Monthly Archives: February 2021

The mistake people make about history is to treat it as a crutch to prop up their sagging egos. It starts in childhood, when kids meet a parade of airbrushed heroes. But you grow up, or should, and the pretty story learned in second grade must become a jumping-off point, the branch you fly from, toward the stars of what actually occurred.

To stay on that branch, preening your feathers, is to risk ending up an affirmation junkie, able only to process another hit of flattery.

And we know what that looks like.

In September, Donald Trump denounced as a twisted web of lies the simple reality that racism is baked into the crust of our American apple pie. He created the 1776 Commission to promote a happy gloss of American history to help his supporters feel better about themselves.

But before we sluice away the plagiarized slop that Trumps commission squeegeed together, since this is Black History Month, it might be worthwhile to wonder if the inclination to sugar-coat the past is limited to unreflective white folks.

It is not.

Which is too bad. Because once you break free from the need for history to lick your hand like an affectionate pup, you are primed for a clearer understanding of what went on back then and, as a bonus, what is going on now and what might occur in the future.

For example. The election of Harold Washington, Chicagos first Black mayor, is generally presented as a seismic breakthrough and triumph. The power structure that previously served up an unbroken chain of 41 white mayors bowed its head and deferred to the rising might of African American Chicagoans as manifested in the personhood of the joyful Heres Harold! Washington.

Pretty to think so.

What actually happened, as older Chicagoans might remember, is that the incumbent mayor, Jane Byrne, having made a hash of her first and only term, was challenged by Ritchie Daley. They despised each other, and the weakened Democratic Party couldnt impose discipline. So both ran in the February 1983 mayoral primary. Daley got 29.6% of the vote. Byrne, 33.6%. And Washington got 36.3% and won.

Because the two white candidates split the vote. Had either run, alone, theyd have crushed Washington, 2 to 1. As it was, Bernie Eptons whipped-together Republican Before its too late run was a close call, Washington winning 52% to 48%.

Why is this important? First, because understanding why Washington won sets up what follows. The City Council, still existing in the deeply bigoted Chicago that had somehow elected a Black mayor, thwarted almost everything he attempted.

Second, grasping the truth of Washingtons election makes it easier to realize that declarations that America has transcended race like Trumps 1776 Commission are invariably premature.

For instance: The heart-stirring ascendance of our nations first Black president, Barack Obama, a cool, sophisticated slice of supra-racial brilliance, led directly to the grotesque opera buffa, bigoted, sneering piece of human wreckage that is Donald Trump, spastically winking at white supremacists, his orange makeup streaking down his face, staining the collars of his $500 Brioni shirts.

How did that happen?

It happened because, as with Washington, too many people bought the past-is-redeemed narrative and took their eyes off the ball. I was having lunch with David Axelrod, Obamas former chief strategist and senior adviser, and made a confession. I find myself blaming Obama for Donald Trump, I said. Is that fair? He paused and said in essence, I didnt write it down that in Obamas last two years in office, freed of the need to run again, he felt safe concentrating on issues that he particularly cared about. Issues such as reestablishing relations with Cuba, instead of focusing on the urgent need to groom an increasingly bitter, divided, crazy and hallucinating citizenry to accept what was, for them, the unimaginable humiliation of electing a woman president.

The past is a story we tell ourselves and each other. If its too soothing, a lullaby and not a march, then we are doing it wrong, and setting ourselves up for trouble. We dont study the past because its a fun hobby, like collecting stamps. We study the past because, in doing so, we see the future. Accepting only the parts that make you feel good is like driving a car while gazing up at the beautiful blue sky and big puffy clouds. It only works until you hit the truck stopped in front of you.

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This Black History Month, remember: History isnt here to make you feel good - Chicago Sun-Times

When it came time to choose a theme for Black History Month, after the turbulent year the world has just experienced, the choice was clear.

The theme ofSankofa! Black Creativity reflects the innovation, struggles, resilience and beauty of the African American/Black people, in the past, the present, and during this unprecedented time in our nations history, said Zebulon Miletsky, associate professor, Department of Africana Studies and co-chair of the Black History Month (BHM) committee.

It also speaks to the importance of artistic and creative pursuits, and also the creativity needed to move through a pandemic, Miletsky continued. The fact that we are virtual this year illustrates that reality. Weve been through a pandemic, a series of racial justice movements and protests, and violence in our streets and in our nations Capitol. Black Creativity also speaks to the ability to survive in the midst of all of these things, and the creative accomplishments and contributions that have made life richer for all Americans.

The groundbreaking research being conducted by Stephanie Dinkins, associate professor ofartin Stony BrooksCollege of Arts and Sciences, regarding artificial intelligence and equality, and the cross-campus interdisciplinary team of physicians, engineers, paramedics and students that developed a new patient particle containment chamber to combat the dangers the COVID-19 pandemic presented to frontline medical personnel are just two recent examples of real-world creativity taking place at Stony Brook.

When we say creativity, we dont just mean the arts, but solutions, innovation and invention, said Cheryl Chambers, associate dean and director of Multicultural Affairs and co-chair of the BHM committee. In a way, everything we do at Stony Brook is creative in some way.

Sankofa teaches us that we should reach back and gather the best lessons of what our past has taught us, so that we can use them as we achieve our full potential moving forward, added Judith Brown Clarke, vice president for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. Black History Month gifts us with meaningful and historical learning opportunities to move forward with rich contributions to a more inclusive and equitable world.

A long-standing campus tradition, Black History Month is coordinated by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Black History Month Committee and the Department of Africana Studies.

Stony Brooks BHM programs have had a long and impactful history, said Isobel Breheny-Schafer, assistant director of Student Media and a member of the Black History Month committee. This years theme is a perfect way to highlight the talents of the Stony Brook community.

The University radio station, WUSB, will host its 30th annual reggae marathon, a three-day celebration that coincides with Black History Month. The tradition was founded by SBU alumni and current disc jockey Lister Hewan Lowe in 1991, and celebrates the legacy of influential Jamaican artist Bob Marley.

Another Black History Month highlight is the annual Spoken Word contest, a competition featuring student poetry, rap, storytelling and creative artistry. The content will take place virtually on February 22. Winners are invited to perform on WUSB and be published by BlackWorld media.

In the fine arts, the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery is presenting Reckoning, which features an online exhibition showcasing the work of Stony Brooks world-renowned faculty artists, as well as an online student digital mural featuring work created in response to the challenges and issues they are experiencing.

Creativity Speaks BHM Through the Eyes of Student Artists

I created a piece called Enough is Enough the night before my very first Black Lives Matter protest, said senior psychology major Priscilla Nash 21. I was in a completely frazzled, upset state with everything that had been going on, and I needed an outlet. I needed to express my disbelief for how long things like this have been happening and how the stories that we hear today mimic stories that have been told over and over for decades.

Going into Black History Month amidstthe Black Lives Matter movement is an intersection in recenthistory that needs to be recognized by all, addedGianna Coscia 22, a physician assistant studies student. Its a time to reflect thoroughly on the centuriesof historical injustice that preceded this Black History Month of 2021, but also a time to recognize that history is still happening now.

The Black History Month opening ceremony takes place virtually on February 3 at 1 pm, and will feature a keynote speech by Julieanna L. Richardson, founder and executive director of The HistoryMakers, the nations largest African American video oral history collection of scholarly materials.

Acquired by the Stony Brook University Libraries and celebrating its 20th anniversary, The HistoryMakers database highlights nearly 2,700 historically significant African Americans in education, science, business, politics, arts, entertainment, sports, the military and other fields.

Register on Zoom to view the opening ceremony. You can find the fullscheduleof events on Stony Brooks Black History Month website.

Rob Emproto

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Creativity Is the Focus of Black History Month 2021 | | SBU News - Stony Brook News

My two intellectual loves are history and journalism alternately, history and its first draft and Im always happy to see the two overlap. Thats the case with word that the Internet Archive has digitized nearly the entire back catalog of Editor & Publisher for decades the bible of the newspaper industry and made it searchable to all.

I may be one of the youngest journalists to have experienced E&P in its period of pre-Internet glory, when it was the best (and often only) place to find out about job openings at newspapers. I remember, as a cub reporter at The (Toledo) Blade in 1997, going in with a couple of coworkers for a shared subscription so we could see who was hiring. The Internet knocked E&P off its perch, offering free-or-cheap competition for both job listings and media gossip and giving it the fusty smell of yesterdays media, though its shown some signs of life under new owner Mike Blinder.

Its Blinder we have to thank for handing E&Ps archives over to the Internet Archive for digitizing:

When Blinder called Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive and found out we had the microfilm for his back issues, he was very excited to find the microfilm was not only safe, but that the Internet Archive would digitize all of the issues at no cost to him. Blinder enthusiastically gave permission for the full 100-year history to be read and downloaded by anyone, anywhere along with E&Ps International Yearbook and Market Guide. Going beyond the Internet Archives traditional lending system ensures it can be indexed by search engines and made maximally useful to readers and researchers.

I just went nuts, Blinder recalls of learning about the project earlier this year. I read history all the time. The fact that content about this incredible industry was available to humanity was exceptionally exciting.

