Noticiero Estrella report workers targeted by Trump
D.C.’s Ward 1 has always been an iconoclastic place that has a tendency to vote for outsiders and underdogs for Ward Councilperson. In the early 80’s Frank Smith, a civil rights veteran and yet an outsider to D.C.’s democratic elite, beat a white, establishment backed, liberal in his first election.
After four terms, Smith would lose to Jim Graham, a gay man (when that was less common in D.C. politics) who clerked for a Supreme Court justice and managed the District’s most famous AIDS prevention facility, the Whitman Walker Clinic (along the way befriending Elizabeth Taylor who became a major supporter). To win his first campaign in Ward 1, Jim put together an eclectic coalition of gays, Hispanics and what I describe as the ‘Euro trash’ vote – young, white, lefties from Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant & Columbia Heights. At first, he did not win the majority of the African American vote, nor the support of the democratic machine. Later the African American community and folks on the eastern side of the Ward became his most loyal constituents.
Women form a human chain on Feb. 14 in central Moscow to support jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his wife Yulia Navalnaya and other political prisoners.
Hilde Hoogenboom, Arizona State University
Tens of thousands of young Russians are protesting the leadership of Vladimir Putin nationwide in freezing temperatures. Thousands have been arrested.
Joe and Jill Biden attend Mass at St. Matthew the Apostle before the inauguration.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Steven P. Millies, Catholic Theological Union
Prior to being sworn in as the 46th president of the United States – and only the second Catholic to hold the post – Joe Biden attended Mass.
Jason Oliver Evans, University of Virginia
The high-stakes U.S. Senate race in Georgia catapulted the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church back into the spotlight. For 135 years, the church played a vital role in the fight against racism and the civil rights movement. It was the spiritual home of the civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Clayton Besaw, University of Central Florida and Matthew Frank, University of Denver
Did the United States just have a coup attempt?
Supporters of President Donald Trump, following his encouragement, stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, disrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Waving Trump banners, hundreds of people broke through barricades and smashed windows to enter the building where Congress convenes. One rioter and one police officer died in the clash and several other police officers were hospitalized. Congress went on lockdown.
While violent and shocking, what happened on Jan. 6 wasn’t a coup.
This Trumpist insurrection was election violence, much like the election violence that plagues many fragile democracies.
Gisselle Vila Benites, University of Melbourne and Anthony Bebbington, Clark University
Peru’s new interim president took office on Nov. 17 under unenviable circumstances.
Francisco Sagasti became the South American country’s third president in a week after President Martin Vizcarra was impeached for “moral incapacity” in what many Peruvians saw as a coup by Congress. Then Vizcarra’s successor, congressional president Manuel Merino, was quickly forced to resign after furious public protest.
In the days before this year’s general election, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson asserted that the city’s so-called political progressives were out of touch with the majority of the District’s electorate. Reviewing the unofficial results from Tuesday’s contest, it appears his analysis was correct.
>> See the video at the end>> I attended the March on Washington 2020 excited to capture images of a people united in support for the decent treatment of all humans. I’ve seen televised images of the 1963 March on Washington and I am moved each time at the harmony and love you see the attendees had for one another; it was genuine. Blacks and Whites for one moment were frozen in history in total and complete union and I just knew in my heart I would witness the same in this commemorative and commitment march organized by Dr. King’s very own son. While we all new the numbers would be lower than anticipated due to the global pandemic, I never in my wildest daydream could of even made up what I technically ‘didn’t see’. In a city where it is estimated 1.5 million Latinos reside within the tri-state region, our presence was next to none. In fact, from 9 am to 2 pm I counted a total of four, yes four Latinos attending the event, and two of those included myself and my wife.
Some top executives in DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration appear to be suffering from amnesia. Maybe it’s the stress of dealing with the novel coronavirus pandemic and public health emergency.
How else to explain why they are intent on pushing through a Medicaid contract with a company — MedStar — whose past behavior jeopardized the fiscal health of two other managed care organizations and damaged the entire program? Another company with whom the District is seeking to finalize a contract — CareFirst — owes the city millions of dollars in cash or services; it also appears to be flaunting DC small business certification laws, with tacit support from government officials.
The DC Council Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Ward 4’s Brandon Todd, recently gave preliminary approval to the Racial Equity Achieves Real Change Amendment Act of 2020. The legislation, now known as the REACH Act, was the brainchild of Council Chairman Pro Tempore Kenyan McDuffie, but it was co-introduced by 11 of his colleagues.
As the District of Columbia slowly begins the re-entry phase after the coronavirus quarantine and continuing protests over the murder of George Floyd, things look like they've changed quite a bit here in our town. For many of the new, younger residents this is the first serious civic engagement in which they participate. It brings with them a new generation of leadership and, hopefully, greater involvement in the affairs of the DC community, beyond mere symbolism.
