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Warner, Founder of Newburgh Meals on Wheels Dies

HUDSON VALLEY PRESS — The founder and long-time executive director of Meals on Wheels of Greater Newburgh, Frederica Warner, died on Tuesday, April 9. She was 101 years old. Warner founded the program that brought meals to residents who could not leave their homes because of illness of frailty in 1972.

Published

7 years ago

April 28, 2019

HVPress

By Hudson Valley Press

NEWBURGH – The founder and long-time executive director of Meals on Wheels of Greater Newburgh, Frederica Warner, died on Tuesday, April 9. She was 101 years old.

Warner founded the program that brought meals to residents who could not leave their homes because of illness of frailty in 1972.

She was a life-long resident of Newburgh.

Warner was “an institution, an inspiration and a wonderful mother,” said Carole McDermott, the current executive director of the program, who knew her since McDermott was six years old and Warner taught her how to cook hotdogs.

McDermott noted “you couldn’t say ‘no’ to Frederica.”“She got me involved in Meals on Wheels after I retired from banking. I went from doing international trade at banks to what I call meat and potatoes at Meals on Wheels,” she said. “Frederica had that way with people. She could get people enthused, get them involved, get them committed.”

“Frederica was well respected, even revered, by those she worked with, those she helped and all whose lives she touched,” said Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus.

Warner was the only child of E. Lafayette Hunter and Sarah Frint Hunter and was a descendant of freed slaves who helped organize the Underground Railroad and the Republican Party in the years preceding the Civil War.

At the age of ten, she became a member of Girl Scout Troop 7, sponsored by the AME Zion Church in Newburgh. The Scouts emphasized helping others and becoming active members of the community – goals which Frederica embraced wholeheartedly for the rest of her life.

Frederica has become a living legend in Orange County for her numerous volunteer contributions. She has been an active member of, and honored by, many organizations including the Salvation Army of Newburgh, Orange County Women of Achievement, Newburgh YWCA, Human Rights Commission of Orange County, Habitat for Humanity, Orange Area United Fund, Liberty Street Day Care Center, McQuade Foundation, Amos & Sarah Holden Home, Town of Newburgh Republican Committee, New York State Church Women United, Church Women United to the United Nations, Orange County Professional Advisory Committee, Zonta International, Business & Professional Women’s Club, and Magenta Mammas Red Hatters.

She was married for sixty-five years to the late Loren Warner, her soulmate and love of her life. Their daughter and only child, Lady Maxine Warner Burton, is the wife of Sir Eric Burton, former Member of Parliament of the Republic of Antigua-Barbuda in the West Indies. Frederica is the grandmother of seven, great-grandmother of twenty-three and great-great-grandmother of ten.

Visitation for family and friends will be held from Noon to 5 pm on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at Calvary Presbyterian Church, corner of South Street and Grand Street in Newburgh.

Funeral Service will be their the following day at 10 am.

This article originally appeared in the Hudson Valley Press.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

3 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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4 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

6 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke