In 2019, only 3% of the $23.2 billion in loans from the SBA went to Black businesses
There has been an 84% national decline in lending money to Black-owned businesses since 2007 under the Small Business Administration’s small business lending program.
In Sacramento, white businesses have received more money for their businesses than all Black businesses nationally from the SBA program, Census data showed.
According to the Sacramento Business Journal, a majority-Black census shows that Black businesses nationally received $157.58 per capita in business loans compared to majority-white businesses which received $304.59 per capita in Sacramento alone.
Business owners in white neighborhoods received $254.67 per capita, whereas neighborhoods with majority people of color received $153.72 per capita.
Isn’t it ironic that people will raise MILLIONS to find crazy ways to get #Blackpeople to #vote (ie. “Get yo booty to the poll”) but won’t use any of that money for BLACK BUSINESS LOANS or to help STRUGGLING FAMILIES?
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
The problem is not exclusive to California, with states like Ohio facing similar issues.
In the County of Cuyahoga, where 1,439 federal small business loans were awarded in 2018, white businesses received $366 per resident whereas Black businesses received $182 per resident.
The four biggest banks – Chase, Bank of America, CitiBank and Wells Fargo – gave a total of 334 loans to Black-owned businesses in 2019, a 91% decrease compared to 2007, according to the Clevend Business Journal.
In 2019, only 3% of the $23.2 billion in loans from the SBA went towards Black businesses.
While some might blame bad lending disparities on economic inequality, banks are saying one’s credit determines a person’s ability to get loans and credit issues are rampant in Black communities.
Critics of this data say that using the year before the Great Recession makes the data seem worse. 2007 was a time when getting a loan was very easy to do.
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Pelosi’s talks have been dragging on for months without any results
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given the White House a 48-hour deadline to reach an agreement on passing a coronavirus stimulus relief bill before the Nov. 3 election.
Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) during the Weekly News Conference on Capitol Hill on October 08, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
“The 48 only relates to if we want to get it done before the election, which we do,” Pelosi said in an interview on ABC’s This Week. “But we’re saying to them we have to freeze the design on some of these things. Are we going with it or not? And what is the language?”
Pelosi’s talks with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin over a deal costing between $1.8 trillion and $2.2 trillion have been dragging on for months without any results. With the window for action quickly narrowing, Pelosi gave the White House a deadline that indicated if no agreement could be reached by Tuesday, it would not be possible to reach a new relief bill by the election.
Donald Trump must not even want to be president anymore. Why can’t he just resign and let Pelosi take over for a while so we can get a stimulus check?
Pelosi’s office explained to CNN Sunday that the 48 hours refers to the end of the day on Tuesday and that they need answers to key questions by then or they won’t be able to get a bill passed before Nov. 3. Negotiations would still continue after Tuesday if a deal isn’t reached, but it wouldn’t get done before the election.
According to the Washington Post, Pelosi has not spoken with President Donald Trump in over a year, but reiterated Sunday that she’s negotiating through his emissaries and there’s little point in talking directly with the president because he’s not truthful.
“You want to meet with him, you meet with him,” she told host George Stephanopoulos. “As far as I’m concerned, the speaker of the House must be respected in terms of what the purpose of the meeting is, what the preparation is for and what the likelihood of success would be.”
If only Nancy Pelosi would agree to sending out federal COVID relief checks to Americans, they would go out NOW.
She still has some other higher priorities she's holding out forhttps://t.co/wSeUD7pvqK
With surging unemployment numbers, small business closures and the termination of direct payments and enhanced unemployment insurance that helped to keep families and individuals afloat throughout the pandemic, the pressure to strike a deal has become increasingly urgent.
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Kirstie Alley tweeted that President Donald Trump will turn the economy around
Kirstie Alley has been trending and it’s not because there’s a Look Who’s Talking reboot or a Cheers virtual table read. The actress made headlines this weekend for reaffirming her support for President Donald Trump.
The two-time Emmy winner took to her Twitter account on Saturday to post who she is endorsing in the forthcoming presidential election. Not only did she reveal that she is voting for Trump, but also stated why.
“I’m voting for @realDonaldTrump because he’s NOT a politician,” Alley tweeted. “I voted for him 4 years ago for this reason and shall vote for him again for this reason.”
