Complain to USDA, says head of Black farmers' group after more members voice concerns
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — More members of an advocacy group for Black farmers have turned to WREG saying they're fed up with the very organization that's supposed to be fighting on their behalf.
So, NewsChannel 3 took those latest complaints to the man in charge.'USDA is the culprit here, not BFAA,' exclaimed Thomas Burrell.
WREG investigates more complaints against Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
That was the message to members, at least to those who turned to WREG with their complaints about the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association. Burrell is the founder and president of the organization.
WREG asked Burrell for a response to the numerous, additional complaints we've received from members.
Burrell responded, 'Well, the question is, what are they complaining about, ma'am?'
A more than six month long WREG investigation uncovered several complaints taken to state and federal regulators about BFAA.
Members demand answers from Black farmers advocacy group
Some members said they paid dues and were promised settlement money in return.Others members received denial letters from the USDA for its $2 billion Discrimination Financial Assistance Program because their applications were filed after the deadline, submitted by individuals they said were working with BFAA.
'If they're complaining about DFAP, you know what they ought to do, join us, because that's what we're doing,' Burrell told WREG.
The WREG Investigators further explained to Burrell details about complaints we'd received: 'The complaint is not about the application about DFAP, the complaint is about BFAA and you misleading them regarding DFAP.'
He responded, 'How much misleading is there? Are you gonna say that the surgeon general misleads people about smoking when he puts a warning on the back of a box of cigarettes.'
Surrounded by members, Burrell hosted a press conference on February 5, exactly one week after the WREG Investigators aired its series of stories.
Our newsroom has been flooded with phone calls and emails from even more BFAA members with complaints and questions, like Dortha Miller who says she just recently learned the application window for DFAP closed last year.
'So that really made me wonder why they still going around taking people's moneyand no one taking the applications anymore. The applications it cut off in January of 2024,and they took my money of September 2024,' said Miller.
'The money is gone. The program is not being re-extended yet and still, Mr. Burrell is convincing folks that they have a chance,' said Kiki Singletary-Williams.
WREG investigates more complaints against Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
We recently shared the story of Singletary-Williams and her relatives, some who've belonged to BFAA members for two decades.
'You promised all of us $50,000, Mr. Burrell. Where is it? Some of my relatives are on up in age, they've been dependent on this,' said Singletary-Williams to WREG.
After suing the USDA to expand DFAP to include heir, BFAA's attorney recently presented their case to an appeals court. Burrell also used his time at the podium during the press conference to explain his push to get President Trump involved.
He told WREG, 'We're going to engage in a full, all out effort.'
The WREG Investigators asked Singletary-Williams, 'Are you confident that BFAA could get a response from the Trump administration that would be beneficial to its members?'
She replied, 'I'm confident on a scale of 1 to a million, zero.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump officials are vowing to end school desegregation orders. Some parents say they're still needed
FERRIDAY, La. (AP) — Even at a glance, the differences are obvious. The walls of Ferriday High School are old and worn, surrounded by barbed wire. Just a few miles away, Vidalia High School is clean and bright, with a new library and a crisp blue 'V' painted on orange brick. Ferriday High is 90% Black. Vidalia High is 62% white. For Black families, the contrast between the schools suggests 'we're not supposed to have the finer things,' said Brian Davis, a father in Ferriday. 'It's almost like our kids don't deserve it,' he said. The schools are part of Concordia Parish, which was ordered to desegregate 60 years ago and remains under a court-ordered plan to this day. Yet there's growing momentum to release the district — and dozens of others — from decades-old orders that some call obsolete. In a remarkable reversal, the Justice Department said it plans to start unwinding court-ordered desegregation plans dating to the Civil Rights Movement. Officials started in April, when they lifted a 1960s order in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish. Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department's civil rights division, has said others will 'bite the dust.' It comes amid pressure from Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and his attorney general, who have called for all the state's remaining orders to be lifted. They describe the orders as burdens on districts and relics of a time when Black students were still forbidden from some schools. The orders were always meant to be temporary — school systems can be released if they demonstrate they fully eradicated segregation. Decades later, that goal remains elusive, with stark racial imbalances persisting in many districts. Civil rights groups say the orders are important to keep as tools to address the legacy of forced segregation — including disparities in student discipline, academic programs and teacher hiring. They point to cases like Concordia, where the decades-old order was used to stop a charter school from favoring white students in admissions. 'Concordia is one where it's old, but a lot is happening there,' said Deuel Ross, deputy director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 'That's true for a lot of these cases. They're not just sitting silently.' Debates over integration are far from settled Last year, before President Donald Trump took office, Concordia Parish rejected a Justice Department plan that would have ended its case if the district combined several majority white and majority Black elementary and middle schools. At a town hall meeting, Vidalia residents vigorously opposed the plan, saying it would disrupt students' lives and expose their children to drugs and violence. An official from the Louisiana attorney general's office spoke against the proposal and said the Trump administration likely would change course on older orders. Accepting the plan would have been a 'death sentence' for the district, said Paul Nelson, a former Concordia superintendent. White families would have fled to private schools or other districts, said Nelson, who wants the court order removed. 'It's time to move on,' said Nelson, who left the district in 2016. 'Let's start looking to build for the future, not looking back to what our grandparents may have gone through.' At Ferriday High, athletic coach Derrick Davis supported combining schools in Ferriday and Vidalia. He said the district's disparities come into focus whenever his teams visit schools with newer sports facilities. 'It seems to me, if we'd all combine, we can all get what we need,' he said. Others oppose merging schools if it's done solely for the sake of achieving racial balance. 'Redistricting and going to different places they're not used to ... it would be a culture shock to some people," said Ferriday's school resource officer, Marcus Martin, who like Derrick Davis is Black. Federal orders offer leverage for racial discrimination cases Concordia is among more than 120 districts across the South that remain under desegregation orders from the 1960s and '70s, including about a dozen in Louisiana. Calling the orders historical relics is 'unequivocally false,' said Shaheena Simons, who until April led the Justice Department section that oversees school desegregation cases. 'Segregation and inequality persist in our schools, and they persist in districts that are still under desegregation orders,' she said. With court orders in place, families facing discrimination can reach out directly to the Justice Department or seek relief from the court. Otherwise, the only recourse is a lawsuit, which many families can't afford, Simons said. In Concordia, the order played into a battle over a charter school that opened in 2013 on the former campus of an all-white private school. To protect the area's progress on racial integration, a judge ordered Delta Charter School to build a student body that reflected the district's racial demographics. But in its first year, the school was just 15% Black. After a court challenge, Delta was ordered to give priority to Black students. Today, about 40% of its students are Black. Desegregation orders have been invoked recently in other cases around the state. One led to an order to address disproportionately high rates of discipline for Black students, and in another a predominantly Black elementary school was relocated from a site close to a chemical plant. The Justice Department could easily end some desegregation orders The Trump administration was able to close the Plaquemines case with little resistance because the original plaintiffs are no longer involved — the Justice Department was litigating the case alone. Concordia and an unknown number of other districts are in the same situation, making them vulnerable to quick dismissals. Concordia's case dates to 1965, when the area was strictly segregated and home to a violent offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan. When Black families in Ferriday sued for access to all-white schools, the federal government intervened. As the district integrated its schools, white families fled Ferriday. The district's schools came to reflect the demographics of their surrounding areas. Ferriday is mostly Black and low-income, while Vidalia is mostly white and takes in tax revenue from a hydroelectric plant. A third town in the district, Monterey, has a high school that's 95% white. At the December town hall, Vidalia resident Ronnie Blackwell said the area 'feels like a Mayberry, which is great,' referring to the fictional Southern town from 'The Andy Griffith Show.' The federal government, he said, has 'probably destroyed more communities and school systems than it ever helped.' Under its court order, Concordia must allow students in majority Black schools to transfer to majority white schools. It also files reports on teacher demographics and student discipline. After failing to negotiate a resolution with the Justice Department, Concordia is scheduled to make its case that the judge should dismiss the order, according to court documents. Meanwhile, amid a wave of resignations in the federal government, all but two of the Justice Department lawyers assigned to the case have left. Without court supervision, Brian Davis sees little hope for improvement. 'A lot of parents over here in Ferriday, they're stuck here because here they don't have the resources to move their kids from A to B," he said. 'You'll find schools like Ferriday — the term is, to me, slipping into darkness."
