Archive for the ‘Obama’ Category

Intimate book of Obama confirmed by former staffer – Starts at 60

An intimate book about former US president Barack Obama is set to be published.

The good news is that it has his full support.

So much so Obama has been confirmed aswriting the foreword for the publication.

The book is by former White House photographer Pete Souza, and is titled Obama: An Intimate Portrait.

The book, to be released in November this year builds on his widely followed Instagram account. If that is any indication the book is sure to have some amazing images and be much sought after for Obama fans.

Read more: White House prank on Obama causes social media meltdown.

Souza has used his account to get a little bit political this week too.

Following reports thatthe basketball team Golden State Warriors had voted not to visit the White House to celebrate their NBA championship, the former White House photographer under the Obama administrationposted thisphoto (below) of Warriors player Steph Curry with former president Barack Obama.

Souza has known Obama for more than a decade, dating back to when Obama was a U.S. senator from Illinois. A previous book of Souza pictures, The Rise of Barack Obama, came out in 2008. Souza also was a White House photographer during Ronald Reagans administration.

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Intimate book of Obama confirmed by former staffer - Starts at 60

Trump admin. delays Obama-era reboot of nutrition label amid industry pressure – Ars Technica

Enlarge / Former First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the new, modernized Nutrition Facts Label at the Building a Healthier Future Summit.

Following pressure from the food and beverage industry, the Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it would indefinitely delay the rollout of new nutrition labels that were designed to help consumers better evaluate the contents and of packaged foods.

Manufacturers originally had more than two years to refresh their labels with the new standards. The deadline for large producers was July 26, 2018, while those making less than $10 million in annual food sales had an additional year. Some companies are smoothly working on the roll-out of their new labels, while others pushed back on lawmakers, saying they needed more time.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), for instance, calledthe FDAs indefinite delay a common-sense decision, citing lack of final details about added sugar and dietary fiber labeling. The fast-approaching compliance deadline was virtually impossible to meet without the needed final guidance documents from FDA, the association said in a statement.

In a March letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price (obtained by advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest),the GMA urged that the deadline be pushed back until 2021.

But, despite GMAs concerns over incomplete guidance, other food makers didnt seem to have any trouble redesigning their labels. Candy maker Mars Inc., for instance, told the AP that it still intends to roll out the new labels this year and be in full compliance by next year. And The Washington Post reports that other early adopters include: Nabisco/Mondelz, which has rolled the labels out on its Wheat Thins crackers; PepsiCo, which has put them on Lays chips, Fritos, and Cheetos; and KIND, which makes granola bars.

Despite this potential business pitfall, Figel said he wasnt surprised by the FDAs delay. Theres just been a lot of pressure to extend the deadline, he said.

The FDAs label delay is just the latest in a series of moves to rollbacknutrition and health policies laid out during the Obama era. In May, the Trump administration announced that it was hitting the brakes on efforts to improve the nutritional quality of school lunches, including reducing sodium and boosting whole grains. Also in May, the FDA delayed the roll out of calorie counts on restaurant menus.

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Trump admin. delays Obama-era reboot of nutrition label amid industry pressure - Ars Technica

Texas woman freed from life sentence by President Obama is back in prison – USA TODAY

Carol Denise Richardson is back in prison.(Photo: Texas Federal Court)

A Texas woman who was freed from a life sentence last year after PresidentObama granted her clemency is behind bars again.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Carol Denise Richardson, 49, was arrested for theft in Pasadena, a Houston suburb, and violated other conditions imposed when she was released from prison.

"This defendant was literally given a second chance to become a productive member of society and has wasted it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Imperato said in a statement released by his office. "She has clearly shown a willful disregard for the law and must face the consequences for her crimes and actions."

Richardson was convicted by a federal jury in June 2006 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of crack cocaine and two counts of possession with intent to distribute the drug, the paper reported. With an extensive criminal background, she was sentenced to life in prison.

After her release in July last year, the Chronicle said, Richardson was ordered to remain under supervision for 10 years, but on April 13 was arrested by Pasadena police.

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In addition to the theft charges, Richardson violated five separate terms of her release including failing to report that she had been arrested, that she'd been terminated from a job for not showing up and that she had changed her address.

Appearing before U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison on Thursday, Richardson was told that shehad wasted a rare opportunity at freedom. Ellisonordered her back to federal prison for 14 months, with five years of supervised release beyond that.

Mark Anthony Diaz, the attorney assigned to Richardson's case, told the paper that his client cried throughout the hearing. He said the theft involved $60 of laundry detergent that she planned to sell to buy drugs

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Texas woman freed from life sentence by President Obama is back in prison - USA TODAY

‘Julius Caesar’ has sparked controversy. But where was corporate outrage when a movie killed President Obama? – Los Angeles Times

June 12, 2017, 4:24 p.m.

On Sunday, Delta Air Lines' and Bank of America's decision to caveto right-wing pressure andpullfunding for the New YorkPublic Theater over a Trumpian production of "Julius Caesar" sparked debate over the role of corporate sponsors in the arts.