So if youre at all interested in the 20th-century history of the American newspaper business, you now have access to a robust new resource. To give you a taste, I spent an afternoon combing through the archives to pull out some of the centurys most interesting moments; check them out below.

(But before I release you to those clips, allow me a minute on my soapbox. Newspapers archives are an incredible storehouse of information about the history of our country. And too many of those archives are, as E&Ps were, left crumbling in some storage facility or hidden away on unindexed rolls of microfilm. If you work for a newspaper or magazine and your archives arent yet digitized and available online, do what Mike Blinder did and reach out to the Internet Archive, which can handle the process, often at no cost to you, and make sure the public will benefit from your newspapers work for years to come.)

Without the subject of this story, you wouldnt be reading this website right now: Agnes Wahl Nieman, widow of Milwaukee Journal owner Lucius Nieman, leaves a portion of her estate to Harvard to promote and elevate the standards of journalism in the United States and educate persons deemed especially qualified for journalism.

French inventor douard Belin shows off his experimental television in cooperation with the New York World though its more like a photograph transmission device, based on his earlier Blinographe. The photo sent in tests? One of the Lumire brothers.

Eight full years before the founding of the National Association of Black Journalists, a group of African-American journalists assembled under the name Black Perspective, whose purpose is to improve the image of the Negro in American life. Among those at the first meeting: Ed Bradley (later of 60 Minutes fame), Bob Maynard (future owner of the Oakland Tribune), Ernest Holsendorph (later a business writer for The New York Times), Claude Lewis (the first black columnist for a Philadelphia daily), and Melvin Miller, who is still running Bostons Bay State Banner today, 54 years later.

By way of contrast, check the adjoining story: Civil Rights Coverage Angers Editor, in which the editor of the Dallas Times-Herald complains that some news outlets were too supportive of civil rights for his taste.

A new hire at The Washington Post named Benjamin Bradlee, whod spent the previous four years running Newsweeks Washington bureau.

The birth of unions in journalism: 102 editorial employees of three Cleveland dailies the Press, the News, and the Plain Dealer vote to form the Cleveland Editorial Employees Association. The initiation fee: 50 cents. Newspapermen like to call themselves liberal. They pretend to be radicals, communists, bolsheviks, but the fact is they like to have other people wear the badges. Radicalism and unionism are perfectly swell for the other fellow. Most newspapermen like to remain aloof.

Survival was the top priority for the embattled New York Daily News even back in 1982, showing some things never change. But most noteworthy here is the first E&P appearance of Donald Trump, a real estate developer, who has applied for a casino gambling license in New Jersey.

A profile of 22-year-old Garry Trudeau, whose comic strip Doonesbury was just moving from the Yale Daily News to national syndication. His goal: to generate enough income in six months to have six months a year free.

An pre-syndication appearance from legendary Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, who E&P misidentified as the papers Home Furnishings Editor in a piece on the debate over women in the newsroom. Women are not in favor of giving men the junk. Theyre in favor of junking the junk.

E&P was the bible of the mainstream, overwhelmingly white daily newspaper business, but its coverage of black newspapers and black issues was spotty at best. Heres a dispatch from the trial (trial) of the men who murdered Emmett Till in Mississippi. The Negro press had a large table over on the right of the courtroom near an open window. The first day their table was small but next morning a larger table was substituted.

Ernie Pyle already one of the countrys most popular newspaper writers leaves America for the battlefields of World War II, where hed become a legend. He was killed by enemy fire at the Battle of Okinawa on April 18, 1945.

A brief E&P editorial notes (and attempts to parry) the complaint of Ms. Magazine editor Gloria Steinem that news stories use more descriptive language in describing women than men.

The military newspaper Stars and Stripes prepares to shut down as World War I comes to a close. Check out that staff: Harold Ross, who would go on to found The New Yorker, the famed drama critic Alexander Woollcott, and the artist C. Leroy Baldridge.

The New Yorker offers up John Herseys Hiroshima which filled the entirety of its August 31, 1946 issue for newspapers to publish. The piece runs about 30,000 words and no cutting or condensing is to be permitted.

Hunter S. Thompson, formerly a free-lance travel writer in the U.S. and once a reporter for the Middletown (N.Y.) Daily Record, is syndicating articles from South America to several U.S. newspapers.

The muckraker Ida Tarbell promotes the importance of truth in the news. In our time there is much discussion of exposure, or of muck-raking, as it is called. Muck-raking consists in laying bare the practises, conditions, or policies existing in institutions or in groups of menAs long as men combine to do things secretly the reporters will have the task of exposing them. It is an unpleasant one, but if he is any good, he will not shirk it.

