Mediaboss Marketing

WOODLAWN Former President Barack Obamas foundation distanced itself this week from plans to combine two South Side golf courses into a professional-level course near his eponymous center.

Legendary golfer Tiger Woods design firm, TGR Design, signed on in 2016 to combine the 18-hole Jackson Park and nine-hole South Shore golf courses into a single, PGA Tour-caliber course. Obama called Woods to take up the project, the Tribune reported in 2018.

The project, estimated to cost at least $70 million, has divided neighbors. Some South Siders have raised concerns with the projects environmental impacts and its potential to price out neighborhood golfers who have used the courses for decades.

Obama Foundation officials stepped back from the long-stagnant plans Thursday. CEO Valerie Jarrett told Crains Chicago Business shes only heard rumors that a golf course overhaul is even still in play. The foundation is not pursuing the project, Jarrett said.

Obama Foundation spokesperson Courtney Williamsdid not directly answer questions about whether the organization has pulled its support for the golf course.

The Obama Foundation is singularly focused on opening the presidential center in Jackson Park in 2025, Williams told Block Club on Friday. Foundation leaders remain supportive as they always have been of investment projects in our community and in Jackson Park, Williams said in a statement.

The Foundation has a catalytic role to play in the neighborhood, and were excited when we see other community organizations come together to lead these projects, she said.

Block Club has reached out to Woods design firm for comment.

The golf course overhaul has stalled in the seven years since former Mayor Rahm Emanuel enthusiastically announced Woods firm would oversee the project.

Fundraising challenges and a tepid response to the plans from local leaders, including former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have been some of the holdups.

Project backers hoped the plan would be more front and center in local officials minds once the Obama Presidential Center broke ground in 2021, the Sun-Times reported, but theres been little movement since.

Its clear the community doesnt know whats going on with the golf course plans, Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) told Block Club in May. If Woods and his supporters were ready to build the course today, hed tell them to pause and begin a difficult community engagement process with neighbors, Yancy said.

In 2022, three 5th Ward precincts overwhelmingly supported an advisory referendum calling on preserving trees in Jackson Park and South Shore Cultural Center Park that could have been cleared to make way for the golf course.

The proposed course called for replacing theSouth Shore Nature Sanctuarywith portions of the new courses14th and 15th holes.

Ald. Leslie Hairston, Yancys predecessor, drew outrage from locals in 2019 after falsely claiming the South Shore Nature Sanctuary was dead. Hairston made the comments at the suburban Medinah Country Club as Woods geared upfor a tournament there.

Subscribe to Block Club Chicago,an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make fundsreportingfrom Chicagos neighborhoods.

Clickhereto support BlockClub with atax-deductible donation.

Thanks for subscribing to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make fundsreportingfrom Chicagos neighborhoods. Clickhereto support Block Clubwith atax-deductible donation.

Watch our On The Block TV show on The U, CW26 and MeTV.

Listen to Its All Good: A Block Club Chicago Podcast:

Continued here:
Obama Foundation Backs Away From Tiger Woods Golf Course In ... - Block Club Chicago

State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada

Zip Code

Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

See the article here:
President Obama's influence still felt | Letters to the Editor ... - Brunswick News

White House photographer Pete Souza's iconic photo of President Barack Obama and top officials watching the raid that eventually killed Osama Bin Laden.Pete Souza/The White House via AP

Multiple outlets reported small conference room where Obama watched the Bin Laden room has been preserved.

But the reports about sending it in its entirety to Obama's library in Chicago aren't true, according to an Obama spokesperson.

The removal came amid a massive $50 million renovation of the White House Situation Room complex.

Correction: September 8, 2023 After this story's publication, a spokesperson for the Obama Foundation sent a statement refuting PBS's reporting. "There are no plans for the Situation Room to be rebuilt at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago," Courtney D. Williams, the communications director for the Obama Foundation, said in an email. The original story is below.

The small, secured conference room where President Barack Obama watched history unfold as US forces hunted down Osama Bin Laden will be reassembled in Chicago at his presidential center after it was stripped out of the White House earlier this summer, according to multiple reports.

According to PBS, the room was preserved in its entirety and was sent to Chicago. The decision will easily guarantee that the room will join the list of major and weird inclusions at the sites dedicated to immortalizing modern presidents. For example, Reagan's presidential library includes the Air Force One plane that served him and his successors all the way through President George W. Bush.

