By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Screenshot of video on NAACP Facebook page at sit-in in Rep. Sessions’ office in Mobile, Alabama

January 3, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – Over 1,100 law professors from across the nation have sent a letter urging the Senate to reject Donald Trump’s nomination of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.  In addition, NAACP members in Alabama have been detained after launching a sit-in at Sessions’ office in Mobile, Alabama in protest of racial equality, civil rights and voting rights issues dogging the nominee, who formerly served as U.S. attorney in Mobile.

Update:   Hear our interview with Amanda Matti, author of A Foreign Affair, (originally aired on KNSJ radio) by clicking the audio link here.

A Foreign Affair, by Amanda Matti (W & B Publishers, Kernersville, NC, 2016, 343 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

December 1, 2016 (San Diego) - Amanda Matti, an El Cajon (San Diego) resident who served six years in the United States Navy, including a 2005 deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, has written a riveting true story of romance and war; A Foreign Affair. Matti provides graphic details of her experience in a war that many in this country felt never should have been.

By Miriam Raftery

Photos:  Retired generals James Mattis, John Kelly and Michael Flynn

December 15, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – President-Elect Donald Trump has nominated three retired generals for top posts in his administration including Defense Secretary, National Security Advisor and Secretary of Homeland Security.

East County News Service

December 12, 2016 (San Diego) – Some immigration lawyers are warning “dreamers,” children brought to the U.S. by undocumented immigrant parents, not to travel overseas on or after January 20^th. 

That’s the date that Donald Trump is slated to be inaugurated as President.  Trump said during the campaign that he would rescind executive orders by President Obama that provided protection from deportation to young immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which also gave them rights to work and travel for humanitarian, educational or employment purposes. He called for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants.

By Miriam Raftery

December 5, 2016 (Sacramento) — President-Elect Donald Trump has threatened to deport millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. But now California officials are fighting back.

This week, two bills have been introduced in the California Legislature aimed at trying to protect immigrants.

By Miriam Raftery

December 3, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – President-Elect Donald Trump has nominated Betsy DeVos to serve as Secretary of Education.  But the nomination has drawn sharp criticism from prominent educators due to her support of directing public funds into private and largely religious schools through vouchers, charters and other means.

By Miriam Raftery

November 25, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – President-Elect Donald Trump ran as an outsider, a TV celebrity and business mogul with no political experience, who pledged to shake up the status quo in Washington D.C.  His cabinet appointees thus far reflect a mix of people outside the D.C. beltway as well as seasoned Washington insiders.

East County News Service

November 19, 2016 (San Diego) — President-Elect Donald Trump has agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits representing thousands of students alleging fraud and racketeering involving the now defunct Trump University, which was never an accredited school.

By Miriam Raftery

November 14, 2016 (Washington D.C.) — In contrast to his election night promise to bind America’s wounds and pull people together, President-Election Donald Trump has announced the appointment of a white supremacist and anti-establishment media site publisher as his chief White House strategist and put an officer in an anti-immigrant hate group in charge of his immigration transition team.

By Claire Pratt, President, Eastlake/Bonita Democratic Club 

November 10, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- I join the many who are writing their reactions and expressing their grief about the election.  Tuesday night and Wednesday were shock, numbness.  Last night sleepless again and today tears, mourning.   Here is my written contribution.

Update: CNN just declared Trump the victor. 

By Miriam Raftery

November 8, 2016 (San Diego)--In a stunning defeat for Hillary Clinton and the  Democratic Party,  business mogul/reality TV star Donald Trump is winning  key battleground states and appears likely to capture the presidency.  While there is celebration in key Republican circles, the stock market is reeling, with the Dow Jones dropping 827 points at the news.

Major networks have declared  Trump the winner in Ohio, Iowa, Florida and Pennsylvania.  As of 10:30 p.m.,  CNN projects Trump has 265 electoral votes and Clinton 215; 270 are needed to win. Of six states not yet called, Clinton leads only in Minnesota, New Hampshire and Maine—not enough to win unless Trump’s lead erodes in all of the remaining undecided states:  Arizona,  Michigan,  and Wisconsin, or unless the network's call proves wrong after all votes are counted, an unlikely scenario.

By Miriam Raftery

October 14, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – After the release of a videotape last week on which Republican nominee Donald Trump boasted in crude terms about grabbing women’s genitals and forcing kisses on them in the workplace,  Trump dismissed those claims “as locker room talk” in a presidential debate. When pressed by  CNN’s  Anderson Cooper on whether he did those things,  he claimed he didn’t.  Six women have since come forward to state  he did sexually assault them, including a journalist  and others. In addition, a hearing on alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl by Trump heads to court in December. Dozens of past coworkers of  Trump have also corroborated sexually demeaning remarks in the workplace that amount to sexual harassment.

Many top Republicans have yanked support of Trump as a result.  GOP Chair Rance Priebus ordered the Republican National  Party to cut off all cash to the Trump campaign.  House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he is done defending Trump.  Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State under Republican George W. Bush,  stated,”Enough! Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw.”  Former GOP nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney have said they will not support Trump’s candidacy.  Conservative commentator Glen Beck called opposing  Trump the “moral choice” even if Hillary Clinton is elected.

But Congressman Duncan Hunter, a Republican whose district includes  parts of San Diego and East County continues to support  Trump. “We’ve got to keep on fighting to the end,” he said, according to the Washington Post’s article titled “What it’s like to be on the shrinking island of Donald Trump backers.”

Prominent Latinos drop support of Trump after speech;

Illegal immigration at lowest level since 1972;

Fact checkers find many false statements in Trump’s speech.

By Miriam Raftery; Photo by Gage Skidmore

September 1,2016 (San Diego) – Just hours after returning from meeting Mexico’s president, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivered a fiery speech in Arizona in which he stereotyped Mexicans as rapists and murderers, called for a revival of an “Operation Wetback” deportation program similar to a widely criticized program under the Eisenhower administration, but  tougher.  

He announced plans to cancel President Obama’s actions to protect people brought here as children and parents of U.S. citizens.  He made clear that his goal is to ultimately deport every undocumented immigration in the U.S.  “Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation,”Trump stated. “Our message to the world will be this: You cannot obtain legal status,or become a citizen of the United States, by illegally entering our country. Can’t do it.”

As for undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S., his words are striking fear. “They have to go back."

East County News Service

August 16, 2016 (Washington D.C.) — It’s illegal for U.S. federal candidates to solicit or receive campaign contributions from foreign donors.  So why has Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign repeatedly sent fundraising letters to foreigners including elected officials in other countries—despite repeated warnings that this violates federal election law?

Clinton slams plan as “lower wages, fewer jobs, more debt, tax breaks for the 0.1.%.”

By Miriam Raftery

August 8,2016 (Detroit) –  Donald Trump laid out his economic agenda, promising to “jump start” the American economy in a speech in Detroit today.  The plan calls for tax cuts, dismantling trade pacts, slashing regulations on businesses, eliminating Obamacare and boosting production and burning of coal, a greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for climate change.