One of the lower points in 20th-century American newspapering: the discovery that Jimmys World, a Pulitzer-winning story in The Washington Post by Janet Cooke, had been an invention. Jimmy, an eight-year-old heroine addict with needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin, brown arms, didnt exist. The public faith in the press is minimal at the moment, said Boston Globe editor Tom Winship. When you add a trauma like thisyou just add fuel to the fire. The crazies out to get the press are going to love it. (A reminder that you cant trust the media is an eternal phenomenon.)

Heres another case of white Southern editors complaining about national coverage of the civil rights movement. Louis Lyons, then curator of the Nieman Foundation, correctly notes that some large Southern papers had ducked the issue' and defended the coverage in Northern papers as objective and comprehensive.

James J. Kilpatrick seen here complaining he didnt get as much air time to discuss race relations as James Baldwin was one of the leading advocates of continued racial segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. Around the time of this E&P story, he was writing that the Negro race, as a race, is in fact an inferior raceWithin the frame of reference of a Negroid civilization, a mud hut may be a masterpiecewhat, pray, has he contributed to [Western civilization]? Putting aside conjecture, wishful thinking and a puerile jazz-worship, what has he in fact contributed to it? Kirkpatrick remained a popular, nationally syndicated columnist until 2009. (A worthwhile example to consider in debates over cancel culture.)

This was the first substantial appearance in E&P of Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham, who had taken that position after the suicide of her husband Philip. In a speech given in Minnesota, Graham asks: How can a modern, general newspaper talk to the dozen experts in town and not lose the other half-million subscribers? Or put it the other way around. How can we talk to the half-million subscribers and not insult the dozen experts? Does it matter? I think it does. Can it be done? I think it can.

The first appearance of the Rev. Martin Luther King, a Negro minister convicted of leading a bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. New Jersey publisher Wayne D. McMurray had raised funds from readers to pay Kings fines and court costs. King later wrote to McMurray: Your spirit gives new hope to those of us who are forced by sectional necessity to stand under the batttering rams of segregation and discrimination. Our struggle here is not merely a struggle for Montgomery but it is really a struggle for the whole of America. (McMurray is now the namesake of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University.)

Within a few months, the Cleveland Editorial Employees Association changed its name to the somewhat more blunt Cleveland Newspaper Guild, and they wanted to take their model national. The Cleveland Guild decided to act as a temporary clearing house for information leading to the integration of all the guilds until a permanent arrangement could be made. That permanent arrangement was what would eventually become todays NewsGuild.

The audience of E&P was, of course, people who worked at newspapers, which made it the prime place to pitch new syndicated columns, comics, and features. Here, less than three months after the strips debut, is an ad for Charles Schulzs Peanuts. (CLEVER, TYPICAL.)

A profile of San Francisco Chronicle reporter Randy Shilts, who was almost alone in covering the earliest days of the AIDS crisis in mainstream media. (Nobody else would do this job. But there is nothing Id rather be doing.) A few months after this story, his book And the Band Played On was released.

A report from the press gallery of the so-called Scopes monkey trial in Dayton, Tennessee. The Chattanooga News has leased a house across from the courthouse which will be converted into a club for the visiting newspaper men. Note the reporter fined $2 for using profanity in a public place.

Its difficult to pinpoint the true start of television in America there were years of experimental stations, with lifespans ranging from hours to years but this story is as good as any. In 1931, radios Columbia Broadcasting System launched W2XAB, the experimental station that would eventually become WCBS, CBS flagship station in New York. W2XAB was the first American station to feature an actual weekly schedule of programming the birth of appointment television! Note the headline: Director Sees Time When News Events Will Be Broadcast.

This was E&Ps first substantial mention of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernsteins Watergate reporting, here honored with a $6,000 prize from the Drew Pearson Foundation. The award was for excellence in investigatory reporting by a Washington correspondent; The New York Times Neil Sheehan had won the first prize the year before for the Pentagon Papers. This piece also properly notes that Woodward and Bernstein werent working alone: The prize was also given to Barry Sussman (cq, Bob here is an error), who edited most of the Posts Watergate stories (and was later editor of the Nieman Watchdog Project). Barrys omission from All the Presidents Men remains criminal.

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Thanks to the Internet Archive, the history of American newspapers is more searchable than ever - Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) Its no coincidence that Heart Month is in February the American Heart Association makes clear that when people think about metaphorical hearts as Valentines Day approaches, it also wants them to think about physical heart health.

It might be more of a coincidence that Heart Month and Black History Month are in the same month, but one Midstate cardiologist says the connection is appropriate.

