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Rap Research Lab Looks at the Artistry of Hip-Hop

Digital Editor

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Feb 21, 2023

Rap Research Lab Looks at the Artistry of Hip-Hop

By LAWRENCE BURNEY, The Baltimore Banner

BALTIMORE (AP) _ When you step into the gallery at University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Fine Arts Building, one of the first things you see is a large multicolored graph on the wall. On it are the names of world-class rappers such as Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Lupe Fiasco in company with visual artists who’ve accomplished immortality through their work: Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rembrandt. Circular nodes surround the names with lines connecting them to other familiar figures such as Ja Rule, J. Cole, Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh and A$AP Rocky, whose names are also incapsulated in circles of different colors. The network graph shows the relationships between rappers and the painters they’ve name-dropped in their music, the larger nodes indicating who’s been mentioned the most throughout hip-hop history.

The mentions “could be for a number of reasons,” said Tahir Hemphill _ whose “Picasso, Baby!” piece is part of a larger exhibition called Rap Research Lab _ as he gives me a tour through the space. “It could be because people like Pablo Picasso, or it could be a shorthand for mastery and wealth. But also in terms of alliteration and rhyme, it’s kind of easy to rhyme. I mean, ‘I’m trying to cop those colossal-sized Picassos’ _ it’s easier to rhyme compared to other artist’s names.”

Hemphill, 50, whose work is at the intersection of technology, art and research _ often through the lens of hip-hop culture _ is at the tail end of a two-year fellowship in UMBC’s Department of Visual Arts. Rap Research Lab, which opened recently, is an ever-evolving culmination of his 16-year commitment to making interactive art from his interpretations of information. Along with collaborators, he develops systems that produce invaluable data about rap lyrics.

“Picasso, Baby!” was created in 2014 and named after a Jay-Z song that came out the year before, in which the rapper relishes in the luxurious aspects of his life _ most notably, owning art from the likes of Jeff Koons, Mark Rothko, Picasso and others. It marked a significant shift in hip-hop in which rappers started to look at expensive art as a way to flex their wealth or taste, in addition to the old reliables like jewelry and cars.

“I already started the update and the original list for painters (mentioned in rap songs) was maybe like 50 or 60 in 2014,” Hemphill says. “And the new list of painters is like 200.” The beauty of Rap Research Lab is that, as time goes on, the art will inevitably change shape as more data comes in.

Elsewhere in the show is “Maximum Distance, Minimum Displacement,” displaying 3-D renderings of where rappers travel in their work. During a residency at Carnegie Mellon University in 2017, Hemphill and six others used lyrics from rappers like Missy Elliott, Drake and Nas to track the locations (cities, neighborhoods, their favorite food joints) mentioned in their songs. From there, the team found the coordinates of said locations and developed spherical graphs to add dimension.

“At Carnegie Mellon University, they gave me a tour of the digital fabrication line. So they had laser cutters, they had large-format printers, they had CNC routers. And we were walking down this hallway and it was a glass wall and I looked and I saw this 15-foot robot, industrial robot, was just sitting there,” he remembers with a smile. “And I’m like, `Yo, what’s up with this?’ They said, `Oh, that’s our robot arm,’ and I was like, I don’t know what I’m going to do with it but I’m not leaving here without touching it.”

Hemphill and team developed a light stylus for the robot arm and programmed it to trace coordinates of the rappers’ favorite places to create figures. Analog photos and video documentation of the process are also on view at the show.

Other works in Rap Research Lab include footage from an internet-sourced 1990 interview of rising New York rappers in which Hemphill takes note of the shoutouts each artist gives when they come up to the mic. There’s an encased vinyl collection of albums that served as inspiration while Hemphill put the show together. And there’s his oldest project, 2007’s rap score cards, which took selected tracks and gave them grades based on the depth of the rapper’s vocabulary and suggested what level of education a person needed to fully comprehend what the song was about.

Rap Research Lab’s power is that it provides a plethora of entry points for those interested in looking at hip-hop through data analysis, and the pieces encourage you to think about how your own favorite music would physically manifest. And you don’t just have to come to the show at UMBC to get those tools (even though you should still pay a visit).

Rap Almanac is an online database that Hemphill has been fine-tuning for over a decade. It’s the easiest way to look for lyrics out of particular regions and in different languages. And unlike what can be seen at UMBC, the website is up to date with new music.

“When I did those (rap score) cards, I was like, `This is a cool little project. I’ll do a poster. I’ll do some cards. I’ll move on to the next thing.’ And that hasn’t happened,” Hemphill said of the research lab’s continued growth. “So part of this project is to bring people together to have those conversations.”

Arizona City Considers Replacing Street Names Tied to KKK

Digital Editor

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Feb 21, 2023

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Arizona City Considers Replacing Street Names Tied to KKK

By Associated Press

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona city council scheduled a vote next month on replacing park and road names that have century-old ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Tempe councilmembers will consider replacement names during a March 2 meeting. The new names were proposed by community members and vetted by council-appointed volunteers who met several times.

The renaming effort began in 2021 after historical research determined that several parks and streets were named after former community leaders who were members of an area Klan chapter in the 1920s. Resident Drew Sullivan helped start the initiative and staffers at the Arizona Historical Society and Tempe History Museum had a hand in the research, which also used records from the Phoenix Public Library.

A Klan chapter called Butte Klan No. 3 included many prominent Tempe residents, including mayors, council members, bankers and other power brokers, according to documents released by the city. At the time, the city’s elementary schools were segregated, as was a swimming pool at Tempe Beach Park.

The Tempe Elementary School District already has renamed three schools bearing some of the associated names.

Tempe city officials in February settled on the list of proposed replacement names, which includes civil rights activists, the first African American landowners in what is now Tempe, and married pioneers Adolfo Romo and Joaquina Jones, who fought and won in court for their children to be able to attend school with white children. Their 1925 case helped pave the way for desegregation in the United States.

