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CHICAGO Former President of the United States Barack Obama will close the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Virtual) Closing Session. He will appear noon 1 p.m. CT, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in conversation with Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian and first African American appointed to the role. They will be introduced by Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., president of the American Library Association.

Obama will discuss A Promised Land, the stirring first volume of his presidential memoirs that was released in November 2020 by Crown, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House. In it, Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidencya time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Few presidents have walked a more improbable path to the White House. Born in Hawaii to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya,Barack Obamawas raised with help from his grandparents, whose generosity of spirit reflected their Midwestern roots.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants. That experience honed his belief in the power of uniting ordinary people around a politics of purpose and in the hard work of citizenship to bring about positive change. In law school, he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He then returned to Illinois to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago and begin a career in public service, winning seats in the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate.

On Nov. 4, 2008, Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States, winning more votes than any candidate in history. He took office at a moment of crisis unlike any America had seen in decades a nation at war, a planet in peril, the American Dream itself threatened by the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. And yet, despite all manner of political obstruction, Obamas leadership helped rescue the economy, revitalize the American auto industry, reform the health care system to cover another 20 million Americans, and put the country on a firm course to a clean energy future all while overseeing the longest stretch of job creation in American history. On the world stage, Obamas belief in Americas indispensable leadership and strong, principled diplomacy helped wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, decimate al-Qaeda and eliminate the worlds most wanted terrorists, shut down Irans nuclear weapons program, open a new chapter with the people of Cuba, and unite humanity in coordinated action to combat a changing climate.

In times of great challenge and change, President Obamas leadership ushered in a stronger economy, a more equal society, a nation more secure at home and more respected around the world. The Obama years were ones in which more people not only began to see themselves in the changing face of America, but to see America the way he always has as the only place on Earth where so many of our stories could even be possible.

Obama and his wife, Former First Lady Michelle Obama, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

As secretary of the Smithsonian, Bunch oversees 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers. Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is the first historian appointed to the role.

Registrationfor the conference is open. Media interested in registering for the session may contact Macey Morales, deputy director, ALA Communications and Marketing Office at mmorales@ala.org.

ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition attendees will have access to more than 200 educational sessions in the areas of Library Services, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Leadership, Teaching & Learning, Technology, Library Workplace, and more. Additionally, many of the News You Can Use series; interactive Discussion Groups; and President and Chair Programs provide an excellent opportunity for attendees to share thoughts amongst their peers.

The conference launches on Wednesday, June 23 with a full day dedicated to The Library Marketplace, showcasing as many as 300 exhibitors offering innovative resources for libraries; 11 presentation stages that will highlight notable and genre-specific keynotes; publisher-led spotlight sessions on new book titles; networking opportunities, giveaways, and more.

Get updates from the 2021 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Virtual) websitealaannual.organd follow the hashtag#alaac21 and social media:Instagram,ALA Twitter, andALA Facebook.

About the American Library AssociationThe American Library Association (ALA)is the foremost national organization providing resources to inspire library and information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more than 140 years, the ALA has been the trusted voice for academic, public, school, government and special libraries, advocating for the profession and the librarys role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all. For more information, visitala.org.

About Penguin Random HouseCrown is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, the worlds largest trade book publisher, is dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. The company, which employs 10,000 people globally, was formed on July 1, 2013, by Bertelsmann and Pearson. As of April 1, 2020, Bertelsmann is full owner of the company. With more than 300 imprints and brands on six continents, Penguin Random House comprises adult and childrens fiction and nonfiction print and digital English- and Spanish-language trade book publishing businesses in more than 20 countries worldwide. With 15,000 new titles, and 600 million print, audio and eBooks sold annually, Penguin Random Houses publishing lists include more than 80 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the worlds most widely read authors.

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Former President of the United States Barack Obama will headline ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (Virtual) Closing Session - ala.org

Former President Barack Obama talked with members of The Economic Club of Chicago, in anticipation of the groundbreaking of the Obama Presidential Center on the city's South Side. AP Domestic

CHICAGO After years of pushback by park preservationists and community groups concerned about displacement, the Obama Presidential Center is expected to break ground this fall,and the former president visited with residents ofthe area this week.

"Traditionally I think presidential libraries can be a little backward-looking ... kind of a mausoleum in the sense that not much is happening," Barack Obama said Friday at a virtual event hosted by the Economic Club of Chicago. "Our thought was, well, lets create an institution that is alive and vibrant and is bringing people together."

The $500 million center, designed by architects Todd Williams and Billie Tsien, is expected to be located in Jackson Park on the city's South Side. The center is expected to consist of a museum, forum, public library, plaza, playground and pedestrian and bicycle paths. The Obama Foundation said it hopes the center brings 700,000 people to the South Side every year.