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 03: Actress Kirstie Alley attends the “Kirstie” premiere party at Harlow on December 3, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images)
Alley, 69, went on to post that she believes that Trump will rapidly turn the American economy around if he returns to the White House.
“He gets things done quickly and he will return the economy around quickly. There you have it folks there you have it,” Alley continued.
She immediately received criticism for her statement, with some people commenting on all the things that Trump have quickly gotten done:
He did kill 224,284 Americans faster & >than any collection of prior wars *and* destroy the economy including billions of costs from failed trade wars *and* increase the deficit to 3.1 TRILLION dollars in debt (3x 2019) all faster than any other impeached president, that is true. pic.twitter.com/JE3xvoUcnl
"He gets things done quickly"
– Killed 218,000 Americans in record time (6 months)
– Destroyed the economy in that same amount of time
– Destroyed 2 centuries of respect for America in just 3 years
People also commented on her reasoning for voting for Trump:
I am hiring my friend because he’s NOT an electrician! I hired him 4 years ago for this reason and he wired up the house quick! And now, 4 years later after it burned down (fake news said it was an electric fire) I am going to hire him again!
The backlash was noticed by Alley who responded with more posts. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen so much name-calling in my life,” she tweeted. “Definitely not on my site here anyway I guess I’m not allowed to have a viewpoint without being called a really nasty names by what I’m going to suppose are really nasty people.”
Don’t think I’ve ever seen so much name-calling in my life. Definitely not on my site here anyway I guess I’m not allowed to have a viewpoint without being called a really nasty names by what I’m going to suppose are really nasty people
Alley came under fire in April 2016 when she posted her original support for Trump during his first campaign, then against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “HELLO BOYS! this is my formal endorsement of@realDonaldTrump,” she posted, which was retweeted by Trump soon after.
After getting scathing replies back then as well, she quickly responded in similar fashion. “If Ur ‘disappointed in me’ Or can’t hang with my views..so be it..U were never a friend in the 1st place.”
If Ur "disappointed in me" Or can't hang w me because of my views..so be it..U were never a friend in the 1st place.I respect ALL my friends
The FBI has warned that scammers are using the election to steal the information of voters through the use of email
With the 2020 election less than three weeks away, it has been discovered that voters are being taken advantage of. According to Huffington Post, scam artists are posing as political action committees (PAC) in emails in an effort to steal people’s personal information.
Citizens have been regularly receiving warnings from cybersecurity experts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Better Business Bureau have warned that several fraudulent sources are targeting voters with sophisticated email messages to steal phone numbers, addresses and bank account information. Sam Small, chief security officer of digital security firm ZeroFox, says that these scammers often use important occasions such as elections, disaster relief, and health crises to lure their targets.
“Psychologically, these scams play to our desire to do something – to get involved, to donate, to take action,” said Small. “Give them something to work with and they’ll find a way to make a dollar.”
Small added that these scammers make their emails look as legitimate as possible in order to convince voters to relinquish their information.
“Someone could use that to pretend to be a political action committee raising money, to try to get your personal information or your account numbers,” Small continued.
Better Business Bureau’s chief marketing officer Paula Fleming says that such con artist actions are on high alert due to the contentious, divisive election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Every election is heated, but this one is very much so,” stated Fleming. “People are more trusting when they see it’s a political party or a candidate they like emailing them.”
The FBI revealed that there had been an uptick of fraudulent emails since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. Its cybercrime reporting site has been getting between 3,000 to 4,000 complaints per day since COVID-19 hit the nation, which is up from 1,000 per day prior to that.
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Trump wants to exclude undocumented immigrants from the total population in the U.S. census
The Supreme Court agreed to listen to President Donald Trump’s arguments to exclude undocumented immigrants from the total population in the U.S. census.
The Supreme Court wants to give the Trump administration an opportunity to explain why adding probing citizenship questions to the 2020 census is necessary.
SCOTUS just halted 2020 census count to allow Trump admin to manipulate political & economic power for next decade. Now imagine how bad the court will be with Amy Coney Barrett on it
There have been several failed attempts by the Trump administration to prevent undocumented immigrants from being represented, The Washington Post reported.