“This is really touching to me because I’ve had people (in my family) who have died by hanging by the Ku Klux Klan, so I understand what this means emotionally,” Berdetta Hodge, the first Black woman to sit on the city council, told the Arizona Republic.

Pending action by the City Council, it could be the summer for the actual name changes are made.

The city is still organizing how it will reimburse residents who have to update their addresses. Residents will have one year to file claims after the properties are officially renamed.

Unhinged Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Quiet Part Out Loud: She Wants Pre-Civil War United States Where Whites Dominated Enslaved Black People

Maria

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Feb 20, 2023

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Unhinged Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Quiet Part Out Loud: She Wants Pre-Civil War United States Where Whites Dominated Enslaved Black People

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has said the quiet part out loud. The Georgia congresswoman, like some of her peers, doesn’t want to live anywhere near people of color.
Greene has called for the U.S. to be separated by red and blue states and for a shrinking of the federal government in a tweet on President’s Day, the two-term congresswoman’s latest in a string of controversial statements.

“We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” said Greene, R-Ga, in the tweet. “Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

The racially-charged tone-deaf tweet does not take into account, among other things, that the United States fought a civil war in the 1860s after a group of southern states tried to secede from America.

Greene’s tweet received thousands of responses on her timeline, most of which called her out for her racism.
“And what you are requesting in only to get dumb people riled up,” sports card enthusiast Tony Posnanski responded to Greene. “You aren’t even a joke because jokes are funny. You are just trash.”

Added strategist and former Democratic Chair Chris Jackson, “If someone would have said something like this 15 years ago, they would be deemed unstable and laughed out of politics. Today, it is embraced by the Speaker of the House. That says it all.”

Still, others noted how Greene and all members of Congress swore under oath that they “do solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that [they] will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that [they] take this obligation freely.”

Greene continues to openly support the insurrectionists from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and American Democracy.

As NBC News noted, many know Greene for her controversial statements.
For example, she has said that Jewish space lasers could start wildfires if they were put into the right place. She has also said that Muslim congresswomen could not be sworn in properly.

But she has been trying to rebrand herself as someone who can bridge the divides in her party as she angles to be Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, NBC News reported last month.
Green is not the first Republican to call for a line of succession, and support for a separate country has been growing since the 2020 elections.

A June 2021 poll by Bright Line Watch and YouGov found that 66% of Southern Republicans supported leaving the U.S. and forming a new country.
Support was also high among Democrats in the West, where 47% supported a division.

“Please cease from calling for a ‘Civil War’ under the guise of ‘National Divorce,’” attorney and activist Gerald Griggs wrote to Greene.
“You swore an oath to the United States of America and the state of Georgia to represent us. Please represent all the people.”

For Poor Schools, Building Repairs Zap COVID Relief Money

Maria

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Feb 20, 2023

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For Poor Schools, Building Repairs Zap COVID Relief Money

By SHARON LURYE, Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The air-conditioning gave out as students returned from summer break last year to Jim Hill High School in Jackson, Mississippi, forcing them to learn in sweltering heat. By Thanksgiving, students were huddling under blankets because the heat wasn’t working.

Along the way students dealt with broken showers in locker rooms, plumbing issues and a litany of other problems in the nearly 60-year-old school building.

“There’s been times we’ve been cold, there’s been times we’ve been hot,” said Mentia Trippeter, a 17-year-old senior. “There’s been times where it rained and it poured, we’ve been drowning. We go through it — we go through it, man.”

Like other schools serving low-income communities across the country, Jim Hill has long dealt with neglected infrastructure that has made it harder for students to learn. So when Jackson Public Schools received tens of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief money, it decided to put much of the windfall toward repairing heating and plumbing problems, some of which temporarily caused the school to switch to remote learning.

For poorer school districts, deciding what to do with that money has involved a tough tradeoff: work on long-term academic recovery or fix long-standing infrastructure needs.

All told, the federal government has allocated $190 billion in pandemic relief aid to help schools recover — more than four times the amount the U.S. Education Department spends on K-12 schools in a typical year, and with few strings attached.

An Associated Press analysis of school district spending plans from across the country found that the poorest districts in each state are far more likely than the richest districts to spend emergency relief funds on upgrading their buildings or transportation systems.

Jackson’s academic needs are no less pressing. The majority of students in the district learned virtually for a year and a half during the pandemic and math test scores plummeted by the equivalent of over a full year’s worth of learning, according to Harvard and Stanford’s Education Recovery Scorecard. But school officials didn’t want to miss a rare opportunity to fix infrastructure issues — some of which date back decades.

William Merritt, the school district’s chief of staff, said the funds gave the district the ability to “provide our students with tools that other students in well-to-do districts have.”

The data in AP’s analysis came from education market research firm Burbio, which reviewed how more than 6,000 districts across the country, representing over 75% of the nation’s public school students, planned to spend their federal relief money. The data covered the final and largest round of federal aid to schools, totaling $122 billion.

The AP found that school districts with the highest percentage of children living in poverty — the poorest 20% of districts in each state — were more than three times as likely as the wealthiest school districts to dedicate money to the construction of new buildings or classrooms. School districts with high levels of poverty were also more than twice as likely to include money for facilities repairs.

“The poor districts are doing it because they’re chasing after emergencies,” said Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund.

Infrastructure is a prime example of long-standing inequities in school funding. While affluent districts can rely on local tax revenue to pay for major improvement projects such as installing state-of-the-art heating and ventilation systems, poorer districts that cannot often spend more money over time on short-term fixes.

In Texas, the Victoria Independent School District is also grappling with competing infrastructure needs and pandemic recovery. It plans to spend half of the $28.4 million it received in the last round of relief funds on academics, teacher retention and student supports that include social-emotional behavior specialists.

The federal government has allocated $190 billion in pandemic relief to help schools recover — with few strings attached. An Associated Press analysis of school district spending across the country found that the poorest districts in each state are far more likely than the richest districts to spend relief funds on infrastructure upgrades. This digital embed shows categories of expenses for which high-poverty districts are more likely to plan to spend money under this program than more affluent districts are.

