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Posts tagged as “Politics”

Kelvin Atkinson, Black State Senator, Receives Mostly Positive Responses After ‘Coming Out’

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2013
Nevada State Senator Kelvin Atkinson (Courtesy: Atkinson)

“I never considered myself someone who was in the closet,” Sen. Atkinson told theGrio.  ”My family and friends knew.”
Atkinson said while his close friends in the Nevada House and Senate knew his sexual orientation, his statement Monday “was the first time publicly acknowledging it for everyone else.”
Related Post: Kelvin Atkinson, Nevada Lawmaker, Comes Out In Gay Marriage Debate
“I had no intentions of speaking that night.  [I] heard some of my colleagues speak, and I just felt like now is a really good time to do it.  My heart was pounding through my suit. I just felt like it was time.”

Obama Taking Executive Action on Gun Background Check System

By goodblacknews on April 19, 2013
President Obama

President Barack Obama, next to Vice President Joe Biden, gestures as he speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, about the defeat in the Senate of a bill to expand background checks on guns. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Federal law bans certain mentally ill people from purchasing firearms, but not all states are providing data to stop the prohibited sales to the FBI’s background check system. A federal review last year found 17 states contributed fewer than 10 mental health records to the database, meaning many deemed by a judge to be a danger still could have access to guns.

The Obama administration was starting a process Friday aimed at removing barriers in health privacy laws that prevent some states from reporting information to the background check system. The action comes two days after the Senate rejected a measure that would have required buyers of firearms online and at gun shows to pass a background check. That’s already required for shoppers at licensed gun dealers.

Stung by the defeat, Obama vowed to keep up the fight for the background check expansion but also to do what he could through executive action.

Democratic, GOP Senators Reach Deal on Gun Background Checks

By goodblacknews on April 10, 2013

 
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK8Dpx3c2Zw&w=560&h=315]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two key senators have reached a bipartisan deal on expanding background checks to more gun buyers, a Senate aide and lobbyist said Wednesday, an agreement that could build support for President Barack Obama’s drive to curb firearms violence in the wake of the elementary school shootings in Connecticut. (See video of yesterday’s  gun control speech in Connecticut by President Obama above.)
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., planned to announce their compromise later Wednesday morning. Subjecting more firearms purchases to federal background checks has been the chief goal of Obama and gun control supporters, who promote the system as a way to prevent criminals and other potentially dangerous people from getting the weapons.
Meanwhile, the Senate is ready for an opening vote on restricting guns as Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., set a roll call for Thursday on starting consideration of the firearms legislation. The background check deal makes it even likelier that Democrats will win enough Republican support to thwart an effort by conservatives and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to block consideration from even starting.

President Meets With African Leaders, Praises Continent’s Democratic Progress

By goodblacknews on March 30, 2013

Obama and African Leaders

On Thursday (March 27), President Barack Obama met with the leaders of four sub-Saharan African countries in a bid to highlight the shared democratic sentiment shared between America and the nations. Present at the meeting were President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, President Joyce Banda of Malawi, and Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves of Cape Verde.
Read more via Obama African Leaders: President Meets With African Leaders, Praises Continent’s Democratic Progress | Breaking News for Black America.

Idris Elba to Portray Mandela in Upcoming Biopic

By goodblacknews on March 28, 2013
Actor Idris Elba arrives for a State Dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House on March 14, 2012 in Washington, DC. Cameron is on a three day official visit to Washington. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

Actor Idris Elba arrives for a State Dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House on March 14, 2012 in Washington, DC. Cameron is on a three day official visit to Washington. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

“Not in terms of performance,” he clarifies. “But my film’s about his entire life. Anyone wanting to understand who Mandela was should go and watch my film.”  Although the British-born actor is aware that his movie won’t be the first to portray Mandela’s story on the big screen, he does believe that it will capture a more complete portrayal of the South African leader’s experiences.

