Tag: harlem
Democrats Nominate Two Transgender Women And A Former Undocumented Immigrant To Run For Congress

Democrats Nominate Two Transgender Women And A Former Undocumented Immigrant To Run For Congress

This has been a scary election year for liberals. The rise of Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee has exposed the darkest fragments of American society. The racists, sexists, xenophobes and homophobes have all come out from the holes where they used to hide to loudly embrace the candidate that finally expresses what they’re thinking.

To many, the success of the Brexit movement meant that white nationalism would also win in our own elections next November. But the primary wins of two transgender women and a Dominican-American who was once an undocumented immigrant serve as proof that, sometimes, inclusivity wins.

For the first time in American history, a major party has selected a transgender woman to run for a Senate seat.

Utah Democrats chose Misty K. Snow to run against Republican Sen. Mike Lee. The 30-year-old grocery store clerk from Salt Lake City beat her opponent, Jonathan Swinton, by almost 20 points. Swinton, a marriage therapist, ran to the right of Snow, who attacked him for advocating limits to abortion rights. Snow ran a campaign similar to that of Bernie Sanders, advocating for “$15 per hour minimum wage, paid family leave, legalized marijuana, criminal-justice reform and free or reduced tuition for higher education” according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

“We hoped more Democrats were really looking at the long game at this, trying to unseat Mike Lee,” Swinton said, referring to Snow’s slim chances of winning a general election in conservative Utah. “The reality is I’ve done my absolute best and run an honorable campaign.”

Snow released a statement after her win, calling Tuesday “a historic day for the LGBT community.” 
 If elected in November, she would also be the youngest senator in the chamber.

And Snow wasn’t alone: Colorado Democrats chose Misty Plowright, one of the first transgender people to run for congress, to challenge Rep. Doug Lamborn. Plowright, A 33-years old Army veteran who works in IT, beat her closest opponent by more than 3,000 votes.

Harlem Democrats chose state senator Adriano Espaillat to take over longtime Rep. Charles Rangel’s seat in the House of Representatives.

Espaillat’s candidacy is remarkable for several reasons: Not only would he be the first Dominican-American to serve in Congress, but his win also represents a fundamental change in the historically black neighborhood of Harlem, which has turned increasingly Hispanic. “I never thought about that ever happening in all of my years, 72 years,” Rangel said of the results.

The 61-year-old state senator ran against assemblyman Keith Wright, a black man who was endorsed by Rangel. Wright has refused to concede until “every vote is counted,” citing a “real possibility of a lot of campaign irregularities and voter suppression.” Based on the latest results, Espalliat beat him by around 1,300 votes.

“The voters … elected a country boy from Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic,” Espaillat told Reuters. Espalliat will probably win the November election – Democratic voters outnumber Republican voters in Harlem by quite a margin.

Snow and Plowright face a tougher battle in November – they are running in conservative states where the Democrat vote does not represent anywhere near a majority of the population. Plowright on her part is running in the Colorado’s 5th district, one of the most conservative in the state. Snow’s state of Utah is one of the most conservatives in the nation. Her challenger, Sen. Mike Lee is a powerful tea-party favorite who won with more than 60 percent of the vote in 2010.

There may be hope for Snow yet, however small. Predominantly-Mormon Utah voters, despite the state’s history as a stalwart of the right, hate Donald Trump with a passion for his persecution of another minority religion, Islam. So far, that hasn’t benefitted Democrats in the state as much as it has hurt Republicans. But if Donald Trump can turn Utah purple, anything is possible.

Photo: Facebook

Hillary Clinton, In Push For Black Support, Promises To Tackle Racial Disparities

Hillary Clinton, In Push For Black Support, Promises To Tackle Racial Disparities

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton courted the critical black vote on Tuesday as she met with civil rights leaders in New York and promised in a speech to tackle “very real barriers” confronting African-Americans.

Clinton is seeking to maintain her lead among black voters over U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, her rival for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democrat Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president.

The Clinton campaign said last week: “It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Democrat to win the nomination without strong levels of support among African-American and Hispanic voters.”

Clinton’s status as the Democratic front-runner was jolted this month when the former secretary of state beat Sanders by less than a percentage point in Iowa’s caucuses and lost to him by more than 20 points in the New Hampshire primary. More than 90 percent of people in those states are white.

Clinton met for more than two hours on Tuesday with a half-dozen civil rights leaders at the New York headquarters of the National Urban League.

“I thought that the secretary demonstrated an ease and familiarity with many of the issues we discussed this morning,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said afterward.

The Rev. Al Sharpton joked with Clinton in the corridors afterward, suggesting to reporters he had told her which candidate he would endorse.

“My lips are sealed!” Clinton, who did not take any media questions, replied with a smile.

At a news conference later, Sharpton said Clinton was “candid and open,” but he added he had yet to decide who to support and that no candidate should take the support of black voters for granted. “We are not a monolithic people,” he said.

Clinton’s campaign team has argued that Sanders’ growing support among Democrats will likely falter as voting for a party nominee moves to more racially diverse states in the coming weeks.

Both Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have traditionally had solid support from blacks, a key component of the Democratic electorate.

Opinion polls show Clinton with a strong lead over Sanders in South Carolina, where blacks are likely to make up more than half the voters in the state’s Democratic primary on Feb. 27.

Sanders has said Clinton’s polling lead among blacks is partly a result of her being more famous than he is. He believes many non-white voters will be drawn to his message of fighting economic inequality as they get to know him.

