Interracial Couple Receives AWFUL Letter, Shuts It Down in Uplifting Way

Woman's Day

Alexis Hobbs6/4/2015           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Provided by Woman's Day Interracial Couple Receives AWFUL Letter, Shuts It Down in Uplifting Way

Most times we open our mailbox, we're met with bills, bills and more bills. But when David Shaw sifted through the mail at Magic City Sweet Ice, the Italian Ice business he owns with his wife, Wani, in Homewood, AL, he was shocked to find this cruel letter staring right back at him:

© Facebook Letter

Quite different from the heartfelt notes you usually get from family members, right? So David decided to share this hateful letter on Facebook. "There was no return address, no name," he told an Alabama news station. "I posted it because there was no way I could communicatewith the person."

And he wanted to publicly express four reasons why the letter was RIDICULOUS. 

1) I LOVE my beautiful black wife and everything about her, (most everything about her). Our love for one another is far deeper than skin color.
2) We won't be moving to California, or God willing, anywhere else anytime soon.
3) You got the address wrong
4) Woodlawn?

Plus, there's a drought in California. "That'll put us out of business!" Wani quipped.

Most of the comments on David's post were undeniably supportive of the beautiful couple, though a few people noted that posting the image would further fuel the fire of racism. "Whoever wrote that letter is in the dying minority," Wani said. "We don't deny that past, but we don't relive it. We're part of a generation that knows better. And wants more."We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

[via AL.com]

March to Washington begins with civil rights rally in Selma

Reuters

Letitia Stein9 hrs ago

 

 

 

 

© Albert Cesare/Montgomery Advertiser Velivia Peterson, 8, walks with others across the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the start of the "America's Journey for Justice March" organized by the NAACP on Saturday…NAACP leaders launched a 40-day march across the U.S. South on Saturday with a rally in Selma, Alabama, drawing on that city's significance in the 1960s civil rights movement to call attention to the issue of racial injustice in modern America.

Organizers of "America's Journey for Justice" want to build momentum behind a renewed national dialog over race relations prompted by the killing of a number of unarmed black men by police officers over the past year.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People leaders at the rally urged marchers to honor the memories of New York's Eric Garner and Cincinnati's Samuel DuBose, two of the unarmed black men killed in the police confrontations.

The march, which would cover nearly 900 miles, began on Selma's historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, where police beat peaceful marchers with clubs and doused them with tear gas in 1965. The infamous confrontation was a catalyst for the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, signed into law 50 years ago this week.

After two aborted attempts, civil rights activists led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. eventually marched to the state capital of Montgomery to build support for the legislation, which seeks to protect the rights of minority groups to cast ballots.

"We know we can do the distance because our lives, our votes, our jobs and our schools matter," said Cornell William Brooks, president and chief executive of the NAACP, one of the oldest and largest civil rights groups in the United States.

© Albert Cesare/Montgomery Advertiser Cornell William Brooks, NAACP president, holds the hand of Rachel Quarterman, 7, while leading the "America's Journey for Justice March" organized by the NAACP…"Let us march on, let us march on, let us march on till victory is won," Brooks chanted before leading the crowd, two by two, across the bridge.

Organizers say the outcry triggered by the recent police killings, including the shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, needs to be channeled into a long-term commitment to bring about change.

"We can continue to be serially outraged, or we can engage in an outrageously patriotic demonstration with a commitment to bringing about reform in this country," Brooks said before the rally.

The march will feature "teach-ins" and other events in five states - Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia - as it makes its way to the nation's capital, where organizers hope to draw thousands at a final rally on Sept. 16.

The NAACP aims to bring attention to racial injustice across issues like policing, public education, incarceration, voting rights and income inequality.

Brooks said the NAACP will look to mobilize thousands by the time it arrives in Washington, working with organizations representing labor unions, environmentalists, women's advocates and Judeo-Christian religious leaders.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida; additional reporting by Katie Reilly in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty, Alden Bentley and Richard Chang)

Texas attorney general indicted on felony charges, sources say

   

USA Today

Tanya Eiserer, Jason Whitely and Jim Douglas

© Eric Gay Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, left, with his chief of staff Bernie McNamee, right, waits to testify during a Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing on Planned Parenthood…McKINNEY, Texas — A grand jury has indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on multiple felony charges, according to several sources who are familiar with the complaints.