We do, in the African-American community, have a disproportionate amount of sudden death due to heart disease and other heart health-related issues, said Dr. Mallory McClure, a Chambersburg-based staff cardiologist with WellSpan Cardiologist. Citing statistics from the CDC and American Heart Association, WellSpan says black Americans are 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure than white Americans and are 20 percent more likely to die of heart disease.

McClure, who is African-American, chose her career path for personal reasons. She was 15 years old when, in the summer of 1986, her 47-year-old mother, Minerva McClure, died suddenly because of what turned out to be a previously-undetected heart condition.

My mom its like she suddenly disappeared, McClure said. So thats how I got interested in the heart.

Years later, McClures father, George McClure, died too of heart disease, in his case a coronary blockage. He was 66.

While African-Americans are overrepresented among heart disease victims, they are underrepresented among medical doctors, in terms of the percentage of doctors who are African-American compared to the percentage of the overall population that is African-America. McClure says that makes it particularly important for doctors like her to deliver messages about good diet and exercise and being proactive about seeking medical care.

I speak a language a little bit different from doctors who arent African-American, she said. And I understand what some of the issues are about access, and about people not feeling heard and not feeling safe. I feel that myself, and Im a doctor!

She says February is a perfect time to deliver heart-healthy messages because we have peoples attention, thanks to Black History Month.

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February is Black History Month and Heart Month. Why one cardiologist says thats a good coincidence. - ABC27

Joshua Nkhata said he wanted to show the importance of Black history in the context of his personal experience.

A young Minnesota poet is sharing a powerful message about Black history in America, through the lens of his own personal experience.

Joshua Nkhata wrote the spoken word poem, "Black History is a Verb," and read it for KARE 11's Breaking the News on the first day of Black History Month. Watch his performance in the video above.

"This poem, 'Black History is A Verb,' ultimately attempts to exemplify the importance of Black history in our community by demonstrating its impact on my individual life," Nkhata explained. "As the poem would suggest, Black history was always a touchy subject for me. As a kid I hated the way it was taught to me. It was always just a brief few pages in the back of an otherwise all-white textbook."

Nkhata was previously featured on "Breaking the News" after writing another powerful spoken word piece following the killing of George Floyd last May. That moment of recent Black history also played a role in his latest poem.

"Black history must be a verb, an action word, he said. "When I began to treat Black history as an action, my understanding of it became much clearer. Black history was no longer the somber retelling of the past, it was the ever-evolving story of now. While Black history is certainly the stories of MLK and Rosa Parks, it is also the stories of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Black history is right now, it is every person fighting against a burden unfairly imparted upon them from birth. Black history is everywhere, don't blink, you might miss it."

See Nkhata's previous spoken word piece featured on "Breaking the News" below:

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'Black History is a Verb': A young poet's message about Black history in America - KARE11.com

(CNN) -- The new lawyers who signed on to lead former President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team bring a curious history of experience with them as they prepare to defend the former President in his second Senate trial.

Trump's office announced on Sunday that David Schoen, a seasoned civil and criminal lawyer, and Bruce L. Castor, Jr, a well-known lawyer and the former Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, district attorney, would defend him at the trial, which is set to begin next week.

The lawyers, both of whom have legal careers peppered with curiosities, joined Trump's team a day after five members of his defense left, effectively collapsing the team.

They're tasked with devising a defense strategy for a former President who faces the impeachment charge of inciting a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol, something that if convicted could also result in him being barred from holding federal office ever again.

The attorneys filed a 14-page response to the House's impeachment on Tuesday, arguing in their first filing ahead of the impending trial that Trump cannot be convicted by the Senate because he is no longer in office.

The former President's defense also argued Trump's speech about the election and before the January 6 riots is protected by the First Amendment.

CNN has reached out to Schoen and Castor for comment.

For Schoen, whose website says he "focuses primarily on the litigation of complex civil and criminal cases before trial and appellate courts," Trump is just the latest controversial figure his career has brought him to in recent years.

Schoen was on the team of lawyers representing Roger Stone, Trump's longtime friend and former adviser, in the appeal of his conviction related to issues Stone took with the jury. Stone dropped that appeal after the then-President commuted his prison sentence, but before Stone received a full presidential pardon for convictions, including lying to Congress to protect Trump.

Seth Ginsberg, a criminal defense lawyer who worked with Schoen on Stone's appeal, described his former fellow counselor as a "highly experienced litigator who is very thorough and hard-working."

"He will leave no stone unturned and he will advocate vigorously and relentlessly on behalf on his client," Ginsberg told CNN, adding he doubted they had delineated their roles just yet. "David is no stranger to short deadlines and needing to burn the midnight oil."

