Rod 2.0:Beta #gay #news #lgbt #gaynews

Ricin-Tainted Letter Sent to Obama

The White House has confirmed that a letter addressed to President Barack Obama has tested positive for the poison ricin, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The suspicious letter to Obama contained "a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin," an FBI statement said. It added: "There is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston," where three people were killed in bombings at the city's marathon on Monday.

The Secret Service said the letter to Obama was received on Tuesday at a mail screening facility not located near the White House. "The Secret Service is working closely with the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI in this investigation," Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan said in a statement.

The FBI said filters at a second government mail screening facility had "preliminarily tested positive for ricin this morning" and mail from that facility was also being tested.

Thericin-tainted letter apparently came from "from the same sender who mailed a [similar] letter" addressed to Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, adds NBC News.

What is happening? Thankfully, no one was harmed in these incidents. #SMDH

INFOGRAPHIC: The Obama Administration's Judicial Nominees

On Monday, history was made when the Senate confirmed Judge Pamela Chen to become the first openly gay, Asian-American judge on the federal bench. Chen will serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. "There are now five openly gay judges on the federal bench," reports Think Progress. "Four of these five are Obama appointees, and the fifth, Clinton appointee Deborah Batts, recently took a kind of partial retirement for older judges."

The President has named eight openly gay or lesbian life-tenured federal court judicial nominees. These include Judge William Thomas and Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro, who would become the first out Black man and Latina on the federal bench, respectively. "Thomas would be the second out LGBT black judge," adds Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner. "The first, Judge Deborah Batts, also was the first out LGBT federal judge."

The Washington Post profiled the Obama Administration's efforts to diversify the federal judiciary on Tuesday. "Of the 35 judicial nominees currently pending before the Senate, 17 of the 35 pending judicial nominees are women, 15 are ethnic minorities and five are openly gay." Only six are white straight men.

The White House released a very clever infographic yesterday that demonstrates how it has made the federal courts more reflective of our society. Click to enlarge.

VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT: President Obama on His Opposition to Prop 8

PHOTO: GETTY

The Obama Administration announced on Thursday that it would submit an amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting the landmark challenge to Proposition 8. President Obama was asked about his decision to take this historic step at a White House press conference this afternoon on the sequester.

The President answered in part:

I think that the same evolution that I've gone through is an evolution that the country as a whole has gone through. And I think it is a profoundly positive thing. So that when the Supreme Court essentially called the question by taking this case about California's law, I didn’t feel like that was something that this administration could avoid. I felt it was important for us to articulate what I believe and what this administration stands for.

The President added that if he "were on the Court" he would vote to strike the law. "Let’s treat everybody fairly and let’s treat everybody equally," said POTUS.

The White House Press office has emailed R20 transcript. Read the exchange and via Think Progress watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...

Congress Passes LGBT-Inclusive Violence Against Women Act

After a prolonged political battle, the House has finally approved an LGBT-inclusive Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The Washington Post notes that the vote indicated that opposition to VAWA was "damaging the [Republican] Party’s image."

The measure, which was already approved by the Senate, passed the House on a 286 to 138 vote, as 199 Democrats joined 87 Republicans to push the bill over opposition from a bloc of 138 conservatives, who opposed the bill for a number of reasons, including the new protections for gays and lesbians.

The outcome stemmed from a broad desire from GOP leaders to get past the Violence Against Women Act issue. It was an acknowledgment that their continued opposition to a measure that had passed with broad bipartisan support in the Senate and has strong appeal with women voters was damaging the party’s image.

The Anti-Violence Project notes that VAWA "includes LGBT people in three significant ways:

It names LGBT people as underserved populations in need of specific attention to address the unique issues they face as survivors of intimate partner or sexual violence. It prohibits VAWA grantee from discriminating against survivors of violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity when providing services. It establishes a specific purpose area to address LGBT violence at the state level.

The legislation also increases protections for Native Americans, immigrants, communities of color and students. 

This historic legislation came shortly after the Centers for Disease Control released a national prevalence survey showing that lesbian, gay and bisexual people experience violence at the same or higher rates as heterosexual people.  It comes a year after the New York City Anti-Violence Project's National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) found that transgender people experience sexual violence at twice the rate of non-transgender people.

Numerous studies have shown that Black and Latina trans women are at the greatest risk of violence and the murders of Black transgender women are often unsolved. Black trans women face "extreme discrimination and poverty", and are more than likely to suffer from violence, physical or sexual abuse, police brutality, HIV/AIDS and bullying, according to a first of its kind survey conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Black Justice Coalition.

"With VAWA and beyond, the National Black Justice Coalition is committed to taking a systematic approach to end the serial killings of Black trans women and violence against women in general," Sharon Lettman-Hicks, NBJC Executive Director and CEO, said in a statement to R20. "We will continue to raise awareness and visibility as well as work closely with agencies like the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and national organizations such as the NCAVP to track, report, and expose the prevalence of violence against and within the Black LGBT community."

"I am encouraged that our Members of Congress were able to come together despite the polarized political climate we live in," stated Sharon Lettman-Hicks, NBJC Executive Director and CEO. "Protecting women, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, is bigger than political agendas and party line divides. It's about fairness."

