May 13, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has led to more than 80,000 deaths in the U.S., and put more than 26 million Americans out of a job. Now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump are trying to place blame on former President Barack Obama.
According to Yahoo Finance, McConnell said that Obama’s team, which exited office over three years ago, “did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like [the coronavirus pandemic].”
The statement was made during a dialogue with Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, and live-streamed by the Trump campaign on Monday evening.
However, Politico reported that the Obama administration left the Trump administration a large document titled the “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.”
The document warned of potential problems like shortages in personal protective equipment and how to address those issues. However, the Trump administration neglected to implement its recommendations.
“We literally left them a 69-page Pandemic Playbook…. that they ignored,” Ron Klain, who oversaw the Ebola response under Obama, tweeted. “And an office called the Pandemic Preparedness Office… that they abolished. And a global monitoring system called PREDICT .. that they cut by 75%.”
“The maddening thing is Obama left them a WH office for pandemics, a literal playbook, a cabinet-level exercise, and a global infrastructure to deal with ‘something like this,’” tweeted former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes.
Earlier this week, McConnell called Obama “classless” for criticizing the federal government’s coronavirus response, saying that he “should have kept his mouth shut.
“You know, we know he doesn’t like much [what this] administration is doing, that’s understandable,” said the Republican Kentucky senator. “But I think it’s a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you. You had your shot, you were there for eight years.
Earlier this month, Trump accused Obama of “the biggest crime in political history,” but when pressed by reporters to explain himself, Trump refused to explain what crime Obama committed.
“You know what the crime is,” Trump told reporters after multiple members of the press made it clear they did not know what the crime was. “The crime is very obvious to everybody.”
President Trump and Obama have gone back and forth in recent months as the 2020 Presidential Election gets closer.
In April, Obama compared Trump’s slow coronavirus response to climate change deniers.
“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Obama wrote on Twitter. “We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”
Meanwhile, Trump tried to blame Obama for the lack of coronavirus testing in the U.S.
“The last administration left us nothing. We started off with bad, broken tests, and obsolete tests,” Trump tweeted. The coronavirus came int existence nearly three years after Obama left office.
May 13, 2020
Former Duke University Blue Devil and current New Orleans Pelicans basketball player Zion Williamson is being sued by his former marketing agent who has requested that he admit to receiving “money, benefits, favors or other things of value” to attend Duke University last year, according to ESPN.
Gina Ford, the president of Prime Marketing Sports, has served requests for admissions asking that basketball phenom Williamson admit that he has received items that would disqualify him from playing collegiate sports while he attended Duke.
The 19-year-old NBA player is being sued by Prime Marketing Sports after he left the marketing company to sign with Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Williamson’s original deal with Prime Marketing Sports required him to remain with them for five years. He ended up signing with CAA less than a month after signing the deal with Prime Marketing Sports. Williamson’s attorneys have argued that his contract with Prime Marketing Sports was unlawful under North Carolina law. They claimed the contract was in violation of North Carolina’s Uniform Athlete Agents Act because Prime Marketing Sports is not certified by the NBA Players Association nor a registered athlete agent in North Carolina or Florida.
In a filing with Miami-Dade County court last week, Ford’s attorneys have asked Williamson to admit under oath that the statements listed below were true:
• Sharonda Sampson, Williamson’s mother, and Lee Anderson, his stepfather, “demanded and received gifts and economic benefits from persons acting on behalf of Duke University (directly and/or indirectly) to influence [Williamson] to attend Duke University to play basketball.”
• Sampson and Anderson “demanded and received gifts, money and/or other benefits from persons on behalf of Nike (directly and/or indirectly) to influence [Williamson] to attend Duke University to play basketball.”
• Sampson and Anderson “demanded and received gifts, money and/or other benefits from persons acting on behalf of Adidas (directly and/or indirectly) to influence [Williamson] to wear Adidas shoes” and to “influence [Williamson] to attend a college that endorsed Adidas shoes.”
• Before becoming a student at Duke, Williamson “or person(s) acting on [his] behalf (including but not limited to Sharonda Sampson and Lee Anderson) accepted benefits from a NCAA-certified agent that are not expressly permitted by the NCAA legislation” between Jan. 1, 2014, and April 14, 2019.
May 13, 2020
Michael Santiago Render, who is better known to fans as Run the Jewels’ frontman Killer Mike, released a public service announcement to encourage young people to take the threat of the deadly coronavirus seriously, according to Atlanta’s WSB-TV.
Atlanta’s hometown rap artist and activist partnered up with DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond to launch an advertising campaign that urges people to slow the spread of COVID-19. Last month, Killer Mike was adamantly opposed to the reopening of certain businesses that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had allowed to reopen after a stay-at-home directive. He had stated at the time that he would not reopen his barbershop when the restrictions were lifted.
