November 19, 2024
As our hearts here at GBN continue to go out to all those affected by the recent Boston Marathon bombing, we find comfort and inspiration in President Barack Obama’s speech today at a church service titled “Healing Our City” at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston memorializing and honoring its victims and survivors. Here is the link to it at nytimes.com.
article by Lesa Lakin and Lori Lakin Hutcherson
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lil Wayne, Ron Howard, Scarlett Johansson and Kim Kardashian are all on the same page when it comes to criminal justice reform.
They’re among more than 100 entertainers calling on President Barack Obama to focus on changing drug laws. Rap mogul Russell Simmons helped assemble the coalition of celebrities and civil rights leaders that presented a letter to the president on Tuesday.
The group praises the president’s efforts toward drug incarceration reform but insists “the time is right” to move toward replacing jail sentences with intervention and rehabilitation for non-violent offenders. The starry group, which also includes Jennifer Hudson, Nicki Minaj, Susan Sarandon and Will Smith, also asks Obama to form a panel to handle clemency requests and to support a measure that allows judges to waive mandatory minimum sentences.
“It is critical that we change both the way we think about drug laws in this country and how we generate positive solutions that leave a lasting impact on rebuilding our communities,” Simmons said, citing Department of Justice data that shows that the United States jails more of its citizens than any other country in the world.
Drug offenders comprise nearly half the federal prison population in the U.S.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com
On Monday, President Barack Obama will designate five new National Monuments, including one for abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument, located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, will receive a designation as a National Park, along with Delaware’s First State National Monument, Ohio’s Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, the Río Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico, and the San Juan Islands National Monument in Washington State. The designations are made by under the Antiquities Act, and the new monuments will be administered by the Department of the Interior.
The Antiquities Act, which was first used by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, allows presidents to preserve public lands and historic places in the U.S., such as the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon.
A statement from a White House official read:
“The monument commemorates the life of the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad who was responsible for helping enslaved people escape from bondage to freedom. The new national park, located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, includes large sections of landscapes that are significant to Tubman’s early life in Dorchester County and evocative of her life as a slave and conductor of the Underground Railroad. The park includes Stewart’s Canal, dug by hand by free and enslaved people between 1810 and the 1830s and where Tubman learned important outdoor skills when she worked in the nearby timbering operations with her father. Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and Refuge lands, although park of the new national park, will continue to be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument also includes the home site of Jacob Jackson, a free black man who used coded letters to help Tubman communicate with family and others. The monument will also partner with the State of Maryland’s Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park Visitor Center when it opens in 2015.”
article via thegrio.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama signed a law Thursday expanding protections for victims of domestic violence, renewing a measure credited with curbing violence against women a year and a half after it lapsed amid partisan bickering. The revitalized Violence Against Women Act marked an important win for gay rights advocates and Native Americans, who will see new protections under the law, and for Obama, whose attempts to push for a renewal failed last year after they became entangled in gender politics and the presidential election.
“This is your day. This is the day of the advocates, the day of the survivors. This is your victory,” Obama said. “This victory shows that when the American people make their voices heard, Washington listens.” As Obama prepared to put his pen to the new law, new government data underscored both the progress that has been made and the enduring need to do more.
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.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWXAEutqoAQ&w=560&h=315]
According to thegrio.com, President Barack Obama has teamed up with viral video star “Kid President” for a new web ad promoting the annual White House Easter egg roll. In the amusing clip above, “Kid President” is summoned by the President to spread to word about how to throw your hat in the ring for a ticket to the special holiday event.
“Kid President, looks like you got my message,” Obama says. “Yes Mr. President, I got your message,” Kid President responds, using a tin can phone. “This is historic … Kids dancing. Eggs rolling. I’m in!” he adds.
“Kid President”, who real name is Robby Novak, is a 9-year-old from Henderson, Tenn., who became a social media superstar after his YouTube video, “A Pep Talk from Kid President to You”, became a massive hit.
It has since garnered over 10 million views. The Easter egg roll will be held on April 1st. The lottery to score tickets opened Thursday at 10 a.m. It closes at 10a.m. this coming Monday.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — A White House official says President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address at all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta this spring. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is among the historically black institution’s alumni. Commencement is scheduled for May 19.
Obama typically speaks each spring at a handful of college and university commencement ceremonies, including at one of the military service academies. Last year, he spoke at commencement ceremonies at all-female Barnard College in New York.
The White House official declined to speak for the record because the schedule of Obama’s commencement speeches has not been released. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on Obama’s address at Morehouse.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press article by Darlene Superville via thegrio.com