Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 10-25-19

Political News
Facebook: Russian Trolls Are Back And They Are Here To Meddle With 2020
President Trump Expected To Come To Columbia To Speak At HBCU Forum On Criminal Justice Reform
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - President Donald Trump is expected in the Palmetto State to discuss criminal justice re- form this weekend.
Sources confirmed to WIS that the president is expected to attend the 2019 Second Step Presidential Justice Forum hosted by Benedict College on the weekend of Oct. 25 to 27.
The forum, organized by the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Cen- ter, will also feature many Democratic presidential candi- dates.
Confirmed to attend are for- mer Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker and others.
All candidates will be asked to talk about their plans for criminal justice reform. After a short speech, each will face questions from the moderator and audience, event organizers said.
Columbia Mayor Steve
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
Benjamin will be one of the hosts, along with the National Black Police Association, African American Mayors As- sociation and local and state officials and legislators with the National Black Caucus.
The event’s name draws from the passing of the First Step Act in 2018. That legislation passed with a rare bipartisan effort and reduced mandatory minimums and freed thou- sands of people from federal prison who had been incarcer- ated for non-violent drug of- fenses.
NEW YORK -People linked to the Internet Re- search Agency, the Kremlin- backed troll group indicted by the United States for its alleged interference in the 2016 U. S. presidential elec- tion, are laying the ground- work to do the same in 2020, new information re- leased by Facebook on Mon- day suggests.
Profiles originating in Russia had since the begin- ning of this year been build- ing a network of accounts on Instagram designed to look like groups in swing states, the company said. Insta- gram is owned by Facebook (FB).
Although the accounts posed as Americans from all sides of the political spec- trum, many were united in their opposition to the can- didacy of former Vice President Joe Biden, ac- cording to Graphika, a social media investigations com- pany that Facebook asked to analyze the accounts. The Russian trolls who used so-
The body of the late U. S.
Rep. Elijah Cummings
will lie in state in the Na- tional Statuary Hall of the U. S. Capitol this week and a fu- neral will be held in Balti- more on Friday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office said in a news release that a formal cere- mony open to members of Congress, the Cummings family and invited guests will be held Thursday morning, followed by a public viewing, per The Associated Press.
A wake and funeral is planned the following day at Cummings’ longtime place of worship, New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore. Morgan State University will also host a public viewing Wednesday.
The Democratic congress- man from Maryland died early Thursday morning at Gilchrist Hospice Care, a
cial media to interfere in the 2016 election employed a similar tactic, going after Hillary Clinton from the right and also trying to spread a perception on the left that Clinton was not liberal enough and that lib- erals and African Americans especially shouldn't bother voting for her.
The accounts Facebook revealed Monday, 50 of which were on Instagram and one of which was on Facebook, were designed to look like they were advocat- ing on a broad range of is- sues across American life.
Accounts with usernames like @black.queen.chloe and @michigan_black_commu- nity_ looked like they were
run by black activists. There were also pro and anti- Trump accounts, and ac- counts posing as feminists, LGBTQ rights advocates, and environmentalists. Other account names in- cluded @stop.trump2020, @bernie.2020__, @iowa.patriot, and @femi- nist_agenda_, according to Graphika.
Facebook said the ac- counts combined had more than 250,000 followers, more than half of which were based in the U. S. Face- book did not disclose how many of those followers were real and how many might have been fake or bot accounts designed to make the main accounts look more legitimate. Facebook says it has removed the ac- counts.
"It looked like there was a systematic focus on attack- ing Biden from both sides," Graphika director of inves- tigations Ben Nimmo, who analyzed the accounts, told CNN Business.
US Representative Cummings Will Lie In State At Capitol And Widow Expected To Run For His House Seat
MAYA ROCKEYMOORE-CUMMINGS AND REPRESENTATIVE ELIJAH CUMMINGS
Johns Hopkins affiliate in Baltimore. He was 68.
After undergoing an un- specified medical procedure, Cummings did not return to his office, the Baltimore Sun reported. A statement from his office confirmed he passed away due to “compli- cations concerning long- standing health challenges.”
As chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the 23- year veteran of Capitol Hill led multiple investigations into Trump and his admin- istration. These inquiries an-
gered the president, who crit- icized the congressman’s dis- trict in July as a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” Cum- mings had represented Maryland’s 7th Congres- sional District since 1996.
Maya Rockeymoore, Cummings’ widow and chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, is expected to run for her late husband’s House seat, according to a re- port.
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