Former New York Governor David Paterson to Teach at Touro College

By goodblacknews on March 18, 2013

David A. PatersonDavid A. Paterson, the former governor of the State of New York and the only African American to serve in that post, will be joining the faculty at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Harlem. Paterson will serve as a distinguished professor of health care and public policy.
Paterson was elected lieutenant governor in 2006 and was elevated to governor when Eliot Spitzer resigned due to a prostitution scandal. Paterson decided not to run for governor in 2010. After leaving the state house, Paterson taught at New York University and hosted a talk show on WOR-AM radio in New York.
Paterson is a graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in history. He earned at law degree at Hofstra University.
article via jbhe.com

Newark Mayor Cory Booker Helps Man Propose To Girlfriend

By goodblacknews on March 2, 2013

cory booker proposal
A man proposed to his girlfriend on Wednesday night “with a surprise assist from Cory Booker.”  Less than 24 hours before popping the question, New York lawyer Israel Burns sent a tweet to Booker, the Newark, N.J., mayor known for going out of his way to help residents and fans. Burns, 26, became an admirer of Booker’s while attending a Newark-based law school.
When Booker responded 10 minutes after the tweet was sent, Burns couldn’t believe it.  After comparing schedules, they decided that Booker would call Burns’ girlfriend Misha Wright, 35 and also a lawyer, at the Asian American Bar Association of New York’s annual dinner in Midtown Manhattan. It’s where the couple had met last year.  
According to the New York Daily News, Wright initially ignored Booker’s call, thinking it was a prank. Burns almost lost hope.  Booker called back, however, and Wright answered. “Hi, this is Cory Booker,” he said, instructing Wright to go upstairs.
Supposedly Booker would be waiting with her boyfriend in the event’s VIP area. In reality only Burns was there — but with champagne, a poem and a ring in tow.  Wright said yes. Obviously.  According to Time, the happy couple left for the Dominican Republic Thursday morning.  Booker sealed the deal with a congratulatory tweet.
article via huffingtonpost.com

Obama Administration: Gay Marriage Ban Unconstitutional In Prop. 8 Supreme Court Case

By goodblacknews on February 28, 2013

President Obama Speaks On Immigration Reform
President Barack Obama

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to strike down California’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, staking out a legal theory that would forbid states from banning same-sex marriage if it were adopted by the court.
In an amicus brief in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the administration particularly said those states which allow civil unions but not same-sex marriages — Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island — were violating the 14th Amendment’s right to equal protection.
“The designation of marriage,” wrote Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., “confers a special validation of the relationship between two individuals and conveys a message to society that domestic partnerships or civil unions cannot match.”

"Negro" Will No Longer Be Used on US Census Surveys

By goodblacknews on February 25, 2013
This handout image obtained by The Associated Press shows question 9: "What is Person 1's race", on the first page of the 2010 Census form, with options for White: Black, African Am., or Negro. After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping use of the word "Negro" to describe black Americans in its surveys. Instead of the term popularized during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern-day labels, “black” or “African-American”. (AP Photo)

This handout image obtained by The Associated Press shows question 9: “What is Person 1’s race”, on the first page of the 2010 Census form, with options for White: Black, African Am., or Negro. After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping use of the word “Negro” to describe black Americans in its surveys. Instead of the term popularized during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern-day labels, “black” or “African-American”. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word “Negro” to describe black Americans in surveys.  Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels “black” or “African-American.”
The change will take effect next year when the Census Bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau’s racial statistics branch, said in an interview.  He pointed to months of public feedback and census research that concluded few black Americans still identify with being Negro and many view the term as “offensive and outdated.”

Hiram Rhoades Revels Sworn in as 1st Black Senator 143 Years Ago Today

By goodblacknews on February 25, 2013

rhoades revel

The First Colored Senator and Representatives, in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the US. Top standing left to right: Robert C. De Large, M.C. of S. Carolina; and Jefferson H. Long, M.C. of Georgia. Seated, left to right: U.S. Senator H.R. Revels of Mississippi; Benj. S. Turner, M.C. of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls, M.C. of Florida; Joseph H. Rainy, M.C. of S. Carolina; and R. Brown Elliot, M.C. of S. Carolina. Lithograph by Currier and Ives, 1872.

On February 25, 1870, exactly 143 years ago today, Hiram Rhoades Revels was sworn into the U.S. Senate, making him the first black person to ever sit in Congress.  After the Reconstruction Act of 1867 was passed by a majority-Republican Congress, the South was divided into five military districts and all men, regardless of race were granted voting rights. Revels was elected by the Mississippi legislature, and seven black representatives were later elected for states like Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia thanks, in large part, to the support of African American voters.
Revels and some 15 other black men served in Congress during Reconstruction, and more than 600 served in state legislatures, while hundreds held local offices.
article via huffingtonpost.com