After viewing several videos of young people gathering in large groups, not social distancing while going out to buy sneakers and hanging out at clubs, he and Thurmond decided to launch an ad campaign aimed at stopping the potential spread of COVID-19.
The promotional campaign will target young African Americans on the radio, in print ads, and on billboards.
“We totally missed the boat in Georgia,” Thurman said. “That’s one of the things that I think is hurting our response. We’ve not tailored messages or recruited messengers that speak directly to populations that’s most impacted.”
Thurmond also said many black families live in multi-generational homes. He worries that young people who may be asymptomatic could actually bring the virus home to other, more vulnerable members of their family.
“Twenty, 30, 40-year-old adults, taking care of yourself is the highest priority. But not only just because of you, it’s because you’re going to expose yourself to people you love.” Killer Mike said.
The message is clear in this one commercial spot: “Don’t worry about the bigwigs in Washington and what they say. Let’s follow our local CEO. Let’s stay out of them streets. Take it from Mike and Mike. Stay home if you can. Mask up, if you can’t.” says Killer Mike in the commercial.
On Saturday, March 7, Alvin & Friends — New Rochelle, NY’s favorite black-owned gathering place — hosted a lavish Great Gatsby themed 50th birthday party for a client who pulled out all the stops.
The birthday girl took over the entire restaurant, filling the relaxed, elegant 2,000 square-foot space with live music, delicious food, and dancing revelers wearing their finest approximation of 1920s festive attire.
“We had a champagne fountain and ice sculptures; a band in the front room and one in the back. It was about opulence and the best life can offer,” recalled Gwen Clayton, co-founder of the establishment with her husband, Alvin. “Everyone was in costume and full of love and joy.”
Little did they know that would be the last party not just at Alvin & Friends, but in New Rochelle, for a long time.
Not 24 hours later (and a full week before the nation’s first official shelter-in-place order in California) life in New Rochelle was in a tailspin, taking business at Alvin & Friends and other local businesses with it. The small city located just 20 minutes north of Manhattan, was in the grips of a spiraling COVID-19 outbreak after its first case was confirmed on March 3. Within days, the state had gotten involved, locking down a containment zone around a synagogue known to be the epicenter of the outbreak. In a move that got the entire nation’s attention, Governor Andrew Cuomo also sent in the National Guard to assist with cleaning impacted facilities and distributing food to families that relied on school-based meals for their children. With schools closed, the city’s more than 10,000 children were suddenly at home.
Alvin & Friends, known for its Southern and Caribbean fusion cuisine and the gracious warmth of the couple that first launched it a decade ago, is located in downtown New Rochelle, just south of the containment zone. But many of its most loyal patrons lived within the zone and, with New Rochelle the subject of shocking headlines, the business that regularly flowed from surrounding towns froze.
As a fine dining restaurant with very little take-out business, the Claytons had to pivot quickly and completely. “Business dropped 99% overnight,” says Alvin.
Their white-linen covered tables were empty and private events–which typically accounted for 40% of the restaurant’s business–were being canceled in droves. “Restaurants aren’t just about money and food,” Gwen says. “They’re about good times and great memories. People had to cancel fundraisers, baby showers, wedding rehearsal dinners. This was heartbreaking stuff.”
Even more heartbreaking: having to let go of staff. Normally employing 20 to 30 full- and part-time employees, plus dozens of live musicians featured weekly, the Claytons quickly reduced payroll to include a full-time skeleton crew of three–a chef, a dishwasher, and someone to take orders for delivery over the phone–plus themselves (they are foregoing any salary).
Alvin reduced operational hours and restructured the menu, creating more meals geared toward delivery– like roti and sandwiches–and marketing family-style meals portioned to feed small groups at reasonable prices.
An SBA deferment on their mortgage for three months helped alleviate expenses. “I’m so glad we own our building,” Alvin says. A local program, called NourishAll also offered a small, but meaningful, boost. According to a weekly newsletter from New Rochelle’s mayor, Noam Bramson, 1,000 people, identified by ten community agencies, received $50 gift cards for takeout or delivery at one of 20 participating restaurants, with new rounds of cards to be issued weekly.
The city purchased $2,500 worth of Alvin & Friends gift cards at a discounted rate of $2,100, Alvin said. The money didn’t go far (“It allowed me to pay a bill,” he says) but the support from the city and the ability to help others felt good. Friends and loyal patrons also stepped in, calling in large orders to be sent to first-responders at local hospitals, police stations, and fire departments.
