The Brave News

by Kyle Moats and Sele Pemasa

California Senator Kamala D. Harris is the first Democratic senator to announce her candidacy for president. At age 54, she is California’s third female senator to date.

She is a first term, or junior senator and has been a United States Senator representing California since 2017. Prior to that, Ms. Harris served as the 32nd Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017 and was the District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011.

Since she has been in politics for several years, many of her supporters in the democratic party, to say the least, were thrilled for her that she declared her candidacy. She is the first of many women set to declare their candidacy for President.

During her launch speeches, Harris has come out supporting many platforms. A few of her more pressing issues that she has said that she will be running off are: medicare for all people, populism, preserving sanctuary cities, passing a DREAM Act, and lowering taxes for the working and middle classes while raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest top one percent of Americans.

Kamala Harris announced her run for presidency on January 27th, 2019 at a campaign rally in Oakland. She started her campaign with the moniker “Fearless.” She is claiming to espouse the core concepts of truth, justice, decency, equality, freedom, and democracy.  In the same speech she told potential supporters that her campaign will not be about “negative attacks.”

Since Kamala Harris is the first Democrat to announce her running for presidency, it is way too early to call if she will be the Democratic nominee. Although, there are some speculations that some prominent Democrats could run. According to the Washington Post, former Vice President Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and Elizabeth Warren are other likely candidates to run. 

Harris’ other campaign positions are consistent with her liberal voting record, as over her lengthy political career she has also supported the following: Abortion rights advocacy groups, death penalty opposition, legalization of Marijuana, climate change protection, LGBT rights, and gun control among others.

Ms. Harris symbolically chose to announce her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Being born and raised in Oakland, she found the plaza outside city hall a fitting place to launch her campaign. She also gave her first news conference as a candidate at the historically black college – Howard University – where she attended.

Currently, Ms. Harris serves in her capacity as a U.S. Senator on several committees. She will be drawing on some of her experiences as she continues to develop her campaign platform.

To date, no complete, formal campaign schedule for appearances and fundraisers has been confirmed, but it has been suggested she will spend extensive time traveling in the next year to expand her base and further her cause.

by Christian James

Famous singer R. Kelly is under FBI investigation for flying a minor across state lines, one of many accusations in his controversial career. 

Robert Sylvester Kelly, famously known as R. Kelly, has already had many accusations of sexual assault with minors throughout his career. Although there is multiple counts of evidence against him, he has never been found guilty. 

R. Kelly went from a beloved American R&B singer to a social outcast in many societies. He started his career in the year 1990, where he signed his first contract with Jive Records. The next year, Kelly released his first album, “Born in the 90s,” with Public Announcement. This album began to give R.Kelly some recognition in the music industry.

In 1993, he decided to go solo and make albums on his own. Throughout the years, he would be known for his hit songs, “I Believe I Can Fly,” “Ignition” and “Bump N Grind.” R.Kelly would also become sort of an intimate icon in the music industry. While he was rising in success, so were the many accusations against him.

At age 27 in 1994, Kelly would marry another Jive Record singer, Aaliyah Haugton, which caused a good deal of controversy.

“Aailyah’s age is listed as 18 on the falsified marriage certificated, she is underage when she secretly married the R&B singer at a Sheraton Gateway Suites in Chicago,” accused The Cut.

Her real age would eventually be revealed to the public when she sadly died in a plane crash on August 25th, 2001. Aaliyah’s birth certificate determines she was 22 when she died, thus making her 15 when she married R. Kelly in 1994. While she was still alive, Kelly and her both denied ever being married to each other even though many sources had a copy of their marriage certificate from the annulled marriage. R. Kelly would not be charged with anything, but even more accusations against him would come to light.

More accusations of Kelly being with minors and having his own intimate club would begin to form, but he would still continue to be found not guilty. These accusations are now starting to catch up to the infamous R&B singer.

In 2017, a movement labeled #MeToo would emerge, causing many women to share their darkest secrets with the world. During this movement, many women would accuse R. Kelly of being intimate with them while they were minors.

Since then, multiple investigations have been in progress to determine the fate of Kelly. A groundbreaking documentary titled “Surviving R. Kelly” is not helping his case. In this documentary, there are even more women sharing their stories and experiences with the famous singer.

His once famous life of freedom has come to an end and now every move he makes is being monitored closely by the public.

by Samuel Rodriguez

The federal government’s shutdown occurred on December 22nd, 2018 and has set a record for the longest government shutdown in the modern era, surpassing the previous 21-day shutdown of 1995-96.

Credit // Kim Komando Show

Today, January 17th, marks the 27th day of the shutdown with no looks of it ending within the near future.

According to Business Insider, the shutdown seems to be due to a dispute between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats about funding for Trump’s border wall. However, the shutdown only affects a part of the government since 7 of the 12 bills that fund the government were passed in September.

Business Insider continues to say that some of the departments that have been affected by the shutdown are the departments of agriculture, homeland security, commerce, transportation, housing, and urban development.

The New York Times estimates that 800,000 federal workers are being affected by this shutdown while the loss of government services are affecting millions more. The shutdown has a widespread but uneven toll, affecting many American’s while going almost unnoticed by others. The New York Times continues to explain that President Trump waits for Democrats to accept his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for his border wall, which is highly unpopular.

The Trump administration has called back tens of thousands of federal workers to fulfill key government tasks in an attempt to numb the effects set upon by the shutdown. These workers are being put back to work without pay and, according to The New York Times, a typical federal worker has missed $5,000 in pay from the shutdown thus far.

“They’re not being paid right now because of the Democrats. People are impressed with how well the government is working with the circumstances we’re under,” stated President Donald Trump.

Even though many government officials are patiently waiting for the end of this shutdown to come, Democrats are asking Trump to reopen parts of the government that have nothing to do with the wall before they negotiate further on the issue, states The Washington Post. 

According to The New York Times, President Trump stated on Monday that he rejected a proposal by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to halt the shutdown for three weeks in an attempt to “breathe new life” into stalled talks with Democrats.

The shutdown looks to continue on as President Trump and the Democrats stand their ground and have not reached an agreement yet.