Schoen also had the opportunity to represent a much more controversial figure.

He has publicly discussed, with outlets including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that he met with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in prison days before he died by suicide and that he didn't believe Epstein killed himself.

"I saw him a few days earlier," Schoen once told Fox News. "The reason I say I don't believe it was suicide is for my interaction with him that day. The purpose of asking me to come there that day and over the past previous couple of weeks was to ask me to take over his defense."

Schoen, who holds a master of laws from Columbia University and a juris doctorate from Boston College, according to his biography, serves as chair of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Civil Rights Litigation Committee.

Castor, meanwhile, served as Montgomery County district attorney from 2000 to 2008, before serving two terms as the county commissioner, according to a release from Trump's office.

He was involved in at least one high-profile case as district attorney, when he declined in 2005 to prosecute Bill Cosby after Andrea Constand reported the actor had touched her inappropriately at his home in Montgomery County, citing "insufficient credible and admissible evidence."

Cosby was later tried and convicted in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home in 2004, despite the fact that Castor argued during a pre-trial hearing that he'd already committed the state to not prosecuting the actor.

Constand sued Castor in 2015, alleging defamation and false light. Her lawsuit claimed Castor gave various interviews with media outlets and directly or indirectly implied she had been inconsistent in her accusations against Cosby and "exaggerated her claims in a lawsuit and therefore was not to be believed."

In response to the suit, Castor, who at the time was running for his old position as district attorney, alleged his opponent was behind the lawsuit, which was later settled, according to The Washington Post.

Castor later sued Constand and her attorneys, claiming they ruined his political career, among other things, in order to help get his opponent elected, a suit that was ultimately thrown out, according to The Washington Post.

Castor, who holds a law degree from Washington and Lee University and also served as solicitor general and acting attorney general of Pennsylvania, recently joined a law firm that had brought a case against the US Postal Service in 2020 in which lawyers said then-President Trump had "no evidence" for his claims of widespread voter fraud.

The former President's new attorney arrived at the firm after the case was filed.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz, Kara Scannell, Jim Acosta, Kaitlan Collins, Pamela Brown, Jean Casarez, Sonia Moghe, Aaron Cooper and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.

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Trump's impeachment lawyers have a history of being involved in controversial legal matters - KCTV Kansas City

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny takes part in a rally in Moscow REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

Alexei Navalny, an outspoken Kremlin critic, delivered a defiant speech in court Tuesday calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He said that history will remember Putin as nothing but an "underpants poisoner."

Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent from the Novichok family last August that was reportedly planted in his underwear.

He has said that the Russian government tried to kill him to silence him, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

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Detained Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said in court Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be remembered as nothing but an "underpants poisoner," according to a transcript of his statement.

The prominent Russian opposition leader is in court and is facing several years in prison for violating the terms of his probation, conditions set as part of a suspended sentence for a money laundering conviction that Navalny argues was politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested in mid-January after returning from Germany, where he spent several months recovering after he was poisoned with a nerve agent from the Novichok family last August.

Navalny has accused Putin of trying to kill him.

Though the Russian government, including Putin, has repeatedly denied any involvement, Navalny, working with various investigative organizations, has produced several reports pointing to a Russian government role in the attack.

A December report, produced with CNN and Bellingcat, featured the contents of a phone call with a purported Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent, who was duped into revealing that the Novichok nerve agent was planted in Navalny's underwear.

Speaking in court on Tuesday, Navalny said that the reason for his arrest "is one man's hatred and fear - one man hiding in a bunker." Navalny said that he "mortally offended" Putin by surviving, angered him further by refusing to run and hide, and then infuriated him by digging up evidence of his guilt.

Story continues

"Murder is the only way he knows how to fight," he said, referring to the Russian president. "He'll go down in history as nothing but a poisoner. We all remember Alexander the Liberator [Alexander II] and Yaroslav the Wise [Yaroslav I]. Well, now we'll have Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner."

Navalny said in his defiant court speech that the entire show trial is "because that small man in a bunker is losing his mind."

"He's losing his mind because we proved and demonstrated that he isn't buried in geopolitics," he continued. "He's busy holding meetings where he decides how to steal politicians' underpants and smear them with chemical weapons to try to kill them."

He said that efforts to lock him away are intended to intimidate the Russian people, many of whom recently demonstrated a willingness to push back against the government over Navalny's arrest, as well as long-standing issues of lawlessness and corruption.

Russian authorities have arrested thousands of protesters critical of the government in recent weeks.

"I hope very much that people won't look at this trial as a signal that they should be more afraid," Navalny told the court. "This isn't a demonstration of strength - it's a show of weakness."

