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Posts published in “Politics”

Essence Magazine Commemorates Michelle Obama’s Life in New Book

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2012

'A Tribute to Michelle Obama'

‘A Salute to Michelle Obama.’ (Image: Essence Magazine)
The editors at Essence magazine have been hard at work this fall on a new tome celebrating first lady Michelle Obama’s life and achievements. A Salute to Michelle Obama, available now in paperback, features an array of images of the first lady punctuated with essays penned by legendary black women. Yet, what makes it special are quotes from African-American female fans of Mrs. Obama interwoven through this compendium of her accomplishments.

“We reached out to women and asked, ‘What do you believe has been the impact of Michelle Obama?’” Patrik Henry Bass, Senior Editor at Essence, told theGrio. He was inundated with streams of enthusiastic praise in response from the Essence audience.  “I was surprised, in a delightful way,” he said of women’s reactions.

Congressman Tim Scott to Become First Black Senator from the South Since Reconstruction

By goodblacknews on December 21, 2012

TimScottOrangeTieGovernor Nikki Haley of South Carolina announced she will tap Congressman Tim Scott for South Carolina’s vacant Senate seat. Rep. Scott’s appointment will make him the first black senator from the South since the 19th Century.

The Senate seat became vacant after Sen. Jim DeMint announced he was stepping down to take on a leadership role at the Heritage Foundation in January, causing many to wonder who Gov. Haley would pick to fill the vacancy.

After a lot of debate, Gov. Haley ended the speculation today when she announced that she was appointing Rep. Scott.

“It is with great pleasure that I am announcing our next U.S. senator to be Congressman Tim Scott,” Gov. Haley said. “I am strongly convinced that the entire state understands that this is the right U.S. senator for our state and our country.”

Rep. Scott, who was raised in a single-parent household, credited his mother’s guidance for positively affecting his life.

Meet Twenty-Two People Exonerated in 2012

By goodblacknews on December 21, 2012

Exonerated: James Harden, Jonathan Barr, Michael Saunders, Robert Taylor, Vincent Thames, Harold Richardson, Terrill Swift (CBS)

For the fourth year in a row, the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions as well as making substantive reforms to the criminal-justice system, has released an annual report of people who were exonerated this year after spending time behind bars for crimes they did not commit.

This year’s roundup includes 22 people — 13 of whom are black — who, combined, served more than 279 years because of problems like eyewitness misidentification, faulty forensics and false confessions before they were freed. The Innocence Project says that nearly half of its cases involved innocence proved by new developments in DNA technology.

Obama Named Time Magazine Person of The Year

By goodblacknews on December 19, 2012

timeobamaPresident Barack Obama has been named Time’s Person of the Year.

Managing editor Richard Stengel unveiled the magazine’s choice on Wednesday’s “Today.” He said it was remarkable that the president won two terms with over 50 percent of the popular vote as a Democrat. He also noted that Obama took office in an economic crisis, and credited him with creating a new political “alignment like Ronald Reagan did forty years ago.”

This is the second time that Time has chosen Obama. The magazine said it named him Person of the Year in 2008 for winning against the odds and becoming the first black president of the United States.

“For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year,” Stengel explained in his note this year.

Time’s Michael Scherer wrote in a profile of the president:

Beyond the Oval Office, overwhelming challenges remain: deadlocked fiscal-cliff talks; a Federal Reserve that predicts years of high unemployment; and more unrest in places like Athens, Cairo and Damascus. But the President seems unbound and gives inklings of an ambition he has kept in check ever since he arrived at the White House to find a nation in crisis.

article via huffingtonpost.com

Trumpet Awards 2013 Honorees Announced

By goodblacknews on December 15, 2012

*The Trumpet Awards Foundation announced the 2013 Trumpet Awards honorees at a press conference in Atlanta.

The Trumpet Awards Ceremony is one of the most respected televised award shows saluting African American achievement in the world.  The following Trumpet Award honorees will attend and receive their award at the ceremony on Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 4pm.