"House of Cards" creator and playwrightBeau Willimon tweeted a call to action to boycott the companies."Now I know where not to bank& who not to fly with," he wrote. "Actions like this create a culture of fear. We must support free expression, not punish."

"Freedom of expression," tweeted "The Leftovers" star and Tony-nominated actressCarrie Coon. "Also, try reading the play."

As my former Daily Beast colleague Asawin Suebsaengreminded methis morning,nary a corporate suit batted an eye in 2015 when a Hollywood blockbuster blew the head off of an Obama-esque POTUS in even more spectacular fashion.

I wrotethen of the historic cinematic killing of President Obama in 20th Century Fox's "Kingsman: The Secret Service," the first film to depict the then-POTUS'sdeath onscreen.In it, an Obama lookalike, one of several world leaders in cahoots with Samuel L. Jackson's bad guy Valentine, gets his head blown up in the film's bombastic denouement.

"The White House and Obama-ish president there's no other symbol about a global power than the White House," director Matthew Vaughn said of the depiction months before its release. Later he backpedaled, insisting that the onscreen president bearing an unmistakablyeerie resemblance to Barack Obama was not officially supposed to be Obama.

"First of all, its not Obama," he told Entertainment Weeklyof the Obama doppelganger in "Kingsman." "I just want to be clear. This is not an attack on Obama at all. This is an attack on all politicians, but the easiest way to making the point where people knew that Valentine was in power was to have the White House. We needed someone who was reminiscent of Obama, so that people got the point."

The point of "Kingsman"was much less pointed than fitting Julius Caesar (played by actor Gregg Henry)with a familiar blond coif and a business suit. But, of course, no corporate partners distanced themselvesfrom the film then. Itopened in wide release, grossing$414 million worldwide, and now has a sequel set for release in September.

The TrumpiusCaesar-disapproving Delta Air Lines even extended its partnership with 20th Century Fox post-"Kingsman," launching a big cross-branded campaign for the studio's "Snoopy" movie later that year.

The difference between "Kingsman" and the production of "Julius Caesar"? Pressure from right-wing outlets such asBreitbartand Fox News and tweets from Donald Trump Jr., which led Deltaand then Bank of America to withdrawtheir support of the production.One whichwas not, in fact,financed by the National Endowment forthe Arts as Donald Jr. had asked on social media, the NEA clarified.

Los Angeles Times columnistMichael Hiltzik points out that a similarly contemporary production of "Julius Caesar," Shakespeare's masterwork about perceived tyranny and its consequences, was staged by Minneapolis'Guthrie Theater in 2012 featuring an Obama-esqueprotagonist."Delta, which was a sponsor of the Guthrie though not of this particular production, wasnt heard to object," Hiltzik wrote.(Read more on the Delta debaclehere.)

Perhaps a celebrity-led boycott will budge Delta and BofAinto reconsidering theirde-patronage. We'll find out in Septemberif the"Kingsman: The Golden Circle" sequel will take similar aim at President Trump -- and if any corporate suits care then, too.

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'Julius Caesar' has sparked controversy. But where was corporate outrage when a movie killed President Obama? - Los Angeles Times

Obama granted her clemency. Less than a year later, she’s going back to prison. – Washington Post

Carol Denise Richardson was sentenced to life in prison in 2006. Her crime? Possessing 50 grams or more of cocaine. Prosecutors said she intended to distribute the drugs. But what she had was crack cocaine and, like many in prison, she claimed the chunks of cocaine were to feed her own addiction that she had no intention to share or sell them.

When Barack Obama was president, he agreed with criminal justice reform advocates who argued current laws unjustly treated those found with crack cocaine the same as those caught with more expensive, but less bulky, pure form of powder cocaine. Since prosecution and sentencing standards are based on weight, a handful of rocks of crack could result in much harsher punishment.

Based on this argument, Obama chose to grant clemency to a record number of prisoners who had committed nonviolent drug-related offenses. In 2016, Richardson became one of them. But now, she has been ordered to return to federal prison after violating the terms of her supervised release, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas said Thursday.

"The president has taken great pains in giving positive reinforcement to those he's given clemency," Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Obama, told The Post's Sari Horwitz at a Washington Post event about incarceration and reentry into society. (Washington Post Live)

Richardson, a 49-year-old resident of Texas City, was originally convicted in 2006 for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine as well as two counts of possession with the intent to distribute cocaine base. At the time, U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison sentenced her to life in federal prison, noting that she had an extensive criminal history.

Richardson had already served about a decade of her life sentence when shereceived a reprieve last year,under an agreement that her release would be supervised for 10 years.For Richardson and hundreds of other nonviolent drug offenders granted clemency, the truncated prison sentence was a rare opportunity toreenter society.During his two terms in office, Obama commuted a total of 1,715 prison sentences, more than any other president in history.

Richardsonwas released from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on July 28, 2016.

However, on April 13, less than a year after her release, Richardson was arrested for theft in Pasadena, Tex., a Houston suburb.

