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Five members of the Congressional Black Caucus took a $60,000 trip to see Beyoncé and other stars perform in concert in South Africa late last year, according to congressional disclosure records. The lawmakers were U.S. Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York, Barbara Lee of California, Bobby Rush of Illinois, Terri Sewell of Alabama and Hank Johnson of Georgia, according to the data. They attended the “Global Citizen Mandela 100” concert from Dec. 1-3 to celebrate the centenary birth of the late Nelson Mandela and raise awareness of global poverty. In addition to Beyoncé, other musical acts included...(snip) The National Legal...

When you come to Congress as a 29-year-old newbie and start throwing your weight around by threatening the careers of some of your party colleagues, you shouldn't be surprised if you make enemies of powerful people. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be a media darling and Twitter sensation, but if she doesn't watch her step, she may end up being a flash in the pan, one-term congresswoman. Ocasio-Cortez and the so-called "Justice Democrats" are targeting numerous members of the Democratic establishment by threatening to primary them in 2020.  This has angered some powerful members who are now talking about finding a challenger...

Sheila Jackson Lee To Resign Chair of Congressional Black Caucus Amid Claims She Retaliated Against Rape Victim… NEW: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee intends to resign as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, after being named in a lawsuit accusing her of retaliating against a staffer who planned to sue the CBCF over an alleged rape by a former CBCF employee https://t.co/2x73FHVJyv — Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) January 23, 2019 Sheila Jackson Lee intends to resign as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, after being named in a lawsuit accusing her of retaliating against a staffer who planned to sue...

WASHINGTON — Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, facing fallout from a lawsuit claiming she fired an aide who said she was sexually assaulted by a supervisor at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, said on Wednesday she had decided to resign as the foundation’s chairwoman. Ms. Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat in her 13th term, also stepped aside temporarily from an important House Judiciary subcommittee chairmanship, the committee said. Ms. Jackson Lee made the decision to step aside from both roles as pressure was growing within her own party to account for the claims in a Jan. 11 lawsuit brought by a...

Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the newly minted 'chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee'.... The first unchallenged inaccuracy was the chairman’s announcement that he has the power to investigate anything.... This is factually incorrect. Congress can only pursue information necessary to inform its legislative duties. Not once did Cummings mention any contemplated legislation. Voters elect legislators, not opposition researchers or public relations operatives. Another untruth: Cummings gloated that he didn’t need to consult with Republicans before issuing subpoenas. however, consultation remains a requirement. In fact, Cummings previously advocated for more than consultation and demanded that consent from the minority party...

Ilhan Omar, one of the country’s first Muslim congresswomen, is among the CBC’s new members. headshot On Thursday, the day of the official swearing-in of the 116th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus swore in its own group of members, a total of 55 ― its largest number in history. Download This year’s CBC surpasses its previous record of 49 House and Senate members in the 115th Congress. “With the largest caucus in history... the CBC is poised to play a leading role in standing up to the Trump Administration and pressing forward on key issues like protecting voting rights and...

Is it any wonder that Lance Mason believed that he could get away with killing his wife? On the way back from a funeral, Judge Lance Mason beat his wife so badly that he broke her orbital socket.  A woman who called 911 had described a horrifying scene of “fists flying” inside the car. Their two children, ages 4 and 6, were in the SUV when their father assaulted their mother, choked her and bit her on the ear and the cheek. According to Aisha, Judge Mason "struck me in the face, yanked my hair, slammed my head into the...

In the last decade, every single House Democrat sent to prison for financial crimes was a Congressional Black Caucus member. In the last twenty years, it’s been over 80%. After the midterms, the CBC has grown past a record 50 members. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting better. Power makes it worse... The Congressional Black Caucus has achieved a record number of seats so it’s a power player in the new Dem House majority. And CBC leaders are demanding a status in the Democrat leadership commensurate with their growing numbers. The Caucus forms somewhat less than a quarter of the...

The Congressional Black Caucus signaled in a letter on Thursday that if Democrats win the majority in the House of Representatives, they would like African-American representation in at least one of the top two leadership positions for the party in the chamber. An African-American member has never served in either of the top two leadership positions. The private letter was sent from the chairman of the caucus, Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, and was prompted by "much speculation" about how Democrats will govern if they should assume the majority. Though Richmond praised current leadership, he states that the Congressional Black...

