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The Rev. Al Sharpton and National Action Network welcomed prominent elected officials and civil rights leaders at events all over the country on Monday, Jan. 20 to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and address how it can be protected in the age of Donald Trump. NAN chapters across the United States recognized the holiday with civil rights events in Washington, D.C.; New York City; Newark, N.J.; Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, S.C.; Macon, Ga.; San Diego, Calif.; and many others.

In New York City, NAN held their Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Public Policy Forum at the National Action Network House of Justice in Harlem. Aside from Sharpton, those vying to be seen in the place included U.S. Representatives Yvette Clarke and Adriano Espaillat, Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, New York State Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, New York State Assemblyman Al Taylor, New York State Assemblyman Charles Fall, New York City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, and New York City Councilwoman Ydanis Rodriguez.

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Rev. Al Sharpton and NAN host Martin Luther King Jr. Day events across the country - Amsterdam News

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Rev. Al Sharpton to attend memorial for CT teen killed by trooper after pursuit

NEW HAVEN Rev. Al Sharpton will attend a memorial this weekend for the teen killed by a state trooper as the family continues to come to grips with the 19-year-olds death.

The Rev. Boise Kimber said Sharpton a civil rights activist and Baptist minister will attend the event at the First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The plans for the memorial come after Mubarak Soulemane was killed last week by a state trooper after police say he wielded a knife at a Norwalk AT&T store, carjacked a rideshare driver and then led authorities on a high-speed chase on Interstate 95 that ended in West Haven.

Reverend Sharpton has stood up against police brutality for years all across this nation, so it is befitting for him to come and to share with this family and community, Kimber said Wednesday.

Soulemane is one of three people fatally wounded by police in Connecticut so far in 2020.

The first occurred when Ansonia police said Sgt. Christopher Flynn, Officer Brendon Nelson and Officer Wojciech Podgorski responded to a domestic violence call that ended with 30-year-old Michael Gregory dead. Gregory was armed with a knife.

Soulemane was the second person killed by police gunfire following last Wednesdays pursuit. His family has called for Trooper Brian North, who fired the shots that killed Soulemane, to be fired. They have also called on state police to institute more de-escalation training for troopers.

Waterbury resident Edwards Gendron, 57, was killed on Monday by shots fired by Waterbury Police Officer Ronald W. Tompkins III after an altercation, according to police.

With the memorial on the horizon and another deadly police shooting this week, Mariyann Soulemane told Hearst Connecticut Media that her family is still processing what happened to her younger brother, Mubarak.

I was just in a state of shock, Mariyann Soulemane, who lives in Malaysia, said of learning the news about her brother.

Mariyann Soulemane said her brother was born in the United States before the family moved to Ghana. They came back to the U.S. when Mubarak was 5 or 6, living in the Bronx, N.Y., before moving to Norwalk.

She said her brother eventually became interested in basketball, and making a name for himself. An interest in business soon followed she remembers her brother starting a business selling tie-dyed socks to his friends.

I remember him telling me he wanted to focus on his studies, because he wanted to pursue a business major, Mariyann Soulemane said.

She said her brothers schizophrenia became apparent in 2016. One day, she said, he called her while she was at work and started saying all these manic things.

At one point, he told his sister he saw a man in his room who wanted to harm him.

He was so scared, she said.

She said his personality completely changed when he would have a schizophrenic episode.

I was amazed at how patient he was I wish I had his patience, but when that sickness took over his mind, it was like a snap, she said.

Mariyann Soulemane said she was often worried about her brothers episodes and feared for his safety, but never thought it could end in his death.

I never predicted that it would go as far as this, she said. I did have fears that he would be in a dangerous situation, but never that someone would pierce his skin with seven gunshots.

Friends of the Soulemane family have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the teens funeral and memorial expenses.

Mubi was a friend to us all...he always brought fun and joy to the table, wrote Ziair Williams, the organizer of the page.

