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Last summer, when he rescued a man at a London protest that had turned violent, Hutchinson unwittingly stepped onto the world stage. It wasn't something Hutchinson, now 50, had planned -- but now he is using the newfound fame for good.

"I didn't see color," Hutchinson said. "I just saw somebody who needed help."

It was June 13 and Hutchinson was at home, babysitting his grandchildren, when a friend called him. Fearful that a demonstration involving a far-right group and Black Lives Matter protesters could turn violent, the friend, Pierre Noah, asked him for help.

"Pierre twisted my arm," Hutchinson said. "The idea was to stop any of these young protesters from doing anything that they're going to regret later on. When you're Black, especially, and you end up in front of the criminal justice system, you don't always get a fair shout."

Noah, Hutchinson and three other friends went to the demonstration not as protesters, Hutchinson said, but as unofficial overseers. The men saw themselves as "more experienced individuals of the community," he said -- men with one common goal: to keep the peace.

Hutchinson said there was tension from the get-go -- "a lot of unrest (and) frustration." The men defused several incidents that were not caught on camera before they spotted some BLM protesters and "some of the far-right guys," he said, in an altercation. They made their way to the scene, where they found a White man, Bryn Male, lying in the fetal position, injured.

Hutchinson, a personal trainer and athletic coach, picked Male up, put him over his shoulder and carried him through the crowd to safety. Soon after, the violence subsided and crowds began to disperse. And before Hutchinson and his friends even made it back home, images of the rescue started going viral.

"It was during the lockdown, so we were all outside having something to eat ... sort of talking over the events of the day," Hutchinson said. "And then I had a message ping up on my phone from my sister, saying, 'Is this you?'"

Overnight, Hutchinson's image went viral and interview requests flooded in. In the days and weeks to come, he appeared on many major news outlets as well as in Vogue magazine and on the cover of Men's Health.

"It's been an amazing, amazing journey," Hutchinson said. "I've spoken to the likes of Rev. Al Sharpton, Prince Harry. I've been nominated a GQ Hero and received a humanitarian award. I've had Michelle Obama write a message on her Instagram. It hasn't stopped, and it's still going."

"We want to use our platform and make a change in our community for the young people especially that really need our support and help at this moment in time," Hutchinson said.

"We're inspiring other people to be the change in the world that you want to see. Go out there and do what's right. Don't stand by and watch certain things unfold when you know that you have the ability to do something about it."

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His rescue at a London protest inspired Michelle Obama and Prince Harry. Now, Patrick Hutchinson is turning his moment into a movement - CNN

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen to host Spotify podcast

Updated: 11:47 PM EST Feb 22, 2021

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen have teamed up to host a new podcast about masculinity, race, fatherhood and their professional and personal journeys. The podcast, called "Renegades: Born in the USA," is part of the multiyear partnership between Spotify and Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground.Spotify revealed the new show on Monday, along with dozens of other announcements as part of its virtual event, Stream On. The streaming platform that was once just home to popular music is continuing its expansion into podcasts and will soon include more exclusive shows on race, religion, politics and superheroes.Spotify's deal with Higher Ground, announced in June 2019, was one of its early big bets in the podcast industry. Earlier that same year, Spotify acquired podcast studio Gimlet Media and podcast creation platform Anchor. The company later bought Bill Simmons' podcast empire, The Ringer, and signed exclusive licensing deals with other big names such as Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.Related video: Super Bowl Jeep Springsteen commercialHigher Ground and Spotify previously produced "The Michelle Obama Podcast." It launched in July and was Spotify's top show globally in July and August, Spotify reported in its third quarter of 2020 earnings.Also in partnership with Higher Ground, Spotify is releasing a new season of the podcast "Tell Them, I Am." The series is hosted by Misha Euceph, a first-generation Pakistani-American who was an executive producer of Michelle Obama's podcast. Spotify said it will feature stories from Muslim voices, including activists, artists, actors, performers and athletes.Spotify also announced on Monday a new podcast from its partnership with filmmaker Ava DuVernay's arts and social impact collective ARRAY. The unscripted podcast is based on ARRAY'S Law Enforcement Accountability Project, launched after the murder of George Floyd, and will investigate officers who committed murder.Spotify reported in its fourth quarter earnings that it had 2.2 million podcasts, up from 1.9 million the prior quarter, and said that 25% of its monthly active users have listened to podcasts, up from 23% the prior quarter. Spotify also reported that the total consumption hours of podcasts have nearly doubled from the fourth quarter of 2019 to 2020."It's no coincidence that the world's best creators are embracing Spotify as a key platform for their podcasts we have the reach, infrastructure and dedicated teams to take their stories to the world and we're committed to growing their audience on Spotify," Courtney Holt, Spotify's head of studios and video, said in a statement.Spotify is expanding into new markets, which could grow its reach to more than one billion people. The platform is available in 93 markets but plans to grow to 178, including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria.