Chaka Khan – Legend Award
Debra Martin Chase – Entertainment Award
Michael McMillan – Community Service Award
Alonzo & Tracy Mourning – Humanitarian Award
Mayor Kasim Reed – Public Service Award
Charlie Wilson – Lifetime Achievement Award
Edward Welburn – Corporate Award

Activists Peacefully Advocate for Change; Plead With Obama For Gun Control Action

By goodblacknews on December 15, 2012
White House Vigil Gun Control

Gun control advocates and past victims of gun violence gathered outside the White House on Friday evening urging President Barack Obama to address gun laws. (Photo credit: Jennifer Bendery)

WASHINGTON — Friday’s shooting in Newtown, Conn., put the spotlight on President Barack Obama politically and, for many people, it was personal, as dozens turned up outside the White House gates begging him to take action on gun control.  Activists, sympathetic parents, and those affected by gun violence in the past gathered to collectively grieve at the impromptu vigil. They chanted, lit candles handed out by advocacy groups, and pleaded for political action in the wake of the latest episode of gun violence to afflict the nation.

Judge Overturns Three Death Sentences Under Racial Justice Act

By goodblacknews on December 14, 2012
Gov. Bev Perdue signs the Racial Justice Act

Governor Bev Perdue signs the Racial Justice Act

A North Carolina judge voided the death sentences of three convicted murderers yesterday, two of whom were African-American, citing that race played a significant role in their trial and sentencing.

Death row inmates Tilmon Golphin, Christina Walters and Quintel Augustine had their cases reviewed under the Racial Justice Act of 2009, a policy that allows death row cases to be reconsidered if relevant evidence suggests racism was a factor in the original trial. The act specifies that if race was found to be a factor in the trial, inmates’ sentences would be reduced to life in prison without parole.

Lawyers for the three convicted felons, whose cases are all unrelated, found statistical evidence along with anecdotal and documentary evidence such as handwritten notes and race-based jury selection processes, that proved that racist methods were used in deciding their fate.

First Lady Michelle Obama Drops Off 900 Gifts for Annual Toys for Tots Drive

By goodblacknews on December 13, 2012
First lady Michelle Obama (C) greets Toys for Tots volunteers
First lady Michelle Obama (C) greets Toys for Tots volunteers during an event at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling on December 11, 2012 in Washiington, DC. The toys were donated by the staff members of the Executive Office of the President to the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots Campaign. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
First lady Michelle Obama dropped off 900 gifts yesterday as part of a Toys for Tots event in Washington, D.C. An annual drive of the Marine Corps, the campaign received the huge donation from the White House where Mrs. Obama began collecting toys for the program in 2009.

The toys were collected from residents of the White House, including President Obama and the first couple’s daughters Sasha and Malia, in addition to employees, friends and corporate donors.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker Assists at Scene of Auto Accident

By goodblacknews on December 9, 2012

Cory Booker appears onstage at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards on Monday, Nov. 12, 2012 in New York.

CHARLES SYKES/INVISION/AP Mayor Booker’s latest heroic exploits came to light when a constituent asked him on Twitter if that was him assisting at the scene of an auto accident on Newark’s Clinton Ave. Despite his “hunger pains,” he admitted to being on the scene to help.

 His hunger and caffeine withdrawal haven’t dulled his superhero reflexes.  Already famous for carrying a neighbor out of a raging kitchen fire in April, Newark Mayor Cory Booker snapped into action at the scene of an injury car accident on Thursday, a witness told the Daily News.
 
The hometown heroics came just minutes after the 43-year-old Democrat recorded a video blog about the difficulty of his weeklong, $4-per-day food stamp challenge, which has him subsisting on beans, rice, vegetables — and no coffee.
 “I heard a crashing sound outside. I looked out my window and there were two sedans that collided. Within a few minutes, a big black car stopped near the site and two men got out. I recognized the mayor’s posture,” a 36-year-old witness who gave her name as Dydy told The News.

Obama To Sign into Law the Child Protection Act of 2012

By goodblacknews on December 7, 2012
President Obama (Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

Today, President Barack Obama will sign H.R. 6063, the Child Protection Act of 2012, in the Oval Office, a bill aimed at protecting victims of child pornography, sexual abuse and trafficking.

By reaching across their respective aisles, Texas legislators have been instrumental is the passage of the soon-to-be-signed new federal law.  During a late night legislative session on Monday, Nov. 26, the United States Senate passed the Child Protection Act of 2012, introduced by Texas Senator John Cornyn and Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. Additionally, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sponsored the Act’s counterpart – HR 6063 – in the House of Representatives. Smith’s colleagues passed the bill by voice vote in August.