One month ago, in the case of the State of New York v. Trump, a federal appeals court blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information on undocumented immigrants.
In July of this year, Trump said in a memorandum that some states are overcompensated in representation because of undocumented immigrants.
If the Supreme Court were to dismiss the census responses of undocumented immigrants, states like California, New Jersey, and Texas could have fewer House of Representative seats.
The U.S. Census logo appears on census materials received in the mail with an invitation to fill out census information online on March 19, 2020 in San Anselmo, California. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
On Oct. 14, however, the Supreme Court did allowed the Trump administration to lower population counting for the census.
“[Trump] seeks to reallocate political power among the states and to weaken the political influence of states with larger populations of undocumented immigrants,” the challengers said in a court filing, Reuters reported.
They also alleged the change prevents people from participating in the census, saying it is a violation of both the Constitution and the Census Act.
The administration wanting to exclude undocumented immigrants comes before Trump’s third pick for the Supreme Court is sworn in. Amy Coney Barrett is set to take Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.
If the Republican-controlled Senate approves Trump-nominated Barrett, six out nine seats will be controlled by conservative judges.
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A pastor was fatally shot at The Village Flea Market & Mall in Miami-Dade County’s West Little River neighborhood last month. Two people in connection to the incident have confessed.
via social media
Latravia Charm Bell, 20, and Nathaniel Bernard Roberson, 31, were arrested for killing pastor Gregory Boyd, and the couple faces first-degree murder charges.
A man named Mikal Norman is said to be the third person wanted for the crime, with police asking the community to assist in the arrests, Local 10, an ABC-affiliated television station, reported.
On the day before Sept 11, several people opened fire in a crowded parking lot. Boyd was hit in the crossfire while he was walking to his vehicle, according to investigators.
Boyd was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center, but he died shortly after arriving. He was 54, according to Local 10.
His death sparked outrage by the community, uniting activists and police who posted a $5,000 reward for the names of those involved.
According to a Facebook Live video, there was an argument between two sets of people at the flee market parking lot before shots were fired.
The shooting occured when Local 10 reporters, Terrell Forney and Nick Lupo, were working on another story at the scene of the crime.
The DOJ had been working on the case against these white supremacists since June of 2019
According to the U.S. Justice Department, 21 Utah-based white supremacists have been indicted for allegedly selling drugs and firearms. In recent days, similar charges were brought against white supremacist gang members in Texas, Kentucky, and Mississippi.
Twenty-Four Defendants, Including Alleged Aryan Circle Gang Members and Associates Indicted on Racketeering, Firearms, and Drug Charges in Multiple States https://t.co/wD6CHwkpT0
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said in a statement that the recent charges were unsealed in federal court following an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force of the Soldiers of Aryan Culture, Silent Aryan Warriors, Noble Elect Thugs, and associates.
In the statement the defendants were described as “documented gang members and associates of several home-grown white supremacist gangs from around the Salt Lake City and Ogden areas.”
“The Aryan Circle is a violent, race-based organization that operates inside federal prisons across the country and outside prisons in states including Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri,” the statement said.
President Donald Trump came under fire in the first presidential debate for his unwillingness to clearly denounce white supremacy and for telling the right-wing Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”
Proud Boys flash the OK hand signal, a gesture often associated with far-right groups, during Proud Boy rally on September 26, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Reversing his stance on Thursday during an NBC town hall, the president repeatedly said he denounced white supremacy.
As reported by Deseret News, U.S. Attorney John Huber said he was concerned that there might be the perception that the Department of Justice directed local jurisdictions to crack down on white supremacists to show the Trump administration is serious about rooting them out.
He said the DOJ had been working on the case since June of 2019 and added that the Utah arrests are the result of investigations that are well over a year old.
According to Reuters, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have also expressed concern about domestic extremism in the lead up to the Nov. 3 election.
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PopCom, owner of PopShop, raised a historic $2.3 million by using Equity crowdfunding
After four years of development, CEO of PopCom, Dawn Dickson has been awarded the patent on the PopShop Kiosk, something she calls a “digital pop-up-shop.”
