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."
The two companies tout their deal as necessary for innovation and claim that it doesn't decrease competition in the field. Those arguments will be difficult to prove, says Eleanor Fox, an antitrust expert at NYU Law School. The third and fourth largest mobile networks in the U.S. announced a $26.5 billion merger Sunday that they claim will help develop a 5G network and create jobs. The deal still needs approval from regulators, who have expressed antitrust concerns in the past.
Rather than exiting the political fray, the former Secretary of State is campaigning for Democrats in this year's midterm elections and reaching out to women's groups. "I think she's earned the right to do whatever the hell she wants," says Amy Chozick, a writer-at-large for The New York Times and author of "Chasing Hillary."
New Jersey could become home to more innovation with hands-on support from lawmakers, says Aaron Price, founder and CEO of Propelify, an innovation festival in Hoboken, NJ.
The White House Correspondents' Association responded to the annual event saying, "the entertainer's monologue was not in the spirit" of the group's mission. However, it's actually the journalists insulted by her jokes who are "not doing their jobs," says Emma Vigeland, a host and producer of the TYT Politics Show on The Young Turks.
The agreed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint aligns with President Trump's policy priorities, the T-Mobile CEO John Legere says in an interview with Cheddar's Hope King. He says the president's tax policies have "added a great amount of value in this deal," and the merged company can help create a fast 5G network vital to the country's digital infrastructure, another priority for Trump.
The congressman said that, though the historic summit between the two Koreas was a positive, the U.S. should take North Korea's denuclearization promises with a grain of salt. "As President Reagan used to say, trust, but we need to verify," he told Cheddar.
The comedian, who plays a right-wing commentator on his Comedy Central show "The Opposition," has high hopes for this year's "Nerd Prom" thanks to host Michelle Wolf. "I'm just excited to sit back and watch her kill it," Klepper told Cheddar. The White House Correspondent's Dinner takes place on Saturday, and President Trump has decided to skip the event for the second year in a row.
Maintaining diplomatic momentum after the historic meeting Friday between the North Korean leader Kim Jung-un and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea will likely fall on the shoulders of President Trump, who will have his own summit with Kim next month.
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci tells Cheddar that, since he was fired last year, he has spoken to President Trump about a dozen times to talk about both political and personal issues.
Anthony Scaramucci, who only lasted 11 days as the White House Communications Director, tells Cheddar one of his biggest accomplishments last year was letting cameras back into White House briefings. That, and hiring a hair and makeup artist.
