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OPINION: Checkmate! In the High Stakes Game of Political Leadership, Congresswoman Maxine Waters Illustrates She is Master Queen

SOUTH BAY BLACK JOURNAL — Whether she was advocating for $10 billion in funding for Section 8 when that program faced dire circumstances; or securing $50 million in funding for Youth Fair Chance; the $400 million for Minority Aids Funding or the $6 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization, Congresswoman Maxine Waters has always been at the forefront of what is best for the communities she serves.
The post OPINION: Checkmate! In the High Stakes Game of Political Leadership, Congresswoman Maxine Waters Illustrates She is Master Queen first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 years ago

July 22, 2024

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By Kenneth Miller, Publisher of the South Bay Black Journal

In about a month when the Democratic National Convention convenes in Chicago, the eyes of America and the world will be anxiously watching how the party nominee for president unfolds.

Conventions of both the Republicans and Democrats are lavish, exuberant celebrations of four-day events to showcase their leaders, define their ideology and confirm their candidates for president and vice president.

Somewhere amid all of the blowing horns, balloons and wacky outfits will be Congresswoman Maxine Waters, arguably the most powerful Black elected official in America. In some way shape or form she will be impacting the most significant decisions the Democrats make.

For more than 40 years (33 years in the United States House of Representatives), “Auntie” Maxine Waters, as she is so affectionately hailed by her legions of constituents, has proven that without her, so much would be lost.

Whether she was advocating for $10 billion in funding for Section 8 when that program faced dire circumstances; or securing $50 million in funding for Youth Fair Chance; the $400 million for Minority Aids Funding or the $6 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization, she has always been at the forefront of what is best for the communities she serves.

As citizens, we are always hopeful and prayerful that our public servants will influence legislation on our behalf that will provide healthcare, affordable food and housing, good paying jobs, funding for small business, safe communities and safe places for our children to be educated.

However, in today’s divided political universe, many of us are torn or swayed by propaganda to believe that our system of governance is failing us. As a result, we accuse our elected officials of being out of touch and not adhering to our concerns.

These persuasive but frightening perceptions play right into the hands of those that denied Blacks voting rights. This rhetoric, fueled by broadcast networks, social media, podcasts and streaming platforms, can lead us to be so discouraged that we just say “to hell with all of it” and not exercise the most powerful difference making tool at our disposal: THE RIGHT TO VOTE, and suffer our ultimate demise.

That is why leadership is paramount. Some perceive leadership as some fancy title that is only available to the chosen elite, but real leadership is demonstrated by the actions and deeds of the individuals elected to serve.

Trusted and reliable leaders advocate for what is right, even when contradicted by members of their own political party.

Such was the case when Waters learned California Governor Gavin Newsom had released his budget for the state without any funding for the Martin Luther King Community Hospital (MLKCH), which was on the brink of closing yet again.

Fuming, Waters encountered Newsom at an event and cornered him about the MLKCH dilemma.

In a letter sent to Newsom, Waters appealed; “I call on you as the Governor of the Great State of California to reverse your decision of 2022 and immediately support legislation that will adjust MLKCH’s supplemental funding methodology to include outpatient services, including the approximately 125,000 ED services provided by the hospital every year. This will cost an estimated $25 million per year. More importantly, it will save countless lives.”

Newsom had previously vetoed Assemblymember Mike Gipson (Carson)’s AB 2426 to expand MLKCH’s supplemental funding in order to cover hospital-based outpatient services provided in the emergency department. The bill provided MLKCH approximately $25-$30 million in additional funds annually.

Not long after Waters sent a letter to Newsom on June 14, Newsom reversed course and signed off the legislation to fund MLKCH.