But the other 50% of the money is devoted to improving air quality, such as updating ventilation systems. Superintendent Quintin Shepherd says he’d love to spend more on counselors and less on fixing broken air conditioners, but there’s no way kids can learn safely in a classroom that’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

“We got into education to improve educational outcomes and life expectations. It’s a hard position to have to make these impossible decisions,” Shepherd said.

Some have argued the money shouldn’t be spent on infrastructure projects, which can take years to complete and often with with no immediate benefit to students. But the government only required 20% of the emergency relief funds to be spent addressing learning loss.

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a recent speech that the relief funding was “intended to accelerate reopening and recovery, not to fill decades of underinvestment in education funding and support for students.”

Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, said it was right for the government to allow a high degree of flexibility in how to spend the relief funds, rather than bogging districts down in red tape.

In Jackson, officials chose to spend over half of the $109 million the district received in the last round of federal funding on fixing the facilities in schools like Jim Hill.

Students at the school generally agreed that it needed infrastructure upgrades. Still, when asked what they would do if they were put in charge of spending that money for the district, some had bigger wishes.

“I believe we could hire more teachers to teach different types of subjects,” said Elijah Fisher, a 17-year-old junior. But, he admitted, first he would use the money to fix the drainage system around the school.

Overall, officials in Jackson are confident that they’re making the right investment.

Though much of the funding went toward infrastructure needs, the school district also bought laptops for every student and invested in after-school programming. Jim Hill now offers near year-round school with the summer term devoted to field trips and “learn by doing” experiences.

The school’s principal, Bobby Brown, said the money spent on infrastructure needs is very necessary — although not enough to address decades of inequity in the majority Black school system.

“As you listen to the students, and them having generations of families that have similar experiences,” Brown said, “this also sheds light on the types of investment that we have — or the lack of investment that we have in communities where people look like us.”

Nigeria’s Presidential Frontrunners in Final Push for Votes

Maria

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Feb 20, 2023

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Nigeria’s Presidential Frontrunners in Final Push for Votes

By CHINEDU ASADU, Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The leading contenders in Nigeria’s presidential election have made their last push for support, a week before the West African nation’s key election.

As the campaign period neared its end, both the ruling party’s Bola Tinubu and the main opposition’s Atiku Abubakar on Saturday held rallies in the northeast, where extremists have waged a decade-long insurgency against Nigeria. They both promised to improve the lives of residents in the region.

On social media, third-party candidate Peter Obi, who has emerged ahead of the other 17 candidates in most polls, said Africa’s most populous country needs a “reset and reboot” from the two major parties that have governed Nigeria since it left military rule in 1999.

The Feb. 25 election that would lead to a transitional government is the most consequential vote in many years for Nigeria, a country of more than 210 million people, according to analysts.

“This is a battle for the soul of the country considering the challenges confronting the country,” said Idayat Hassan, who leads the Center for Democracy and Development that promotes democracy in the country.

Nigeria is struggling with a worsening security crisis that has killed thousands in the past year, an ailing economy that has made citizens poorer, and growing separatist agitations in the southern region that have left the country more divided along ethnic lines.

“This is where the future of our state and the country resides — in the hands of PDP,” the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s Abubakar told thousands of supporters in Adamawa state as they waved the party’s red, green and white colours.

“If you give us your mandate, we promise to lead by our promises to make sure that we have a united country, a peaceful country, a buoyant economy for our country; that we have the best education for our children and also we devolve powers to our states and local governments with corresponding resources,” said the 76-year-old, who has taken part in two previous presidential elections, including in 2019 when he lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.

In Borno state, the epicenter of the 12-year-long extremism that has upended lives and livelihoods for millions, causing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressives Congress, or APC, told multitudes of supporters that “renewed hope is here; success is back. We will take care of all of you.”

The former governor of Lagos — Nigeria’s economic hub and largest city — promised to replicate what he did when he led that state from 1999 to 2007.

“We are promising you the people of Borno, you have faced difficulties and challenges (but) that is over now,” said the 71-year-old as he addressed supporters waving brooms — the party’s symbol.

“I can guarantee one thing: “We will revive the economy, we will develop Nigeria,” Tinubu said.

The Labour Party’s Obi — who has grown from an underdog in the early days of the campaign to become the favorite in most polls — is appealing in particular to Nigeria’s young, a large percentage of the country’s 93.4 million registered voters.

“In this march to freedom, I have not come out for myself! I have come out for the millions of youths that are losing hope in our beloved country!” Obi tweeted.

In a backlash against the two most popular parties, the 61-year-old said Nigeria is not bereft of good governance ideas and plans but is “bedeviled by the impunity” of a small number of people benefiting from the country’s resources at the expense of the masses.

Rising Hollywood Star Rayan Lawrence Reflects on Hit Cable Series and the Influence of 50 Cent

Maria

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Feb 20, 2023

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Rising Hollywood Star Rayan Lawrence Reflects on Hit Cable Series and the Influence of 50 Cent

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Rayan Lawrence doesn’t let his success make him arrogant.
Lawrence, who plays K-9 in the hit Starz show BMF (Black Mafia Family), is just enjoying his newfound fame as the show’s new lead character.
Lawrence told the Informer, “I love this, it’s so cool.”

“Back in New York, I went to a fashion show, and everyone there loves K-9. Because of what we’re doing with the character, everyone loves me.”
BMF tells the true story of how the Flenory brothers, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest Tee” Flenory, fought their way out of poverty and the war on drugs in Detroit to become cultural and hip-hop game changers.

As the Flenory brothers build a national empire, their pursuit of the American Dream is tied in with themes of family, faith, and loyalty.
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, a business and hip-hop mogul, is the executive producer of the hit show. Starz just announced that it has signed on for a third season of BMF.

