National

Latest on Church Shooting: Parishioners See Site of Shooting

Published

10 years ago

June 20, 2015

Allen Sanders, right, kneels next to his wife Georgette, both of McClellanville, S.C., as they pray at a sidewalk memorial in memory of the shooting victims in front of Emanuel AME Church Saturday, June 20, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. “You can’t have love and hate residing in the heart at the same time,” said Georgette. “We’re just going to have to love one another,” her husband added. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

3 p.m.

A group of congregation members met Saturday in the church room where days earlier nine people were killed when a man who had joined their Bible study allegedly opened fire.

Harold Washington says it was an emotional meeting.

Of the room where fellow parishioners were killed, Washington said: “They did a good job cleaning it up. There were a few bullet holes around, but … they cut them out so you don’t see the actual holes.”

Washington says he expects a packed, emotional service Sunday when the church reopens.

He said: “I think it’s gonna be a touching moment — a lot of crying, hugging.”

He also expects newcomers. He said: “We’re gonna have people come by that we’ve never seen before and will probably never see again, and that’s OK.

“It’s a church of the Lord – you don’t turn nobody down.”

___

2:55 p.m.

A federal law enforcement official says the FBI is looking into a website that appears to have photos of the Charleston church shooting suspect holding a Confederate flag along with a racist rant.

The purported manifesto was found on a website called LastRhodesian.com and surfaced Saturday. It’s unclear whether it was written by Dylann Roof, the man arrested in the killing of nine people inside the church Wednesday night. The writings are in line with what Roof has told friends and what he said before allegedly opening fire in the historic black church Wednesday night.

A federal law enforcement official close to the investigation said the FBI is aware of the website and is reviewing it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the case.

— Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Asheville, North Carolina

___

1:50 p.m.

People are crowding the sidewalk, wiping sweat from their brows and tears from their eyes, as they listen to pastors from across the country speak outside “Mother” Emmanuel AME Church.

Two pastors from Oregon and New York asked the crowd to join hands and pray. The men stood together on a long step stool and spoke about how their common religion is more important than their race.

The Rev. Kyle Kneen, who is white, is a retired pastor from Florence, Oregon. Pastor Dimas Salaberrios, who is black, came to Charleston from Astoria, New York.

“I’m a follower of Jesus Christ. I’m an African-American second,” Salaberrios said. “God did not welcome me into the church just to hang out with black people.”

The church was the site of a shooting rampage on Wednesday night, leaving nine people dead.

___

1:40 p.m.

Congregation members say the historic black church where nine people were killed is going to re-open for Sunday morning service.

Cassie Watson said Saturday that the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church will open at 8:30 a.m. for Sunday school and 9 a.m. for a service.

Watson was one of more than a dozen people to enter the building after a cleaning crew had worked on it. Other congregation members also confirmed the church would open Sunday.

Authorities say 21-year-old Dylann Roof fatally shot nine people at the church on Wednesday night.

___

1:10 p.m.

About six to 10 people trickled into the historic black church that was the scene of a deadly shooting rampage earlier this week.

Presumably congregation members, they came to Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Saturday through a parking lot that’s still closed to the public. Some of them then embraced before entering the church through a side door on the street, where cleaning crews had been working earlier in the day.

Authorities say 21-year-old Dylann Roof also entered the church through a side door on the street level on Wednesday night and stayed at a Bible study for about an hour before opening fire, killing nine people.

___

1 p.m.

Mitt Romney says it’s time to take down the Confederate flag that’s flying near the South Carolina Capitol.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee tweets that the flag “is a symbol of racial hatred” to many people. His view: “Remove it now to honor” the nine victims of the church shooting in Charleston.

President Barack Obama has said he thinks the flag belongs in a museum.

South Carolina was the last state to fly the Confederate battle flag from its Capitol dome. In 2000, it was moved to a 30-foot flagpole in front of the Statehouse.

___

12:40 p.m.

Photographs that appear to show the Charleston church shooting suspect holding a Confederate flag and burning an American flag appear with a racist rant on a newly uncovered website.

The purported manifesto was found on a website called LastRhodesian.com and surfaced Saturday. It’s unclear if he wrote it but the writings are in line with what Roof has told friends and what he said before allegedly opening fire in the black church Wednesday night.

Internet registry records show that the website was registered on Feb. 9 via a Russian registry service — a common tactic use by those to obscure personal details or hide who is behind any particular website.

The 60 pictures include Roof holding a Confederate flag and a close-up of a .45-calibar pistol. He is accused of using a similar handgun in the church shooting.

The nearly 2,500-word essay starts the author saying they were not raised in a racist home, but concluded they needed to become violent after typing “black on White crime” into Google. The author says they chose Charleston because at one time it had the highest ratio of blacks to whites and white supremacist groups were not doing enough.

Charleston Police didn’t immediately respond to a message.

___

10:15 p.m.

The memorial in front of the black church is growing with bouquets of flowers, balloons and teddy bears.

On Saturday morning, a couple dozen people stood in front of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where police say a young white man opened fire at the end of a Bible study group and killed nine people on Wednesday night.