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Opinion - Scott Jennings is correct about Wes Moore
Whatever CNN is paying Scott Jennings, it's not enough. His pragmatic, common-sense commentary offering realistic solutions to problems plaguing everyday Americans has become the glue holding the network's evening programming in place. Night after night, Jennings does rhetorical battle with far-left panelists who continually offer up the same two failing lines of attack: They hate Trump, and they believe everything should be viewed and addressed through the prism of identity politics. Surely, the executives at CNN understand that it was precisely those attack lines that enabled Trump to make substantial gains within the Hispanic community, the Black community, young men, independents and even a percentage of Democrats. All these voters switched to Trump because they knew that 'we hate Trump' and 'identity politics' were calculated rants and not a strategy to help keep them safe, lower the cost of essential items, protect their jobs, improve their health care or address the problem of failing public schools. Each evening on CNN, Jennings throws those bread-and-butter issues back at the liberal panelists — and they either sputter to come up with an answer or double down on the attack lines in allegiance to the vocal yet tiny minority making up the far-left wing of the Democratic Party. The next day, various conservative websites then sing the praises of Jennings for sticking it to the Democrats. Except … that is not what he does. Jennings is an honest broker who simply tries to call them as he sees them. His foundation is commonsense and logical, based on his real-world experiences. That acknowledged, Jennings offered up a valid opinion the other night that some Republicans and conservatives undoubtedly wish he had kept to himself — that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) should be taken seriously as we approach 2028. This past Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Jennings made two statements that got immediate attention. The first: 'I'll defend the Democrats — they are for things. Illegal aliens, you're for boys in girls' sports. That's why you have such struggles right now in your party, because you're not for anything that's on the right side of any of the 80/20 issues that are driving this cultural divide in America.' Jennings's next opinion, about Maryland's Democratic governor, was also worth noting and filing away: 'I think Wes Moore is actually a pretty talented communicator. Moore is interesting, probably more interesting than some of the radicals you have out there, [Jasmine] Crockett, AOC. I mean those are the true leaders of your party right now, but you'd probably be better off replacing them with Moore.' Seconding the problems Democrats are having with voters because of their current 'leaders' and do-nothing policies is Harry Enten, CNN's chief data analyst. During an interview last week, Engen dropped two bombs. The first: 'Take a look at Reuters-IPSOS. What do we see here? Party with a better economic plan. Well in May of 2024, just before Donald Trump was reelected president, Republicans had a nine-point advantage. Look at where we are now in May of 2025. The advantage actually went up by three points. Now Republicans have a 12-point advantage when it comes to the party with a better economic plan.' Next came crushing bad news for Democrats with regard to middle- and working-class Americans. Reported Enten: 'Historically speaking, which is the party of the middle class has been a huge advantage for Democrats. I have polling from NBC going all the way back since 1989, when Democrats held a 23-point advantage. … And now in our latest CNN poll, among registered voters, which is the party of the middle class, it is tied. … Trump and the Republican Party have taken that mantle away. And now a key advantage for Democrats historically has gone. Adios amigos.' And then, on Sam Harris's 'Making Sense' podcast this week, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) — the first openly gay person elected from the Bronx, who has long been a voice for common sense, the working class and the disenfranchised — said this: 'There is a divide between what I would say are two teams in the Democratic Party. 