Top 5 Live-WURD Friday June 5
1. China accused of hacking U.S. Government
Four million current and former federal employees may have had their personal information hacked, the Office of Personnel Management said on Thursday.
The agency, which is responsible for security clearances and background checks, warned it was urging potential victims to monitor their financial statements and obtain new credit reports.
Investigators believe that the massive breach of the federal data system was carried out by the Chinese government, a law enforcement and U.S. official told CNN.
The federal personnel office learned of the data breach after it began to toughen its cybersecurity defense system. When it discovered malicious activity, authorities used a detection system called EINSTEIN to eventually unearth the information breach in April 2015, the Department of Homeland Security said. A month later, the federal agency learned sensitive data had been compromised.
2. A humbled Rick Perry is asking America for a second chance
Four years ago, Rick Perry’s campaign for the GOP presidential nomination got off to a high-profile start and then imploded. Now the man best known nationwide for his “Oops” moment and his cowboy boots is asking America for a second chance, announcing a new bid for the White House on Thursday afternoon at a military star-studded event at an airfield north of Dallas.
Perry, the longest-serving governor of Texas, has revamped his strategy since his disastrous exit from the last race. Since leaving the governor’s mansion in January, he has boned up on foreign and domestic policy with a rotating team of advisers. He no longer wears his signature cowboy boots, which exacerbate the back problems that dogged him in 2012, and he has started sporting black-framed “hipster” glasses that lend him some gravitas. His advisers say his loss taught him humility that will fuel his comeback.
But so far, Perry has been dogged by low poll numbers that suggest the GOP base is still skeptical.
3. Forty Reasons Why Our Jails Are Full of Black and Poor People
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports 6.8 million people are in our nation’s jails and prisons, or on probation or parole. That’s one of every 35 adults. Most of the people inside are poor and Black. Here are 40 reasons why.
One. It is not just about crime. Our jails and prisons have grown from holding about 500,000 people in 1980 to 2.2 million today. The fact is that crime rates have risen and fallen independently of our growing incarceration rates.
Two. Police discriminate. Police departments have engaged in campaigns of stopping and frisking people who are walking, mostly poor people and people of color, without cause for decades. Recently New York City lost a federal civil rights challenge to their police stop and frisk practices by the Center for Constitutional Rights during which police stopped over 500,000 people annually without any indication that the were involved in crime. About 80 percent of those stops were of Black and Latinos who compromise 25 and 28 percent of New York’s total population.
4. Study: Black and Hispanic Retail Workers Paid Less Than Whites
African-American and Hispanic retail workers are at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to staffers who are most likely to be paid more, promoted or given full-time jobs, a study conducted by the NAACP and the public policy group Demos found.
African-American sales clerks, cashiers and low-level managers are paid the least of all the racial groups occupying those retail positions, the Associated Press explains. Both African Americans and Hispanics are paid less than their white counterparts who hold the same retail positions and are less likely to hold management positions.
“If workers from [black and Hispanic] racial and ethnic categories continue to be systematically excluded from opportunity, that means that our labor market will be serving less than half the population in a way that’s really meaningful for families,” said Catherine Ruetschlin, a Demos senior policy analyst.
5. Council moves to raise (part of) schools’ funding request
City Council launched its school funding counter-plan to Mayor Nutter’s proposed property-tax increase Thursday, calling for raising taxes on parking lots and businesses as well as a much milder boost in property taxes than what Nutter wants.
The three bills introduced Thursday would generate far less money than what the school district says it needs.
All told they would bring in an estimated $70 million – little more than two-thirds of the $103 million Superintendent, William Hite is requesting. The district also is hoping for $206 million from the state.
Council President Darrell Clarke said his focus is bridging the district’s $85 million deficit, not the full asking price.
“It’s our belief that, at a minimum, the deficit should be dealt with and we’re prepared to put more than half of the money on the table to deal with the deficit,” he said.
The move was greeted with disappointment.
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Solomon Jones is an Essence bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is the creator and editor of Solomonjones.com and morning host on 900 am WURD radio. Click here to learn more about Solomon