Obama White House photographer Pete Souza's photo of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton watching the May 1, 2011 raid is one of the most famous photos of Obama's presidency. Souza's shot was also a rare public look into the Situation Room complex.

The preservation of the room came amid reports about the future of the Situation Room. First started after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Situation Room is actually a series of secured conference rooms where presidents and their top military advisors and aides can discuss classified national security information. Over the summer, the entire complex was shut down as workers completed a massive $50 million renovation of the entire complex. Reporters from multiple outlets were allowed a rare tour of the classified space.

Obama's presidential library previously made waves by moving to exclude the actual "library" part of the presidential center. Unlike the 13 other presidential libraries operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, the Obama Library aims to be a fully digital facility, meaning there will not be a reading room to examine records on the complex's grounds. It's unclear what the plans are for former President Donald Trump's library given that he is still seeking a second term in office.

Traditionally, taxpayers are only responsible for the library portion of what have become massive presidential centers. A former president's foundation, in this case, the Obama Foundation, runs and operates the museum portion that is filled with artifacts loaned to it by the National Archives.

Obama himself has said that he does not want his center to be an "ego" trip focused solely on the past.

"When Michelle and I started talking about the Presidential Center, we were really firm that what we want to do was create something for the future," he said during a 2017 interview after plans for his center were unveiled.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Follow this link:
The room where Obama watched the Bin Laden raid was stripped out of the White House will not be rebuilt at his Chicago library - Yahoo News

Follow live updates from Googles antitrust trial

A trial to determine if Google abused its monopoly in online search, which begins on Tuesday, is set to lay bare how the internet search giant cemented its power, featuring testimony from top tech executives, engineers, economists and academics.

The trial will unfold in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where a core group of individuals will command the courtroom and direct the day-to-day legal strategies. Here are the key people to know in U.S. et al. v. Google:

Judge Mehta, who was appointed to the bench in 2014 by President Barack Obama, will referee and decide the case in the nonjury trial.

In more than three years of pretrial hearings, Judge Mehta hasnt tipped his hand on his views of the case. In a proceeding last month, he narrowed the lawsuit by the Justice Department and states while preserving the core argument that Google maintained its monopoly in search through deals with smartphone makers that cut out competitors.

Judge Mehta, 52, was randomly assigned to U.S. et al. v. Google. He may be more familiar with Google than other federal judges, whose average age reached 69 in 2020, according to a study at the time by The Ohio State Law Journal. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1997, a year before Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google.

Judge Mehta previously worked in private practice in San Francisco and Washington, focusing on white-collar criminal defense, complex business disputes and appellate advocacy.

Mr. Kanter, the top antitrust official at the Justice Department, is overseeing the governments case.

President Biden appointed Mr. Kanter, a longtime tech and media lawyer who received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, to the Justice Department in July 2021. Mr. Kanter is among a group of progressive Big Tech critics whom Mr. Biden has placed in top government positions for antitrust enforcement. He inherited the Google case from the Trump administration.

Mr. Kanter, 50, is also overseeing a separate antitrust lawsuit against Google in the ad tech market. Google has raised concerns that his history of representing its rivals, including Microsoft and News Corp, makes him biased, and the company has protested his involvement in the ad tech case.

Its unclear how often Mr. Kanter will appear in court. Doha Mekki, the Justice Departments principal deputy assistant attorney general, and Hetal Doshi, the deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust, have helped quarterback the lawsuit and will be in the courtroom daily.

Mr. Dintzer, a 30-year veteran of the Justice Department, will give opening statements and is leading the governments case in the courtroom.

A graduate of the University of Michigan law school, Mr. Dintzer, 59, was assigned to the Google case during the Trump administration. He has argued in pretrial hearings before Judge Mehta that Google destroyed instant messages depriving the department of a rich source of candid discussions between Googles executives, including likely trial witnesses.

He has worked on antitrust cases in the past, including the Justice Departments lawsuit to block AT&Ts proposed merger with T-Mobile in 2011. The companies eventually dropped the deal.

Mr. Weiser is overseeing a coalition of 38 state and other attorneys generals that joined the Justice Department in its search lawsuit.