It was a gangsta move as we say in the hood, and copied on the letter were a long list of community stakeholders including:

Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO, MLK Community Healthcare Assemblyman Mike Gipson
County Supervisor Hilda Solis, 1st District
County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, 2nd District
County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, 3rd District
County Supervisor Janice Hahn, 4th District
County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, 5th District
Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOskar, District 15 LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin, District 7 Compton Mayor Emma Sharif
Mr. John Baackes, CEO, LA Care Health Plan
Ms. Wajeha A. Bilal, Founder, Build Plus Community Marketplace
Dr. David Carlisle, President and CEO, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
Rev. Timothy Coston, Jr., Senior Pastor, Grant AME Church
Ms. Robin Daniels, CEO, Sisters of Watts
Rev. Dr. Sonja R. Dawson, Senior Pastor. New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist
Church
Mr. Ryan Ferguson, Manager, Government and Community Relations-LA South, Kaiser
Permanente Watts Medical Offices and Watts Counseling and Learning Center Mr. John Jones, III, President and Co-Founder, East Side Riders Bike Club
Mr. Donny Joubert, President, Watts Gang Taskforce
Ms. Yumi Kawasaki, Principal, Edwin Markham Middle School
Ms. Olusheyi Lawoyin, COO, Watts Healthcare Corporation
Ms. Elsa Madrid, Principal, Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center Dr. Cynthia Mendenhall, Founder and President, Chosen Angels Inc.
Rev. Kenneth Miller, Senior Pastor, Hays Tabernacle CME Church
Rev. Dr. Ivan Pitts, Macedonia Baptist Church
Mr. Brandon “Stix” Salaam-Bailey, Founder and CEO, Think Watts
Ms. Dolores Sheen, Founder, Sheenway School and Culture Center
Mr. Aqeela Sherrills, Co-Founder, Community Based Public Safety Collective Rev. Robert Taylor, President, Watts Area Ministers
Mr. Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, CEO, Top Dawg Entertainment
Mr. Tim Watkins, CEO, WLCAC
Ms. Autumn Ybarra, Watts/Century Latino Organization

“This unique hospital serves some of the poorest and sickest people in the State of California and perhaps the entire country. Our community depends on MLKCH, and we cannot allow it to close,” Waters wrote.

Waters was just warming up after the victory for MLKCH, she then turned her attention to the City of Inglewood in her Congressional District.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, and confirmed by Waters in an interview with South Bay Black Journal, Waters is now objecting to one of Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts’ most prominent projects, The People Mover (ITC), a $2-billion transportation line that would link SoFi Stadium to one of Los Angeles’ newest rail lines (K-Line).

“It will not provide convenient connectivity to employment or public services for local residents,” she said. “The ITC is designed primarily to allow public transit users to connect the extra 1.6 miles from Metro’s K Line to sports and entertainment venues. Shuttle buses could most likely accomplish the same goal at a fraction of the cost, but have not been seriously considered as an alternative,” Waters told the Times.

In affirming her commitment to prevent the project from going forward, Waters stated:

“To the degree that I can do anything to stop it, I will do it,” she said Wednesday. “It’s a project that has turned out to be totally unnecessary and totally much too costly.”

“The ITC threatens to exacerbate this crisis by displacing long-time Inglewood residents and small and minority-owned businesses and diverting resources away from some of the most urgent needs of the local communities in my district,” she wrote.

The four-term mayor has courted billionaires and inked deals to build SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome that have transformed his community.

As one might expect, Butts was not happy about Waters’ position.

“You can’t come in at the 11th hour with a little fairy tale story about how something is so terrible,” he said. The letter was “ill-conceived” and many of the points “fully invalid,” Butts told The Times that Waters did not reach out to him to discuss the matter.

However, this is what leadership is all about, challenging the most powerful within your own party with conviction.

These individuals wake up with a strategy to improve the lives of their constituents and everyday Americans and they go to sleep contemplating what more can be done.

Explore the entire political universe from the local, to the state upward to the federal level and few have been as reliable as Maxine Waters.

The sacrifices that she makes have threatened her mere existence as assassination attempts have placed her life and the safety of her family in constant jeopardy.

Whether it’s being at the forefront during civil unrest in Los Angeles or the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, we can always count on Maxine Waters being in the middle of the fight. In a sense she’s like Mike Tyson in his heyday, always menacing and going towards the opponent with intentions of securing victory by any means necessary.