Perhaps we should have recognized much earlier the large ambitions of Karl Racine. After all, he had been a White House counsel and was one of the first African Americans elected as managing partner of Venable LLP, a top firm in the city. He also spent more than $225,000 of his own money in his quest to become DC’s first elected, independent attorney general.
For much of the past five years, Racine has been praised, including by me, for strengthening the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). He created the Office of Consumer Protection and a Public Advocacy Division, aggressively fighting slum landlords and other predators. As president-elect of the National Association of Attorneys General and chair emeritus of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, he has worked with counterparts across the country to fight President Donald Trump’s discriminatory policies, his violations of the Constitution and his insatiable greed.
It seems a a lifetime ago when we were winding down from the Obama era. The angst and excitement for change was in the air. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had sealed up the nomination after a bruising primary against Senator Bernie Sanders. As others fell back or were eliminated through the process, Bernie catapulted to the front. Young people and the progressive wing of the party had finally found a champion who would take their issues to the forefront. Once unthinkable rhetoric was now a part of the national discourse. Much like in 2020 the “Democratic establishment” wing of the party coalesced behind Clinton and eventually came out on top. But even with a victory, Clinton entered into the general with a heavily split party. Some in the Bernie camp vowed to never support Clinton, others turned to the Green Party, and some would respect the process and throw their support behind her. Bernie would endorse Clinton but would get criticized from all sides for either selling out or not doing enough (deja vu).
olitical floodgates in DC opened after at-large Council member David Grosso announced he would retire at the end of his term this year, rather than seek reelection. A virtual sea of individuals — at least a dozen at last counting — have jumped into the November general election race. As required by law, the seat Grosso held is reserved for a minority party member or independent.
None of the candidates has self-identified as a Democratic Socialist. More than a few have labeled themselves “independent Democrats.” That’s a fake moniker, but I won’t rant; I’ve done that already.
Washington, D.C. (February 26, 2020) – On Monday, the Trump Administration’s inhumane public charge rule took effect, creating new barriers to immigration relief for the low-income immigrant community Ayuda serves.
I first collaborated with Franklin Garcia in the early 2000's during a community exercise envisioned to create a game plan, a road map for where the Latino community could progress and become more empowered and powerful in the District. A group of us led by veteran community leaders such as Angel Irene, Alberto Gomez, Jose and Sonia Gutierrez and the scholarly Enrique Rivera, created a document entitled; "DC Latino Agenda", out of the process.
Three story lines pundits in the media repeat that I do not believe are true;
1. There are too many Democratic candidates for President. In my view, on the contrary. I'm dazzled by the amount of talented, smart, charismatic candidates on the Democratic side. They would make a fabulous governing team if the Democrats return to power. Let them have their season of glory and may the best woman/man win.
It's frustrating to read to this day from otherwise credible pundits and commentators about how this person in the White House 'won' the election of 2016. He is an illegitimate President. The election of 2016 was stolen. I don't mean with propaganda or Russian media manipulation, but by changing votes, real votes. There is a reputable professor at a University in Michigan who explained with precision and detail how this was done -proved it was done. Derided as an outlier and conspiracy theorist at first, his research is now well accepted. In counties across Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (and perhaps Ohio) votes, real votes, were changed and non-existent votes added to the counts. Michigan and Wisconsin at the time were led by Republican governors, men who surely know how it was done and helped make these changes happen. Someday we may learn how they did it.
Nayib Bukele, the Mayor of San Salvador and candidate for President of El Salvador, was in town last week to organize his 'Nuevas Ideas' (New Ideas) movement of Salvadoran émigrés in the U.S. He attended a series of fundraising activities and addressed crowds in Maryland, Virginia and New York. Even though the Salvadoran election is over 15 months from now, Mr. Bukele has already made numerous campaign visits to our region.
Argentina's President Mauricio Macri came to Washington DC for his first visit under the Trump regime on Wednesday, April 26th, 2017. The whirlwind visit lasted barely 36 hours and began with a meeting on Thursday, April 27th with the American President. Later that same day he appeared at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to address an overflowing crowd eager to hear about his government's vaunted reforms and plans for growth and prosperity (see Link that follows for a transcript of the event).
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Secure National Hall
Construction of two new Security Screening Check Points (SSCP’s) to facilitate the removal of the existing Security Screening Check Points located at each Concourse within the existing Airport. The new Security Screening Check Points are additions to the existing Airport that will be constructed over the existing arrivals roadway. The two check points are located immediately adjacent to the existing cross over bridges from the metro on the north and south sides of the terminal. Each new SSCP (North and South) consists of new steel structure on auger cast and micro pile foundations with roughly 50,000 square feet of finished space for passenger queuing lines and the new TSA screening stations. The work entails full architectural fit out and finishes, MEP and Special Systems required for a complete and operational screening check point. The Project also consist of extensive renovations and building modifications to the existing Terminal building to align with the new adjoining SSCP’s