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Rev. Al Sharpton to attend memorial for CT teen killed by trooper after pursuit - Thehour.com

Phillys Will Smith goes undercover as Lyft driver in Miami

MIAMI Four Florida passengers were in for a shock when actor and Philly native Will Smith answered their Lyft call and gave them a ride around town.

The actor was in Miami promoting his new movie, Bad Boys for Life, over the weekend. He picked up four riders in a 2020 Porsche Taycan, occasionally getting into the attitude of his movie character detective Mike Lowry and encouraging passengers to do their best Bad Boys imitation as his partner in crime.

Smith made one of his passengers FaceTime with his girlfriend during the trip after the man said his girlfriend watched the original movie weekly.

Smith had another passenger practice her scariest Freeze. Police. voice.

Before dropping them off, the actor told each passenger they would receive free rides from the ride-sharing company for the next year.

Oscar presenters will include King, Ali and Malek

LOS ANGELES The winners of last years acting Academy Awards will return to the Oscar stage next month to present the coveted statuettes.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday that Olivia Colman, Rami Malek, Regina King and Mahershala Ali will present during the Feb. 9 ceremony.

It is an Oscar tradition to have previous years acting recipients serve as presenters the following year.

Last years winners were notably more diverse than this years field of acting nominees, which features just one performer of color: Cynthia Erivo of Harriet.

The 92nd Academy Awards will be presented at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and be broadcast live by ABC. For the second year in a row, the ceremony will be without a host.

Colman won best actress last year for The Favourite and Malek took home the best actor award for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. King won the supporting actress honor for If Beale Street Could Talk, while Alis performance in Green Book earned him his second supporting actor Oscar.

Lena Waithe, Alana Mayo split after a few months of marriage

PARIS Two months after revealing they secretly married, Lena Waithe and Alana Mayo have split. E! first reported that the couple have called it quits. After careful thought and consideration, we have decided to part ways, they said in a joint statement from their reps.

We have nothing but support for one another and ask that you respect our privacy during this time. A representative for Waithe confirmed to CNN that the E! report is accurate.

In November, Waithe revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she and Mayo, who has served as the head of production and development at Michael B. Jordans production company Outlier Society, had secretly married.

Waithe is best known for her roles in the series Master of None and the film Ready Player One as well as being the creator of the Showtime series The Chi and writer of the film Queen & Slim.

In 2017, she became the first Black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for writing Master of Nones Thanksgiving episode.

The longtime couple announced their engagement in 2017.

New Al Sharpton book looks at nations political crossroads

NEW YORK The Rev. Al Sharpton is working on a book that will address what he calls an urgent moment in American history.

The longtime civil rights activists Rise Up: Confronting a Country at the Crossroads is coming out Sept. 15, less than two months before the 2020 election, Hanover Square Press announced Monday. Sharpton will look back at the Obama administration, the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the transformation of the Republican Party during Trumps presidency.

Sharpton, a TV and radio commentator, said in a statement that he wanted to get people to understand the gravity of where we are as a nation; whether we will choose to continue the path of progress towards human rights and to value all people or whether we will choose the path of returning to a value system of where might is right and wealth is the measure of human value.

Sharptons previous books include Al On America, The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership and the memoir Go and Tell Pharaoh.

Compiled by Jamyra Perry

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Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden kisses Penny Cordes during a campaign event on foreign policy at a VFW post Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, in Osage, Iowa.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden kisses Penny Cordes during a campaign event on foreign policy at a VFW post Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, in Osage, Iowa.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden kisses Penny Cordes during a campaign event on foreign policy at a VFW post Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, in Osage, Iowa.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden kisses Penny Cordes during a campaign event on foreign policy at a VFW post Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, in Osage, Iowa.

Democrats struggle to build broad support on eve of voting

OSAGE, Iowa (AP) As Joe Biden wrapped a bus tour of Iowa this week, the elderly crowd gathered at VFW Hall 7920 was a stark reminder of the former vice president's struggle to attract young people.

Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, needs to strengthen his standing with older voters. Elizabeth Warren has room to grow among those without college degrees. Pete Buttigieg's support with African Americans is negligible, and the buzz that surrounds Amy Klobuchar belies the fact that she's barely registering with virtually any key demographic.

Just over a week before the Iowa caucuses jump-start the Democratic contest, polling and interviews with campaign officials suggest each of the leading candidates has glaring holes in his or her political bases. The gaps raise serious questions about their ability to build a broad coalition like the one Barack Obama twice used to win the presidency questions that strike at the heart of electability as Iowa Democrats seek, above all, a nominee who can rally the nation to defeat President Donald Trump in November.

They need to generate enthusiasm, 69-year-old retired attorney Tom Delgado said of the Democratic field while waiting for Biden to arrive at the VFW hall in Osage, Iowa. I don't think any one person in the race right now can do it.

Delgado's concerns echo those of Obama veterans like David Binder, a pollster who was involved with both presidential victories and now worries that no one in his party's 2020 class is a lock to reassemble the vaunted Obama coalition of three core groups: young people, minorities and working-class whites.

Every Democrat needs to work as hard as they can to coalesce those groups, Binder said. I think some have shown in the polling that they can have a base with one or two of them, but not the whole coalition.

He added: If any one of those elements falls off, then its going to be very difficult for a Democrat to win.

The challenges for each of the candidates and the party as a whole have triggered a sense of alarm from campaign operatives and Democratic officials, several with ties to Obama, who worry that mathematical realities shaping the electorate could make it difficult for any of the candidates to defeat Trump without significant improvement over the coming months.

The Republican president cobbled together a winning coalition of his own in 2016 by drawing heavily on white, non-college-educated voters, and his campaign sees opportunities to expand his support with Latinos, among other key demographics. At the same time, Trump is trying to stoke Democratic divisions, betting that rifts between core Democratic constituencies will help him win a second term.

Democrats hope that shifts in the electorate, particularly among educated voters and women, could broaden the path to the presidency for the Democratic nominee. But there is a broad acknowledgement that few groups of Democratic voters are passionate about their choices in 2020.

Im deeply concerned about our chances this fall, said Bill Burton, an Obama aide who pointed to Obama's strength with a diverse set of voters, particularly working-class whites in more than 200 counties across the nation that backed Trump in 2016. Its going to take a candidate who can stitch together the broadest possible coalition to beat Donald Trump.

The candidates are aware of their deficiencies, but there are no easy answers.

Buttigieg, whose struggles with African-American voters have haunted his campaign for months, said in an interview that, No one is hurting more under the divisiveness and mismanagement more under the Trump administration than communities of color.

I think now is our chance, with one consistent message, to build perhaps the broadest range of Democratic voters that we've had in some time, Buttigieg added. I think it'll take patient, coalition-building."

Biden senior strategist Anita Dunn acknowledged a weakness with younger voters when pressed, but she suggested that Biden's competitors have much more to worry about with other demographics.

Other campaigns may want to think about how they can engage better with older voters, who actually vote at a greater propensity than younger voters do, Dunn said. But clearly, if you look at where this race is right now and the kind of support each candidate has, Biden, by far, has the best base to expand."

Sanders' chief strategist, Jeff Weaver, highlighted Sanders' strong standing with young minority voters in particular, a group that was not largely engaged in 2016. To showcase that strength, the campaign is hosting multiple events in Iowa this weekend with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 30-year-old liberal superstar who will stand in for Sanders as he participates in Trump's impeachment trial.

Sanders has also aggressively courted labor unions, whose working-class voters form an important part of his political base, Weaver said.

The key to victory is putting together a coalition that includes people of all races, excites and energizes young people, and brings working people back into the Democratic Party, Weaver said. Bernie can bring together the various pieces."

Campaigns and independent operatives believe a winning coalition in 2020 will bear some differences from Obama's coalition more than a decade ago. Democratic strategists are looking particularly at women and college-educated voters across America's suburbs, who have shifted away from Trump's GOP in a series of elections since he took office.

