Category: World & Nation

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Reverend William Barber Says Medicaid Cuts are “Retrogression”

“Put a face on the deadliness of this big, bad, deadly, ugly bill.” That is what Reverend William Barber says as he conducts Moral Mondays in 11 Southern states today. He is laser-focused on 11 local U.S. Senate offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Tennessee.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

IN MEMORIAM: Founding CBC Member and Missouri Trailblazer Bill Clay Sr. Dies at 94

William Lacy Clay Sr., a civil rights leader, legislative powerhouse, and one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus, has died. He was 94. “The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) extends heartfelt condolences to the family of Congressman William Clay Sr.,” NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. stated. The NNPA is the trade association of the more than 200 African American-owned newspapers and media companies that comprise the 198-year-old Black Press of America. “He was a freedom fighting member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a staunch supporter of the Black Press of America.”

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

George Mason University President Targeted by Trump as Department of Education Launches Investigation

Less than three weeks after pressuring the President of the University of Virginia, James Ryan, to resign, the Trump Administration is back again. This time, they are targeting the Black President of George Mason University, Greg Washington. The former American University professor became the 8th president of George Mason University on July 1, 2020. After the Trump Administration made it clear that they are looking to control academic institutions that receive funding from the federal government, Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Virginia were the focus of investigations and questions on accreditation by the Trump Department of Education.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

Should Black Americans Protest Mass Deportations?

The mass immigration raids across Los Angeles County last month were the spark for protests and demonstrations across the region. The area is home to the second-most undocumented migrants in the country and thousands of demonstrators filled the streets outside of the federal building in downtown Los Angeles to condemn the actions of the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Measles Cases Hit 33-Year Record as CORI Deploys Outbreak Response Tools

The United States has recorded its highest number of annual measles cases in 33 years, with at least 1,277 confirmed infections spanning 38 states and the District of Columbia. According to information published by the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation (CORI), the country has already exceeded the number of infections reported in 2019. The current total represents the largest outbreak since 1992, when more than 2,100 cases were documented nationwide.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Talent Over Tokenism: Black Mayors Slash Crime Despite Media Silence

While cable news pundits and national newspapers often fixate on urban dysfunction, Black mayors across America are delivering measurable, record-breaking progress in public safety—and getting almost no credit for it.  Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin have overseen some of the steepest reductions in violent crime their cities have experienced in decades.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

‘Free America Weekend’ Ignites 50-State Wave of Protests Against Trump on July 4

A sprawling coalition of activists plans to transform July 4 into a day of protest and civic action, as demonstrators in all 50 states rally against President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda. Billed as “Free America Weekend,” the effort is the latest in a string of large-scale demonstrations, following June’s “No Kings Day” protests that drew crowds nationwide to reject what organizers described as Trump’s push toward authoritarian rule.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

What RFK Jr. Isn’t Talking About: How To Make Vaccines Safer

Within an hour of receiving a covid vaccination in November 2020, Utah preschool teacher Brianne Dressen felt pins and needles through her arms and legs. In the medical odyssey that followed, she suffered double vision, chronic nausea, brain fog, and profound weakness. Once a rock climber, she became a couch potato.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis Admits “Money Isn’t There” for Medicaid and Trump Will “Break a Promise”

North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis Admits “Money Isn’t There” for Medicaid Will “Betray a Promise” Trump Made on the Senate floor on June 30, North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis spoke against President Trump’s budget bill that will kill health care coverage for 17 million Americans. “What do I tell 663,000 people in two years, three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore, guys?” Sen. Tillis asked the chamber.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Crypto, Golf, and Now Phones: Trump Cashes in on the White House

Donald Trump, already under scrutiny for leveraging the presidency to boost his fortune, has launched a new venture — Trump Mobile — while continuing to rake in profits from a vast web of business interests tied to his time in office.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

Cuba’s Top Diplomat to U.S.: Blockade Hurts Black Americans and Cubans Alike

Cuba’s Deputy Director of U.S. Affairs Johana Tablada offered a sobering but impassioned critique of current U.S. policy toward Cuba during an exclusive interview in Washington, D.C., where she called on Americans—especially African Americans—to pay closer attention to the consequences of decades-long sanctions and misinformation.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Critics Question 2024 Results as Musk Tactics Surface

Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2024 has reignited questions about election integrity, particularly after his remarks thanking Elon Musk for what he called a “landslide” win in Pennsylvania.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Tulsa Mayor Launches $105M Greenwood Trust to Repair Massacre Legacy

On Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day, Mayor Monroe Nichols, the city’s first African American mayor, announced the Greenwood Trust, a $105 million private charitable fund created to address the long-term harm caused by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

The Travel Bans Chilling Impact

“Another shameful moment for our nation’s foreign policy” is what ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Greg Meeks calls President Trump’s latest travel ban on 12 countries. President Trump reinstated his first-time travel ban based on national security concerns. Beginning June 9, 2025, at 12:01, citizens of the designated countries are banned from entering the United States.

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

Trump’s Personal Fortune Surges as Critics Point to Historic Monetization of Presidency

More than any president in modern history, Donald Trump has turned the White House into a source of personal wealth, with a scale of profiteering that experts say eclipses previous administrations—and with little political consequence. “I’ve been watching and writing about corruption for 50 years, and my head is still spinning,” said Michael Johnston, professor emeritus at Colgate University and author of several books on corruption. Investigations by multiple news outlets, including the New York Times, Bloomberg News, PBS, and Open Secrets, reveal that since returning to power, Trump and his family have significantly expanded their business empire, using the presidency as leverage to capitalize on a level of influence and impunity that has redrawn the boundaries of acceptable conduct in Washington.