In 2017 I set out to create the 'iPhone of vending machines'. I have always been inspired by @Apple when it comes to design. I am so excited to be awarded US Patent #D896310 for the PopShop, a digital pop-up shop with software to revolutionize automated retail @PopComSaaSpic.twitter.com/HYsmFnpK65
Dickson refers to the PopShop as the “iPhone of vending machines” because of the sleek and innovative design coupled with a range of novel features that are not available on traditional vending machines.
This feature set includes exterior cameras to anonymously collect customer data, including age, gender, emotion, and engagement.
The PopShop kiosk features a large display monitor to allow retailers to monetize their kiosks by selling advertisements and promoting products.
Kiosk example via PopCom
The cashless machines accept all major credit cards and PopCom has future plans to integrate digital currency acceptance and “pay with face” options.
With the goal of being completely “contact-less” and to protect customers from COVID-19, each sale can be conducted with a pen, stylus or even gloves.
“I was tired of the same ‘box’ shape of machines,” said Dickson. “I am excited that after over four years of development we have been awarded the patent on the PopShop design. It was my vision to completely redesign the vending machine as we know it today and change the way people interact with automated retail. I have always been inspired by Apple and their approach to design, the PopShop was created by channeling that mindset of innovation.”
Previously, PopCom raised a historic $2.3 million by using Equity crowdfunding, a fundraising instrument that allows companies to secure investments from the general public with both accredited and non-accredited investors, which is outside the traditional fundraising route that most technology start-ups take.
Its latest offerings went live on October 1 on StartEngine, and individuals can invest starting at $252.
“It was important to me to be able to raise capital this way to build and encourage intergenerational wealth in often overlooked communities,” Dickson said.
via social media
Dickson recently won the 2020 OBWS Entrepreneur of the Year Award presented by SnapChat and was a Finalist for 2020 Rising Pay Tech Star Award.
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According to The New York Times, the COVID-19 outbreak at SUNY Oneonta was the worst at any public university in the entire state. University president Barbara Jean Morris resigned after over 700 students contracted the coronavirus, causing in-person classes to be shut down. A special virus control crew was sent to the campus to try to contain the virus and avoid spreading the illness to the rest of the upstate New York area, the report detailed.
At SUNY Oneonta the outbreak began with two cases in late August which quickly spread among students. The university initially zeroed in on contact tracing, attributing the cases to parties near campus, which resulted in five suspensions, the Times reported. Students said group gatherings off-campus were also common. After the first cases were revealed on Aug. 25, and the number rose to 105 students on campus with coronavirus by Aug. 30.
On social media, students chronicled their exodus from contaminated dorm rooms into separate quarantine locations by officials wearing hazmat suits. The outlet revealed students were also seen on social media partying in the designated quarantine dormitories.
The outbreak at the university resulted in a state review and a revamp of coronavirus guidelines across the SUNY system. According to the NYT, Morris’ resignation was not directly related to the COVID-19 crisis. Dennis Craig was named as a temporary replacement as the process to find a new president continues. He recently served as interim president at SUNY Purchase, where a comprehensive coronavirus re-opening plan held the campus of 4000 students to only seven positive cases.
“SUNY Purchase has one of the best plans out of the SUNY system,” the system chancellor, Jim Malatras, said at the news conference. “They brought back about 25 percent of their students and they have had regular testing and a very low positivity rate. President Craig led the way on that.”
The Oneonta community welcomed the change in leadership, according to the report.
“I think that we all recognize that this was a time where change was needed. It’s a time for a new start,” Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig told The Times. “There had been some loss of trust here amongst both the college community and the city community. Trust is everything. Sometimes you need to make changes in order to rebuild trust.”
The Nielsel numbers don’t include live streams to cell phones and other devices.
Joe Biden’s live town hall with ABC News Thursday night was watched by nearly one million more television viewers than those who tuned-in for President Donad Trump’s event.
According to Nielsen ratings, Biden’s 90-minute discussion averaged 14.1 million viewers, compared to 13.5 million for Trump’s town hall on NBC, The Washington Post reports.