We're looking at a new electorate now, said Katie Drapcho, director of research and polling for the pro-Democrat super PAC Priorities USA.

Specifically, she said the Democratic Party and its nominee will have opportunities to win drawing largely from three key groups: non-college-educated women, suburban voters who backed Republican Mitt Romney in 2012 but sided with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, and working-class voters who twice backed Obama yet swung to Trump in 2016.

Still, Democrats cannot afford significant slippage among the core pieces of the Obama coalition. And leaders from those factions are concerned.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton said he's deeply disturbed that the two highest-profile African American candidates running for president, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, have already been forced out of the race. He said it's too early to tell whether any of the remaining Democrats can energize the black vote to a level close to Obama, the nation's first black president.

I do not see one singularly able to do it yet," Sharpton said.

Like other Democratic leaders, he's hoping that Trump himself will ultimately persuade black voters to turn out en masse even if the ultimate Democratic nominee does not excite them.

The biggest organizer and energizer of black voters is Donald Trump, Sharpton declared.

It's much the same with another pillar of the Obama coalition, young voters, who have been more engaged in the Trump era but have shown little excitement for most of the current Democratic candidates. Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist who has called for a political revolution, is the big exception.

Calvin Wilborn, the former president of the College Democrats of America, said it's unfair to compare any 2020 Democrat to Obama.

Obama spoiled us. Not only did he move legislation and most of his ideology aligned with us, but he was charismatic, Wilborn said. When you set the bar so high, its hard for others. Were waiting for the same level of inspiration.

___

AP writers Hannah Fingerhut in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Orangeburg, South Carolina contributed to this report.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.

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Democrats struggle to build broad support on eve of voting - Fairfield Citizen

The rally came after news that civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton was denied the opportunity to testify on the issue of diversity in the state's judicial system at today's hearing. In the past several months Reverend Sharpton has visited Delaware calling for progress on the issue and penned a letter to leading law firm Skadden Arps calling for elite firms to do their part in advancing people of color in the legal industry.

While people of color makeup over 60% Delaware's prison population, only four justices who serve on the three highest courts in Delaware are people of color.

Said Reverend Sharpton in a separate statement released to Delaware Business Now, "To say that I am disappointed I was denied the opportunity to testify before the Delaware State Senate on the matter of [Mr. Fioravanti's] confirmation would be an understatement. Diversity transferred is not diversity created or advanced. Delaware must do better. Governor Carney and the State Legislature must do better. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue further with them, and will not rest until we address this injustice."

Said Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Campaign Manager Chris Coffey, "While the appointment of Tamika Montgomery-Reeves to the Supreme Court made history, Governor Carney's decision to fill her vacant seat on the Chancery court with a candidate like Mr. Fioravanti would completely undo that progress. In order to fairly represent Delaware's residents, the court system must prioritize placing more people of color on the bench. It's disappointing the Senate chose not to hear from Reverend Sharpton, whose moral credibility on issues of racial justice is beyond question, but today's rally showed just how important this issue is to countless Delawareans."

"We recognize the importance of our nominations to our highest courts," said Reverend Dennis. "We call on Delaware's Senate to consider diversity as an essential piece of justice when replacing the first African American justice that served the Chancery court. A variety of diverse voices must be a part of the discussion when deliberating on cases. When the court looks like the people that come before them, we see more fairness and justice."

Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware is a group made up of more than 5,000 members including employees of the global translation services company TransPerfect, as well as concerned Delaware residents, business executives and others. They formed in April of 2016 to focus on raising awareness with Delaware residents, elected officials, and other stakeholders about the issue. While their primary goal of saving the company has been accomplished, they continue their efforts to fight for more transparency in the Delaware Chancery Court. For more information on Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware or to join the cause, visit DelawareForBusiness.org.

Contact:Mary Urban, mu@adeoadvocacy.com, 410-456-2753

SOURCE Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware

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Following Senate's Rejection of Reverend Al Sharpton's Request to Testify at Chancery Court Nomination Hearing, Delaware Pastors Rally with Community...