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen have teamed up to host a new podcast about masculinity, race, fatherhood and their professional and personal journeys. The podcast, called "Renegades: Born in the USA," is part of the multiyear partnership between Spotify and Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground.

Spotify revealed the new show on Monday, along with dozens of other announcements as part of its virtual event, Stream On. The streaming platform that was once just home to popular music is continuing its expansion into podcasts and will soon include more exclusive shows on race, religion, politics and superheroes.

Spotify's deal with Higher Ground, announced in June 2019, was one of its early big bets in the podcast industry. Earlier that same year, Spotify acquired podcast studio Gimlet Media and podcast creation platform Anchor. The company later bought Bill Simmons' podcast empire, The Ringer, and signed exclusive licensing deals with other big names such as Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Related video: Super Bowl Jeep Springsteen commercial

Higher Ground and Spotify previously produced "The Michelle Obama Podcast." It launched in July and was Spotify's top show globally in July and August, Spotify reported in its third quarter of 2020 earnings.

Also in partnership with Higher Ground, Spotify is releasing a new season of the podcast "Tell Them, I Am." The series is hosted by Misha Euceph, a first-generation Pakistani-American who was an executive producer of Michelle Obama's podcast. Spotify said it will feature stories from Muslim voices, including activists, artists, actors, performers and athletes.

Spotify also announced on Monday a new podcast from its partnership with filmmaker Ava DuVernay's arts and social impact collective ARRAY. The unscripted podcast is based on ARRAY'S Law Enforcement Accountability Project, launched after the murder of George Floyd, and will investigate officers who committed murder.

Spotify reported in its fourth quarter earnings that it had 2.2 million podcasts, up from 1.9 million the prior quarter, and said that 25% of its monthly active users have listened to podcasts, up from 23% the prior quarter. Spotify also reported that the total consumption hours of podcasts have nearly doubled from the fourth quarter of 2019 to 2020.

"It's no coincidence that the world's best creators are embracing Spotify as a key platform for their podcasts we have the reach, infrastructure and dedicated teams to take their stories to the world and we're committed to growing their audience on Spotify," Courtney Holt, Spotify's head of studios and video, said in a statement.

Spotify is expanding into new markets, which could grow its reach to more than one billion people. The platform is available in 93 markets but plans to grow to 178, including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria.

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Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen to host Spotify podcast - WXII The Triad

This is an opinion column.

It was early November 2008, a few days before the U.S. Presidential election. I lived in New York and was at lunch with a friend. There was much anticipation and optimism in my circles about the possible election of then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to Americas highest officeand concern.

For his safety.

I just hope, my friend said, her voice trailing off. The words needed not be said.

I sought, best I could, to ease her fears, to change the subject.

If hes elected, I said, I guarantee you two things will happen: One, hell have the best Secret Service in history, and two, hell make white folks crazy.

We laughed out loud.

Funny thingor not so much, reallythats exactly what happened.

Now, nowbreathe. Not all white folks, of course. It was hyperbole. So, chill.

Still, it happened. The election of the first Black President of the United States turned up the burners beneath the simmering stew of racism percolating in the darkest crock pots of our nation. And for the next eight years, a whole bunch of folks sat down at the table and indulged.

Until their bellies overflowed. Until they were enraged. So much so that .

congressional leaders of the opposing party flat-out said theyd lend zero to support his policiesno matter whom they might benefit.

those same lawmakers petulantly refused to consider an Obama Supreme Court nominee during the final days of his presidency even, defying the very Constitution they haughtily claim to defend.

a president was elected whose primary policy seemed to be to simply unObama Americaoh, and enrich himself and already-enriched friends.

his zealots stormed the U.S. Capitol, an act of insurrection none of us has seen, and hopefully will never see again.

our own states leadersAlabama Republicans, lets be clear, led by Gov. Kay Iveyfor years steadfastly and petulantly refused to expand Medicaid, refused to access millions of federal dollars to help provide more Alabamians with health insurance coverage. Coverage that might improve their lives. Coverage that might incentivize them to go to the doctor before theyre gripped by a life-threatening illness.