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Former President Barack Obama speaks at a community event on the Presidential Center at the South Shore Cultural Center, Wednesday, May 3, 2017, in Chicago.(Photo: Nam Y. Huh, AP)

The site will be located near where Barack and Michelle Obama first met, settled down and had their daughters. The location is near the University of Chicago Law School, where Obama taught constitutional law. It's also a few miles from where Michelle grew up and several miles from where Obama worked as a community organizer. Obama represented the area in the Illinois Senate from 1997 until 2004.

This week, Obama met with local business owners in surrounding neighborhoodsand made a surprise visit to ayouth football team practice.People who live within a two-mile radius of thesite are predominantly low-income, according to a 2017 report from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and many live in historically disinvested communites.

"Unfortunately, there are communities that have experienced extraordinary trouble and difficulty for decades," Obama said. "Its one of the reasons I think the Obama Presidential Center can be a powerful engine. It gives us an opportunity to locate in a community and have a presence that signifies this is an important part of our city."

Then-Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Barack Obama leaves with his wife Michelle, daughters Sasha, front left, and Malia after voting at Catholic Theological union polling place in Chicago on Nov. 2, 2004.(Photo: NAM Y HUH, AP)

The Foundation announced the location of the center in 2016, but the project was delayed by a lengthy federal review process required because the center's location, Jackson Park, is included in the National Register of Historic Places. The park was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and remodeled for the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition.

The National Park Service and Federal Highway Administration concluded their four-year review in February, andChicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said physical construction would begin as early as August.

Several local groups, including park preservationists and a coalition of community organizations,have raised concerns about the projectfor years.

Park preservationists have warned about the effects on the historic parkland and have proposed an alternative location for the center. In 2018, a groupled by the nonprofit Protect Our Parkssued the city and the Park District.

"This is a 150-year-old work of art, and it is regarded widely as one of the most magnificent landscaped parks in America," said plaintiff Tom Mitchell, a professorat the University of Chicago who teaches a course on the history of landscape. "Its going to be a very, very ugly moment when the bulldozers arrive and people see these century-old trees carted away."

A photo of Jackson Park in Chicago in May, 2015.(Photo: Paul Beaty, AP)

In 2020, an appelete court whereJustice Amy Coney Barrett sat at the time said the suitlacked standing. Last year, the group asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the appellate court decision, but the high court denied the petition in April. Barrett was not involved in the consideration, according to the court.

Michael Rachlis, who is part of the Protect Our Parks legal team, said the group planned to filea preliminary injuction motion before the court this month to request work on the center be stayed.

"If youre going to try to seize a huge portion of a public park, you should have a very good reason, and there should be no feasible alternatives," Mitchell said. "In this case, there are feasible and superior alternatives."

Valerie Jarrett, president of the Foundation, acknowledged the expected legal action at the virtual event Friday.

"We expect the same small group will sue us again going forward and try to get a restraining order," she said. "But we are very confident we're on solid legal footing."

The decision to build Barack Obama's presidential library in Chicago's lakefront Jackson Park rather than a nearby impoverished neighborhood has left some residents worried the museum will deliver less of a boost to the South Side. Some say Washington Park, a mile to the west, has greater needs because of poverty and population decline, and the location decision is a missed opportunity to spur development there.(Photo: E. Jason Wambsgans, AP)

Meanwhile, acollection of community organizations under the banner of theObama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition has also voiced concern that longtime residents of the areas surrounding the site are at risk of beingpriced out of their neighborhoods.

"The reason the center is coming to the South Side is because these are the people who elected Barack Obama. These people shouldnt be punished for that. They should be able to benefit from whats going on," said Dixon Romeo, a member of the coaliton and resident of the South Shore neighborhood, where Michelle Obama grew up.

Area residents arepredominantly renters, according to the 2017 report.Nearly half of renters have annual incomes less than $20,000, eviction rates are some of the highest in the city, and rentis rising in newly renovated and new construction units, which the majority of current renters cannot afford, according to the report.

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The coalition launched a years-long campaign demanding a community benefits agreement to protect residents from displacement, and the city and Foundation have since made a series of promises to address the coalition's concerns.

In September, the city adopted an ordinancefor the Woodlawn neighborhood mandating affordability requirements on all rental and for-sale housing developed on city-owned residential land and appropriating about $4.5 million and leveraginganother $5 million in loan funds to help rehabilitate existing affordable housing.

