NEW YORK — National lawmakers are expected on Wednesday to introduce a joint resolution aimed at striking language from the U.S. Constitution that enshrines a form of slavery in America’s foundational documents. The resolution, spearheaded and supported by Democratic members of the House and Senate, would amend the 13th Amendment’s...
Barr Under Fire Over Comparison of Virus Lockdowns to Slavery
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr drew sharp condemnation Thursday for comparing lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic to slavery. In remarks Wednesday night at Hillsdale College in Michigan, Barr had called the lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history” since slavery. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No....
Can California Save America From Itself?
“Go to my website or use the hashtag #LetsGetTheCalOuttaHere!” shouts Gwyneth Paltrow in the Netflix series The Politician. Running for governor on a platform of leading California’s secession from the United States, Paltrow’s character wins 98 percent of the vote. This may be fiction, but California independence is gaining cultural...
California Near to Ending 150-Year-Old Posse Comitatus Law
SACRAMENTO — California is moving to eliminate what state legislators call an outdated Wild West law requiring that citizens help police upon demand. Lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a measure eliminating the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872. The nearly 150-year-old law makes it a misdemeanor with a...
California Near to Ending 150-Year-Old Posse Comitatus Law
SACRAMENTO — California is moving to eliminate what state legislators call an outdated Wild West law requiring that citizens help police upon demand. Lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a measure eliminating the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872. The nearly 150-year-old law makes it a misdemeanor with a...
Nike Yanks 'Betsy Ross Flag' Shoe After Kaepernick Complains
NEW YORK — Nike is pulling a shoe that features a "Betsy Ross" U.S. flag design after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick complained to the shoemaker, according to the Wall Street Journal. The shoe's heel has a U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle on it. It's commonly...
Walters: Slavery in 21st Century California? It's Real.
Some years ago, I was flying from Orange County to Sacramento and happened to sit next to a woman who was headed to a meeting in the capital on human trafficking. She told me she had escaped from an abusive marriage to a wealthy man in Pakistan and since coming...
Bay Area School District Changing Name Tied to Confederacy
SAN RAFAEL — The Dixie School District board voted Tuesday night to change the name of the 150-year-old district after critics linked it to the Confederacy and slavery. Trustees voted 3-1, with one abstention, to change both the name of the San Francisco Bay Area district and the name of...
Black Community Blisters Brandau for 'Reparations' Remark
Leaders of Fresno's black community on Thursday publicly criticized city councilman Steve Brandau's comparison of extra gas tax road repair funding for the city's southern districts to slavery reparations. After they spoke out during the council meeting — and some of his own colleagues suggested that apologize — Brandau only...
Blackface Scandal Spotlights Deeply Embedded Racism in US
When Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam refused to resign last week, he did so in the shadow of a Capitol built by a founding father and a slave owner, in the former seat of the Confederacy still wrestling with what to do about statues that honor those who fought to preserve...