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U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Care Act aka "Obamacare"

By goodblacknews on June 25, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-06-25 at 10.17.52 AM

The United States Supreme Court has upheld a key portion of President Barack Obama‘s healthcare law in a 6-3 decision.  The court ruled the law made subsidies available for people in all 50 states, not just those who bought insurance through a state exchange.

Thursday’s decision is a major victory for the Obama administration.  “We’ve got more work to do, but what we’re not going to do is unravel what has now been woven into the fabric of America,” Mr Obama said.
The high court case was the second major challenge to the healthcare law – often known as Obamacare – since its passage.  “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion.
If the law had been overturned, 6.4 million Americans would have been at risk of losing aid.
The 2010 law set up a federally run insurance exchange where Americans who were not covered by employers or other U.S. health programs could buy health insurance.
_83865579_img_3952Opponents argue that a phrase included in the law, “established by the state,” demonstrated that the healthcare subsidies should have only been available for people in states that set up exchanges.
However, most Americans receiving subsidies purchase healthcare through the federal exchange after many states decided not to set up their own marketplaces.
The Obama administration argued that was a too-narrow reading of the law, which spans nearly 1,000 pages, and the rest of the legislation makes clear subsidies are intended for those who meet income requirements, regardless of which exchange insurance was purchased from.
Justice Roberts voted with liberal colleagues in support of the law. He was also the key vote to uphold it in a 2012 case. Justice Anthony Kennedy dissented in 2012, but sided with the majority on Thursday.
Justice Anthony Scalia’s wrote in his dissent that the Supreme Court is setting a precedent of favouring some laws over others.
“We should start calling this law SCOTUS care” Justice Scalia’s wrote. “Today’s interpretation is not merely unnatural; it is unheard of.”
The upholding of the law cements President Obama’s biggest legislative victory.

Deborah Ale Flint Confirmed as New Head of Three Los Angeles Airports

By goodblacknews on June 25, 2015

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, confirmed Oakland airport executive Deborah Ale Flint as the next Executive Director of Los Angeles World Airports. (CITY OF LOS ANGELES )
Deborah Ale Flint, new Executive Director of Los Angeles World Airports. (CITY OF LOS ANGELES)

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday confirmed Oakland airport executive Deborah Ale Flint as the new Executive Director of Los Angeles World Airports.
Flint served as the director of aviation for the Port of Oakland.
In her new role, she will lead the city authority that oversees the Los Angeles International, Ontario International and Van Nuys airports.
In comments at the council meeting, Ale Flint talked about the “love story” of L.A.’s airports.
Ale Flint said her vision is “to make sure that we’re the most innovative, that we have the best passenger experiences, that we’re protectors and creators of great environment around the airport, that we have a world-class airport, and that we’re first-class neighbors.”
LAX is currently undergoing a multibillion-dollar overhaul.
“It’s an important economic development engine for the city and we know that ,with your leadership there, we will continue to grow and expand,” Councilman Curren Price Jr. said to Ale Flint.
The final vote was 13-0.
article by KPPC staff; contributions by Brian Frank via scpr.org

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Orders Removal of All Four Confederate Flags from State Capitol Grounds

By goodblacknews on June 24, 2015
Workers remove the Confederate flags from outside the
Workers remove the Confederate flags from outside the State Capitol building on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. (Photo: Shannon Heupel/Advertiser)

MERY, Ala. — With no fanfare, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley ordered the removal of four Confederate flags from a memorial at the Alabama State Capitol on Wednesday amid a growing controversy over their official display in the wake of the killing of African Americans at a South Carolina church.
The first to be taken down was the so-called battle flag, followed by the First National Confederate flag, known as the “Stars and Bars,” the Second National Confederate Flag and the Third National Confederate Flag. All four had been removed by 10 a.m.
“The governor does not want the flag to be a distraction,” said Jennifer Ardis, a spokeswoman for Bentley. “There are a lot of other things we are focused on. We have a tremendous budget issue.”
Five workers, including two wearing yellow “landscape operations” tee-shirts, unceremoniously removed the flags by first lowering separate flag poles, then unsnapping and folding up the individual banners. As a handful of photographers recorded the scene, the men worked quickly, without comment, then left the enclosed area around the monument, locking the gate to the small fence behind them.
The flags were hung at the Alabama Confederate Memorial in 1994, a year after then-Gov. Jim Folsom Jr., ordered the removal of a battle flag that had flown over the state Capitol since 1963.
Meanwhile, Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi’s Republican senator, said Wednesday that it is his “personal hope” that the state would consider changing its flag, which depicts the Confederate battle flag in its upper left corner.
“The recent debate on the symbolism of our flag, which belongs to all of us, presents the people of our state a opportunity to consider a new banner that represents Mississippi,” he said in a statement. He added that he agrees with his fellow senator from Mississippi, Roger Wicker, also a Republican, that “we should look for unity and not divisiveness in the symbols of our state.