All because, well, degummed, it was Obamas idea. It was part of Obamacare, the term they tried to derisively deploy to stain the Affordable Care Act, the flawed but what-else-you-got effort to create affordable healthcare options for Americans most in need. (The former president ultimately flipped the deriders and laughingly embraced the term.)

Now, here we are, more than 12 years since 2008, and Im grateful. Grateful that, according to a new poll, most Alabamians have finally come around on expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income adults, mainly working adults whose employers do not provide insurance or who still cannot afford it.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents to the poll from Cover Alabama, a group of 90 organizations that support Medicaid expansion, either strongly or somewhat support it, too. Even a smidge more than half of Alabama Republicans (50.6 percent) support expansion after staunchly railing against it because, frankly, it was part of the ACA.

Some, including Gov. Ivey, guise their opposition as fiscal. Whenever the subject arises, she usually responds with some derivation of, Can we afford it?

We blew our chance at a rare federal freebie and it cost the state millions. When expansion was launched in 2014, the federal government paid 100 percent of the cost for the first three years. We had a winning lottery ticket lost it in the washer.

After the first three years, the feds still paid 90 percent of any increased costs to states. Now, theyre about to pay more. As my colleague Kyle Whitmire pointed out earlier this week, the Democrat-crafted stimulus percolating in the U.S. House includes a provision boosting federal coverage to 95 percent of costs.

The question Gov. Ivey and other holdouts should be asking: Can we not afford it?

Especially now, as Alabamians contend with the disastrous effects of COVID-19. Effects that shined a light on embarrassing, long-ignored racial and socioeconomic disparities. Effects likely to manifest themselves for years, maybe decades, among Alabamians who survived the virus.

Its estimated Medicaid expansion would touch more than 200,000 low-income residents. Individuals earning up to $17,609 and families with incomes of about $30,000 would qualify.

As Donald Trump failingly tried to dismantle Obamacare, six more states approved Medicaid expansion during his presidency, including ruby-red Oklahoma and Missouri.

Now, were one of only 12 states still stubbornly without Medicaid expansion. Aint we proud?

Give up the ghost, Gov. Iveythe Obama ghost. Or risk being haunted by something far more frightening: failing, once again, to help Alabamians struggling to help themselves. Especially so now.

Thats truly nuts.

A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj

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Johnson: Give up the Obama ghost Governor, expand Medicaid now - AL.com

WASHINGTON (AP) The last time Merrick Garland was nominated by the White House for a job, Republicans wouldn't even meet with him.

Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Garland, an appeals court judge, is widely expected to sail through his confirmation process, which begins Monday before the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, with bipartisan support.

Judge Garlands extensive legal experience makes him well-suited to lead the Department of Justice, and I appreciated his commitment to keep politics out of the Justice Department, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement. Unless I hear something new, I expect to support his nomination before the full Senate."

Bidens choice of Garland reflects the presidents goal of restoring the departments reputation as an independent body. During his four years as president, Donald Trump had insisted that the attorney general must be loyal to him personally, a position that battered the departments reputation. Garland's high court nomination by President Barack Obama in 2016 died because the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing.

Garland will inherit a Justice Department that endured a tumultuous time under Trump rife with political drama and controversial decisions and abundant criticism from Democrats over what they saw as the politicizing of the nations top law enforcement agencies.

The departments priorities and messaging are expected to shift drastically in the Biden administration, with a focus more on civil rights issue, criminal justice overhauls and policing policies in the wake of nationwide protests over the death of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement.

Garland plans to tell senators the department must ensure laws are fairly and faithfully enforced and the rights of all Americans are protected, while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect its political independence, with the attorney general acting as a lawyer for the American people, not for the president. The Justice Department on late Saturday released a copy of Garlands opening statement.

Garland will also confront some immediate challenges, including the criminal tax investigation into Bidens son, Hunter, and calls from some Democrats to investigate Trump, especially after thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress was meeting to certify Bidens electoral win. Garland, in his prepared remarks for the Senate committee, calls the insurrection a heinous attack that sought to distrust a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.

A special counsels inquiry started by William Barr, while he was attorney general, into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation also remains open. It will be up to Garland to decide what to make public from that report,

Garland was at the center of a political firestorm five years ago as part of a Republican gamble that eventually shaped the future of the Supreme Court. As Obamas nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died unexpectedly in February of 2016, Garland was a moderate choice and generally well liked by senators.

