Author: Carma Henry

     Elections matter. Right now, instead of more judges hand-picked by right-wing legal activists and their corporate allies, President Biden is making good on his promise to bring greater diversity to our federal courts. Biden is naming far more brilliant Black judges and women judges than any other president – including Barack Obama. 

     It is both a challenge and an opportunity for leadership in the Biden Administration, Congress, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with the private sector address to effect policies and practices that reverse the nation’s still-growing racial wealth gap. Tried and true wealth-building tools like targeted homeownership and expanded small business investments together would bring sustainable and meaningful changes to those who historically have been financially marginalized.

Letter To the editor,

     All the world knows who is leading that assault: Donald Trump. Why then isn’t the President, or Democrats, or liberal and progressive opinion writers calling Trump and his high-ranking followers’ traitors? Not just “fascists” and “autocrats” but traitors. Aren’t the Trumpists committing treason by actively subverting constitutional democracy, the very fabric of our political system?

      In a rare pushback against the radioactive pollution industry, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — well known as a rubber stamp for the nuclear lobby — has flatly rejected an attempt to further weaken the agency’s radiation exposure regulations.

     Suddenly there’s major concern across the country — from the mainstream media to every rock-ribbed Republican — for the rights of Afghan women and girls to be able to work, to go to school.

 “LOST CAUSE LOSER”

     Expanding rural telehealth & Joint Center research: The New York Times reports the Biden Administration will spend nearly $20 million to “strengthen telehealth services in rural and underserved communities” where “roughly 15 percent of the population” live, which is aligned with key recommendations put forth in a July 2021 brief on expanding broadband in the Black Rural South by Joint Center Technology Policy Director Dr. Dominique Harrison. The Joint Center will release Dr. Harrison’s full 45-page report on the topic very soon.

Friends and family of the late Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Carlton B. Moore will honor his memory with a special event from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 2, in Osswald Park, 2220 NW 21st Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. The Carlton B. Moore Friends & Family Day will feature a performance by the Miami Soundbyte Band, a bid whist tournament, games, food trucks, workshops and more.

After a year of COVID, TIFF returned as a hybrid festival with in-person screenings in Toronto and digital screenings around the world. A fine selection of African Diaspora films, films with Black actors in their cast and general-release films brought the magic of TIFF alive again.