See our report for EBONY: "GOP FAMILY VALUES: Domestic Violence Act Goes, Anti-Gay Legislation Stays"

VIDEO: Michelle Obama's Surprise Oscar Appearance

PHOTOS: GETTY

One of the trending topics from last night's Academy Awards ceremony: The surprise appearance of First Lady Michelle Obama to introduce the Best Picture nominee.

FLOTUS appeared live via satellite from the White House to introduce the Best Picture category. Several of the nominated films had political connections, such as Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty and Ben Affleck's Argo, which ultimately won three of the seven awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture. The film is based on a CIA plan to rescue Americans trapped in Iran during the Carter-era hostage crisis.

Deadline explains how the Academy pulled off the "top secret" surprise:

The idea of getting the First Lady on the show first came from Lily Weinstein, who mentioned it to her big Obama contributor dad Harvey, who suggested it to the Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Academy president Hawk Koch. The group flew to DC a week and a half ago to put the logistics together with the White House. The Oscar producers told Deadline’s Pete Hammond earlier this week that they "were being like the CIA" about a couple of surprises on the show, keeping things top secret.

In towns like Hollywood and DC where people love to talk, they pulled it off. There was no indication on the show’s rundown and most of the people on the Oscars had no idea who the secret guest would be. “I knew we could do it and we did it,” Koch told Deadline tonight about keeping Obama’s name under wraps.

The First Lady was actually handed the envelope with the winner’s name in it by the head of PricewaterhouseCoopers at the White House, where she and President Obama hosted a dinner for the nation’s Governors tonight. Nicholson had a back-up envelope just in case.

You'd better werkkk! Watch it AFTER THE JUMP ...

VIDEO: Economist Paul Krugman on HuffPost Live w/ Marc Lamont Hill

The nation's economy will grow by only 1.4 percent in 2013 and "unemployment will remain above 7.5 percent through 2014", according to a new report released this week by the Congressional Budget Office.

How to end the recession? Marc Lamont Hill hosted a great Huff Post Live discussion with Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning progressive economist and New York Times columnist.

"It's the easiest thing [to do] in the world," said Krugman. "We know how to end it. To end this depression we need the federal government to give aid to the state governments. [The states] need to rehire the teachers that they laid off, begin road and infrastructure repair. ... But the political will is not there."

Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

EBONY: The State of HIV/AIDS in Black America

My latest for EBONY on "The State of HIV/AIDS in Black America." There is some good news and not-so-good news to report on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The good news: The number of new infections has finally stabilized at about 50,000 new cases per year in the United States.

The bad news: The epicenter of the epidemic is Black America. African-Americans and other Black communities represent only 12% of the nation’s population but account for nearly half—some 44%—of all new HIV infections, report the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black gay and bisexual men suffer the highest new infection rates in the country.

"African-Americans account for about half of the more than one million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States," Donna Hubbard McCree, PhD told EBONY.com. Dr. McCree is the Associate Director for Health Equity of the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. "And about half of those who die from AIDS every year."

But there is some good news on Black women. Recent data show that new infections—these are called seroconversions—among Black women are declining for the first time in over a decade.

Thanks much to the Centers for Disease Controls, the White House and the Black AIDS Institute. Read the report HERE.

EBONY: Will Aretha's Inauguration Hat Make a Comeback?

Our first item today at EBONY: Aretha Franklin's now-iconic bejeweled bow hat from President Obama's first inauguration is rumored to make an reappearance today.  #ThatHat became one of the earliest internet memes and coincided with the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter at that time.

Read the story HERE.

FIRST LOOK: President Obama's New Official Portrait

Your first look at the new, official portrait of President Barack Obama. The portrait was lensed by White House photographer Pete Souza "in the Oval Office [on] Dec. 6, 2012." The portrait was released today for the Inauguration weekend. Love it!

Obama to Announce "Expansive" Assault Weapons Ban

President Barack Obama is prepared to announce the "most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations", reports the Washington Post. The President's proposals will reportedly include banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as "mandating background checks for all firearms buyers."

In addition to background checks and restrictions on military-style guns and ammunition magazines, Obama is expected to propose mental health and school safety initiatives such as more federal funding for police officers in schools, according to lawmakers and interest group leaders whom White House officials briefed on the plans. ...

Obama also is expected to present up to 19 executive actions that his administration will take, the lawmakers and advocates said. These steps include enhanced federal scientific research on gun violence and a modernized federal database system to track guns, criminals and the mentally ill. ..

Obama’s proposals amount to the most comprehensive federal regulations of the firearms industry since 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson acted in the aftermath of high-profile assassinations.

Banning high-capacity magazines would have an immediate impact.  Similar high capacity ammunition clips were used in several recent high-profile shootings "whose victims have included a member of Congress in Arizona, moviegoers in Colorado and first graders in Connecticut," added the New York Times.

The White House proposal on gun control comes at the same time two of the nation's largest states are considering similar legislation.

The New York State Senate voted 43-18 last night to "expand the state’s ban on assault weapons and would include new measures to keep guns away from people with mental illnesses," added The Times. New York would become "the first state to act in response" to the horrific December 2012 mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school .

Meanwhile in Illinois: Legislators have introduced proposals that would severely restrict the "sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines."