In Maryland, the Montgomery County Council has introduced a resolution deeming racism a public health crisis.
In an interview with Cheddar, councilmember Will Jawando says disparities the black community faces are staggering. Recent social uprisings might have lit the flame under Jawando to introduce the resolution but the issue of racial inequality goes back hundreds of years, he said.
"Racism is the direct result, for 401 years, we've been either property or legally discriminated against for most of that time," Jawando told Cheddar.
In Montgomery County, systemic racism is not limited to just over-assertive and sometimes lethal policing of the black community, he said. It's also running rampant in the healthcare system. As COVID-19 continues to ravage communities of color nationwide, 18 percent of the black population in his county makes up a quarter of the deaths related to the virus.
For Jawando, racism in the Washington DC suburb is simply a reflection of society on a smaller scale.
"If you look at maternal health and childbirth, black women die at three times the rate," he said. "When they come in with problems, often doctors — look at Serena Williams — don't believe that they're sick."
Introducing the resolution, which he expects to pass next week, is a first step for curing the public health crisis in his county, Jawando said, but he hopes the measure is eventually recognized on both the state and federal levels. He also supports other methods of combating racism including the growing call to defund police departments nationwide.
"We shouldn't have stats driven by policing," he explained. "De-escalation, that should be rewarded just as much as we reward arrests and tickets."
New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is "cautiously optimistic" that the September 11th Victim's Compensation Fund's permanent extension will be passed in the Senate.
President Donald Trump Thursday evening decided to share his negative opinions on cryptocurrencies and Facebook's plans for the Libra currency, drawing a backlash among blockchain proponents.
Mississippi Rep. Robert Foster, currently running for governor of the state, is denying a female reporter from his campaign trip — unless she is accompanied by a male colleague. That Mississippi Today reporter Larrison Campbell joined Cheddar to give her reaction.
Nike announced on Thursday that it is moving forward with its plan to open a Nike Air Manufacturing Innovation facility in Goodyear, Arizona, just a week after the Governor Doug Ducey said the company was not welcome.
On Friday morning, President Donald Trump announced that Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned from his position. The decision follows widespread outrage over Acosta's handling of a 2008 case involving hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein, who had been accused of being a sexual predator.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, July 12, 2019.
President Donald Trump abandoned his administration's years-long pursuit to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but through an executive order demanded that all government agencies compile and disclose existing data on citizenship.
According to the 16-page report obtained by Cheddar, the expected price tag of the Victim's Compensation Fund is expected to be more than $10 billion over the next 10 years.
French lawmakers voted to impose a 3 percent tax on revenues from digital services that reach French users that could leave U.S. tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon facing a hefty new tax bill.
Billionaire progressive activist Tom Steyer who joined the 2020 race spoke with Cheddar about his focus on the avarice of big business and its undue influence.