 

The charges will be unsealed in McKinney on Monday about noon, and a Tarrant County judge has already been appointed to preside over the case, sources told WFAA.
After the indictments are unsealed, Paxton can surrender to be photographed, fingerprinted and booked into jail.
It's unclear exactly what Paxton will be indicted for, although a grand jury here has heard evidence that Paxton, 52, violated securities laws.
Special prosecutors in the Paxton case told WFAA they planned to present a third-degree charge of failing to register with the state securities board as the law requires. They also said they planned to present a first-degree felony charge against Paxton accusing him of securities fraud. All indications are that charge is related to Servergy, a McKinney-based company that has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Paxton does not have to resign or step down from statewide office as he prepares to face a criminal trial. He can continue to work, just as Gov. Rick Perry did after his two felony indictments in August 2014.
Paxton's case, legal experts predict, will go to trial since his law license and statewide office are now on the line.
He was sworn in as Texas' top law enforcer on Jan. 1. The indictments relate to alleged conduct that occurred while he was serving in the state legislature.
Special prosecutor Kent Schaffer first revealed last month that the Texas Rangers had uncovered new evidence.
He said then that the securities fraud allegations involved losses in excess of $100,000, but Schaffer declined to reveal the specifics of them.
"The Rangers went out to investigate one thing, and they came back with information on something else," Schaffer said in early July. "It's turned into something different than when they started."
On Tuesday, a grand jury heard evidence and testimony presented by special prosecutors Schaffer and fellow special prosecutor Brian Wice in connection with the case. The Texas Rangers investigating the case were also seen entering and leaving the grand jury room.
The two special prosecutors were appointed in April after Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis recused himself from the case.
William Mapp, the founder of Servergy, was also seen entering the courthouse and milling around the grand jury room with his attorney. He and his attorney declined to comment.
Paxton's state filings show he owns at least 10,000 shares of Servergy. His name also appears as a search term in SEC filings accusing Servergy of misleading investors. The filing also listed Paxton's email address under "selected e-mails" of dozens of other contacts.
In those court records, filed in December 2014, the SEC said it was conducting an ongoing investigation into Servergy's "possibly fraudulent statements or omissions related to Servergy's technology and purported business relationships."
The filings accused Servergy of lying to investors about having pre-orders from companies, such as Amazon.
Other than the fact that he owns stock, Paxton's connection to Servergy is not clear.
Allegations of failing to register arose out of Paxton's dealings with friend, business associate and campaign donor Fritz Mowery.
Their working relationship goes way back. They both had offices on the second floor at 206 Kentucky St. in McKinney. Campaign finance records show Mowery donated nearly $16,000 to Paxton's campaigns.
Last May, Paxton was disciplined by the Texas State Securities Board after he admitted to the board that he solicited clients for a friend's investment firm without being registered with the state as the law requires.
According to the disciplinary order, Paxton acted as an "investment advisor" when he solicited clients on behalf of Mowery Capital Management, or MCM.
"Respondent was compensated by MCM for each solicitation resulting in a client relationship with MCM," the order said. "Specifically, MCM agreed to pay Respondent 30 percent of asset management fees collected by MCM from each client that Respondent solicited successfully."
Several clients have said they were not aware of the fee-sharing arrangement.
Paxton paid a $1,000 fine and called it an administrative error.
But that situation ultimately sparked the criminal investigation that led to the appointment of the special prosecutors, the involvement of the Texas Rangers and now the indictments.
Anthony Holm, Paxton's spokesman, has repeatedly said the attorney general has done nothing wrong. Holm also has accused the special prosecutors of being biased and unfair, and engaging in a political witch hunt.
"The securities board was very clear this was no crime," he told WFAA on Tuesday. "It was resolved last spring. It was a civil event. It was a $1,000 fine and we are only here because of liberal activists."
Despite the criminal investigation, Republican state Rep. Matt Krause said Paxton's Tea Party base still supports him.
"I think people are now quick to say, 'Hey let's see where this goes before we get too upset or enraged about it, and see what the facts really are, because maybe there's nothing to it and we don't want to dishonor or disown one of our own,’ " Krause said.

 

Mexican-born actress Salma Hayek is so mad at Donald Trump that she cannot even utter his name

BY Ethan Sacks       

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, July 30, 2015, 6:01 PM

  Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Spike TV

Salma Hayek recently accepted an award for a "Decade of Hotness" — and she's certainly fired up about an anti-Mexican GOP candidate whose name she could not even say.

He’s the candidate that must remain nameless.
Salma Hayek wouldn’t even say the word “Trump” when asked how she felt after the GOP candidate assailed Mexican immigrants as “rapists” flowing across the border.
“Because I know him a little bit, is it’s a mistake to respond because he will use this to promote himself,” Hayek told the News about the presidential front-runner. “The Mexican community may be upset that I wasn’t saying something…but I refuse to utter his name and allow him to use me for self-promotion.”
Expectations were high because Hayek is the highest-profile star of Mexican descent in Hollywood and known as an advocate against discrimination against immigrants.

Stephen B. Morton/AP

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump said some things about Mexican immigrants that enraged Salma Hayek — not that she would utter his name in response.

But Hayek refused to follow the script. Besides, she sees a silver lining in how Trump’s comments underscored the prejudice immigrants face.
“We have not, as Americans, grasped the level, the size, of the problem of discrimination in this country,” she says. “We have been living a lie pretending we’re a country that no longer discriminates.”
Hayek made what seemed like a deft reference to Trump’s ownership of the Miss Universe pageant and his “Apprentice” job on NBC. “I will say this: America is not a beauty pageant. America is not a reality show,” she says. “The reality of America and the world is tougher.”

esacks@nydailynews.com