But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said hours after Scalias death that he would not consider any Obama nominee and that the voters should decide by picking a new president that November. McConnell's entire caucus went along. Many declined even to meet with Garland, even though some privately questioned the gambit.

It was a huge political risk. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was ahead in most polls and could have easily nominated someone more liberal than Garland had she won the White House. But she did not, Trump did and Republicans were elated as they voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch as a justice a year later. The bet later paid off unexpected returns as the Senate remained in Republican hands for the next four years and Trump had the opportunity to nominate two additional conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, reshaping the political balance of the court.

Before the high court drama, Garland had been repeatedly praised by some Republicans as exactly the sort of moderate nominee they could support.

The criticism, such as it was, came from liberals, who had hoped Obama would pick someone more progressive, or diverse, than Garland. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, then seeking the 2016 nomination against Clinton, said he wouldnt have chosen Garland. Liberal activist groups were tepid in their support.

Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., was one of a handful of senators who met with Garland, but didn't budge from his position that a president should not choose a Supreme Court nominee in an election year. Graham reversed course when his party had the chance, ramming through Coney Barrett's nomination in record time during a global pandemic with just weeks to go before the 2020 election, which his party then lost.

Graham said in a tweet that Garland would be a sound choice to lead the Justice Department. He is a man of great character, integrity, and tremendous competency in the law."

Garland is a white man, but two other members of the Justice Department leadership, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, are women with significant experience in civil rights. Their selections appeared designed to blunt any concerns about Biden's choice for attorney general and served as a signal that progressive causes would be prioritized in the new administration.

Garland is an experienced judge who held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, including as a supervisor in the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. But he is set to return to a department that is radically different from the one he left. His experience prosecuting domestic terrorism cases could prove exceptionally handy now.

Garland probably will face pressure from civil rights groups to end the federal death penalty after an unprecedented run of capital punishment during the Trump administration. Thirteen federal executions were carried out in six months, and they became superspreaders during the coronavirus pandemic.

There could be questions, too, about the department's handling of a federal criminal and civil rights investigation examining whether members of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration intentionally manipulated data about nursing home coronavirus deaths.

The new chairman of the Senate committee handling the nomination, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Garland was well deserving of the post.

And in light of his past treatment of the United States Senate, his day before the microphones is long overdue, Durbin said.

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Read more:
Snubbed as Obama high court pick, Garland in line to be AG - FOX5 Las Vegas

Former President Trump's lawyers are arguing now on the Senate floor against the constitutionality of the impeachment trial.

The lawyers who signed on to lead Trump's impeachment defense team bring a curious history of experience. David Schoen, a seasoned civil and criminal lawyer, and Bruce L. Castor, Jr, a well-known lawyer and the former Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, district attorney, are defending him in the trial.

The lawyers, both of whom have legal careers peppered with curiosities, joined Trump's team a day after five members of his defense left, effectively collapsing the team.

Trumps lawyers are tasked with devising a defense strategy for a former President who faces the impeachment charge of inciting a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol, something that if convicted could also result in him being barred from holding federal office ever again.

For Schoen, whose website says he "focuses primarily on the litigation of complex civil and criminal cases before trial and appellate courts," Trump is just the latest controversial figure his career has brought him to in recent years.

Schoen was on the team of lawyers representing Roger Stone, Trump's longtime friend and former adviser, in the appeal of his conviction related to issues Stone took with the jury. Stone dropped that appeal after the then-President commuted his prison sentence, but before Stone received a full presidential pardon for convictions, including lying to Congress to protect Trump.

Schoen, who holds a master of laws from Columbia University and a juris doctorate from Boston College, according to his biography, serves as chair of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Civil Rights Litigation Committee.

Castor, meanwhile, served as Montgomery County district attorney from 2000 to 2008, before serving two terms as the county commissioner, according to a release from Trump's office.

He was involved in at least one high-profile case as district attorney, when he declined in 2005 to prosecute Bill Cosby after Andrea Constand reported the actor had touched her inappropriately at his home in Montgomery County, citing "insufficient credible and admissible evidence."

Cosby was later tried and convicted in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home in 2004, despite the fact that Castor argued during a pre-trial hearing that he'd already committed the state to not prosecuting the actor.

Read more about the lawyers here.

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(2) Trump once suggested impeaching Obama after he was out of office - CNN