Week In Review

(Washington, DC) –  The White House has announced that President Donald Trump signed H.R. 1396, the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act. Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson introduced the legislation in the House of Representatives. Sen. Chris Coons was the lead sponsor in the Senate. “I am thrilled to hear that the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold…

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By Lisa Mascaro And Mary Clare Jalonick ASSOCIATED PRESS  WASHINGTON — A top American diplomat revealed new evidence Wednesday of President Donald Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine to investigate political rivals as House investigators launched public impeachment hearings for just the fourth time in the nation’s history. William Taylor, the highest-ranking U.S. official in Ukraine,…

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“With impeachment hearings officially underway, the evidence presented today is incontrovertible proof that Donald Trump abused the office of the presidency to sacrifice our country’s interests for his personal and political gain. The American people have the right to know the truth about the litany of unlawful actions committed by Trump. NAACP fully supports Congress…

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By Rachel La Corte ASSOCIATED PRESS  OLYMPIA, Wash. — More than two decades after Washington voters banned affirmative action in the state, a ballot measure seeking to amend that law was losing in early returns. As of last Wednesday night, Referendum 88 was being rejected by nearly 52 percent of the state’s voters. It was…

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By Chevel Johnson and Rebecca Santana ASSOCIATED PRESS  NEW ORLEANS — Novelist Ernest J. Gaines, whose poor childhood on a small Louisiana plantation germinated stories of black struggles that grew into universal tales of grace and beauty, has died. He was 86. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, which sponsors a literary award in Gaines’ honor,…

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ABOVE PHOTO: Public works employee Jerry Brooks changes a street sign from The Paseo to Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP) By Margaret Stafford ASSOCIATED PRESS  KANSAS CITY, Mo.  — Last Tuesday, Kansas City voters overwhelmingly approved removing Dr. Martin Luther King’s name from one of the city’s most…

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By Russel Contreras ASSOCIATED PRESS  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  — People of color made history this week by winning municipal races in places their families were once ignored or prevented from voting, including a New Mexico mayor whose father was forced into a Japanese internment camp during World War II. From Arizona to Massachusetts, the gains highlight…

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By Regina Garcia Cano ASSOCIATED PRESS BALTIMORE — Voters in the congressional district that U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings represented until his death earlier this month will elect his replacement in a special election announced Monday. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan set the special primary election for Feb. 4 and the special general election for April 28….

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By Kate Brumback ASSOCIATED PRESS  DECATUR, Ga. — A former Georgia police officer convicted of aggravated assault and other crimes in the fatal shooting of an unarmed, naked man was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison. Robert “Chip” Olsen was responding to a call of a naked man behaving erratically at an Atlanta-area apartment…

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ABOVE PHOTO:  John Conyers (Photo: AP) By Corey Williams ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT — Former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, one of the longest-serving members of Congress whose resolutely liberal stance on civil rights made him a political institution in Washington and back home in Detroit despite several scandals, has died. He was 90. Conyers, among the…

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