Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 2-4-22

Political News
Black Women Overwhelmingly Support Black Female Supreme Court Nominee – Poll
President Biden will possibly nominate one of these Black judges to the nation's highest court.
Obamas Dine At Waikiki Restaurant During Hawaii Visit
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama are in Hawaii and enjoying some local eats.
The Obamas dined at Is- land Vintage Wine Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Center on Sunday night. They were joined by Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, her family, and friend Bobby Titcomb.
Owner Paul Kang said it was an honor to serve the Obamas and that he was nervous all day in anticipa-
The Obamas dined at Island Vintage Wine Bar on Sunday night.
tion of them coming in. Soetoro-Ng is a big fan
of the restaurant and recom- mended it to the Obamas.
Black women are over- whelmingly in favor of Presi- dent Joe Biden nominating a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a poll published on Wednes- day.
The survey was con- ducted by Higher Heights in conjunction with Change Re- search. It found that 86 per- cent of Black women voters support prioritizing the nom- ination of the first Black woman to the nation's high- est court when a vacancy next arises.
The poll results come as it is confirmed that Associate Justice Stephen Breyer will retire from the Court when the current term ends in June this year, and amid renewed focus on Biden's promise to nominate a Black woman to the Court.
Higher Heights describes itself as the "only national or- ganization exclusively dedi- cated to harnessing Black women's political power from the voting booth to elected office."
The poll was conducted from January 4 to 9 among 507 Black women voters na- tionwide and has a margin of
error of plus or minus 5.04 percent.
"Black women are a piv- otal voting bloc, and this polling data lays out why the time is now for a Black woman justice on the Supreme Court," Glynda C. Carr, Higher Heights presi- dent and CEO, said in a state- ment on Wednesday.
"Black women have shown how powerful our ac- tivism and organizing can be in politics, yet we are still grossly underrepresented in leadership on every level," Carr said.
"There are zero Black women on the Supreme Court, zero Black women in the Senate, zero Black women governors, and zero Black women have ever served as president of this country.
There has already been significant speculation about who Biden will nominate to the Court, with Judge Ke- tanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Associ- ate Justice Leondra Kruger of the Supreme Court of California consid- ered serious contenders.
How To Order Free Rapid COVID Tests From The Government
Americans can now order free at-home rapid Covid-19 tests through a new govern- ment website.
The website rollout is part of a larger effort by the Biden administration to increase access to testing, including more over-the-counter tests at pharmacies and in-person testing at local health centers. The administration is also ex- pected to make available 400 million N95 masks free at
pharmacies and community health centers across the country.
Here is what to know about how to place an order, how many tests you can get, when they will arrive and more.
What is the address of the testing site?
The address is COVIDTests.gov.
Once a user clicks on “order free at-home tests,”
the URL redirects to spe- cial.usps.com/testkits. The tests are available to order now.
What time does it go live?
The site went live in an early launch on Jan. 18, oper- ating at a limited capacity for troubleshooting purposes, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Its official launch is Jan. 19.
Federal Court Deals A Blow
To Alabama GOP's Racially
Gerrymandered Map
Federal judges on Monday struck down a congressional map drawn by Alabama’s GOP-led Legislature, finding the Republican proposal would ensure “Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice."
It’s the second time this year a federal court has blocked GOP-drawn maps from going into effect. Earlier this month, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled district maps drawn by Republicans were racially gerrymandered.
Republicans controlling Alabama’s Legislature drew maps that would have created
just one majority-Black dis- trict out of the state's seven congressional districts. In its ruling Monday, the three- judge panel of the U.S. Dis- trict Court for the Northern District of Alabama gave the Legislature until Feb. 11 to
come up with a new map that includes “two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age major- ity or something quite close to it.” Notably, Black people ac- count for roughly one-quarter of the population in Alabama.
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