1. NYT – Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned on Friday morning, telling President Trump he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of the New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. Mr. Trump offered Mr. Scaramucci the job at 10 a.m. The president requested that Mr. Spicer stay on, but Mr. Spicer told Mr. Trump that he believed the appointment was a major mistake, according to a person with direct knowledge of the exchange.
2. UPI – A candidate for mayor in St. Petersburg, Fla. erupted at black reparations activists, telling them to “go back to Africa” during a mayoral debate. Paul Congemi, who is running as an independent, directed his rant towards Jesse Nevel, a mayoral candidate who is chairman for the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a group of white allies of the African People’s Socialist Party that organizes “in the white community for reparations” to the black community. “Mr. Nevel, you and your people, you talk about reparations. The reparations that you talk about, Mr. Nevel, your people already got your reparations,” Congemi said. “Your reparations came in the form of a man named Barack Obama.”
3. RNS – Hoping to steer national politics in a different direction, black clergy from several denominations came together for the first-ever “African American Clergy Advocacy Day” on Capitol Hill to protest federal budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration. As happened last week at a similar protest, 16 protesters were arrested Tuesday (July 18) on charges of “crowding, obstructing or incommoding” while trying to raise awareness of what they said was unjust legislation. “Since all of these folk make a big deal about putting their hand on the Bible and swearing themselves into office, we’ve come to let them know what’s in the Bible,” said the Rev. William J. Barber II, a North Carolina pastor at the forefront of state and national protests focused on poverty and civil rights. The event was organized by the National African American Clergy Network and included meetings with members of Congress, speeches outside the Capitol and civil disobedience — protesting inside the Senate office buildings.
4. LA Sentinel – Shortly, before the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s (NNPA) annual Legacy Awards Gala, NNPA members elected veteran Chicago Crusader publisher Dorothy Leavell to serve as chairman of the group for the next two years (2017-2019). Leavell succeeds Washington Informer publisher Denise Rolark Barnes, who served in the role for the past two years.
5. AP – A federal judge on Friday approved an $11.2 million settlement between the marital infidelity website Ashley Madison and users who sued after hackers released personal information, including financial data and details of their sexual proclivities. U.S. District Judge John Ross in St. Louis gave preliminary approval to a settlement that was announced last week by Toronto-based Ruby Corp., the parent company of Ashley Madison. Several lawsuits were consolidated in the Eastern District of Missouri. A final approval hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20.
6. LC – Today, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ruled that neither Kim Davis nor Rowan County are liable for attorney’s fees over the marriage license issue that began in 2015. Judge Bunning did overrule the Magistrate’s Findings and Recommendations that concluded the ACLU was not entitled to any attorney’s fees because the plaintiffs were not the prevailing party. Bunning found that the temporary preliminary injunction entitled the plaintiffs to attorney’s fees and went on to rule that the Commonwealth of Kentucky would be liable to pay the fees and costs, not Kim Davis or Rowan County.
7. AP – President Donald Trump’s legal team is evaluating potential conflicts of interest among members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The revelation comes as Mueller’s probe into Russia’s election meddling appears likely to include some of the Trump family’s business ties. Attorney Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s external legal team, told The Associated Press Thursday that the lawyers “will consistently evaluate the issue of conflicts and raise them in the appropriate venue.” Two of the people with knowledge of that process say those efforts include probing the political affiliations of Mueller’s investigators and their past work history. Trump himself has publicly challenged Mueller, declaring this week that the former FBI director would be crossing a line if he investigated the president’s personal business ties.
As you go throughout this day, keep this word in mind: Psalms 118:6 says, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”
Plato said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
God loves you. He always has and He always will. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you don’t know Jesus as your Saviour, today is a good day to get to know Him. Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead for you. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart and He will. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Thanks so much for listening and may God bless your day!
BCNN1 WP 