The post OPINION: Checkmate! In the High Stakes Game of Political Leadership, Congresswoman Maxine Waters Illustrates She is Master Queen first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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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

1 week 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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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

1 week 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

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PRESS ROOM: NBA Hall of Fame Nominee Terry Cummings Joins 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to Launch Victory & Values Initiative

NNPA NEWSWIRE — NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th.

Published

1 week ago

February 27, 2026

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Cummings becomes an honorary member, joining other role model sports stars

NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings has officially become an honorary member of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County, marking a powerful new chapter for the 100 Black Men and youth development across the region.

Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th. The moment signified more than membership — it marked the launch of the organization’s transformative new platform, the Victory & Values Initiative.

The Victory & Values Initiative is a groundbreaking youth development program designed to empower elementary and middle school students through a dynamic blend of sports, mentorship, and STEM exposure. The initiative focuses on building health, discipline, character, leadership, and access to opportunity — creating pathways for long-term academic and personal success.

“This is about more than sports,” said Cummings during the ceremony. “It’s about using the platform of athletics to teach life lessons, create access, and build the next generation of leaders.”

The induction ceremony also featured notable guests including NASCAR’s newest Star Driver, Lavar Scott and NASCAR Director of Athletic Performance, Phil Horton, who joined Cummings for a powerful Victory & Values Town Hall discussion. The Town Hall was moderated by renowned Sports Emcee John Hollins and focused on leadership, resilience, discipline, and the importance of mentorship in shaping young lives.

A “Day at NASCAR” for 75+ Youth

Cummings wasted no time getting to work. On his first full day as an honorary member, he joined his new brothers of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to host a “Day at NASCAR,” escorting more than 75 youth to a once-in-a-lifetime experience at EchoPark Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).

The youth participants received behind-the-scenes access including: an exclusive tour of Pit Row, access to the Garage Area and exploration of the interactive Fan Zone.

The experience culminated with a surprise meet-and-greet and Q&A session with NASCAR Superstar Bubba Wallace, who shared insights on perseverance, preparation, and breaking barriers in professional sports.

The day served as a living example of the ‘Victory & Values’ Initiative in action — exposing youth to new industries, expanding their vision for the future, and connecting them directly with high- level mentors and role models.

Building Leaders Through Access and Mentorship

The 100 Black Men of DeKalb County – a chapter of the largest, national mentoring organization in the county – continues to expand its footprint with programs focused on academic excellence, economic empowerment, leadership development, and health & wellness.

The launch of ‘Victory & Values’ represents a strategic expansion of the organization’s impact

intentionally integrating athletics and STEM to engage youth at an early age while reinforcing core principles such as integrity, accountability, teamwork, and perseverance.

“Our mission has always been to mentor the next generation,” said Vaughn Irons, President-Elect of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County. “With Terry Cummings joining the brotherhood, along with partners in NASCAR and professional sports, we are creating unprecedented access and exposure for our youth. Victory & Values is about turning inspiration into structured opportunity.”

By connecting elementary and middle school students to professional athletes, executives, STEM professionals, and community leaders, the initiative aims to:

Increase youth exposure to careers in sports business, engineering, and performance science
Strengthen mentorship pipelines
Promote physical wellness and mental resilience
Build character-driven leadership at an early age

Open Invitation to Youth and Families

All youth are invited to participate in the Victory & Values Initiative, along with the other countless, impactful programs offered by the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County.

Parents and guardians seeking mentorship, leadership development, academic enrichment, and transformative exposure opportunities for their children are encouraged to connect with the organization.

As NBA Legend Terry Cummings’ induction demonstrates, Victory & Values is more than a program — it is a movement designed to build champions in life, not just in sports.

For more information about the Victory & Values Initiative or to enroll a student, contact: 100 Black Men of DeKalb County at Phone at 404.241.1338, info@100bmod.org or Tee Foxx at 404.791.6525,