The ordinance also created a "Right of First Refusal Pilot Program" in the neighborhood that would require an owner of a building with 10 or more units to give tenants an exclusive opportunity to make an offer on the property prior to its sale.

However, several other neighborhoods in the area such as Grand Crossing, South Shore and Hyde Park have not received similar provisions.

"It (the ordinance) isnot enough for Woodlawn, but its better than what every other neighborhood got because we all got nothing," Romeo said. "Were already starting to see the effects and the signs of displacement."

For its part, the Foundation committed to awarding 50% of the subcontracting packages for the center to minority-, women-, or veteran-owned businesses, with 35% of workers living on the South and West Sides. In March, the Foundation created a "We Can Build It Consortium" to get more local residents involved in the building trades and committed $850,000 to train 400 new apprentices from the South and West Sides.

The Foundation also donated up to $3.5 million to the citytocover the cost of construction of the multi-purpose artificial turf field nearby.

"This could mean a transformation of the community, and that transformation is either going to mean equitable development or displacement," Romeo said.

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Obama Presidential Center expected to break ground this fall after years of opposition, concern - USA TODAY

This is 2009 and health care all over again, said Adam Jentleson, who was an aide to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader that year.

But efforts to find a bipartisan path forward continue to flounder.

Partisan politics are worse now than back in the days of the A.C.A., Mr. Baucus said this week, and they were plenty partisan then.

The template for todays infrastructure stalemate was set in 2009. Then as now, a small group of senators, Democratic and Republican, were empowered to seek a deal.

It was going to be done in a bipartisan way, with a goal of doing like you do other social programs in the United States, like civil rights and Medicare and Medicaid they all pass with wide bipartisan majorities, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who was then the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said in a 2014 interview.

Then as now, if no compromise could be reached, Democrats needed every single senator in their party to push through a bill. That meant holding all 60 together in 2009 to beat a Republican filibuster; today, Democrats need all 50 of their members to use a budget maneuver called reconciliation to steer clear of a filibuster and pass legislation with a simple majority.

The reality was there were moderate Democrats who were very uneasy about doing health care, period, and certainly about doing it in a partisan way, Mr. Selib said this week. The only way to go 60-for-60 was to show Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh that we were going to do everything to make it bipartisan, that we were not going to leave anything on the field.

Mr. Nelson, a conservative Nebraskan, and Ms. Lincoln, an embattled Arkansan, are long gone, but today, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona need the same assuaging.

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Infrastructure Talks Recall Heated Debate Over Obama Healthcare - The New York Times

Celebrities are paying their respects to Breonna Taylor on what wouldve been her 28th birthday.

On March 13, 2020, the 26-year-old African American woman died after undercover Louisville police officers burst into her home, where she lay asleep with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, and opened fire, striking Taylor five times. The officers Myles Cosgrove, Brett Hankison and Jonathan Mattingly have not been charged in Taylors death.

Taylors killing, in addition to that of George Floyd two months later, sparked protests worldwide calling for an end to police brutality and systemic racism. Taylor became a symbol of Americas failure to protect Black women.

On Saturday, June 5, public figures used Taylors birthday as an opportunity to not only honor the young womans memory but reaffirm their commitment to lasting change.

Beyonc wished Taylor a happy heavenly birthday on her official website, which the popular fan account @BeyLegion then tweeted on Queen Bs behalf. She also included an adorable photo of Taylor as a baby.

Sharing the artwork Amy Sherald created for Vanity Fair last August, former FLOTUS Michelle Obama wrote, Thinking of you today, Breonna.

Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis also wished Breonna a happy birthday, promising that, We will never forget. We will always keep fighting.

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., retweeted one of Taylors own celebratory tweets from her 25th birthday, or rather Bre Day, in 2018.

Tennis legend Billie Jean Kings birthday wishes included a solemn reminder, Breonna was an EMT and a first responder. She was killed in March 2020 by Louisville police who broke into her home looking for someone else. To date, the officers have not been charged.

Rosanna Arquette tweeted about how the tragedy of Taylors death was preventable. We want to be celebrating peoples birthday and graduations while they are alive and thriving not because they were killed by gun violence. Today is Breonna Taylors birthday who was killed in her own home by police officers. Rest in power Breonna.

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Beyonc, Michelle Obama and More Remember Breonna Taylor on Her Heavenly Birthday - TheWrap

WASHINGTON Democrats have seen this movie before.

A Democratic president engages in protracted negotiations with Republicans over his top legislative priority. The GOP wants more time. The president gives it to them, holding on to hope he can ink a historic bipartisan deal.