Alvin, who often helps cook these days, also makes deliveries, sometimes with Gwen at his side. The couple has grappled with unexpected stressors such as worries about their three children, two of whom were in college in New Orleans when the pandemic began to peak, and Alvin’s quarantined elderly mother, to whom they bring meals daily. As if that wasn’t enough, both tested positive for the virus at one point. Gwen grew very ill and managed her symptoms at home with Alvin, who was asymptomatic.
While they have helped each other through every trial, the federal government has largely failed them. Their application for stimulus funds was denied while a “white friend whose business wasn’t in jeopardy received significant help,” says Alvin. “The same people get the money all the time. The same people get left out all the time.”
“The big rescue ship just sailed right past our raft,” Gwen adds. “New Rochelle has been a little tug boat, pulling us out of the deep sea.”
One week ago, Alvin reinstated their Sunday brunch, albeit for takeout only. But the response was higher than anticipated and a glimmer of light appeared at what he hopes is a tunnel’s end that’s not too far away.
“You can stress yourself out every day when there’s death and destruction and devastation,” he says. “Everybody’s going through it, but I can’t get depressed. If you’re not going to be part of the solution you’re part of the problem. So, we’ve just been solution-minded. The things I can control, I stress over; but the things I can’t, I let go.”
A former model and artist whose works are owned by actors Blair Underwood and Denzel Washington, Clayton paints almost every day to clear his mind and keep his peace. His colorful portraits, celebrating black culture and family life, line the walls of the restaurant, and he has begun posting them on the Alvin & Friends Facebook page, as a way to share a bit of beauty and joy–which brings Gwen back to what their business is all about.
With Easter, Mother’s Day, graduations, and weddings, spring is normally the restaurant’s busiest season, full of laughter, warm hugs, and the clinking of glasses as toasts are made to the brightness of the present moment, to great expectations, and hope.
Looking around their eerily quiet restaurant, where the only signs of vibrant life are captured in Alvin’s paintings on the walls, “It’s so melancholy,” Gwen says, sighing. But she quickly perks up. “If we can come out on the other side of this virus with a deeper appreciation for what we have and how much we mean to each other, we’ll be OK. Sometimes you have to go back in order to go forward. I feel like that day is coming.”
Watch Alvin and Gwen Clayton’s interview on “On The Clock With Caroline Clarke” below.
May 13, 2020
Berkshire Hathaway was made famous by billionaire and entrepreneur Warren Buffet. Now this woman entrepreneur is making history as the first African American franchisee of the famed mogul’s real estate affiliated company.
Houston-based Tiffany Curry is a real-estate-maven-turned-entrepreneur who recently acquired a Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices real estate franchise. The momentous move has made her the first African American ever to have 100% ownership in a franchise of this particular Warren Buffet-affiliated company.
She will run the franchise as Tiffany Curry & Co., Realtors in her hometown and has already launched with agents that specialize throughout the Greater Houston and surrounding areas including in the luxury and global markets. Curry’s goal is to grow the company into one of the nation’s top 75 brokerages within the next 10 years. Houston is currently home to only two Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices real estate franchises including Curry’s. Prior to her start at Berkshire, Curry holds the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing Million Dollar GUILD designation for successfully marketing and selling million-dollar homes.
“Over the last 12 years I’ve traveled across the nation, networking with some of real estate’s brightest talents. I’m thrilled to bring that mix of creativity and innovation to the Greater Houston real estate market,” says Curry to Black Business. “At age 39, it was such an honor to apply for a BHHS franchise brokerage. I look forward to growing a diverse company for all generations, backgrounds and for professionals at different stages of life.”
In addition to a successful sales career as a Top Producing agent, Curry has held many high-level leadership positions and was appointed as a President’s Liaison in 2014 and 2019 for the National Association of Realtors. She has experience working on projects with a budget in excess of $35 million a year.
“Tiffany Curry is a talented leader who brings out the very best in those who work with her,” said Chris Stuart, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. “Over the years her teams have been motivated, well-trained and laser-focused on clients’ varying needs. The same should be expected of Tiffany Curry & Co., Realtors.”
May 13, 2020
The donations and contributions toward coronavirus relief efforts continue. This time, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will donate $10 million to the Meek Mill, Jay-Z, and Michael Rubin-led Reform Alliance.
The funds will be used to slow the spread of the coronavirus in prisons. With those funds, the prisons will be able to purchase more than 10 million surgical masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) needed for people who are incarcerated. It will also go to correctional officers, health care workers, and other prison employees. The resources will be distributed to jail and prison facilities nationwide.