The aspect of family creates a great attraction for Lawrence, he asserted.
“I was raised to value family, so it’s been amazing to be a part of this,” Lawrence said. “And to work with 50 Cent again. I worked with him on ‘Power,’ and I’ve been so excited to meet him.

LaLa Anthony, Mo’Nique, Steve Harris, and others also appear on BMF.
But playing the role of K-9, a ruthless gang leader aligned with Big Meech, counts as Lawrence’s biggest role to date.
In the past, he has appeared as a guest on shows like Ironside, FBI, and Magnum P.I.
He said that when he was a guest on Blue Bloods, he learned a lot from the famous actor Tom Selleck.

But he also gives credit to actor and director Shiek Mahmud-Bey, who has made a name for himself onscreen and teaches actors like Lawrence through his “Char’Actors” company and “Shiek Studios.”

New York, Detroit, Arkansas, and Atlanta are all now home to Shiek Studios.
Later this year, Shiek Studios will add Shiek University, a school where people can learn how to be a director.

Lawrence said, “Shiek is my guy.”
“We’ve worked together for many years. When we worked on a movie together, I found him very interesting,” Lawrence said.
“A director told me about Shiek, so I looked him up and thought, ‘Oh, I get it.’ I wanted to be a part of what he was doing, and I love the way he does his job. He helped me with auditions and gave me advice on BMF.”

Lawrence said Mahmud-Bey taught him to be true to the characters he portrays.
“I learned a lot from what he taught me,” Lawrence added.
“Be honest and sure of yourself, and be present, ready to listen and answer. That’s what he said to me.”
That advice worked out well.

Lawrence said he was moved to learn more about the history of slavery while he was making the movie “Underground.”
Before the movie, Lawrence said he stayed away from those stories because they were traumatizing.

During the 2016 presidential election, Underground was being filmed.
Lawrence recalled that they filmed a pivotal scene on the day that Donald Trump was elected president.

“One of the most important scenes was shot on the day Donald Trump was elected,” Lawrence said. “We had a scene about the right to vote. It was very dramatic, and we were in Atlanta. I played an abolitionist, and I must tell you that in the scene we shot that day, I really did throw some punches. There was so much tension.”
Lawrence’s first job was as a model, but he said he was bored.
He said he enjoyed acting better than being a model because as a model, “all I did was take pictures all day.”

“I started looking into characters to figure out how they thought, and I love the process,” Lawrence asserted. “After all these years, I still love the process, including going to auditions.”
BMF is filmed in Detroit, but Lawrence said he hasn’t had a chance to see much of the Motor City yet.

He said, “We filmed here, and we stayed at the Motor City Casino Hotel.”
“It’s a great and unique experience, but I’ve seen run-down houses where you can buy a house for $900, but no one seems to take advantage of that,” Lawrence said.
“It’s sad because there are many things that could be done.”

First Black Woman Judge in Prince George’s County Retires from the Bench

Maria

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Feb 20, 2023

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First Black Woman Judge in Prince George’s County Retires from the Bench

By The Circuit Court for Prince, George’s County, Special to the AFRO

The Honorable Sheila R. Tillerson Adams recently retired on Dec. 31, 2022, as the Chief and Administrative Judge of the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County and Seventh Judicial Circuit of Maryland. Judge Adams has served as the Administrative Judge for 12 years.

Judge Adams was the first Black woman appointed by then Gov. William Donald Schaefer to the District Court of Maryland in Prince George’s County in June 1993. She served in that capacity for three years before she was elevated to the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County by then Governor Parris Glendening in 1996. On Sept. 4, 2010, following the Retirement of Judge William D. Missouri, then Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell appointed her as Administrative Judge of the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County and the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Maryland. Judge Adams began her legal career in 1982 and in 1984 became only the second Black female State’s Attorney in Prince George’s County, after being hired by then State’s Attorney, Arthur M. “Bud” Marshall.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed serving as Chief and Administrative judge in Prince George’s County, and I hope, during my tenure, the residents in the County have benefitted from having a fair forum for justice that provides efficient and innovative services,” said Judge Adams. “I have led the Court through floods and fires that damaged Court facilities and even through a pandemic, and I am proud to say that we always overcame, persevered and thrived together.”

While serving as Chief and Administrative Judge, Judge Adams created a vision statement to exemplify the Court’s goals when providing judicial services: “The Circuit Court Welcomes All – A Forum for Justice.” The statement has undergirded every initiative, program and goal throughout the Court.

Under Judge Adams’ leadership, the Problem-Solving Courts were expanded to further assist youth and adults facing a myriad of challenges. The Veterans, Re-Entry, Truancy Reduction, Juvenile Diversion and Back on Track Courts were established to help people who have served in the military, people who struggle with substance issues, students with truancy struggles and the formerly incarcerated succeed in life. Through counseling, rehabilitation services and intense monitoring, these programs are changing lives for the better daily.

Judge Adams also focused on providing resources and assistance to survivors of elder abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence and sex trafficking with the creation of the Prince George’s County Family Justice Center (PGCFJC), an initiative of the Circuit Court. The Center has served County residents in need of assistance even throughout the global pandemic. With more than 21 on-site partners, the PGCFJC provides a full array of co-located services through a coordinated, collaborative and hope-centered advocacy model. Local government and private community-based organizations work together and efficiently meet survivors’ needs.

As the pandemic continued for nearly three years, Judge Adams led the way in enhancing the Court’s technological advancements and accessibility to the public. More hearings and trials were held virtually, and litigants were even able to access Zoom links via a website that provided all the information they needed to attend judicial proceedings. Health and safety protocols were maintained in the Courthouse for the protection of the staff and public that we serve.

Security is also Judge Adams’ priority. She led the way for the design and construction of a security checkpoint near the Courthouse. Delivery vehicles are now required to go through an extensive search at the checkpoint by the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Team to determine if there are any hazardous or explosive materials inside any of the vehicles.