New York City to Pay Jonathan Fleming $6.25 Million for False Conviction and 25 Years in Prison

By goodblacknews on June 24, 2015

Baltimore Medical Examiner Rules Freddie Gray’s Death a Homicide

By goodblacknews on June 24, 2015

The medical examiner found that Freddie Gray’s “rough ride” was to blame for his death. (Photo via Colorlines.com)

According to a copy of the autopsy report obtained by The Baltimore Sun, Freddie Gray’s death was a homicide. The report—which was completed on April 30 but hadn’t yet been released to the public—found that Gray suffered a single “high-energy injury” to his neck and spine and concluded that it was likely caused by sudden deceleration in the police van where he was improperly restrained and shackled. The ME compared the injury to one obtained from diving in shallow water and wrote that the officers involved did not follow proper safety procedures “though acts of omission.”
In the report, assistant medical examiner Carol H. Allan wrote that it was “not an unforeseen event that a vulnerable individual was injured during operation of the vehicle, and that without prompt medical attention, the injury would prove fatal.” In addition to examining Gray’s body, the examiner used videos, witness statements and an inspection of the van to complete the report. She also found that there were no previous injuries to Gray’s spine, noting that he was not incapacitated by a neck hold or other type of physical restraint.
Twenty-five-year-old Gray was arrested in Baltimore on April 12 and died a week later due to a spinal injury inflicted while he was in custody. The six officers involved in his arrest and transport have all been charged with crimes ranging from second-degree depraved-heart murder to second-degree assault. Last week, each officer pleaded not guilty. Their trial date has been set for October 13, and a motions hearing is scheduled for September 2.
article by Kenrya Rankin Naasel via colorlines.com

Governor Orders Confederate Flag Removed from Virginia State License Plates

By goodblacknews on June 23, 2015

(Photo via wtvr.com)
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (Photo via wtvr.com)

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has ordered the Confederate flag removed from Virginia state license plates. The flag is displayed on a specialty plate designed for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The governor’s announcement came in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state of Texas was allowed to reject a license plate design that featured a Confederate battle flag and the removal of the flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds following last week’s fatal shootings at am African-American church in Charleston.

“As [South Carolina] Governor Haley said yesterday, her state can ill afford to let this symbol continue to divide the people of South Carolina. I believe the same is true here in Virginia. Although the battle flag is not flown here on Capitol Square, it has been the subject of considerable controversy, and it divides many of our people,” Governor Terry McAuliffe said. “Even its display on state issued license tags is, in my view, unnecessarily divisive and hurtful to too many of our people. As you all know, I have spent the past 17 months working to build a new Virginia economy that is more open and welcoming to everyone. Removing this symbol from our state-issued license plates will be another step toward realizing that goal.”

African American Family Records From Era of Slavery to be Available Free Online

By goodblacknews on June 23, 2015
African American fugitive slaves provide support to the Union war effort, circa 1863.
African American fugitive slaves provide support to the Union war effort, circa 1863. (Photograph: Andrew J Russell/Medford Historical Society Collection/CORBIS)
Millions of African Americans will soon be able to trace their families through the era of slavery, some to the countries from which their ancestors were snatched, thanks to a new and free online service that is digitizing a huge cache of federal records for the first time.
Handwritten records collecting information on newly freed slaves that were compiled just after the civil war will be available for easy searches through a new website, it was announced on Friday.
The records belong to the Freedmen’s Bureau, an administrative body created by Congress in 1865 to assist slaves in 15 states and the District of Columbia transition into free citizenship.
Before that time, slaves were legally regarded as property in the US and their names were not officially documented. They often appeared only as dash marks – even on their owners’ records.
African Americans trying to trace family history today regularly hit the research equivalent of a brick wall prior to 1870, when black people were included in the US census for the first time.
Now a major project run by several organisations is beginning to digitise the 1.5 million handwritten records from the Freedmen’s Bureau, which feature more than four million names and are held by various federal bodies, for full online access.
All the records are expected to be online by late 2016, to coincide with the opening of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington.
Hollis Gentry, a genealogy specialist at the Smithsonian, said at the announcement of the project in Los Angeles on Friday: “The records serve as a bridge to slavery and freedom. You can look at some of the original documents that were created at the time when these people were living. They are the earliest records detailing people who were formerly enslaved. We get a sense of their voice, their dreams.”
Gentry also said it could help people now find living relatives on their family tree, as well as records of forebears.
“I predict we’ll see millions of living people find living relatives they never knew existed. That will be a tremendous blessing and a wonderful, healing experience,” Gentry said.
The Freedmen’s Bureau made records that include marriages and church and financial details as well as full names, dates of birth and histories of slave ownership.
They have been available for access by the public in Washington, but only in person by searching through hundreds of pages of handwritten documents.
The project to put the documents online is a collaboration involving the Smithsonian, the National Archives, the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, the California African American Museum and FamilySearch. The last-named body is a large online genealogy organisation run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – otherwise known as the Mormon church, based in Salt Lake City.
Volunteers will help to digitize the handwritten records and they will be added to the website as they become available. The website is discoverfreedmen.org.
The announcement was made by FamilySearch and some of the project partners in Los Angeles on Friday, the 150th anniversary of “Juneteenth”, the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery which commemorates 19 June 1865, the day when it is believed that the last slaves held in US ownership were told of their emancipation.
Sharon Leslie Morgan, founder of Our Black Ancestry Foundation, an organization that provides research for African American genealogical research, said the indexing was important for history and for today.  “In order for us to deal with contemporary issues that we have today – racism, black boys being shot down in the streets – you have to confront the past,” she told USA Today.
“The land was stolen from the Native Americans. The labour was provided for free by African slaves. The entire foundation of American capitalism is based on slavery, on a free labour market. People don’t want to deal with that, and you have to.”
article by Joanna Walters via theguardian.com

Walmart Says All Stores Will No Longer Carry Items with Confederate Flags

By goodblacknews on June 23, 2015

Walmart says in a statement released Monday it will no longer carry Confederate flag merchandise (Photo via goodblacknews.org)
Walmart says in a statement released Monday it will no longer carry Confederate flag merchandise (Photo via goodblacknews.org)

Walmart said in a statement Monday that it is removing “all items” promoting the Confederate flag for sale from its stores and its website.  The move came the same day that Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina called for the removal of a Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds in Columbia. Her announcement in turn came in the wake of last week’s shooting at a historically black Charleston church that left nine dead.
Charged in the killing is Dylann Roof, 21, who is white and has been attributed with making white supremacist statements. He has been pictured with images of a Confederate flag.
“We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer,” Walmart spokesman Brian Nick said in an emailed statement. “We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our web site.”
The statement continued, apparently answering an inquiry from CNN that cited items for sale based on Confederate flag imagery that were available on Walmart.com. A story on CNN’s website said the Walmart statement was in response to a network inquiry about sales of Confederate flag-related items.
“We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly — this is one of those instances,” Nick said.
Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, with nearly 11,000 stores in 28 countries.
article by Ed Brackett via usatoday.com

President Obama Heading to Charleston on Friday to Deliver Eulogy

By goodblacknews on June 22, 2015
President Obama Speaks On Immigration Reform
President Obama

Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama will head to Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday to deliver the eulogy at funeral services for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the state senator who was one of nine people killed in the racially- motivated shooting last week in Charleston.

Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama will join Obama at the funeral services, the White House said Monday.  The visit will be Obama’s first to the city since the deadly shooting last week at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic black church.

The White House will release additional details of the visit in the coming days, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.  The visit will come days after Obama spoke candidly about racism in America during an interview for the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” released on Monday — even using the N-word, a word some consider offensive.

“Racism, we are not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public,” Obama said in the interview. “That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”

Obama’s visit to Charleston is also notable as he opted earlier this year not to visit Baltimore — which became the epicenter of the debate over race and policing issues — as protests unfurled in that city in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody.

article by Jeremy Diamond and Michelle Kosinski via cnn.com

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley Finally Agrees Confederate Flag at State Capitol Must be removed

By goodblacknews on June 22, 2015
“This has been a very difficult time for our state,” Haley said. “We have stared evil in the eye. … Our state is grieving, but we are also coming together.”
“Today, we are here to say it is time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds,” said Haley, surrounded by top leaders including U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both Republicans like the governor. The other politicians broke out in cheers during the announcement.
The decision follows days of protests inside the state and growing pressure on Republican leaders to back away from the flag.  Roof, 21, is being held on nine murder charges in connection with the shooting last Wednesday. Pictures of Roof have surfaced showing the high school dropout with the flag.
Though she sharply condemned the alleged shooter, Haley noted that the flag represents many positive things for people in her state.  “The hate-filled murderer has a sick and twisted view of the flag,” she said, adding, “we have changed through the times and we will continue to do so, but that doesn’t mean we forget our history.”
In calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from state grounds, Haley said: “My hope is that moving a symbol that divides we can move forward and honor the nine blessed souls who are in heaven.”

Religious and political leaders including Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said earlier Monday that they would push for the flag’s removal when the Legislature returns.  Riley has led protest marches against the flag and has called for its removal from state grounds before.
“The time has come for the Confederate battle flag to move from a public position in front of the state Capitol to a place of history,” Riley said at a televised news conference. The flag “was appropriated years and years ago as a symbol of hate,” Riley said, and should be moved to a museum.

The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III of the National Action Network said the flag should be removed before the body of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in the attack, lies in state on Wednesday. Pinckney was also pastor of Emanuel AME.
Republicans, who control South Carolina’s state Legislature, have rebuffed many previous calls to remove the flag, which dates from the Civil War. For civil rights activists and many others, the flag is a racist symbol of the state’s slave past.  The flag has also been adopted by some white supremacist groups in modern times.