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Political Playback: California Capitol News You Might Have Missed
News You Might Have Missed
Stefi Mar August 5, 2025
News You Might Have Missed
Statement from Patrick Rodenbush, Spokesperson for President Obama
With Donald Trump’s “Big Ugly” legislation now signed into law, health insurance premiums for millions of Americans are projected to spike in 2026, while critical subsidies for working families are being wiped out.
In a wide-ranging and reflective appearance on the Black Press of America’s Let It Be Known, Bill Cosby—long regarded as television’s most iconic father figure—shared his thoughts on the death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who portrayed Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Warner, 54, reportedly drowned, and his passing has struck a deep chord with generations who grew up watching the groundbreaking series. Speaking with his trademark blend of intellect, personal memory, and cultural clarity, Cosby honored Warner’s legacy while revisiting the impact of The Cosby Show, a series that helped reshape how Black family life was portrayed on television.
“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.
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.”
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.
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).
Jamaica’s Ambassador to Japan, Shorna-Kay Richards, has issued a powerful call for global nuclear disarmament, urging the international community and the passengers aboard the Peace Boat to “never give up the fight” for peace, justice, and a world free of nuclear weapons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Congressman James E. Clyburn (SC-06) released the following video on X, paying tribute to the 10th anniversary of the shooting that took place at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015.
Citing Trump’s “attacking our democracy,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will not invite President Donald Trump to its national convention this year. The decision marks the first time that America’s oldest civil rights organization will exclude a sitting president at its convention.
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.
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.
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.