Another security measure that Judge Adams developed was to create a Security Command Center complete with IT workers who monitor hundreds of security cameras throughout the Courthouse Complex. The Center has the capability of being monitored by designated Court officials 24/7. This is a state-of-the-art Center that provides the Court with maximum security and thorough observation capabilities of the entire Courthouse Complex. This initiative was extremely important to enhance security measures, which is one of Judge Adam’s primary goals.

Once the pandemic restrictions were lifted, Judge Adams moved on to her next focus, which was the implementation of a new case management system called Maryland Electronic Courts (MDEC). Her goal was to transition Court operations to an electronic system that is nearly paperless.

With MDEC, attorneys are required to utilize electronic filing when representing clients in civil and criminal cases. Electronic filing is optional for self-represented litigants. Employees also can access files virtually via the online system instead of having to hunt down paper files. After years of planning and training sessions, MDEC went live successfully in Prince George’s County on Oct. 17, 2022.

Overall, Judge Adams has made tenacity her mantra. She has utilized technology to modernize the Court’s capital improvement to make it a dignified space to resolve disputes and collaborated with many justice partners throughout the County to provide enhanced judicial services. A fearless and bold leader, Judge Adams’ tenure and leadership will continue to impact Prince George’s County and the legal system for years to come.

Judge Adams was born in Washington, D.C. She graduated cum laude from Morgan State University in May 1979 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology. She received her Juris Doctor Degree from Howard University School of Law in May 1982 and in May 1987, she received a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. She was admitted to the Maryland Bar in June 1983, the Federal Bar in July 1983 and the Supreme Court in May 1992.

Judge Adams is a member of the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association, and she served as President in 1991. She is also a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, the Prince George’s County Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of Maryland, the American Bar Association, the Maryland Circuit Judge’s Association, and the National Association of Women Judges.

Judge Adams co-chairs the Law Links Committee of the Prince George’s County Bar Association and has done so since 1993. Law Links is a paid summer internship program with local law firms and legal departments in the County that is committed to broadening the possibilities of young people. It combines work experience with a law and leadership institute. All participants in the program are Prince George’s County high school students.

Throughout her career, Judge Adams has received many awards and honors. Most recently, the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association presented Judge Adams with the Wayne K. Curry Spirit of Excellence Award for her trailblazing leadership. In May 2022, she was awarded the 2022 Gladys Noon Spellman Public Service Award at the 37th Annual Prince George’s County Women’s History Month Celebration. Also, in April 2022, the Prince George’s County Commission for Women presented Judge Adams with the 2022 Trailblazing Woman Award for her extraordinary legal career and achievements.

Judge Adams is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated and the Mount Rose Chapter of the Links, Inc. She has two surviving children that are away in college and is married to Mayor Timothy J. Adams, and they reside in Bowie, Md.

Courthouse Named for Harvard Law Professor who Taught Obamas

Maria

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Feb 20, 2023

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Courthouse Named for Harvard Law Professor who Taught Obamas

By Associated Press

MERCED, Calif. (AP) — A courthouse in California’s agricultural heartland was named for a native son who went from working in the fields to a distinguished career at Harvard Law School, where he taught Barack and Michelle Obama.

Family members and supporters attended a ceremony Friday naming the Merced County courthouse to honor Charles James Ogletree Jr.’s contributions to law, education and civil rights, the Fresno Bee reported.

Ogletree, 70, represented Anita Hill when she accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991, and he defended the late rapper Tupac Shakur in criminal and civil cases. He also fought unsuccessfully for reparations for members of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Black community who survived a 1921 race massacre by white people.

The legal scholar, who retired from Harvard in 2020 after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, did not attend. But a brother and sister were among dozens of people, including judges and notable community members.

Ogletree has spoken of his humble roots, where he grew up in poverty on the south side of the railroad tracks in Merced in an area of Black and brown families. His parents were seasonal farm laborers, and he picked peaches, almonds and cotton in the summer. He went to college at Stanford University and then Harvard Law School.

Richard Ogletree said if his brother had been present for the ceremony, he would expect him to say what he has heard him say in previous speeches and presentations: “I stand on the shoulders of others.”

“He always wants to give credit to others and not accept credit himself, which he so richly deserves,” said Ogletree, who called his brother his hero.

Ghana Soccer Player Christian Atsu Dies in Turkey Earthquake

Maria

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Feb 18, 2023

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Ghana Soccer Player Christian Atsu Dies in Turkey Earthquake

By GERALD IMRAY, AP Sports Writer

Christian Atsu, the Ghana international forward who played for Premier League clubs Chelsea and Newcastle, has died in the earthquake in Turkey. He was 31.

Search teams recovered Atsu’s body in the ruins of a luxury 12-story building where he had been living in the city of Antakya, Hatay province, his manager said Saturday.

“Atsu’s lifeless body was found under the rubble. At the moment, his belongings are still being removed,” manager Murat Uzunmehmet told private news agency DHA.

Atsu joined Turkish club Hatayspor in September and scored the winning goal for his new team in a league game at home against Kasimpaşa S.K. on Feb. 5, just hours before the earthquake struck in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 6.

Antakya, the city where Hatayspor is based, is in the southern region of Turkey hardest hit by the earthquake.

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude quake in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria passed 43,000 on Friday.

Hatayspor said Atsu’s body was being repatriated to Ghana. “There are no words to describe our sadness,” the club tweeted.

Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo posted a photo of Atsu on his official Twitter account and wrote: “Ghana football has lost one of its finest personnel and ambassadors, one who will be difficult to replace. He’ll be sorely missed.”

Former Ghana captain and teammate Asamoah Gyan tweeted “RIP Brother.”

A day after the earthquake there were reports that Atsu had been rescued but Hatayspor, after initially announcing that it had received information that Atsu was alive and on his way to the hospital, said later that the reports of a successful rescue were, heartbreakingly, mistaken and the player was still missing. It had also said the club’s sporting director, Taner Savut, was still missing. Savut has not yet been found.

The contractor of the 12-story Ronesans Rezidans building — where Atsu and Savut lived — was detained at Istanbul Airport a week ago, apparently trying to leave the country.

Atsu’s agent, Nana Sechere, traveled to Turkey with members of Atsu’s family in an attempt to find him, holding onto hopes that he might be alive amid the wreckage. Sechere had urged authorities and Hatayspor officials to step up their efforts in the search for Atsu and Savut.

In a statement Tuesday, Sechere said rescuers had been able to pinpoint Atsu’s exact room location in his collapsed apartment building over a week after the devastating earthquake but the only thing they recovered were two pairs of his shoes.

Sechere confirmed Saturday that Atsu’s body was found. He posted a message on Twitter: “My deepest condolences go to his family and loved ones.”

Atsu played more than 60 times for Ghana and scored on his debut as a 20-year-old in 2012. He was part of the Ghana squad at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and starred at the 2015 African Cup of Nations, scoring two goals to help Ghana to the final, where it lost in a penalty shootout to Ivory Coast.

He was named the player of the tournament at that African Cup.

Atsu was signed by Chelsea in 2013 but his time there was limited to appearances in exhibition games and he was sent out on loan to various clubs over the next four years. The winger joined Newcastle on loan in 2016 and was part of the team that won promotion back to the Premier League in the 2016-17 season.

He signed a permanent deal with Newcastle in 2017 and spent four years there. The club said Saturday it was “profoundly saddened” by Atsu’s death.

“A talented player and a special person, he will always be fondly remembered by our players, staff and supporters,” Newcastle tweeted.

The Ghana Football Association added: “We would like to express our deepest condolences to his wife and children, the family, loved ones and the football community.”

Atsu joined Hatayspor last year after a short spell playing in Saudi Arabia.

Ibrahim Kwarteng, a friend of Atsu’s in Ghana, told The Associated Press in a recent interview that he knew the player as someone who helped people in his West African home country as much as he could.

Kwarteng runs an organization that helps people convicted of petty crimes get jobs and put their lives back together after being released from jail and Atsu was its single biggest donor, Kwarteng said. Atsu had also started building an orphanage in Ghana and was helping to fund a new breast cancer screening center, Kwarteng said.

Nigerian Cash Crisis Brings Pain: ‘Everything is Just Tough’

Maria

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Feb 18, 2023

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Nigerian Cash Crisis Brings Pain: ‘Everything is Just Tough’

By CHINEDU ASADU, Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — No one in Godgift Inemesit’s family of eight is sure when they will eat each day — except for her three kids, two of whom have malaria. She can’t pay for the drugs they need or feed the rest of her family regularly.

Like most Nigerians, the family’s savings are trapped in the bank. A changeover to redesigned currency has plunged Africa’s largest economy into crisis just ahead of a presidential election: There aren’t enough new banknotes in a country reliant on cash.

For Inemesit, 28, the shortage of cash means even basics like food and medicine are getting trimmed for her husband, mother, kids ages 4 to 8 and two other relatives. One recent afternoon, only the children had gotten bread and hot drinks.

“We usually eat three square meals, but now we eat once sometimes because there is no money to use,” Inemesit said in her house in Banana village, an overcrowded shanty town tucked in the southern corner of the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

“We were told to drop the old currency (notes) in the bank and that new one is coming,” she said. “But we don’t have the new currency and no old currency. Everything is just tough.”

Customers are waiting all day at banks and ATMs to withdraw only enough money — called naira — to last a day. Fights have broken out in bank halls, angry customers have attacked workers and protesters have set financial institutions on fire. Businesses unable carry out transactions have been forced to close, and people are illegally selling new currency notes at higher rates.

As people become more desperate for cash, the impact is likely to spill into the Feb. 25 presidential election. Nigerians hope to elect someone to fix challenges ranging from a security crisis that has killed thousands in the past year to an ailing economy.

The shortage of currency “has already created significant hardship, which could make a greater number of voters vulnerable to vote-buying and ratchet up election tensions even further,” said the International Crisis Group, which works to prevent conflict.

Facing increasing pressure to find a solution, President Muhammadu Buhari, who has reached his term limits and leaves office in May, said he directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to “deploy all legitimate resources and legal means” to ensure people “enjoy easy access to cash withdrawal.”

“I am deeply pained and sincerely sympathize with you all over these unintended outcomes,” he said, while still defending the changes.

Experts blame policymakers for a “rushed” introduction of the new naira notes. Central bank leader Godwin Emefiele argued that some government officials are “buying the new notes and storing them for whatever purposes.”

The central bank has said the revamped currency would help curb money laundering before the election, transform the West African nation into a cashless economy and fight inflation of over 21%, a 17-year high.

Inemesit said she — like many others — have started losing interest in the election, dampening hopes of increased voter participation after years of steady decline in turnout.

She voted in 2019 when only 34% of registered voters cast their ballot for president. But as this year’s election draws closer, her vote and hopes for a better country have been dashed.

“With what we are facing now, I don’t have the aim of voting again. When you don’t have the strength to walk to where they are voting, how will you be able to vote?” she said.

The cash shortages have made life even more difficult in Nigeria, where 63% of the population is poor, 33% is unemployed and as of 2021, only 45% of adults had a bank account, according to the World Bank. The crisis has added to the woes of surging inflation and a weakened currency.

The three top contenders in the presidential race have made pledges to deliver democratic change to Nigerians. The ruling party’s Bola Tinubu has said he is seeking to “renew hope,” while the main opposition party’s Atiku Abubakar wants to “rescue” Nigeria. The Labour Party’s Peter Obi — who leads the crowded field in recent polls — has p romised to “rebuild” the country.

Lack of access to cash has affected consumption patterns and trade for small and medium businesses in the informal sector, a major employer that includes farming, street and market trade, and public transport, said Joachim MacEbong, a senior governance analyst at Stears, a Nigerian intelligence company.

