This is the Black Christian News Network One podcast. Here are the top stories you need to know about today.
According to Associated Press, Outgoing North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley on Wednesday detailed a commission that will recommend how to discourage and ultimately eliminate unfair treatment in the judicial system based on race, gender or other factors. The Chief Justice’s Commission on Fairness and Equity was created by a Supreme Court order in October, but the panel and its members weren’t announced by the court system until Beasley’s final week on the job. Associate Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, becomes the next chief justice after narrowly defeating Beasley, a Democrat, in the November election. The text of the order acknowledged inequalities in the judicial system “that stem from a history of deeply rooted discriminatory policies and practices and the ongoing role of implicit and explicit racial, gender, and other biases.” Beasley, the first Black woman serving as chief justice, also delivered an address following the death of George Floyd that acknowledged enduring racial inequalities in North Carolina’s system. The October order made the chief justice or her designee the commission’s chair. Beasley chose before she left office to delegate the leadership role to two jurists — Associate Justice Michael Morgan and Court of Appeals Judge Valerie Zachary. Other commission members include Justice Sam Ervin IV, trial court judges, court attorneys, law enforcement and representatives of several interest groups.
According to the Daily Mail, Keyon Harrold Jr, 14, says he’s still ‘shell-shocked’ after the ‘Soho Karen’ attack on Saturday, where a woman falsely accused him of stealing her phone and tackled him. The incident took place Saturday at the upscale Arlo Hotel in SoHo, Manhattan. ‘I don’t know what would have happened if my dad wasn’t there. These past few days, still kind of shell-shocked, but I’m hanging in there,’ he said Tuesday. His father is Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold. The family’s attorney Ben Crump is demanding ‘Karen’ be charged with assault and battery, however she hasn’t been publicly identified yet. ‘We want charges because we have to send a message because this has larger societal implications. Think about how many black men have been accused by these Karens and they end up losing their liberty and losing their life sitting in prison,’ attorney Ben Crump said on the morning show.
According to the Associated Press, At least 30 Chicago Public Schools are named after people who owned or traded enslaved Black or indigenous people, a shock that came to CPS officials, according to a Chicago Sun-Times review of every public name in the city. Maurice Swinney, chief equity officer for CPS, said Chicago school officials are reviewing school names and changes will be made. “It’s dehumanizing, and it’s something that we have to work on and change,” Swinney said. “And we got to disrupt it, we got to stop it, we got to change it.” Swinney says he will lead an effort to change the names first at the schools named for anyone involved in slavery, with people of color at the center of the discussions. According to the Sun-Times analysis, there are 652 public schools in Chicago currently open. 427 of them are named after people, of which 56% are white. Though Black children make up 36% of CPS’ student enrollment, just 12% of schools are named after Black people. Only 5% of schools are named for Latinos even as Latino kids account for 46% of Chicago Public School students. And with more than 4% of CPS students being Asian American, there is no school named for anyone Asian.
According to the the Independent, A coffin manufacturer has said they are running out of wood in Los Angeles, as the coronavirus continues to claim American lives at an alarming rate. Auriel “Guero” Suarez, who owns the Universal Caskets Manufacturing Corporation, admitted that wood was becoming “scarce”, as they struggled to meet local demand in eastern Los Angeles. “Especially pine, which is the most inexpensive,” Mr Suarez, who spoke with The Daily Beast, added. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles public health department said that hospitalisations and deaths had broken records, while Covid-19 continued to accelerate across the United States. “In 52 years in the business, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mr Suarez said of the situation. “Sometimes, the coffins don’t arrive on time for the funeral.” In the past week, reported deaths from Covid-19 in Los Angeles county have risen almost daily. And on Tuesday, that number stood at 227, breaking the county’s previous record for single day deaths, set the previous week. The coronavirus deaths were among 3,7000 reported across the United States on Tuesday – another sombre pandemic milestone – according to data by the COVID Tracking Project.
According to NPR, Two police officers who were part of the raid that ended with the shooting and death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, are reportedly being terminated by the Louisville Metro Police Department. The move comes nine months after Taylor was killed in her apartment when police attempted to carry out a search. Attorneys for detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes have confirmed to member station WFPL that both have been given pre-termination letters by Chief Yvette Gentry. “We intend to show up to the pre-termination hearing on Dec. 31 and we’re going to contest this action, although I’m not optimistic about Interim Chief Gentry changing her decision,” said Thomas Clay, the lawyer for Jaynes. NPR was unable to contact Clay for comment. Jaynes was not at the raid. He was responsible for obtaining the police warrant that led to the incident at Taylor’s home. Jaynes asked the court to issue a warrant, supporting his request by saying that police learned from a postal inspector that a drug suspect, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, had received packages at her address. But he later acknowledged to investigators that he had not verified that information with a postal inspector. “These are extreme violations of our policies, which endangered others,” Chief Gentry wrote in the pre-termination letter obtained by The New York Times. Cosgrove was one of multiple police officers who fired shots that killed Taylor. His lawyer did not give a comment for WFPL.
According to ESPN, The Washington Football Team released quarterback Dwayne Haskins one day after he was benched in a loss to the Carolina Panthers — and hours after he was demoted behind a player signed to the practice squad less than a month ago. In a statement, Washington coach Ron Rivera said he met with Haskins on Monday to inform him of his decision. “I told him that I believe it benefits both parties that we go our separate ways. We want to thank Dwayne for his contributions these last two seasons and wish him well moving forward.” In a tweet, Haskins wrote: “I take full responsibility for not meeting the standards of a NFL QB & will become a better man & player because of this experience.” The release occurs one week after a maskless Haskins was photographed at his girlfriend’s birthday party with strippers, hours after a loss to Seattle. Washington fined Haskins $40,000 for his second breach of COVID-19 protocols and took away his captaincy. Earlier in the season, Haskins was fined for making a reservation for a family friend at the team hotel the night before a game in New York. There was a sense that perhaps playing in his hometown did not help Haskins, providing too many distractions.
According to Formula One, In a year of historic milestones and major accolades, Lewis Hamilton has landed another, with the news that he is to receive a knighthood – one of the highest honours bestowed in his homeland of the United Kingdom. The award comes at the end of an exceptional year for Hamilton in which he won a record-equalling seventh world title, while helping Mercedes to a seventh straight constructors’ crown. The 35-year-old Briton also matched and then surpassed Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 wins, taking the tally up to 95. Away from the track he set up the Hamilton Commission to improve diversity in motorsport, and was also named Laureus World Sportsman Of The Year, BBC sports personality of the year, GQ’s Game Changer Of The Year and was named in Time Magazine 100 most influential people. Commenting on Hamilton being knighted, Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1’s incoming CEO, said: “Lewis is a true giant of our sport and his influence is huge both in and out of a car. What he has achieved is phenomenal with still more to come. All of us at Formula 1 congratulate him on this well deserved recognition of his achievements and look forward to seeing more of his brilliance in 2021.”
You can read these stories and more at BlackChristianNews.com .
In closing, remember, 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 