The primetime town halls were scheduled after Trump pulled out of the presidential debate once it was switched to a virtual format following his positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
The Nielsel numbers don’t include live streams to cell phones and other devices, but when it comes to the two networks’ YouTube channels, Biden’s town hall received 507,445 viewers compared to Trump’s 153,660, according to Newsweek.
theGRIO previously reported… At his town hall event Thursday night, Biden was asked by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos if it was a mistake to support the controversial 1994 crime bill, and he replied, “Yes, it was. But here’s where the mistake came. The mistake came in terms of what the states did locally.”
Biden noted that while the federal government lowered mandatory minimums and a statute he called “same crime, same time,” those elements applied mostly to federal offenses. States retained their own sentencing power and ability to build more prisons, which they did.
The former vice president said the ’94 crime bill was created after a spike in crime in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
Biden also explained that, at the time, the crime bill was supported by the Congressional Black Caucus and Black mayors across the nation. However, he said, “things have changed drastically,” noting that violent crime has dropped dramatically, and racial justice issues in America are different now than at that period.
He now contends that no one should serve time in prison for drug possession, and the country instead should be funding rehabilitation centers.
Biden’s The Vice President and the People town hall is ABC’s most-watched prime-time telecast since the Oscars in February, according to the report.
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‘The chokehold that corporate giants and the rich hold over our political system is not new.’
Progressive Democrats including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), are calling on the Senate not to confirm C-suite level corporate executives or lobbyists to future administration posts.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), left-wing House members, including 39 progressive groups, signed a letter asking that they oppose these nominees, The Hill reports.
“One of the most important lessons of the Trump administration is the need to stop putting corporate officers and lobbyists in charge of our government,” they wrote. “As elected leaders, we should stop trying to make unsupportable distinctions between which corporate affiliations are acceptable for government service and which are not.”
In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic Reps. Katie Porter, Ayanna Pressley, Barbara Lee, Pramila Jayapal, Rashida Tlaib, and more, signed the letter.
Raúl Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, drafted the letter, and noted “it’s not addressed to Biden, but there’s an understanding that he’d be in charge and be the person making nominations,” he said.
“Ending the practice of filling cabinet and sub-cabinet posts with current or former corporate officers and lobbyists is not to offer a commentary on each individual person’s character. It is to make a statement of principle,” the group wrote.
The letter’s signees also include prominent liberal groups like Our Revolution, which has ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is supported by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
‘The destruction of humanity is a higher priority than the preservation and advancement of humanity.’ — In January, @AOC called out the U.S. government for spending more on military than its own citizens in need pic.twitter.com/NIYCh8eMWK
“Despite the unrivaled corruption of the Trump administration, the chokehold that corporate giants and the rich hold over our political system is not new,” said Illinois Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, who also signed the letter. “Their power and influence in American politics has been growing for years.”
The letter’s authors warn Democrats not to appoint any of their own corporate buddies or officials after criticizing Trump’s appointees.
“Just imagine explaining to the American people why those names, with those affiliations, are unacceptable, but similar names with similar-sounding affiliations are not only unobjectionable, but necessary to the proper functioning of the federal government,” they wrote. “The revolving door needs to stop, not just change direction every few years.”
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The show was set to begin production earlier this year but was pushed back due to the pandemic.
HBO Max has scrapped its series adaptation of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel “Americanah” with Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira attached to executive produce.
The project is no longer moving ahead after Nyong’o was forced to exit the series due to scheduling conflicts stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, Variety reports .
Nyong’o was set to star in the series with Gurira writing and serving as showrunner.
(L-R) Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyong’o speak onstage during the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 19, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)
“Americanah” originally received a 10-episode straight-to-series order at HBO Max in 2019. The show was set to begin production earlier this year, but COVID hit and Hollywood was forced to shut down. After the shooting dates were pushed back, Nyong’o had to drop out due to conflicts with other projects, according to the report.
The Oscar-winning actress originally planned to adapt the novel into a film co-starring alongside David Oyelowo.
The story traces the life of a young Nigerian woman who migrates to America to attend university amid the backdrop of her love story with a high school classmate.
“Americanah” earned Adichie the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.