The central bank’s yearslong push to make the economy cashless led digital transactions to increase 150% last year. However, unreliable digital payment platforms have forced many businesses to use paper naira.

“The cost of denying people access to cash far outweighs any benefit,” MacEbong said.

At ATMs, people are making choices they never would have imagined: Sunny Eze, a father of two, was hungry but was saving the little money on him for transportation if he couldn’t get cash. Esther Ugonna waited for about 10 hours to withdraw 10,000 naira ($22). Nasir Yusuf closed his shop for the day, devoting his time to trying to withdraw cash he needed.

Inemesit, meanwhile, waited in line until 8 p.m. one day last week and returned home empty-handed. Like dozens of others, she was told the bank branch had run out of new banknotes.

“If someone were to tell me that I can have the money but I cannot make use of the money, I would not believe it,” she said, frustrated and downcast. With her 1.7 million naira ($3,680) in the bank, “you have the money, but you cannot see it.”

The family’s income from selling bags such as luggage and backpacks has fallen drastically as Nigerians with little cash on hand are prioritizing food over other needs.

“People will not leave feeding their family to come and buy bags,” she said.

The crisis has left Inemesit too tired and frustrated to think of the upcoming presidential vote.

“The government failed us very well. They disappointed us,” she said, grabbing her 4-year-old who was coughing incessantly. “Things are difficult and everything has been increasing prices.”

Black Baltimoreans Fight to Save Homes from Redevelopment

Maria

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Feb 18, 2023

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Black Baltimoreans Fight to Save Homes from Redevelopment

By LEA SKENE, Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — In 2018, Angela Banks received bad news from her landlord: Baltimore officials were buying her family’s home of four decades, planning to demolish the three-story brick row house to make room for a beleaguered urban renewal project aimed at transforming a historically Black neighborhood. Banks and her children became homeless almost overnight. With nowhere else to go, they spent months sleeping in her aging Ford Explorer.

Roughly five years later, the house remains standing, and plans to redevelop west Baltimore’s Poppleton neighborhood have largely stalled, even after the city displaced Banks and many of her neighbors.

Banks filed a complaint Monday asking federal officials to investigate whether Baltimore’s redevelopment policies are perpetuating racial segregation and violating fair housing laws by disproportionately displacing Black and low-income residents. Her experience presents the latest example of Black Baltimoreans losing their homes to redevelopment after watching their neighborhoods suffer from growing disinvestment — while whiter, more affluent communities flourish, Banks and her attorneys argue.

“I lost everything,” Banks told The Associated Press. “It’s like we had no voice. We could make noise, but nobody would hear us.”

Ordered to vacate quickly, her family ended up leaving behind many of their belongings.

During a recent visit to the neighborhood, Banks stepped cautiously through an unsecured back door and peered inside the house, wondering aloud whether squatters had moved in. Her eyes settled first on the marbled vinyl floor tiles she installed herself many years ago. She also encountered extensive water damage and rotting drywall, unfamiliar furniture, clothes and other personal items. Startled by her presence, two black cats scurried down the second-floor hallway and disappeared into a hiding spot.

“This was home,” she said, shaking her head.

Her landlord sold the house to the city voluntarily in 2018, but other Poppleton homeowners have been subjected to eminent domain, when the government seizes private property for public use.

Once relatively common in American cities, using the practice for revitalization and infrastructure projects has largely fallen out of favor. Some cities are currently working to provide reparations to Black residents, acknowledging the harm caused by urban renewal efforts and other discriminatory practices.

Banks reminisced about her children swimming in Poppleton’s public pool while she socialized with neighbors on their stoops. Since then, over 100 occupied homes have been seized, according to the complaint. The pool and nearby recreation center closed years ago, Banks said. Poppleton is about 93% Black, according to 2020 census data.

“Baltimore has long been a tale of two cities,” said Marceline White, executive director of Economic Action Maryland, which joined Banks in filing the complaint and organized a news conference Monday in Poppleton.

In 1910, Baltimore leaders enacted the country’s first residential segregation ordinance that restricted African American homeowners to certain blocks.

In addition to redlining, Poppleton residents experienced “slum clearance” starting in the 1930s with construction of Poe Homes, a public housing complex named after a nearby onetime residence of the famous poet Edgar Allan Poe. The number of displaced Black families was larger than the number of housing units created, according to the complaint.

Then came Baltimore’s so-called “Highway To Nowhere,” which was designed to connect the downtown business district to interstates surrounding the city. Officials used eminent domain to demolish nearly 1,000 homes in the 1960s and ’70s, cutting a swath through majority-Black west Baltimore and severing ties between Poppleton and other nearby communities.

Construction of the thoroughfare was never finished — partly because residents in more affluent neighborhoods successfully campaigned against it — and the endeavor became largely pointless.

“What’s happening now in Poppleton is a reflection of what has happened before, part of an unbroken chain of policies and practices,” said Lawrence Brown, a research scientist at Morgan State University. “There is a pattern.”

Plans for Poppleton’s urban renewal surfaced in the 1970s. By that time, Brown said, the neighborhood had already been experiencing mistreatment and disinvestment for decades.

In 2006, city officials signed an agreement with a New York-based company, La Cite Development. Construction has been completed on two mixed-use buildings with 262 rental units, but many other aspects of the $800 million project haven’t materialized. Initial plans identified over 500 properties the company would redevelop near a University of Maryland biomedical research park, just outside the downtown business district.

Company officials didn’t respond to a recent request for comment.

Baltimore leaders have said they’re committed to revitalizing an increasingly blighted community suffering from population loss, but Poppleton residents accuse them of catering to big developers at the expense of homeowners and renters.

In 2015, the city agreed to partially subsidize the Poppleton redevelopment project. That was after officials tried to terminate their agreement with the developer, citing a lack of progress, but the company sued and won.