Roses are intertwined in the black wrought-iron fence in front of the church and colorful bouquets of flowers are piled on top of each other.

Authorities say 21-year-old Dylann Roof opened fire inside the church. He has been arrested and charged with nine counts of murder. He is currently being held in jail on a $1 million bond.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Oakland Post: Week of March 19 – 25, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 19 – 25, 2025

Published

15 hours ago

March 22, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Recently Approved Budget Plan Favors Wealthy, Slashes Aid to Low-Income Americans

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts

Published

2 days ago

March 21, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown

BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent

The new budget framework approved by Congress may result in sweeping changes to the federal safety net and tax code. The most significant benefits would flow to the highest earners while millions of low-income families face cuts. A new analysis from Yale University’s Budget Lab shows the proposals in the House’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Resolution would lead to a drop in after-tax-and-transfer income for the poorest households while significantly boosting revenue for the wealthiest Americans. Last month, Congress passed its Concurrent Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2025 (H. Con. Res. 14), setting revenue and spending targets for the next decade. The resolution outlines $1.5 trillion in gross spending cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax reductions between FY2025 and FY2034, along with $500 billion in unspecified deficit reduction.

Congressional Committees have now been instructed to identify policy changes that align with these goals. Three of the most impactful committees—Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means—have been tasked with proposing major changes. The Agriculture Committee is charged with finding $230 billion in savings, likely through changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. Energy and Commerce must deliver $880 billion in savings, likely through Medicaid reductions. Meanwhile, the Ways and Means Committee must craft tax changes totaling no more than $4.5 trillion in new deficits, most likely through extending provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Although the resolution does not specify precise changes, reports suggest lawmakers are eyeing steep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid benefits while seeking to make permanent tax provisions that primarily benefit high-income individuals and corporations.

To examine the potential real-world impact, Yale’s Budget Lab modeled four policy changes that align with the resolution’s goals:

A 30 percent across-the-board cut in SNAP funding.
A 15 percent cut in Medicaid funding.
Permanent extension of the individual and estate tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Permanent extension of business tax provisions including 100% bonus depreciation, expense of R&D, and relaxed limits on interest deductions.

Yale researchers determined that the combined effect of these policies would reduce the after-tax-and-transfer income of the bottom 20 percent of earners by 5 percent in the calendar year 2026. Households in the middle would see a modest 0.6 percent gain. However, the top five percent of earners would experience a 3 percent increase in their after-tax-and-transfer income.

Moreover, the analysis concluded that more than 100 percent of the net fiscal benefit from these changes would go to households in the top 20 percent of the income distribution. This happens because lower-income groups would lose more in government benefits than they would gain from any tax cuts. At the same time, high-income households would enjoy significant tax reductions with little or no loss in benefits.

“These results indicate a shift in resources away from low-income tax units toward those with higher incomes,” the Budget Lab report states. “In particular, making the TCJA provisions permanent for high earners while reducing spending on SNAP and Medicaid leads to a regressive overall effect.” The report notes that policymakers have floated a range of options to reduce SNAP and Medicaid outlays, such as lowering per-beneficiary benefits or tightening eligibility rules. While the Budget Lab did not assess each proposal individually, the modeling assumes legislation consistent with the resolution’s instructions. “The burden of deficit reduction would fall largely on those least able to bear it,” the report concluded.

Stacy M. Brown

Posts by Stacy M. Brown

#NNPA BlackPress

A Threat to Pre-emptive Pardons

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process.

Published

2 days ago

March 21, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

President Trump is working to undo the traditional presidential pardon powers by questioning the Biden administration’s pre-emptive pardons issued just days before January 20, 2025. President Trump is seeking retribution against the January 6th House Select Committee. The Trump Justice Department has been tasked to find loopholes to overturn the pardons that could lead to legal battles for the Republican and Democratic nine-member committee. Legal scholars and those closely familiar with the pardon process worked with the Biden administration to ensure the preemptive pardons would stand against any retaliatory knocks from the incoming Trump administration. A source close to the Biden administration’s pardons said, in January 2025, “I think pardons are all valid. The power is unreviewable by the courts.”

However, today that same source had a different statement on the nuances of the new Trump pardon attack. That attack places questions about Biden’s use of an autopen for the pardons. The Trump argument is that Biden did not know who was pardoned as he did not sign the documents. Instead, the pardons were allegedly signed by an autopen. The same source close to the pardon issue said this week, “unless he [Trump] can prove Biden didn’t know what was being done in his name. All of this is in uncharted territory. “ Meanwhile, an autopen is used to make automatic or remote signatures. It has been used for decades by public figures and celebrities.

Months before the Biden pardon announcement, those in the Biden White House Counsel’s Office, staff, and the Justice Department were conferring tirelessly around the clock on who to pardon and how. The concern for the preemptive pardons was how to make them irrevocable in an unprecedented process. At one point in the lead-up to the preemptive pardon releases, it was a possibility that the preemptive pardons would not happen because of the complicated nature of that never-before-enacted process. President Trump began the threat of an investigation for the January 6th Select Committee during the Hill proceedings. Trump has threatened members with investigation or jail.