Markenzy Lapointe was confirmed by the United States Senate Tuesday night as the U.S. attorney for South Florida, making him the first Haitian American lawyer to serve in the region’s most powerful federal law enforcement position. Lapointe, a former U.S. Marine and ex-federal prosecutor who was raised in Haiti and Miami, was nominated in September by President Joe Biden to fill the… Read more »
Miami Herald ArticleHaitians crossing the southern border of the United States without proper documentation are being subjected to arbitrary detention and discriminatory and humiliating ill treatment that amounts to race-based torture, Amnesty International says in a new report marking the first anniversary of the migration crisis at the U.S. border in Del Rio, Texas.
A year… Read more »
Florida DailyLast week, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., introduced the “Lowering Obstacles to Achievement Now (LOAN) Act.”
Wilson’s bill would “lower the cost of college for current and future student borrowers and their families” and builds on President Biden’s historic one-time student loan debt relief announcement last month to… Read more »
Miami Herald ArticleMiami attorney Markenzy Lapointe, a former U.S. Marine and federal prosecutor who was raised in Haiti and Liberty City, was nominated Thursday by President Joe Biden to become the next U.S. attorney in South Florida.
If confirmed by the Senate, Lapointe, 54, would become the first Black lawyer to serve in the most powerful federal law enforcement position in South… Read more »
Florida Phoenix ArticleThe group of U.S. House Democrats asking the chamber’s leaders not to include environmental permitting changes in a stopgap spending deal this month comprises 76 members, including senior leaders of budget and spending committees and factions across the caucus’ ideological spectrum.
The 76 signers on a letter sent late last week make up a third of the… Read more »
Florida Daily ArticleAt the end of last week, the Florida congressional delegation, led by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, D-Fla., called on U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai “to initiate a Section 301 investigation of fruit and vegetable imports from Mexico, and to secure trade relief for Florida growers.”
U.S. Sen. Rick… Read more »
Miami Herald ArticleA swath of Miami’s oldest neighborhood has been formally designated “Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove,” a recognition of the historically Black enclave settled by Bahamians in the 19th century even before Miami was incorporated as a city. Miami commissioners voted on Tuesday to mark the area’s cultural and historical importance with the… Read more »
New York Times ArticleMary McLeod Bethune on Wednesday became the first Black American to be represented with a state statue in National Statuary Hall, a central room of the United States Capitol, honored for her work championing education and civil rights.
Bethune, whose statue replaces one of a Confederate general, became an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and an advocate… Read more »
Miami Herald ArticleAn 11-foot marble likeness of civil-rights leader and educator Mary McLeod Bethune was unveiled Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol, replacing a statue of a former Confederate general that represented Florida in the National Statuary Hall for nearly a century.
During an unveiling ceremony, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, described the change as “rewriting the… Read more »
Miami's Community Newspapers ArticleUnited Way Miami recently celebrated 98 of years serving and impacting Miami-Dade County during its 2022 Annual Meeting and Volunteer Awards.
At the event, the organization honored seven remarkable community service members, including U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins, the late Michael Finney, the late Manuel Fermin,… Read more »