"I am fighting as best I can and I will continue to do so, despite the fact that I'm now under the control of people who love to smear everything with chemical weapons," Navalny said. "My life isn't worth two cents, but I will do everything I can so that the law prevails."

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Originally published February 2, 2021, 10:52 AM

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Kremlin critic Navalny tells court that Putin will go down in history as nothing but an 'underpants poisoner' - Yahoo News

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) Bowtie Tuesday is not only in Hampton Roads. Its now in Richmond. And its more than a fashion statement. A Newport News man, now teaching in Richmond, uses bowties to share history and teach life lessons.

WAVY News 10s Don Roberts (our bowtie man) introduces us to Keylon Mayo, aka Mr. Klean Kut.

Don Roberts started wearing bowties on Tuesdays back in 2017 just as a way of challenging himselfto do something different, to keep on growing. And, also, to catch the eye of kids.

These days, Mayo, a high school teacher and football coach in the Richmond area, not only wears bowties; he makes them. He estimates hes given away hundreds of bowties to students.

Mayo is encouraging his students to sport a bowtie and embrace a lesson that comes with it.

Bowtie Tuesday started at Mayos previous school.

Kids started noticing it and saying, Well can I wear a bowtie?' Mayo said.

It gives a fancier, unique vibe, said Kelvin Gilliam, a senior at Highland Springs High School in Henrico, where Mayo teaches economics and coaches football.

Mayo is teaching history while sharing a fashion lesson.

Garrett A. Morgan, of course, [is] known for making the first gas mask. George Washington Carver,[a noted agricultural scientist], a lot of our historical, prominent figures [who] have made a significant impact on our lives, you know, have worn a bowtie.

Other students wanted in on the bowtie buzz, too.

I was going out buying them, said Mayo. Man, Im spending 50 and 60 dollars every time.

And, then, about four-and-a-half years ago, he realized he had to do something different. He bought a sewing machine and began making his own bowties.

Mayo estimates hes given away hundreds. But he also sells them and other fashion accessories through his business, Mr. Klean Kut.

His website features more of his story as well as dozens of pictures of students, sports starsand other celebrities wearing his bowties.

When encouraging a teen to wear a tie, whether its traditional, or a bow, Mayo says what anAfrican American male wears can make a profound difference when meeting someone.

Its all about the first impression you never know who you may encounter, Mayo said.

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Virginia teacher uses bowties to share history and teach life lessons - WAVY.com

Daniel Kaluuya stars as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and Lakeith Stanfield is FBI informant William O'Neal in "Judas and the Black Messiah." USA TODAY

One man was for the people, the other for self-preservation.

"Judas and the Black Messiah"director Shaka King wanted to tell the story of two real-life figures, Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and FBI informant William O'Neal, and he sees the film (in theaters and streaming on HBO Max Feb. 12) as "an incredibly clever vessel to introduce a history that has been buried in this country to a very wide audience."

"Black Messiah," which premiered at the virtual Sundance Film Festival, centers on O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) avoiding a prison sentence by making a deal with the FBI in 1968 to infiltrate the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and get close to Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). The chairman formed a multicultural Rainbow Coalition amid a time of social and civil unrest, andbecause he had a gift for reaching people through his words and speeches, Hampton was viewed as a threat by the government and assassinated a year later at the age of 21.

Review: Daniel Kaluuya brings power, presence to 'Judas and the Black Messiah'

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Daniel Kaluuya (center) stars as Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton, who's targeted by the FBI in the period drama "Judas and the Black Messiah."(Photo: GLEN WILSON)

Hampton's ideas "were so profound and insightful and also expressed in such a witty, often humorous but direct, sometimes even profane (and)bombastic way," King said in a Sundance live Q&A Monday night. "The opportunity to present these kinds of ideas expressed this way in a(thriller) was irresistible to me."

Kaluuya was given the Black Panther reading list and for the better part of a week, the British actor just read speeches so he could find the character's voice. What Kaluuya admired about the Black Panthers was "their love for their own, their love for Black people, their love for themselves, unapologetically. Even when they haven't seen that by the powers that be, they poured that love into their own community. They would die to protect their own and liberate their own."

To play his character, Stanfield found inspiration in the only on-camera interview O'Neal gave about his experience, for PBS' "Eyes on the Prize 2," when the interviewer asked O'Neal what hewould tell his son. (O'Neal committed suicide the day it aired in 1990.)