It's #Sulwe's 1st Birthday! 💜 Your embrace of this story has been one of my life's greatest joys. I'm celebrating today that I can now hold in my two hands a copy written in Kenya's national language, Swahili. ✨ pic.twitter.com/UiKUXHjlB1
“‘Americanah’ has been a passion project for me since I read Chimamanda’s beautiful novel in 2013,” Nyong’o said when the series was originally announced, Variety reported. “It’s a tale that is simultaneously timely and timeless. HBO Max is the perfect partner to bring this profound and celebrated story to life, and I’m thrilled that Danai will bring to the project her intelligence, wit, and understanding of the stories and the worlds of ‘Americanah.’”
Gurira added, “Through ‘Americanah,’ Chimamanda brought the African female voice into mainstream consciousness in an unprecedented way. It is intellectually incisive, indicting, yet full of humor, and riddled with humanity. She makes unheard voices familiar, universal and yet palpably specific. I am honored to bring her incredible novel to life on the screen.”
Nyong’o was set to star on the series alongside Uzo Aduba, Corey Hawkins, Zackary Momoh, and Tireni Oyenusi.
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‘I’m not in a mentally abusive relationship. I have choices.’
Cardi B has fired back at fans who believe she’s in a “mentally abusive relationship” with husband Offset.
On Friday, she responded to criticism over her decision to reconcile with the father of her 2-year-old daughter, Kulture Kiari.
“Twitter users be like, ‘Cardi, you’re in a mentally abusive relationship. Oh my gosh. We gotta save you,'” she said. “And I be like, ‘All right, but can I f–k him today? Because I need to have sex.’ And n—as in my DMs talking about, ‘What up big head?’ I don’t like that. I’m 28 years old, and my head’s not big. Actually, it is, but not with a lace front. The f–k.”
The hip-hop star filed for divorce from the Migos rapper in September, saying their marriage was “irretrievably broken.” The move came after he allegedly had been unfaithful yet again.
theGRIO previously reported… a month after the filing, the duo were spotted together in Las Vegas for Cardi’s recent birthday celebration. The Grammy-winning artist took to social media to explain why she hooked back up with her hubby. Cardi, 28, confessed in an IG Live that it was “hard not to talk to your best friend.”
In two Twitter audio clips posted on Oct. 16, the “WAP” rapper opened up about her marriage amid accusations that the divorce filing was a PR stunt.
“I didn’t really want to talk about my relationship s— because I know y’all sick and tired of me going back and forth with Offset,” she said before slamming fans who describe Offset as “abusive.”
“Y’all sound f—ing crazy when you start using the word ‘abusive,'” she said. “I’m not in a physically abusive relationship. I’m not in a mentally abusive relationship. I have choices.”
(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for FENTY PUMA By Rihanna)
She also posted a video on Twitter in which she jokes that fans act like she’s married to them.
“Imma just give ya a apology because ya want me to apologize for living MY LIFE the way that ya live YOURS,” she said to fan in the video. “I’m sorry. I’m not perfect, I don’t want to be neither.”
Meanwhile, an insider claims Offset is “excited to have Cardi back and be back in her good graces.”
“Cardi changes her mind every day whether she wants to be with Offset or not,” a source tells E! News. “She will complain about him for days on end and then snap out of it and want him back. She says they are back together right now, but could change at any moment. She’s going with the flow and hasn’t made any formal decisions on withdrawing her divorce filing yet. Divorce is still on the table.”
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Florida signed Jordan’s Law to prevent this happening to another child.
A Florida mother may never see the outside of a prison again after she was sentenced today in the murder of her own son, but his legacy will live on in a law inspired by his short life.
Charisse Stinson, 23, was sentenced to 50 years in prison after killing her son in 2018, per WFLA News. Her son, Jordan Belliveau, was just 2-years-old when she committed the heinous crime. After accepting a plea deal, Stinson was convicted of second-degree murder in Pinellas County, Florida. She also pled guilty to making a false report and will pay the Largo Police Department close to $28K.
In 2018, Stinson said her son was abducted after she accepted a ride from a stranger. She claimed the person knocked her out then ran off with Jordan. An Amber Alert was issued and an almost 60-hour search took place before the boy was found in a wooded area around the Largo Sports Complex. An autopsy showed he was killed by blunt force trauma.
Stinson said in a jailhouse interview last week that she’s sorry about what happened to her son, who she admitted she struck, knocking his head into a wall.