Dorsey announced the donation via his Twitter account:
$10mm to @REFORM Alliance to get PPE to every prison and jail in America, all towards their mission of reforming the criminal justice system. Watch this and #AnswerTheirCall: https://t.co/z3GmNqz9jS
— jack (@jack) May 11, 2020
To which Michael Rubin responded:
Huge!! Welcome to the team @Jack !! As the battle rages on for long overdue probation and parole reform in this country – we continue to look to for the best and brightest to join this fight! Can’t wait for you to get started and join the amazing team we’ve assembled!!! @REFORM https://t.co/G1clyE3hix
— Michael Rubin (@MichaelGRubin) May 11, 2020
“I’m grateful Reform exists,” Dorsey said in a statement to BLACK ENTERPRISE. “The criminal justice system needs to change. COVID-19 adds to the injustices, and Reform is best suited to help.”
“This generous donation from Jack and #startsmall is an absolute game-changer,” said Reform Alliance CEO Van Jones. “Not only will this gift help us protect millions from the threat of COVID-19, but this level of support from a tech titan marks a turning point for the criminal justice reform movement. It’s truly an honor to call Jack an ally in this fight, be able to provide masks to every prison in America, and potentially save tens of thousands of lives.”
REFORM Alliance was created last year to reduce the nation’s incarceration rate through changes to probation and parole policies. Meek and Rubin are the co-chairs of the criminal justice reform organization while Jay-Z and Robert Kraft sit on the executive board.
Last month, the organization partnered with advocate Shaka Senghor to send 40,000 masks to the Tennessee Department of Corrections; 5,000 masks to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman; and 50,000 to the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. Another 2,500 will also be sent to a Rikers medical facility. Weeks later, the organization teamed up with Madonna and Jessica Alba’s husband, film producer Cash Warren, to send 100,000 additional masks to more prison facilities.
May 13, 2020
Oprah Winfrey had a successful wellness tour earlier this year that was sold out in every venue it was held in. Based on the success of that tour and due to the coronavirus stifling people’s abilities to gather in large crowds, Winfrey has announced: “Oprah’s Your Life in Focus: A Vision Forward – Live Virtual Experience.”
This a free, interactive, four-week virtual experience inspired by her sold-out national arena tour with Weight Watchers International Inc. The global media entrepreneur will host a live, weekly, 90-minute digital event every Saturday starting May 16 and going weekly until June 6 starting at 11 AM ET/8 AM PT. She will be inspiring audiences to reclaim their path to self-care in the face of unprecedented change. The series is presented and produced by WW.
Winfrey announced the program on her Facebook page:
“The world has experienced a reset and I think it’s an opportunity for us as individuals to do that, too. Which is why WW (formerly Weight Watchers) has created Oprah’s Your Life In Focus: A Vision Forward, a live virtual experience that will help all of us move forward through mind, body, and spirit. For the next four Saturdays, I’ll go live on Zoom, email you workbook pages, and bring along some special friends. All you have to do is log on and show up to do the work. Best part? It’s free! Sign up by going to ww.com/oprah. See you this Saturday, May 16! #OprahandWW #YourLifeInFocus“
“In early 2020, I spent nine weeks traveling the country, talking to people about being well and staying focused. It was exhilarating. Then the pandemic hit and shook us all,” said Oprah Winfrey in a written statement. “Now, it’s more important than ever to be and stay well and strong. Together, let’s reset, refocus, and find clarity in what matters most.”
Viewers can join the free global experience by visiting ww.com/oprah to register. Participants will receive free digital workbook exercises to coincide with the weekly topic and a free 30-day WW trial offer. The series will be seen as a Zoom Video Webinar and will also be live-streamed on Oprah’s Facebook channel and WW’s Facebook and YouTube channels. The four sessions will be made available for on-demand viewing across all platforms. Mobeon, an international live streaming, and virtual event production company, has collaborated with WW to create technology to deliver this state-of-the-art experience.
The Saturday series will explore the following themes:
May 16: Focus
Find clarity in both your physical and emotional well being.
May 23: Connect
Relationships in a time of social distance.
May 30: Adapt
Tools to build your strongest self.
June 6: Commit
Habits, health and happiness. What you can do right now.
May 13, 2020
Breonna Taylor was sleeping in her Louisville, KY, home, when three police officers forced their way in and “blindly fired,” killing her, according to a lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family.
According to NBC News, Taylor, an EMT worker, was shot eight times and killed March 13. The act occurred after officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department executed a search warrant at the wrong house, the lawsuit states.
In a March 13 press conference, Lt. Ted Eidem said the officers knocked on the door several times and “announced their presence as police who were there with a search warrant.”
Eidem added the officers forced their way inside the residence and “were immediately met by gunfire.”
