Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 6-5-18

White House and Political News
Housing Rights Groups Plan To File Suit Against HUD Tuesday
NAACP Files Federal Lawsuit
Civil rights advocates plan to sue the Trump administra- tion’s Department of Housing And Urban Development (HUD) over enforcement of the 50-year-old Fair Housing Act, part of an effort to prevent dis- crimination in the allocation of funds for Gulf Coast hurricane housing and infrastructure re- construction.
On Tuesday, a coalition of national and Texas-based hous- ing groups are expected to file suit in Federal District Court in Washington to reinstate an Obama-era rule that required localities receiving federal de- velopment funding to submit plans detailing their efforts to end segregation based on race, income, ethnicity or physical disability.
Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Devel- opment, suspended the rule, known as the Affirmatively Fur- thering Fair Housing provision this year, over concerns that it put too heavy a burden on local governments that would have
fair housing, said Stephanie Reyes, a state and local policy manager for the Grounded So- lutions Network, a group that works to create affordable housing.
Trump’s HUD, however, said in a press release that the AFFH rule was ineffective and the software created to com- plete the assessments was “con- fusing and difficult to use,” resulting in far too many unacceptable reports.
HUD provides block-grant funding to about 1,200 commu- nities a year to provide decent affordable housing, offer serv- ices to vulnerable residents and create jobs. Just 49 communi- ties had used the new assess- ment process, according to the department.
It rejected a third of those assessments because they were missing information.
A number of communities that used the AFFH assessment tool said that while it was a major undertaking, it was a helpful exercise.
DeVos And Dept. Of Education
Dr. Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD.
to allocate resources to produce the plans.
Supporters viewed the rule as a long-overdue addendum to the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which prohibited owners and landlords from refusing to sell or rent to minority groups, but wasn’t adequately enforced.
The rule and a computer program developed to help im- plement it were designed to create consequences for com- munities that didn’t advance
The NAACP is once again tak- ing it to the courts, this time fil- ing a federal lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her Department of Education for abandoning civil rights enforcement regulations, and dismissing hundreds of com- plaints.
On Friday, the organization joined with the National Federa- tion of the Blind, and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advo- cates, to file the suit against DeVos and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. District Court of Maryland.
NAACP General Counsel, Bradford M. Berry, adds: “By summarily changing policies to allow for the dismissal of civil rights complaints and the ability of organizations to appeal their rulings, DeVos is basically say- ing protecting civil rights and the rights of those with disabilities no longer matter at the Depart- ment of Education.”
According to an NAACP press
Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.
release, the DOE has severely curtailed its Office of Civil Rights’ ability to enforce federal discrim- ination laws by implementing il- legal changes to its case procedure manual, impacting the rights of those it “purports to serve.”
DeVos, who has no experi- ence as an educator, nor any ex- perience in education, has been supportive of school choice, school voucher programs and charter schools. She has been embattled and embarrassing since her contentious confirma- tion hearings last year.
Against Education Sec. Betsy
Sacramento’s District Attorney Who Is Up For
U. S. Allies Fire Back At Trump's Tariffs
Re-Election Missing From ‘Get Out The Vote’ Event
Major U. S. trading partners wasted little time Thursday striking back against a White House move to slap steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
Mexico, the third-largest U. S. trade partner, said it would penalize U. S. imports includ- ing pork bellies, apples, grapes, cheeses and flat steel. Canada, the second-largest trade partner, behind China, responded with "dollar-for- dollar" tariffs against U. S. steel and aluminum exports.
In a press conference Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the Trump adminis- tration's tariffs "totally unac- ceptable." He said the White House argument that Cana- dian steel and aluminum im- ports represent a national security risk is "absurd."
On Thursday, Commerce
President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau.
Stephon Clark‘s family delivered a powerful call for change in Sacramento ahead of the city’s district attorney pri- mary seeking re-election on Tuesday.
Relatives of Clark continued to fight for justice nearly three months after the Black father-of- two, 22, was killed by police who mistook his cell phone for a gun in his grandmother’s backyard in March.
Clark’s family members gathered with Sacramento’s Black civil rights leaders at the state Capitol Thursday for a “Get- Out-The-Vote” event focusing on pushing reform, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Missing from the event was Sacramento County District At- torney Anne Marie Schubert, who has faced calls to criminally charge the officers involved in Clark’s shooting. But she has a troubling history of refusing to charge police specifically when it comes to shooting Black men.
The appeal from Clark’s family for change comes after Schubert has preached the weak defense that her office can’t act until investigative findings from the Sacramento police are released.
Facing public criticism, Schubert has kept a low profile and even agreed to have a chain- link fence erected around the dis- trict attorney’s downtown Sacramento office to keep out protesters. However, she can’t hide from community members and those people nationwide who want justice.
Secretary Wilbur Ross said the U. S. tariffs would amount to 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, and they would go into effect on Friday. The administration was following through on penalties after earlier grant- ing exemptions to buy time for negotiations. President Donald Trump initially an- nounced the tariffs in March, citing national security con- cerns, but promised to delay them as negotiations pro- ceeded.
The list of U. S. exports tar- geted by the European Union included jewelry products (worth $1.46 billion a year), Bourbon whiskey ($737 mil- lion), automotive glass ($686 million), telecom equipment ($506 million) and a wide range of personal care prod- ucts ($470 million), according to S&P Global Market Intelli- gence.
Also on the list: American- made blue jeans, worth about $76 million a year in exports to the European Union.
Stephon Clark died after being shot multiple times by Sacramento police.
Schubert will face off against challenger and deputy prosecu- tor Noah Phillips on Tuesday.
Phillips managed to out raise - and outspend - his boss and rival, taking in more than $987,000 from January to May 19 - a cool $654,000 since April 22, the campaign disclosure doc- uments show. But Phillips' cof- fers show he's running close to empty heading into the race's final laps. His campaign's cash balance as of May 19: $7,519.99.
Career prosecutors turned bit- ter rivals faced off: the incum- bent Schubert seeking reelection, conservative, law- and-order, a cold case expert with heavy backing from law en- forcement, the region’s political leaders and local business.
The challenger Phillips, a deputy DA with a reformist agenda to fix what he called a “broken system” by focusing on police accountability and aggres- sive investigation of officer-in- volved shootings.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2018