He is scheduled to meet with civil rights leaders in Washington on Thursday.

Speech in Harlem

Later on Tuesday, Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York, gave a speech in the historically black New York City neighborhood of Harlem on breaking down the barriers that black families face. She was joined onstage before her remarks by New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Eric Holder, the first black U.S. attorney general.

“There are still very real barriers holding back African-Americans from fully participating in our economy and our society,” Clinton said, citing disparities between blacks and whites in earnings, health and criminal sentencing.

She said that if elected, she would spend $2 billion to encourage public school districts with a high number of troubled students to hire social workers and other experts to help young people before they get entangled in the criminal justice system.

Sanders, who frequently decries the country’s high incarceration rate, also met with Sharpton earlier this month, and was endorsed by Benjamin Jealous, former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who said he could not support Clinton in part because of her support of the death penalty.

Clinton was endorsed last week by the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee, which said Clinton had a long history of working on issues that affect black Americans.

 

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)

Photo: Hillary Clinton is introduced by U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) (L) as she is applauded by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (back L) and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (back R) for her address at the The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in the Harlem section of New York City, February 16, 2016.  REUTERS/Mike Segar

New York Blast Death Toll Rises To Seven

New York Blast Death Toll Rises To Seven

New York (AFP) – The death toll from a thunderous gas explosion rose to seven on Thursday as rescue workers combed through the rubble of two flattened Manhattan apartment buildings.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department told AFP four women and three men had been found dead at the scene of Wednesday’s building collapse in East Harlem.

Three of the women were aged 21, 44 and 67. Police said all the dead were recovered at the scene and that the number still unaccounted for was being verified.

In total, 68 people were injured in the explosion, including those treated by first responders, police said. Hospital officials had put the figure at 63.

The Mexican foreign ministry said two women among the dead were Mexicans, along with one of those injured.

Wednesday’s 9:30 am explosion sparked inevitable reminders for some New Yorkers of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 that brought down the Twin Towers.

Other witnesses said it felt like an earthquake, describing how they were knocked to the floor.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident “a tragedy of the worst kind” because the smell of gas was detected “but there was no indication in time to save people.”

As dawn approached, around 100 firefighters were on the scene, as well as police and emergency rescue teams, Fire Department spokesman Michael Parrella told AFP.

Where the apartment buildings once stood were piles of twisted metal, thick white smoke and dusty rubble — a scene of utter devastation that witnesses likened to a war zone.

There were 15 apartments in the two buildings that collapsed, de Blasio told reporters.

Jazzmen Arzuaga, 30, said she was at work when her wife rang to tell her what had happened.

“She called me and told me ‘Oh my God, you need to come home now, it’s like World War II, people are dying, there was an explosion.’ I just literally ran,” she said.

The couple live across the street from the blast site.

Arzuaga’s wife Jay Virgo, also 30, said she was lying in bed when the blast threw her to the floor.

“There was glass everywhere, huge pieces of glass. It just looked crazy,” she said.

Firefighters took hours on Wednesday to extinguish the heavy fire at 116th Street and Park Avenue, a mainly Latino community in northern Manhattan.

Around 15 minutes before the blast, energy company Con Edison received a call from an adjoining building alerting maintenance staff to the smell of gas.

– ‘Tremendous’ anxiety –

It was the first deadly disaster of its kind to strike the city of eight million since de Blasio took office in January and may raise concerns about safety in less affluent neighborhoods.

“There is a tremendous amount of anxiety, but suffice it to say that every effort is being expended to locate each and every one of these (missing) individuals,” the mayor said.

Four different hospitals told AFP they treated a total of 63 people, the vast majority with minor injuries.

Mount Sinai hospital said Wednesday it was treating a woman with head trauma who was in critical but stable condition.

The blast forced the suspension of train services in and out of Grand Central Station in midtown Manhattan for part of the day.

Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/MCT

15 Hurt After Reported New York City Explosion

15 Hurt After Reported New York City Explosion

By William Murphy, Newsday

NEW YORK — Firefighters were pouring water onto billowing smoke in East Harlem on Wednesday morning after a reported explosion and possible building collapse that injured about 15 people, officials said.

A Harlem Hospital spokesman said there was one patient so far in a “condition reported as serious trauma.”

“We are expecting more” patients, spokesman Lamarr Nelson said.

The incident in the area of 116th Street and Park Avenue was reported at 9:31 a.m. and the first firefighting units were on scene at 9:33 a.m., a Fire Department spokeswoman said. She said it was being handled as a fifth alarm by late morning, meaning there were about 44 units and about 198 firefighters on the scene.

The NYPD dispatched its bomb squad and Emergency Services Unit, and the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force was there as per usual protocol, officials said.

Jess Perez, 24, who lives just a few blocks away, said she felt her building shake badly, so her first thought was that something had happened to it.

“I came right out of my building,” Perez said. “I knew it was something big.”

Perez saw other people who also streamed onto the street, wondering what had happened.

“Suddenly I see people running,” she said. “I could see thick orange flames on top of the roof.”

A Con Edison spokesman said utility crews were out on the scene but they had no immediate word on what had happened.

Metro-North Railroad trains run on elevated track along Park Avenue at that point, and the MTA said service on the New Haven and Harlem lines into and out of Grand Central Terminal was temporarily delayed until further notice “due to police activity.”

AFP Photo/Andrew Burton