Mayor Brandon Scott, who took office in 2020, pledged his commitment to “advancing fairness and equity in housing for all residents.” In a statement Thursday, he said his administration “has taken significant steps to address the housing inequities of the past through substantial investments in formerly redlined communities.”

The movement to save Poppleton’s existing homes galvanized around longtime resident Sonia Eaddy, who recently won a decadeslong fight when Scott announced her row house would be removed from the redevelopment plan after negotiations with the developer. A nearby block of rainbow-colored historic row houses will be rehabbed by a local nonprofit that helps Black women achieve homeownership, officials also announced.

Eaddy said she celebrated the victory, but she’s not done fighting for reform.

“Eminent domain is an act of violence. It’s being used to perpetuate gentrification,” she said during Monday’s news conference.

Most displaced residents have been offered financial assistance. Banks said she didn’t initially qualify because her landlord sold the property voluntarily, but the city later gave her compensation she used to pay off debts.

Her complaint lists a series of potential remedies, including additional compensation and priority access to affordable housing for displaced residents. She filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which said it was unable to comment on pending investigations.

Banks’ former neighbor, Parcha McFadden, recently left the family home she inherited after losing her father, who invested in the property with future generations in mind. She and her daughter have been living in a rented apartment while their old house sits vacant.

“Homeownership is part of the American dream, but it can so easily be ripped away,” she said. “How is this American? How is this the American dream?”

Fox Pit Reporter Sims a Symbol of NASCAR’s Diversity Goals

Maria

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Feb 18, 2023

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Fox Pit Reporter Sims a Symbol of NASCAR’s Diversity Goals

By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — When Josh Sims reports on NASCAR this season, the stock car series these days — from the garage to the grandstands to top brass — looks more like him.

Yes, Sims takes pride in the fact that he will become the first Black pit reporter for the Daytona 500 and that his rapid rise at Fox has made him one of the primary faces of the network’s NASCAR coverage.

More than that, Sims sees that NASCAR may finally be running out of unconquered firsts for people of color. For women. For any minority who perhaps has experienced an uneasy relationship with a series founded in the South 75 years ago, a generation before the civil rights era.

Sims’ journey from NASCAR novice through a sports anchor gig in Charlotte, North Carolina, that sparked his passion in the sport had led to his biggest assignment yet: pit reporting as a Black man from one of auto racing’s signature events.

“I never set out to be a first,” the 35-year-old Sims said. “I never set out to make history. I just wanted to be the best at what I was doing, whether it was hosting or reporting. At the same time, I kind of understand the platform and what it means for me to be doing this.”

Sims has a full workload this season. He is the Cup Series pit reporter, teams with Regan Smith as an Xfinity Series reporter and is part of the host rotation for the FS1 show “Race Hub.”

And this season, he wants to share the stories on what he sees at the track beyond the in-race reports and fantastic finishes. Minorities may not necessarily become the dominant demographic for the series, but they can certainly grab a larger share of the marketplace.

“I think if more people out there saw it, saw people that looked them, instead of just driver, crew chief, you might be more inclined to feel like, hey, I feel a little more comfortable going to the track,” Sims said. “Getting that out there might help in terms of more people coming to the track and getting more different faces to the stands. It’s not necessarily about getting more people in, it’s showing what you already have.”

It was, of course, a very low bar but the garage and grid and fans certainly appears to be more diverse now than before 2020 when NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its tracks and properties. NASCAR is still overwhelmingly white, but NASCAR President Steve Phelps isn’t exaggerating when he says you notice the change when walking through the garage.

“I think the events of 2020 allowed the sport to get younger and more diverse,” he said at his state-of-the sport address in November.

Among the notable achievements: Jusan Hamilton, who last year became the first Black race director in Daytona 500 history, will do it again this season. Amanda Oliver, a Black woman, negotiates high-profile deals as NASCAR’s senior vice president. John Ferguson, a Black man, is the chief human resources officer.

Owners now include Pitbull and Michael Jordan, whose team features Bubba Wallace, the Black driver who prompted the flag ban. Rising stars in the developmental series include Rajah Caruth, a 20-year-old graduate of the “Drive for Diversity” program.

Phelps said NASCAR was committed to strengthening ties to various programs that can attract a broader fan base, from Boys & Girls Clubs to “some of the other areas we have from a partnership standpoint that really speak to what’s happening in the African American community, what’s happening in the Hispanic, Latino community (to) what’s happening in the LGBTQ community.”

While the frequently toxic nature of social media makes it easier for haters to reach Sims and others, he’s a popular personality each weekend at the track.

“I never necessarily felt uncomfortable,” he said. “You get stuff here and there in terms of messages that’s emailed to you or sent to you but that’s par for the course if you’re a minority in the sport, a woman in the sport, even white drivers get stuff like that. But for every one or two of those, I get a lot more stuff from people excited that I’m here. You know, focus on the good.”

Raised in East Brunswick, New Jersey, Sims is a Villanova graduate who followed the Wildcats in NCAA Tournament games in 2009 and remained a fan of most Philly teams.

“I grew up in Jersey, so not exactly NASCAR country,” Sims said. “Growing up, you know the Jimmies and the Dale Seniors and the Tony Stewarts and everybody but it wasn’t something I followed week in and week out.”

His interest in NASCAR picked up in 2015 when he moved to Charlotte and hosted a pre-race show on the local Fox affiliate. Sims covered his first Daytona 500 in 2016 when Denny Hamlin nipped Martin Truex Jr. in the closest finish in race history.

“I was like, I am all in,” Sims said.

Charlotte can feel like a small town for a city and Sims kept bumping into friends and contacts in NASCAR. Fox Sports executives hired Sims in 2021 as a reporter for their slate of NASCAR shows. He also became the first Black pit reporter in any NASCAR series, for Trucks races.

“I kind of hope that young people that look like me, can see me doing it and now recognize that it’s possible,” Sims said. “I hope I can kind of blaze a trail for them to one day say, hey, because Josh Sims did it, I can do it, too. And that’s what’s important.”