“I was just in a dark – I hated everything,” she said. “I hated life, I hated myself. I didn’t know how to love. I loved my son. And I was so disappointed in myself because he did not deserve what happened to him at all. No child deserves that.”
After already serving two years in jail, the mother addressed the court on Tuesday after she received her sentence which she said he agrees with.
“That’s a long time, but I will walk with my head held high,” she said.
Charisse Stinson (WFLA mugshot)
“I want the court to know that I am not the same Charisse I was when I walked in, I have done a lot of things to change, and I’ll continue to change. … For a while, I was so angry and bitter before I came to jail. And now I’m free, mentally.”
She goes on to add, “I am not in bondage anymore, and that is the gift God has given me,” she added. “I want to thank my son for that.”
In June, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed Jordan’s Law in recognition of the boy. Child welfare services say they missed several signs that could have saved Jordan’s life. According to FloridaPolitics.com, the law will reduce caseloads and streamline communication between parents, law enforcement, and caseworkers to better identify when children are in danger.
“I pray that the Jordan Law prevents this [another situation like hers] from happening,” Stinson said. “I pray that my situation prevents this from happening. This is a tragedy.”
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The town hall event aired on NBC, the network originally chosen to broadcast a second debate between Trump and his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. As theGrio reported, the new format was chosen after POTUS decided not to participate in a remote debate citing that the format allowed him to be cut off whenever the moderator or network wanted.
NBC faced backlash for deciding to give the president the airtime for his own town hall.
While many feared the event would give Trump more uninterrupted and unchallenged platform to spread misinformation, Guthrie held the President accountable, questioning his social media behavior, prior statements, and offering a rebuttal to his responses.
“Why would you send a lie like that to your followers?” Guthrie about his retweet of a conspiracy theory that Biden coordinated an effort to have Seal Team 6 killed to cover up the fake death of Osama Bin Laden, according to CBS News.
“You’re the president. You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever!”
Trump was defiant in his answer saying he used social media to send out his messages to the public that they could then make their own decisions on.
“That was a retweet, that was an opinion of somebody, and that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there, people can decide for themselves, I don’t take a position,” the president said.
Guests at Wunder Garten Beer Garden watch as President Donald Trump speaks during a town hall on October 15, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden both participated in simultaneous presidential town halls in Miami and Philadelphia, after the cancellation of the second presidential debate. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
When pressed about QAnon, a right-wing conspiracy theory that alleges that a Satanic cabal runs a global pedophilia ring, Trump said that he didn’t know much, although the theory says that the cabal is targeting Trump for trying to expose them.
“I know nothing about it,” Trump said. “I just don’t know about QAnon. I know nothing about it…but what I do know about it, is that they are very against pedophiles,” Trump answered.
The interaction was captured and uploaded to Twitter by political journalist Sarah Reese Jones.
This clip where Trump gets compared to a crazy uncle while he refuses to denounce QAnon sums up how badly his town hall has gone. pic.twitter.com/GqvJGVS6Oo
The commander-in-chief was pressed about his response to COVID-19, not wearing a mask and his own experience with the coronavirus. He could not confirm that he was tested on the day of the first debate between the two candidates and also said he is not tested daily, despite prior claims.
President Trump was not a fan of Guthrie’s work as a moderator. According to The Washington Post, the president said, “I knew you’d be doing this. … You always do this,” complaining that Joe Biden was offered an easier line of questioning during a similar event with Lester Holt.
At the same time on ABC, Biden hosted his own town hall moderated by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos to take questions from voters. According to theGrio, the hopeful 46th president addressed his political history including his role in the controversial 1994 crime bill, which he called a “mistake.”
“Yes, it was. But here’s where the mistake came. The mistake came in terms of what the states did locally,” Biden responded when asked if he had any regret in his support of the bill.
Since both candidates aired their town hall events on the same day and time, a natural competition for ratings resulted. According to CNN Business, Biden took the top spot. The outlet found Biden’s town hall averaged 14.1 million viewers, while his opponent averaged 10.6 million viewers on the NBC broadcast network, 1.74 million viewers on MSNBC, and on CNBC, about 671,000 viewers. Those viewer totals were about one million fewer than Biden’s audience on the singular channel.
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