Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 6-11-19

White House And Political News
Cory Booker’s Plan To Fix
Joe Biden Shares Photo Of Matching ‘Joe-Barack’ Friendship Bracelets On Twitter For #BestFriendsDay
The Housing Crisis And
Make Renting Affordable
Former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted out a photo of two matching friend- ship bracelets bearing the names “Joe” and “Barack” late Saturday to wish former President Barack Obama a “happy #BestFriendsDay.”
The photo appeared to be the same one Biden used in August 2016 to wish Obama a happy birthday on Twitter, using friendship bracelets Obama himself had made for a light-hearted video urging people to vote. This time around, however, many Twit- ter users saw Biden’s tweet as a ploy to drum up support ahead of the 2020 election.
Presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker has united poli- cies he proposed during his time in Congress into a new af- fordable housing plan, which he unveiled while on the cam- paign trail late last week.
Booker has made afford- able housing central to his campaign, and often tells the story of his parents’ struggle to buy a home in stump speeches. He told that story once again in an op-ed published in the Reno Gazette Journal that promotes the plan.
“Fifty years ago this month, a couple and their young fam- ily were looking to move into a neighborhood in New Jersey with great public schools, but real estate agents refused to sell them a home because of the color of their skin,” Booker wrote. “[Local ac- tivists] stood up against the il- legal housing discrimination the couple faced — and they won. The couple’s names were Cary and Carolyn Booker — my parents.”
JOE BIDEN, BARACK OBAMA AND THE BRACELET (INSET)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks to a crowd at the African American Leader- ship Council on June 6, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Booker credits his later successes to that early victory, and writes that his plan would help ensure Americans across the country have access to the opportunities he enjoyed as a child. The proposal seeks to do this in a few ways: with a tax credit to renters, a baby bond program, federal incentives for affordable housing, protections against eviction, and strategies to reduce homelessness.
Since he entered the 2020 race in April, Biden’s campaign has repeatedly appeared to try and remind voters of his close- ness to the former president, even though Obama has
stopped short of offering an endorsement.
Biden said he asked Obama not to endorse him to ensure that whoever wins does so “on their own merits.”
Chicago PD Re-Opens 55 Murder Cases
Involving Black Women Who May Have
Been Strangled By Serial Killer
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping teamed up at a global invest- ment conference in St. Peters- burg, Russia, to gang up on U. S. President Donald Trump. The two leaders have been strengthening their coun- tries’ trade ties in the wake of the Trump administration’s trade war with China.
Putin, in a speech on Fri- day, hinted that trade wars could escalate to “real wars,” according to the New York Times. He also accused the United States of “pretending” to support free markets only to now oppose them because of
President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping
Now, thanks to The Mur- der Accountability Project, the nonprofit group that peti- tioned to have the cold cases re-opened, concerns that a se- rial killer could be on the loose can be thoroughly investi- gated, CBS News reports.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago police have assigned a team of detectives to review the deaths more than a year after the newspa- per first reported that at least 75 women ranging in age from 18 to 58 had been strangled or smothered between 2001 and 2017.
As new concerns were raised about a potential serial killer,
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson declined to confirm his belief that a serial killer
China’s threats to American dominance.
In his speech on Friday, Xi suggested that the U. S. not throw out trade rules they were unhappy with but work to improve them. “If you are un-
happy with fleas in your fur coat, you should not throw the fur coat in the oven,” he said, according to the official trans- lation handout. “The current multilateral trade system has to be protected.”
Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping Team Up To Bash Trump On Trade
The families of Chicago mur- der victims pushed for the Chicago Police Department to reopen cases that involved the strangulation deaths of more than 50 Black women.
could be behind the murders, telling reporters there’s insuf- ficient information to make a that determination.
The police department fi- nally assigned a team of up to six detectives from a FBI vio- lent crimes task force in Chicago to re-examine the forensic evidence.
Presidential Podcasting: Barack And Michelle Obama Signed A Major Deal With Spotify
Book deals and streaming deals and speeches, oh my!
One year after landing a huge Netflix production deal, Barack and Michelle Obama have inked a new deal with Spotify to produce pod- casts.
“We’ve always believed in the value of entertaining, thought-provoking conversa- tion,” the former president said in a statement via the Los Angeles Times. “It helps us build connections with each other and open ourselves up to new ideas. We’re excited about Higher Ground Audio because podcasts offer an extraordi- nary opportunity to foster pro- ductive dialogue, make people smile and make people think, and, hopefully, bring us all a little closer together.”
As the L. A. Times notes: The Obamas’ production company Higher Ground said Thursday that it has forged a partnership to create podcasts exclusively for Stockholm-
Former U. S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama participate in the unveiling of their official portraits during a ceremony on February 12, 2018 in Wash- ington, DC.
based Spotify’s global plat- form. Publicly traded Spotify is the world’s largest streaming music company, with 100 mil- lion paying subscribers and more than 217 million monthly active users.
Spotify reportedly has plans to invest as much as $500 million in podcast acqui- sitions.
Of course, inquiring minds would like to know but the price tag on the deal as well as any details about the potential podcasts are being kept under wraps for now. I’m sure we’ll know more about the latter in the future, as the development stage evolves. I think it’s safe to assume there will at least be one surrounding politics. Per- haps they’ll have another one dedicated to music since they’ve built a reputation for their love of sharing playlists. Maybe Mrs. Obama will cre- ate one dedicated to fitness and health. The opportunities are endless and our forever first couple has the creative world as their oyster.
The podcasting partnership makes sense for Mr. Obama specifically, who has been in the podcast scene, appearing on popular shows such as WTF with Marc Maron; his ad- ministration’s former staffers went on to launch Crooked Media (Pod Save America).
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