We’re still traveling in Canada - Ontario specifically -  which is beautiful despite a dearth of sunshine, a surplus of precipitation and a muted palate of autumn colors most likely due to a dryer than normal summer. There is no Fox news here, which I know you’ll say is no great loss, but after flipping through the news programming on offer – CNN and the equally slanted Canadian version, CBC – I assure you that Fox serves a vital purpose. If Canada has a similar balancing element I’ve not seen it. As our own MSM knows, it’s much easier to...

Insurgent Democratic women running for Congress are pushing the party to rethink its approach to politics if they retake control of Capitol Hill in the fall. At the annual meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus Friday, black female candidates who prevailed in primaries over established incumbents said it’s time for a conversation about how the party is structured. They expressed frustration that the party is tilted against rising politicians — especially those of color — and argued that if Democrats flip the House in November, it would be the result of organization and turnout amount black voters, particularly women. If...

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus held a press conference on Thursday urging senators on the judiciary committee to reject the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court. In the news conference lawmakers and civil rights activists argued that Kavanaugh would weaken provisions of the Voting Rights Act and be a general threat to civil rights on the Court. Not enough is known about Kavanaugh's potential views on issues including civil rights cases due to the Trump administration's unwillingness to release more documents related to his tenure as a White House lawyer. "We stand in solidarity...

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) joked over the weekend that it would be a "catastrophe" if anybody jumped in after President Trump if he fell into the Potomac River, which goes through Washington, D.C. Hastings said he was borrowing the joke from Ari Silver, the son of former Florida state lawmaker Barry Silver. The Daily Caller has the video. “I will tell you one joke,” Hastings said at a rally in Sunshine, FL. “Do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe?” “‘A crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Potomac River and can’t swim,'” Hastings said, retelling...

Speaking Friday at a historically black university, potential Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren delivered what she called “the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It’s racist … I mean front to back.” The Massachusetts senator identified some of the system’s failures: disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their sentences are complete. Warren was participating in a Q&A session hosted by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond at the historically black Dillard University in New Orleans. She was among several possible Democratic...

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) said in a new interview that "it is more than a possibility - it's a probability" that the next House Speaker will be an African-American. Fudge told Politico that she backs Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who is currently the third-ranking House Democrat, for the position. Other black Democratic lawmakers who some have floated as successors to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) if their party wins back a majority in the midterms include Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Rep. Cedric Richmond (La.), Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) and Fudge, Politico reported. In an...

Well, she’s at it again. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is calling for days of rage. Oh, and she’s sanctioned by God or something. Last week, the California liberal visited the First AME Church in Los Angeles, where she declared that God had sent her on a mission to get Trump (via American Mirror ): Video Wanting to address what people are reading on the “social internet,” she said, “We never dreamed we’d have someone in the White House who was divisive, who could not tell the truth, and who was intent on not making America great again, but taking...

Ron Dellums, who served as Oakland's 48th mayor and served 13 terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has died, his nephew said. Ben Bartlett, Dellums' nephew and a Berkeley city councilman, told KTVU on Monday that Dellums died of cancer in Washington, D.C. on Sunday evening. He was 82.

(CNN)Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman Rep. John Lewis has been hospitalized but is expected to be released Sunday, his spokeswoman says. Spokeswoman Brenda Jones told CNN that Lewis is under routine observation but she did not give details of the nature of his illness or where he is hospitalized. CNN affiliate WSB-TV reported that Lewis was being treated at a hospital in metro Atlanta, and the station quoted unnamed sources as saying Lewis became ill on a flight to Atlanta on Saturday.

The Congressional Black Caucus is rallying behind Rep. Maxine Waters amid an escalating feud over the California Democrat’s call for protesters to confront administration officials wherever they go, while some Republicans are demanding Waters’s resignation.. In a statement Tuesday, CBC chairman Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.) issued a statement defending the 14-term lawmaker as someone who “has been a champion for justice her entire life.” He also pushed back against statements by President Trump and others who have cast Waters’s remarks at a Los Angeles rally Saturday as inciting violence. “In exercising her constitutional right to freedom of speech at a...

Patrick Dussault took to Twitter and directed his threats to Chloe, Donald Trump Jr.’s four-year-old daughter. Conventional wisdom dictates anything a Canadian can do an American can do better. Not always the case. After Peter Fonda posted a tweet saying 12-year-old Barron Trump should be ripped from his mother’s arms and put in a cage with pedophiles, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation comedy writer did the 78-year-old over-the-hill actor one better. If Fonda thought it was cool to threaten a 12-year-old, Patrick Dussault took to Twitter and directed his threats to Chloe, Donald Trump Jr.’s four-year-old daughter.