Attorney Ben Crump, who is also representing the family of Ahmaud Arbery, called Taylor’s death a “senseless killing.”
“We stand with the family of this young woman in demanding answers from the Louisville Police Department,” he said in a statement Monday.
Crump has called out the Louisville Police Department for not taking responsibility for Taylor’s death and for not providing “any answers regarding the facts and circumstances of how this tragedy occurred.”
The lawsuit states Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker were sleeping around 12:30 a.m. when plainclothes police officers arrived at the house in unmarked vehicles. The suspect the police was looking for lived on the other side of town–and was already in police custody.
The suit alleges that the officers forced their way in “without knocking and without announcing themselves as police officers.”
The couple thought burglars were trying to break in; Walker called 911. The Courier-Journal reported the department said Walker opened fire and shot an officer.
“The defendants then proceeded to spray gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life,” the lawsuit states. “Shots were blindly fired by the officers all throughout Breonna’s home.”
“Breonna had posed no threat to the officers and did nothing to deserve to die at their hands,” the suit says, adding that she was unarmed. “Neither of the two had any criminal history for drugs or violence.”
No drugs were found in the home.
A spokesperson for the police department said, “Due to an ongoing internal investigation into this situation, we are not able to comment at this time.”
The officers, Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove, were placed on administrative reassignment pending the outcome of an investigation.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said in a statement Tuesday that he was monitoring the case and had talked to the police department’s chief to ensure a thorough investigation.
“As always, my priority is that the truth comes out, and for justice to follow the path of truth,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter. “The Breonna Taylor case is currently under investigation. Therefore, expansive comments are not appropriate until all the facts are fully known.”
Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Doug Lewis, a 39-year-old African American man, have all been victims in recent shootings, bringing back the criminal justice reform debate.
Yes, you read that correctly.
While the world is wondering what the workplace will look like post-COVID-19, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey just might have set a new standard for leaders after giving his employees the option to work from home forever.
In early March, the leader was one of the first to implement a work from home policy that encouraged others to follow suit. And on Tuesday, Dorsey sent an email to his employees about his plan for the company, which affirmed that the workforce is everchanging and that people could expect to work from home as long as they desire. The only exception would be for those who need to come into the office to work on servers as needed.
BuzzFeed first broke the news of Dorsey’s decision and it is likely that other companies will follow Twitter’s lead.
To that point, a Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed, “We’ve been very thoughtful in how we’ve approached this from the time we were one of the first companies to move to a work-from-home model. We’ll continue to be, and we’ll continue to put the safety of our people and communities first.”
In Dorsey’s email, he also revealed that the company had plans to implement the indefinite work-from-home option prior to the state of emergency but the pandemic pushed up his timeline.
Related: 8 Tips To Work From Home Effectively During The Coronavirus Pandemic
Twitter human Resources Head Jennifer Christie told BuzzFeed News the company would “never probably be the same” in the structure of its work. “People who were reticent to work remotely will find that they really thrive that way,” Christie said. “Managers who didn’t think they could manage teams that were remote will have a different perspective. I do think we won’t go back.”
In addition to the new work policy, it has been reported that Dorsey has canceled all in-person events for the calendar year; suspended company travel; and has given all employees a $1,000 budget for supplies so that they can work remotely efficiently.
May 13, 2020
In his latest podcast, retired Harvard Business Professor Steve Rogers encourages black business owners to apply for funds through the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program, designed by the federal government to make forgivable loans available to small companies impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to keep workers on payrolls.
As Rogers shares with listeners, that money is still available and entrepreneurs should aggressively pursue that money. The first tranche of $350 billion funding initiated on April 3, he maintains, went to1.6 million businesses—many of which were large companies that met the requirement of having 500 employees or less. In the second tranche of capital—an additional $320 billion—in which firms submitted applications on April 27, some $30 billion was “carved out for financial institutions that are friendly to black business owners” that included 22 black-owned banks that have assets of less than $50 billion and community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, which have assets of $10 billion or under.
Rogers argues that this financing is “the best loans ever offered to black entrepreneurs”—77% of whom finance their businesses with their own money versus roughly 30% for white counterparts. Since black businesses employ about 3 million people—a majority of then African American workers—he says it is critical for these firms to participate. He said in a recent presentation to the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association: “My concern is that we are not applying out of fear, myths, intimidation or misinformation. We need that money!”
In the following podcast, hosted by his daughter and fintech executive Ariel, Rogers makes the case that black firms should pursue that financing today or lose their best opportunity to weather the current crisis.
In addition to the PPP program, Rogers shares a number of public and private financing programs available to minority firms found on the chart below:
