Trumpless GOP debate still offers plenty of drama and fireworks as eight do battle in frontrunner’s absence
By Tina Sfondeles If Republican voters were worried that a presidential debate without frontrunner Donald Trump would be boring, the eight GOP candidates who squared off Wednesday night did their best to prove them wrong. The eight had just two hours to prove to the GOP base that they are viable alternatives to the indicted former president. And even without the combative and bombastic Trump, the night still offered plenty of heated rhetoric, personal jabs and candidates interrupting and talking over one another. For Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who trailed Trump this week in a pivotal Iowa poll by 23
FAMU Completes $3.5M Renovations for Palmetto South and Phase III On Campus Housing
By Andrew Skerritt Florida A&M University Office of Housing invested $3.5 million in renovations to modernize and update amenities in Palmetto South and Phase III on campus residences this summer. “We think students will be pleasantly surprised with the new amenities. We considered their recommendations,” said Vice President for Student Affairs William E. Hudson, Jr., Ph.D. The updated facilities include new look-like hardwood, LVT floors, new appliances, such as refrigerators and microwaves, new counter tops, and modern showers, Hudson said. “We hope students will value and appreciate the effort and the cost associated with the renovations,” he said. Palmetto South
Is the Black Democratic Rep. from Ga., Who Switched Parties, Delusional to Think Black Folk Will Still Vote for Her?
By Jessica Washington Georgia State Representative Mesha Mainor is sticking by her decision to switch political parties. Last Tuesday, State Representative Mesha Mainor announced that she was leaving the Democratic party for the GOP. The move makes Mainor the first Black woman to serve as a Republican in the Georgia General Assembly. It also means that voters in her deep-blue Atlanta district will now be represented by a Republican. In an interview with Politico’s Brakkton Booker, Mainor claimed that her constituents still support her. “My constituents, we have a relationship. They’re saying to me: “I still support you.” They’re texting and emailing me
Hill Harper, an actor on ‘CSI: NY’ and ‘The Good Doctor,’ announces Senate bid in Michigan
Hill Harper, an actor known for his roles on “CSI: NY” and “The Good Doctor,” announced on Monday that he is running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat and challenging U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin for the Democratic nomination. Harper is the sixth Democratic candidate to enter the race for retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat. Stabenow announced in January that she would not be seeking a fifth term in 2024 in the battleground state. Born in Iowa, Harper owns a house in Detroit and bought a coffee shop, Roasting Plant Coffee, in the city in 2017. He attended Brown University and Harvard
Fayetteville State University Awarded NASA Grant To Support Geospatial STEM Summer Camps
Courtesy of Fayetteville State University Fayetteville State University recently received a five-year grant totaling $423,487 from NASA’s Office of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Engagement’s (OSTEM) Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) to conduct free, two-week, residential summer camps aimed at preparing high school students — especially under-represented/underserved students — for success in college STEM degree programs and encourage STEM-related careers. FSU was among seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and one Predominantly Black Institution (PBI) NASA selected to receive more than $3 million in total funding to strengthen their support for students in those communities in precollege summer programs around
Supreme Court Student Debt Cancellation Decision Sparks Dueling Proposals
By Nick Mordowanec Republican and Democratic senators on Wednesday issued dueling proposals aimed to deal with the inordinate costs and processes associated with higher education, though both plans are vastly different in their approaches. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision this week on whether the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan, which would erase federal student loan debt for approximately 20 million and lower balances for another 20 million, is constitutional. The court will look at two challenges: one involving six Republican-led states, and a lawsuit filed by two students. President Joe Biden recently vetoed the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution following debates about the
Harris gets her cavalry: Top group plans to spend $10 million-plus to boost her
By Eugene Daniels One of the nation’s most powerful political groups tasked with helping female candidates is readying a massive investment to improve Kamala Harris’ public standing. EMILY’s List, the political action committee whose aim is to elect female candidates supportive of abortion rights, says it will be spending “tens of millions of dollars” to defend and prop up the vice president during the 2024 election. Such an investment in support of a sitting vice president is politically unprecedented. And it reflects the lack of broader efforts that have been made to date to help bolster the vice president amid
Talk of Racism Proves Thorny for G.O.P. Candidates of Color
By Jonathan Weisman Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina opened his presidential candidacy with a story of the nation’s bitter, racist past. It is one that he tells often, of a grandfather forced from school in the third grade to pick cotton in the Jim Crow South. A rival for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, speaks of the loneliness and isolation of growing up in small-town South Carolina as the child of immigrants and part of the only Indian family around. Larry Elder, a conservative commentator and long-shot presidential candidate, talks to all-white audiences about his father, a Pullman porter
VP Harris becomes the first woman to give a West Point commencement speech
By Emma Bowman and Juliana Kim Vice President Harris delivered the keynote speech at West Point’s graduation ceremony on Saturday, making her the first woman to give a commencement address in the military academy’s 221-year history. The watershed moment comes amid the 75th anniversary of two major turning points in the U.S. military — the beginning of women having a permanent place in the armed forces and the end of racial segregation in the military. “These milestones are a reminder of a fundamental truth,” Harris told graduates on Saturday morning. “Our military is strongest when it reflects people of America.”