Mr. Weiser, 55, a former deputy assistant attorney general of antitrust at the Justice Department for the Obama administration, has been a vocal critic of big tech companies for stifling competition. After graduating from New York University Law School, he became a counsel to Joel Klein, the Justice Departments head of antitrust during the agencys Microsoft monopoly lawsuit in the 1990s. He didnt work directly on the case but said in an interview that it had influenced him.

Mr. Weiser has picked Jonathan Sallet, a former deputy head of antitrust at the Justice Department, and William Cavanaugh, a lawyer at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and a former Justice Department official, as the lead litigators for the states.

Mr. Pichai, the chief executive of Google, is widely expected to testify during the trial.

He joined Google in 2004 as a product management leader of Chrome and other tools, and was named chief executive in August 2015.

A measured and calm speaker who has at times been called boring, Mr. Pichai, 51, was largely unruffled when testifying in congressional hearings over content moderation and antitrust in recent years. That may serve him well in the trial.

Googles founders, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, arent expected to be called as witnesses. But the Justice Department and Google are likely to call other tech executives to testify, including Eddy Cue, Apples senior vice president of services, to discuss the companys search deals with Google.

Mr. Walker, Googles president of global affairs and chief legal counsel, is overseeing the companys defense.

Mr. Walker, 62, received his law degree from Stanford and joined Google in 2006. He led Googles policy and legal strategy through an antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission that began in 2009. The agency decided not to proceed with a lawsuit after the company agreed to some changes.

Mr. Walker is overseeing a big team of in-house and outside lawyers and will be in and out of the courtroom. Googles daily legal representative in the courtroom, who has supervised strategy on the case, is Lara Kollios, a director in regulatory response and investigations.

Mr. Schmidtlein, a co-chair of antitrust at Williams & Connolly, is Googles lead lawyer in the courtroom.

Google has turned to lawyers like Mr. Schmidtlein, 57, who fought against Microsoft in antitrust cases two decades ago, to defend it in court. In 2002, Mr. Schmidtlein represented states that sued Microsoft for using its dominance in Windows software to block rival media players.

Mr. Schmidtlein, who received his law degree from Georgetown University, also has a long track record working for tech companies. This year, he helped Amazon defeat an antitrust lawsuit that consumers brought against its logistics practices.

Googles litigation team also includes Susan Creighton, a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati who represented Netscape in the governments 1998 antitrust suit against Microsoft, and Mark Popofsky, a partner at Ropes & Gray who was a senior counsel to the Justice Department in that suit against Microsoft.

See the rest here:
Whos Who in the Google Antitrust Trial - The New York Times

Vince Staples fired off a timely drone joke in response to the latest appearance of a man widely referred to as a con artist whos again trying to revive unsubstantiated claims about former POTUS Barack Obama.

The individual in question, Larry Sinclair, recently spoke with former Fox News shill Tucker Carlson (who else?) for an interview in which he purported to have done cocaine with a person introduced to me as Barack Obamaa peculiar way of wording that should be notedin 1999. Sinclair further purported, without evidence, to have had sex with this person and to have witnessed them smoke crack.

Before we go any further, its always worth pointing out that cocaine and crack are the same substance, pharmacologically speaking. The separation of the two, of course, is merely part of an unjust war on drugs-related federal push known for facilitating extreme sentencing disparities and racist policies. The Fox News crowd eats that kind of shit up, so its no surprise to see Carlson and Sinclair trying to get more mileage out of it.

As Staples pointed out in a tweet on Tuesday in response to homophobic meanderings spurred by the Carlson teaser, its actually the crack aspect of Sinclairs statements that make this all top tier smut against the president.

I hope Barry drone this n***a, Staples wrote in one tweet.

In another, he added, "Yall focused on the wrong things he tried to put the crack rock on Obama."

For readers who were around for the 2008 presidential election, Sinclairs name likely rings a bell.As highlighted in a recent Media Matters piece from Matt Gertz, Sinclair previously failed a polygraph and even reportedly claimed terminal illness in a 2004 affidavit. As this article makes clear, Sinclair is still alive. As reported by Politico during the initial (and almost exclusively conspiracy sites-oriented) round of coverage surrounding Sinclair, his then "27-year criminal record" included multiple forgery-related charges.

View original post here:
Vince Staples Jokes Obama Should Drone Man After Unsubstantiated Sex and Coke Claims in Tucker Carlson Video - Yahoo Entertainment