[Obama grants final 330 commutations to nonviolent drug offenders]

According to acting U.S. attorney Abe Martinez, Richardson also violated four other terms of her release, including a failure to report any law enforcement contact to her probation officer within 72 hours.

She has also failed to maintain regular contact with the U.S. Probation Office and failed to report that she had been terminated from her employment with Home Health Providers for abandoning her position, Martinez said in a statement. She also failed to report a change in her residence. In fact, as of May 15, 2017, attempts to reach her were unsuccessful, and her whereabouts were unknown.

Richardson was finally located and arrested May 31, Martinez said. In a hearing Thursday, Ellison the same judge who had sentenced Richardson to life in federal prison in 2006 told her he was disappointed that she had wasted the extremely rare opportunity she was given, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Ellison ordered Richardson to return to federal prison for 14 months; afterward, she will be placed on supervised release for five years.

This defendant was literally given a second chance to become a productive member of society and has wasted it, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Imperato said in a statement after the hearing. She has clearly shown a willful disregard for the law and must face the consequences for her crimes and actions.

Mark Anthony Diaz, an attorney for Richardson, did not immediately return messages Saturday morning.Diaz told the Houston Chroniclethat Richardsons theft was for $60 worth of laundry detergent that she was going to sell for drug money and that she cried ather hearing.

Diaz said Richardsons addiction to crack cocaine was why she relapsed and fell out of touch with her support system after her release, and he asked to know why she had not received drug treatment in prison,the Chronicle reported.

The CAN-DO Foundation, a nonprofit group that advocates for clemency for nonviolent drug offenders including that of Richardson while she was imprisoned echoed those concerns.

[Sessions weighs return to harsher punishments for low-level drug crimes]

We are very concerned to hear that Carol Richardson has been sent back to prison for various probation violations that appear to stem from her drug addiction that has gone untreated, the group said in a statement. The system has failed Carol, yet again. It will be easy for some to point a finger at Carol and justify their support of harsh mandatory sentences as a necessity to keep people locked up, when we feel Carols current situation is proof that we desperately need to overhaul our current drug policy that treats addiction as a criminal issue, rather than a medical issue.

While in prison, Richardson had been in contact with CAN-DO to make a case for her clemency. She detailed the circumstances that led to her life sentence, and said she hadadmitted herself into rehab in March 2005 and was getting treatment when she was indicted.

I was a drug user and do not consider myself a drug dealer because I never profited from the sell of drugs, Richardson wrote in a letter to the group. I was convicted on testimony alone no proof.

She also noted that, among her four male co-defendants, including her husband, she received the harshest sentence for being present at two drug buys, despite never receiving money.

CAN-DO supported and prioritized Richardsons case, placing her on itslist of Top 25 Women seeking clemency, because the group felt she had been tossed into the indictment, not because they profited from the drug trade, but because they were feeding a habit or in a relationship with a man involved in the drug trade.

Often, when the major dealers are arrested, they are offered sentence reductions if they will provide substantial assistance and provide more names that can be added to the indictment, the group says on its website. Often, that will include anyone associated even slightly to the drug activity, including women who may have been a courier in exchange for drugs, or given very little money to feed their habit.

Tragically, Carol fell into this category.

[In Trumps ruthless vow, experts see a return to the days of the drug war]

Amy Povah, the founder of CAN-DO, told The Washington Post that, unlike some others the group has worked with, Richardson fell out of touch after she was released from prison.

Most people do, Povah said. Carolwas a little more introverted.

She said the group does not keep statistics on the recidivism rate of those who had been granted clemency beyond trying to keep in touch with former prisoners but said that Richardsons case was extremely rare. Povah said she had only known of one other person, Robert M. Gill of San Antonio, who had been returned to prison after being granted a second chance under Obama.

Earlier this year, Gill was arrested after being caught with cocaine and trying to flee from officers, according to the San Antonio Express News. Povah told The Post she felt Gills case was more alarming whereas it seems (Carol Richardsons) behavior and lack of success is related to probation violations, many of which stem from her addiction.

According to Povah, Richardson had always been forthcoming about her drug addiction, but was never able to take a 500-hour drug program in prison. She also likely had little assistance with medical issues, Povah said.

Like Carol, most people who get life sentences, upon release literally have NO FUNDS, no home, no fruits from the drug trade that the feds wants the public to believe they were profiting from, Povah wrote in an email. Carol is a self admitted drug addict who used daily, and tried to get help but never completed the program due to her addiction. The actual drug dealers in her casecut deals and are were back on the street in a few short years so why are we hyper focused on Carols recidivism[?] Hopefully, her case can be used to understand what is wrong with our current drug war policy from start to finish.

Norman Brown, of Hyattsville, Md., was granted clemency by former President Barack Obama in July 2015. In 1993 at age 22, Brown was sentenced to life in prison for cocaine distribution. (The Obama White House)

Read more:

Beyond Orange is the New Black: The storied past of Alderson federal womens prison

How Jeff Sessions wants to bring back the war on drugs

Report: Black women are working hard but our country is not working for them

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Obama granted her clemency. Less than a year later, she's going back to prison. - Washington Post