Friends in High Places
What does it take for the US Attorney General to meddle in his own Department of Justice’s cases, against the wishes of his prosecutors? A couple of critical tweets from Donald J. Trump, of course. After DOJ prosecutors recommended a 7-9 year sentence for one of 45’s friends, Nixon-loving Roger Stone, AG Bill Barr saved the day with a much lighter recommended sentence. In response to the untraditional move, now over 1K former DOJ officials are calling on Barr to resign as this is (yet another) dangerous precedent of him serving Trump’s political interests above the interests of the country. Chances of him going anywhere on his own volition? Nilch.
Other Trump-related updates:
He admitted sending Guiliani Ukraine to do precisely what he denied during impeachment.
The military declined to investigate an impeachment witness after Trump implied that it should.
He engaged in a Twitter battle with another powerful New Yorker: Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.
Seeking Truth in Tulsa
As the city explores potential sites of mass graves for victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre that destroyed Black Wall Street in 1921, one local pastor is coming for his people’s reparations.
Los Angeles Pushes Forward
As part of the nationwide movement to undo the harsh effects of the War on Drugs, the Los Angeles County District Attorney dismissed 66K weed convictions dating as far back as 1961. The move by the DA, a Black woman, will clear out criminal records for 15K people and remove felony convictions for another 22K. Not surprisingly, the dismissal will benefit Black and brown people the most.
Congress, What’s Good?
The Senate and House respectively have state and district work periods this week, but a couple notable headlines for Congress are below:
The Senate GOP conveniently blocked 3 election security bills last week.
A bill to give D.C. statehood has made its way to the full House for a vote. It is expected that the bill would pass, but then suffer from lack of support in the upper chamber.
2020 Watch
Pete Buttigieg is the epitome of white privilege, this Black writer says. Is this what we’re all thinking?
The Bern was so hot in New Hampshire’s primary, 3 candidates dropped out of the race. Say goodbye to Yang, Patrick, and Bennet.
Everybody, just chill on Elizabeth Warren slander. The race is only getting started.
Did all of you who think Michael Bloomberg is the answer to Trump forget about his racist “stop & frisk” policy? Did you also forget that you wanted Kamala TF out of here because she was a cop??
Around the Diaspora
Despite protests, the UK deported its Jamaican-born residents who were sentenced to 12 months or more in prison. Many of them came to the UK as children and feel as though they have nowhere to go in their birth country.
Is Ethiopia’s new law trying to prevent the spread of misinformation or is its aim to silence people’s criticism of the government?
East Africa is still managing a horrible locust invasion, threatening the food supply of 13M people. The UN has stepped in to provide $76M in funding.
Culture that Pops
LeBron luh da kids. The NBA star finalized an agreement with Kent University that would provide free tuition to his I Promise school’s graduating class of 2021 as long as the students individually maintain good academic standing.
The “Renegade Challenge” that everyone is doing all over IG & TikTok was started by a 14 year old girl from Atlanta. Give her her props.
Colin Kaepernick is starting his own publishing company to combat negative narratives against Black people. The first narrative he’ll be starting with is his own.