Posted on 20 June 2024.
Governor Wes Moore
Maryland governor Wes Moore says his plan to issue a mass pardon of 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions will ‘right a lot of historical wrongs’.Maryland governor Wes Moore says his plan to issue a mass pardon of 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions will ‘right a lot of historical wrongs
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Monday signed an executive order pardoning more than 175,000 marijuana convictions, the governor’s office said.
Moore signed the executive order in Annapolis with state Attorney General Anthony Brown in attendance.
An estimated 100,000 individuals will be affected by the pardons, the governor’s office said in a press call Monday morning.
The pardons include more than 150,000 misdemeanor convictions for simple possession of cannabis and more than 18,000 misdemeanor convictions for use or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia, his office said.
The pardons reflect the number of convictions, with some individuals having more than one conviction pardoned through the executive order, the governor’s office said.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 20 June 2024.
President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event with former President Barack Obama moderated by Jimmy Kimmel at the Peacock Theater, Saturday, June 15, 2024, in Los Angeles.
President Biden’s Hollywood fundraiser raked in $30 million over the past weekend for his reelection bid, the most of any Democratic fundraiser in history, according to the Biden campaign.
Biden was joined at the fundraiser Saturday by former President Obama, actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
The president in his remarks warned against a second term for former President Trump and focused on the Supreme Court and his recent trip to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) summit.
“The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees,” Biden said, repeating a prediction he has made before.
“The idea that if he’s reelected he’s going to appoint two more flying flags upside down,” he added, referring to Justice Samuel Alito, who has faced controversy over an upside-down American flag flying over his Alexandra, Va., home.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 20 June 2024.
Viola Ford Fletcher, center, and Lessie Benningfield Randle at the Oklahoma Capitol, in Oklahoma City, on Oct. 5.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court last Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit of the last two survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, dampening the hope of advocates for racial justice that the government would make amends for one of the worst single acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history.
The nine-member court upheld the decision made by a district court judge in Tulsa last year, ruling that the plaintiff’s grievances, although legitimate, did not fall within the scope of the state’s public nuisance statute.
“We further hold that the plaintiff’s allegations do not sufficiently support a claim for unjust enrichment,” the court wrote in its decision.
Messages left Wednesday with a spokesperson for the City of Tulsa and the survivors’ attorney, Damario Solomon-Simmons, were not immediately returned.
The suit was an attempt to force the city of Tulsa and others to make recompense for the destruction by a white mob of the once-thriving Black district known as Greenwood. In 1921 — on May 31 and June 1 — the white mob, including some people hastily deputized by authorities, looted and burned the district, which was referred to as Black Wall Street.
As many as 300 Black Tulsans were killed, and thousands of survivors were forced for a time into internment camps overseen by the National Guard. Burned bricks and a fragment of a church basement are about all that survive today of the more than 30-block historically Black district.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 19 June 2024.
MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is facing scrutiny over his $30,000 hair and makeup budget, with some amounts seemingly unpaid to the establishments listed as recipients. However, Johnson’s campaign advisor said that the discrepancy resulted from a vendor who put the wrong name in the disclosure filing sent to the State of Illinois.
As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, in response to questions about a $4,000 payment to Anthony Jones Salon, which the proprietor told the outlet he never received, Bill Neidhardt, Johnson’s campaign advisor, told the outlet: “The vendor that does our expenditure reports, we gave them the name of the business and they wrote down the wrong one.” Neidhardt also indicated that the filing “will be amended” to reflect that the money was actually spent with AJ Styles Barber and Beauty Salon.
According to elections board records obtained by the outlet, the progressive mayor pays for his personal grooming appointments with money contributed by supporters of Johnson’s Friends of Brandon Johnson campaign fund. Over the past year, grooming payments, including haircuts and skincare, totaled in excess of $30,000.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 19 June 2024.
West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice issued a proclamation on Friday that officially declares Juneteenth 2024 as a West Virginia State holiday.
Juneteenth is recognized on June 19 each year and celebrates the ending of slavery in the United States. The day will be observed on Wednesday, June 19 as a full-day holiday for all public employees in West Virginia.
Juneteenth has already been a federal holiday since 2021 when President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. The holiday comes from the same day in 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Texas after being issued by President Abraham Lincoln six months earlier on New Years Day.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 19 June 2024.
President Joe and Jill Biden in France visiting a cemetery where 2000 U.S. soldiers were buried
Biden and first lady Jill Biden participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial near the village of Belleau, about 60 miles northeast of Paris.
The cemetery, which sits at the foot of Belleau Wood, is the burial ground of more than 2,000 American soldiers killed during the war. Most of them fought in the area and in the Marne valley in the summer of 1918. The soldiers buried in the cemetery’s sweeping curve include 1,800 U.S. Marines killed in the Belleau Wood.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 07 June 2024.
In a moving Instagram post, Michelle Obama reflected on the loss of her mother, Marian Robinson, who died last Friday, May 31, at the age of 86.
The former first lady and her family eulogized Robinson and the vibrant life she led in a statement, received first by NBC News and later posted on Michelle and Barack Obama’s Instagram pages.
Accompanying the statement on Instagram was Michelle Obama’s touching caption, calling her mom her “rock.”
“My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed,” the former first lady wrote.
“She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today.”
The former first lady went on to express her desire to “offer some reflections on her remarkable life” in a tribute that detailed her mother’s early life and her marriage to Michelle Obama’s father, Fraser C. Robinson III, who died in 1991. The statement was signed by Michelle Obama, her brother, Craig Robinson, and other members of their family. It touched on Robinson’s role as a grandmother to her grandchildren — including Malia and Sacha — and mother-in-law to former President Barack Obama.
“On Election Night in 2008, when the news broke that Barack would soon shoulder the weight of the world, she was there holding his hand. With a healthy nudge, she agreed to move to the White House with Michelle and Barack. We needed her. The girls needed her, and she ended up being our rock through it all,” the family statement reads in part.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 07 June 2024.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee revealed that she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on Sunday, June 2.
Jackson Lee, 74, released a statement announcing her medical diagnosis and warning her constituents that she will miss some days of work as she undergoes treatment.
“My doctors have confirmed my diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. I am currently undergoing treatment to battle this disease that impacts tens of thousands of Americans every year,” the Democratic congresswoman wrote in a statement.
“I am confident that my doctors have developed the best possible plan to target my specific disease,” she continued, noting that “the road ahead will not be easy.”
Jackson Lee, who represents the 18th Congressional District of Texas, told her constituents that it’s been an “honor” to serve them throughout her 30-year tenure and warned them of her potential upcoming absence.
“As I pursue my treatments, it is likely that I will be occasionally absent from Congress, but rest assured my office will continue to deliver the vital constituent services that you deserve and expect,” she expressed.
Posted in U.S. Government
Posted on 07 June 2024.
Claudia Sheinbaum
Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected as Mexico’s first female president, in a historic landslide win.
Mexico’s official electoral authority said preliminary results showed the 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City winning between 58% and 60% of the vote in Sunday’s election.
That gives her a lead of about 30 percentage points over her main rival, businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez.
Ms Sheinbaum will replace her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on 1 October.
But in her victory speech she also highlighted what has set this Mexican election apart from previous ones. She told cheering voters: “For the first time in the 200 years of the [Mexican] Republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico.”
She said it was an achievement not just for her but for all women.
“I’ve said it from the start, this is not just about me getting [to the top office], it’s about all of us getting here.”
She added: “I won’t fail you.”
Posted in U.S. Government