Lakeith Stanfield (center) plays FBI informant William O'Neal in "Judas and the Black Messiah."(Photo: Photo provided by Warner Bros. Pictures)

"It made him stammer a bit, battling with his actual feelings of what he had done," Stanfield said. "For a second in that interview, it cracked through: Hes not a rat, hes not a snitch, hes human. He feels that (stuff)."

Dominique Fishback, who plays Hampton's fellow activist and love Deborah Johnson, kept a journal making "Judas" and wrote poems for every scene Deborah had with Fred. One of them came about when she thought about "all of the Black women losing their children to police terrorism and police brutality. To me, Im putting myself in those shoes. We sometimes think shooting a gun is revolutionary, but Its revolutionary to know that your children are on the frontline every day and you do it anyway out of love."

Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. (left, with producer Charles D. King) was a cultural expert on the set of "Judas and the Black Messiah."(Photo: GLEN WILSON)

With "Black Messiah," King wants audiences to recognize the "the history of this government and country in terms of repressing voices of dissent, (past) and present, and also not believe the propaganda about the Black Panthers being thugs and criminals. Theyre feeding children and building medical clinics and ambulances and trying to prioritize the people that werent being taken care of by the government that claims to represent them.

Fred Hampton Jr., the chairman of the Chicago Black Panther Party Cubs, said theres a combination of emotions seeing his parents story on screen. Their partyin the 1960s was a revolutionary organization that impacted our way of life, our music, even the relationships and our dress.

Now, we serve hot meals and we serve hot politics. The Black Panther Party was there, and the Black Panther Party Cubs, we still here today.

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Sundance: 'Judas and the Black Messiah' introduces 'a history thats been buried in this country' - USA TODAY

Longtime Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia announced his retirement Monday. The former MVP and four-time All-Star built himself quite the resume, though his body didn't full cooperate as he was only able to appear in three games in 2018, six in 2019 and zero in 2020.

Though he only managed eight seasons with at least 135 games, Pedroia did build himself a ledger worthy of Hall of Fame discussion, so let's take a look.

With just 1,512 games, he's bound to be light in the counting stats. He had 1,805 hits, 394 doubles, 140 home runs, 725 RBI, 922 runs and 138 steals. By Hall of Fame standards, those are all short.

On a rate basis, Pedroia hit .299/.365/.439, good for a 113 OPS+ while averaging 193 hits, 42 doubles, 15 homers and 15 steals per 162 games in his career. An excellent defender at an up-the-middle position, Pedroia produced six seasons with 5-plus WAR, including 8.0 in 2011 and 6.9 in his 2008 MVP season. We shouldn't overlook the contact aspect of his game in this day and age, either, as Pedroia never struck out more than 85 times in a season and walked more than he struck out a few times. In all, he only struck out 654 times in 6,777 plate appearances, an average of just 70 per 162 games.

Pedroia led the league in runs twice, hits once and doubles once. Most of that action came in 2008, when he led in runs, hits and doubles while hitting .326/.376/.493 and winning MVP honors.

A regular on two Red Sox World Series championship teams (he has three rings but was injured for the 2018 title run), Pedroia racked up 48 postseason hits, including 14 doubles and five home runs. He hit .345 in the 2007 ALCS and .346 the following year's ALCS.

In addition to the MVP and Rookie of the Year, Pedroia has four Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger and won the 2013 overall defensive player of the year from Wilson.

In JAWS, Pedroia sits 20th among second basemen. He's one spot ahead of Jeff Kent, who just got 32.4 percent of the Hall of Fame vote last week. He's also ahead of Hall of Famers Bobby Doerr, Nellie Fox, Bid McPhee, Johnny Evers and Tony Lazzeri. On the other hand, the average Hall of Fame second baseman is well ahead of Pedroia and he trails the likes of Ian Kinsler, Willie Randolph and Lou Whitaker.

The most statistically similar players, per Baseball-Reference, to Pedroia are Howie Kendrick, Jose Vidro, Joe Mauer, Edgardo Alfonso and Daniel Murphy.

Basically, every arrow here points toward a very good player we were all lucky to have witnessed and someone who will be forever beloved by a fan base, but one that falls short of the Hall of Fame standard. Injuries cost him big gains in the counting stats and he only finished in the top 10 of MVP voting three times.

At times I find myself saying that it's not an insult to a player to say he's not a Hall of Famer. It seems ridiculous to need to say such a thing, but it bears reiteration here: Dustin Pedroia was a great player for a long time. He falls short of the Hall of Fame standard, but that's not an intended insult. Being a Hall of Famer is a high bar to clear. Pedroia didn't clear it, even if he had a better career than the overwhelming majority of baseball players.

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Dustin Pedroia will always have a place in Red Sox history; what about the Hall of Fame? - CBS Sports