'Team Restraint' and 'Team Resistance.' There are those in Team 'Resistance' who feel like we should react hysterically to everything Donald Trump says or does. And then those who feel like we should pick and choose our battles and be strategic. But I worry that the momentum is on the side of hysterical, hyperbolic resistance.' Obviously, as with the nightly warnings issued by Jennings, Torres is talking about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and others when he speaks of 'hysterical, hyperbolic resistance.' Questions for the Democrats: Is Torres correct? Has the momentum switched to the 'hysterical' and 'hyperbolic'? Is there no appetite in the Democratic Party for commonsense voices like Torres and Moore, who offer up strategies instead of insults? Or is the appetite there and growing, but the party is too afraid to confront its own bullies? No doubt CNN's Jennings will answer those questions and many more as we approach the midterms and the 2028 election. Ignore his opinions and truths at your own political peril. Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
12 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Former DC police officer sentenced to 18 months for lying about leaking info to Proud Boys leader
WASHINGTON — A retired police officer was sentenced Friday to 18 months behind bars for lying to authorities about leaking confidential information to the Proud Boys extremist group's former top leader, who was under investigation for burning a Black Lives Matter banner in the nation's capital. Shane Lamond was a lieutenant for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., when he fed information about its banner burning investigation to then-Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio. Last December, after a trial without a jury, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson convicted Lamond of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements. Tarrio attended Lamond's sentencing and later called for President Trump to pardon Lamond. 'I ask that the Justice Department and the president of the United States step in and correct the injustice that I just witnessed inside this courtroom,' Tarrio said outside the courthouse after the sentencing. Prosecutors had recommended a four-year prison sentence for Lamond. 'Because Lamond knew what he did was wrong, he lied to cover it up — not just to the Federal Agents who questioned his actions, but to this Court,' they wrote. 'This is an egregious obstruction of justice and a betrayal of the work of his colleagues at MPD.' Lamond's lawyers argued that a prison sentence wasn't warranted. 'Mr. Lamond gained nothing from his communications with Mr. Tarrio and only sought, albeit in a sloppy and ineffective way, to gain information and intelligence that would help stop the violent protesters coming to D.C. in late 2020, early 2021,' they wrote. Tarrio pleaded guilty to burning the banner stolen from a historic Black church in downtown Washington in December 2020. He was arrested two days before dozens of Proud Boys members stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tarrio wasn't at the Capitol that day, but a jury convicted him of orchestrating a violent plot to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election. Lamond testified at his bench trial that he never provided Tarrio with sensitive police information. Tarrio, who testified as a witness for Lamond's defense, said he did not confess to Lamond about burning the banner and did not receive any confidential information from him. But the judge said she did not find either man's testimony to be credible. Lamond retired in May 2023 after 23 years of service to the police department. Prior to that he had supervised the intelligence branch of the police department's Homeland Security Bureau. He was responsible for monitoring groups like the Proud Boys when they came to Washington. Prosecutors said Lamond tipped off Tarrio, whom he had met in 2019, that a warrant for his arrest had been signed. They pointed to messages that suggest Lamond provided Tarrio with real-time updates on the police investigation. Lamond's indictment said he and Tarrio exchanged messages about the Jan. 6 riot and discussed whether Proud Boys members were in danger of being charged in the attack. 'Of course I can't say it officially, but personally I support you all and don't want to see your group's name and reputation dragged through the mud,' Lamond wrote. Lamond said he was upset that a prosecutor labeled him as a Proud Boys 'sympathizer' who acted as a 'double agent' for the group after Tarrio burned a stolen Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020. 'I don't support the Proud Boys, and I'm not a Proud Boys sympathizer,' Lamond testified. Lamond said he considered Tarrio to be a source, not a friend. But he said he tried to build a friendly rapport with the group leader to gain his trust. Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.