Democratic veterans of the 2009 fight over the Affordable Care Act say it's dj vu watching President Joe Biden hold another meeting Wednesday with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the GOPs point person on infrastructure. And in their experience, it doesn't end well.

Democratic operatives insist that Republicans, led then and now by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, are stringing Biden along as they did then-President Barack Obama.

Jim Messina, Obamas deputy chief of staff from 2009 to 2011, is urging Biden not to make that mistake again, saying that stretching out talks could blow back on Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections.

When you look back on my ACA days, it shouldve been apparent to us at the time. We waited too long, Messina said.

The White House is working to allay the fears within their party of a repeat of 2009 with infrastructure.

Literally every time we have a conversation about bipartisanship, there's someone in the White House saying they've all learned the lessons of the ACA, said a senior House progressive aide, who requested anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

The White House called Wednesday's meeting constructive and frank and said the two sides agreed to reconnect on Friday. The most recent offers found the two sides to be roughly $1.4 trillion apart and unable to agree on a definition of infrastructure. Biden continues to bank on the popularity of his proposals to persuade Republicans.

The 2009 health care effort also began as broadly popular, but as negotiations continued for months, the politics changed and the bill suffered a near-death experience when Democrats lost a Senate seat. By the time Obama signed it in March 2010, the public had turned against it and every Republican in Congress voted against it. The GOP made the law into a rallying cry it in the midterm election, picking up 63 House seats.

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Messina said he sees parallels between those talks and Bidens infrastructure push.

The biggest thing is that they keep asking for more time. And theyre just running the clock, he said of Republicans. If youre McConnell hes going to talk for as long as we want to talk, because hes just trying to be an obstructionist.

Messina argues Democrats should at least begin the process of bypassing Republicans as talks continue like they did on the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 bill.

Image: Brent Spence Bridge (Jeff Dean / AFP - Getty Images file)

Abandoning bipartisan efforts would require the support of all 50 Democratic senators. And Messina's warning about 2009 on repeat is more targeted at the centrists in his party who have called for GOP outreach, most notably Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Just like Obama in 2009, Biden is playing a tough hand, said Dan Pfeiffer, a former top adviser to Obama. Biden can't move forward on a partisan vote until Manchin is OK with it, just as Obama was stymied by (former Democratic Sen.) Max Baucus' insistence on moving a bipartisan bill through the committee.

It's painful because time is a nonrenewable resource, Pfeiffer said, adding that there are no easy outs until Manchin and Sinema see the world as it is.

Democrats are trying to convince the holdouts that McConnell isn't serious about talks by pointing to his recent remarks that 100 percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration. McConnell later qualified the comment and said his opposition depends on what the administration is proposing.

Pfeiffer believes the bipartisan talks are a fool's errand.

The idea of 10 Republicans voting for something significant is farcical, he said.

McConnell has called for continuing the negotiations.

Last week, Republican negotiators made a counteroffer that included $257 billion in new spending, a far cry from the $1.7 trillion Biden requested. The offer was designed by six Republicans, including two McConnell deputies.

But hours later in an appearance on CNBC, the Kentucky Republican said that it wasn't the final offer, and that were going to keep talking.

The top GOP negotiator has been more optimistic.

Sen. Capito reiterated to the president her desire to work together to reach an infrastructure agreement that can pass Congress in a bipartisan way. She also stressed the progress that the Senate has already made, Kelley Moore, a spokeswoman for Capito, said. Sen. Capito is encouraged that negotiations have continued.

Getting 60 Senate votes to advance any agreement would probably require McConnell's sign-off.

Ben Nelson, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska and a moderate who was a key player in the 2009 ACA debate, said Biden should not trust McConnell to negotiate a deal.

Itll be a purely political calculation on his part, Nelson, who is now working as a lawyer, said in an interview. I dont expect McConnell to be there in the end.

What will dictate that, Nelson said of McConnells calculus, is less good public policy but mostly whats the best move in a partisan way to thwart the presidents efforts to get infrastructure legislation passed.

Nelson said Democrats could peel away 10 Republican senators to break a filibuster on a modest infrastructure package, as long as they can agree on a price tag to craft a bill around. But, he said, that would probably need to be done without McConnell.

Charlie Ellsworth, who worked on health care as Nelson's legislative aide in 2009, said McConnell and his party are taking a very similar approach to the infrastructure debate, by dropping bread crumbs along the way to keep Democrats' attention and try to run out the clock.

Every day that we're participating in these so-called negotiations is a day we're not legislating and getting a bill done to help working families and solve climate change, he said.

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Wary Democrats watching Biden's negotiations ask: Remember what happened to Obama in 2009? - Yahoo News