Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 9-17-19

Political News
New Brett Kavanaugh Sexual Misconduct Accusation Sets Off Calls For Supreme Court Impeachment
Congressional Ceremony Marks 400 Years
Of Slavery In America
Alfre Woodard speaking at the event.
At least three Democratic presidential candidates called for Supreme Court As- sociate Justice Brett Ka- vanaugh to be impeached after a new report about al- leged sexual misconduct from his college years. Pres- ident Trump, meanwhile, stood by Kavanaugh and said the Justice Department should "rescue" him.
Presidential candidates
Elizabeth Warren, Ka- mala Harris, Julián Cas- tro and Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that Kavanaugh should be taken off the na- tion's highest court after the latest accusation, which comes nearly a year after
BRETT KAVANAUGH
other misconduct allegations roiled Kavanaugh's confir- mation hearings. Ka- vanaugh has not responded
to the latest report, but de- nied all accusations that emerged during his confir- mation process.
"Last year the Ka- vanaugh nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examina- tion of the allegations against him," Warren tweeted. "Confirmation is not exoner- ation, and these newest rev- elations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be im- peached."
Harris and Castro both accused Kavanaugh of lying under oath during his Senate confirmation hear- ings.
In the U. S. Capitol, largely built by enslaved Africans, members of Congress held ceremonies to mark 1619, the year Africans landed in the Virginia Colony and centuries of American chattel slavery began.
Tuesday’s ceremony was hosted by the 55-member Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and welcomed law- makers from both sides of the aisle. The crowd ranged from Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and special guests such as ac- tress Alfre Woodard.
Saying it is time “to finally, finally tell the full story, the unvarnished truth,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared stories of an official visit with 13 CBC members to Ghana this summer, where she addressed Parliament, and the delegation paid re- spects at Cape Coast and Elmina `slave castles’ where Africans bound for ships en- tered `The Door of No Re- turn.’
“We saw the tragic sites where men committed inhu- manity against his fellow per- son – man,” said Pelosi of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. “We saw where kidnappings were perpetuated, where human dignity was denied and where the hope was lost, as so many caught their last glimpse of home before being sentenced to a life of slavery.”
In a space with statues and busts of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks, the sound
of African drumming, and spirituals from the Howard University Singers filled the air.
Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole,
president of the National Council of Negro Women, and Pulitzer-Prize winning Harvard professor, Annette Gordon Reed, spoke pow- erfully about the history and legacy of African Americans. While some historians say the “20 and odd Negars” who landed in English North America were indentured ser- vants, Reed said these human beings were enslaved. “There was no indentured contract,” she said, noting that colonists and the nation eventually wrote “slavery and white supremacy into law.”
Yet those early Africans and their descendants “made a way out of no way,” said Cole, exhibiting “resistance and resilience.” Black Ameri- cans enriched the U. S. econ- omy, and created music, culture, culinary traditions and more. “They not only sur- vived, they flourished!” Cole said.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) who has intro- duced legislation around reparations for African Amer- icans, said the nation must make amends. Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), Chairwoman of the CBC, agreed.
America is an “amazing country,” but despite “our in- credible history,” the country must acknowledge 246 years of slavery and fight for a more perfect union.
Former Top FEMA Official Busted For Taking Bribes After Hurricane Maria
A former top official in the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly taking bribes from the head of a company who received $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico’s power grid after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.
Ahsha Tribble, a deputy regional administrator, an- other former FEMA official, Jovanda Patterson, and Donald Keith Ellison, the former president of COBRA Acquisitions, were charged in a 15-count indictment.
Patterson, Tribble’s
deputy chief of staff, steered contracts to COBRA and left FEMA in July 2018 for a job at the energy company, the court documents say.
“These defendants were supposed to come to Puerto Rico to help during the re-
AHSHA TRIBBLE
covery after the devastation suffered from Hurricane Maria. Instead, they decided to take advantage of the pre- carious conditions of our electric power grid and en- gaged in a bribery and hon- est services wire fraud scheme in order to enrich themselves illegally,” Rosa
Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez,
the U. S. attorney in Puerto Rico, said in a statement.
The charges implied that Tribble, who oversaw the restoration of the island’s electrical system for FEMA, and Ellison were romanti- cally involved and docu- mented how they traveled together and often stayed in the same room between Oc- tober 2017 and April 2019.
Ellison, who had two con- tracts for recovery work from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, enticed Tribble with gifts, including a helicopter tour of the Caribbean island, helping her get an apartment in New York, hotel rooms in Fort Lauderdale and Charlotte, N. C., first-class air tickets from San Juan to New York, and use of his credit card, the in- dictment released Sept. 3 says.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019