candidate to replace him. Her selection is sure to anger congressional Republicans, who have accused the administration of inconsistency and a cover-up in the Benghazi attacks.
Rice, a close Obama confidante, came under withering criticism from Republicans as part of the investigations into the deadly attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi. Relying on talking points from the intelligence community, Rice said in television interviews that the attacks were likely spontaneous, which was later proven incorrect.
Obama considered nominating Rice as his second-term secretary of state, but she withdrew amid the GOP criticism, saying she didn’t want her confirmation fight to be a distraction for the White House. The president instead nominated John Kerry, who easily won confirmation from his former Senate colleagues.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday called for a more robust national discussion on mental illness, saying the time had come to bring the issue “out of the shadows.”
Speaking at the opening session of a White House conference on mental health, the president said his goal was to let people affected by these issues know they should not suffer in silence.
“Struggling with a mental illness or caring for someone who does can be isolating,” Obama said. “It begins to feel as if, not only are you alone, but that you shouldn’t burden others with the challenge.”
The conference is part of Obama’s response to last year’s shooting massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. While the president emphasized that most people with mental health problems are not violent, he said untreated mental illness can lead to larger tragedies.
There’s been little publicly revealed about the mental health of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, although it’s been documented that other gunmen involved in mass shootings suffered from mental illness. Federal law bans certain mentally ill people from purchasing firearms, but the background check system is woefully incomplete and Obama is trying to get more mental health records included.
“We can do something about stories like this,” he said. “In many cases, treatment is available and effective.” Top administration officials, along with actors Bradley Cooper and Glenn Close, were among those participating in the White House conference.
The agenda includes discussion of insurance coverage for mental health care and substance abuse, recognizing the signs of mental illness in young people and improved access to services for veterans. The overall goal is reducing the stigma of mental health problems and encouraging those who are struggling to get help.
Washington D.C.— Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin) released a statement Monday in celebration and recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride month, which occurs annually in June.
Despite the fact the homosexuality is often a taboo topic in the black community, Moore has chosen to embrace members of the LGBT community and their accomplishments during this month.
“LGBT Pride Month is a time to celebrate the progress we have made towards achieving equality for all Americans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Moore in her statement.
Moore has shown her support by participating in the NOH8 marriage and gender equality campaign, a charitable organization that advocates for the LGBT community and their rights, in addition to efforts to include LGBT members in her Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
Also, in her statement Moore encouraged others to recognize the work that needs to be done to improve the opportunities for members of the LGBT community as well as appreciate the diversity that they offer our nation.
Moore takes pride in her LGBT friends and allies in politics stating, “I am also proud to celebrate my Wisconsin friends and LGBT Members of Congress – Senator Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay United States Senator and Representative Mark Pocan, whose husband became the first LGBT partner to receive a Congressional spousal ID.”
article by Adrienne Green via thegrio.com
HALLE, Germany — When Karamba Diaby arrived in Germany as a student from Senegal he knew only two things in German: Bundesliga and BMW — the professional soccer league and the automobile manufacturer. The only hitch was that it was October 1985 and Mr. Diaby had landed in East Germany, where comrades frowned on both West German capitalist institutions. “They weren’t too fond of hearing that in the East,” said Mr. Diaby, 51. “They told me, ‘We don’t say BMW here, we say ‘Trabi,’ ” the nickname for the rickety yet ubiquitous East German car, the Trabant.
The bland, greasy food in East Germany was a far cry from the spicy cuisine of his native Senegal, where his sister used to cook his favorite dish, thiebou dien, a paellalike preparation made with fried okra, yams and fish. But he stuck it out to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, making a home for himself here in the state of Saxony-Anhalt and becoming a German citizen in 2001.
Now Mr. Diaby has the opportunity to make history himself. He placed third in the Social Democrats’ state primary in February to earn a coveted spot on the party’s parliamentary list. If Mr. Diaby and the Social Democrats can defend the three seats they won here four years ago, he would become the first black member of the Bundestag in German history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama said Wednesday that stories of toil and sweat by slaves once held at a historic home within sight of the White House are an important part of U.S. history, including her own personal story, and are “as vital to our national memory as any other.”
The first lady commented as American Express announced its donation of $1 million to the White House Historical Association to preserve Decatur House and pay for education programs for children. The nearly 200-year-old house is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and operated by the association.
Most of the money will be spent to preserve the building’s former slave quarters, where about 20 men and women “spent their days serving those who came and went from this house” and their nights “jammed together on the second floor of the slave quarters, all the while holding onto a quiet hope, a quiet prayer that they, too, and perhaps their children, would someday be free,” Mrs. Obama said.
The red-brick, three-story townhouse built in 1818 has been home to many, including several secretaries of state. Mrs. Obama, briefly invoking her ancestry as a descendant of a South Carolina slave, said even more history came from the back of Decatur House, where the slave quarters were located, “the kind of stories that too often get lost, the kinds of stories that are a part of so many of our families’ histories, including my own.”
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Mos Def has never been afraid of a good scrap. The rapper is involved in a new fight, and it’s against New York City and their controversial stop-and-frisk policy. Teaming up with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Mos Def released an anti-stop-and-frisk PSA video.
In case you don’t know: stop-and-frisk is deemed controversial because it allows police to search any individual without reason, other than “probable cause.” Critics say that it unfairly stops Black and Latina people, and the stats back this claim up: according to a study released in February, 97 percent of people stopped in New York City were either Black or Latino.
In Mos Def’s video, we see all the disturbing stats, plus some footage of an anonymous police officer talking about some of the NYPD’s dirty polices. In the background, you hear a new Mos Def track called “Don’t Tread on Me.”
Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/mos-def-dont-thread-on-me-stop-and-frisk-psa-video#ixzz2UBLYH7ay
NBC Chicago – Desiree Rogers is adding another line to her resume. Mayor Rahm Emanuel tapped the former White House social secretary to chair the board of Choose Chicago.
Rogers is currently the CEO of Ebony and Jet. Choose Chicago is a marketing organization that works to lure businesses, tourists and conventions to the city. Rogers takes over for Bruce Rauner, who is expected to run for Illinois governor on the Republican ticket.
Rogers and Emanuel worked together in the Obama White House during his time as chief of staff. Click here to read more.
article by Marcus Riley via thegrio.com
President Barack Obama, in a soaring commencement address on work, sacrifice and opportunity, told graduates of Morehouse College Sunday to seize the power of their example as black men graduating from college and use it to improve people’s lives.
Noting the Atlanta school’s mission to cultivate, not just educate, good men, Obama said graduates should not be so eager to join the chase for wealth and material things, but instead should remember where they came from and not “take your degree and get a fancy job and nice house and nice car and never look back.”
“So yes, go get that law degree. But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless,” Obama declared. “Sure, go get your MBA, or start that business, we need black businesses out there. But ask yourself what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood.”
“The most successful CEOs I know didn’t start out intent on making money – rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed,” he said. For those headed to medical school, Obama said “make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too.” He asked those headed to law school to think about defending the poor.