UBER & ERIC HOLDER versus KASIM REED & RACIST FINGERPRINTS (JOBS)

UBER & ERIC HOLDER vs KASIM REED & RACIST FINGERPRINTS

WHY IS KASIM REED (BLACK MAN) FIGHTING SO HARD TO STOP UBER FROM HIRING BLACK DRIVERS?

ERIC HOLDER PARTNERS WITH TRANSPORTATION GIANT UBER TO HELP EMPLOY QUALIFIED DRIVERS.

Sources: AJC, Sacbee, YouTube

***** Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder backs Uber in letter to Atlanta mayor

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has written a letter to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in support of Uber, as the city considers regulations of Uber pickups at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The Atlanta airport earlier this year proposed to legalize airport ride-share pickups and require fingerprint-based background checks for Uber X and Lyft drivers to pick up at Hartsfield-Jackson. Taxi and limo drivers who have long been fingerprinted say they want a level playing field.

Uber and Lyft have objected to the proposed requirement, saying they do their own background checks, which do not require fingerprints. The city of Atlanta is revising the airport proposal but has not said how it will change.

Holder, who was the nation’s first black attorney general, argues in the letter to Reed: “Requiring fingerprint-based background checks for non-law enforcement purposes can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color.”

Holder’s reasoning, also voiced by Uber: FBI records may lack information about the final outcome of some cases, and may not indicate if someone arrested was charged or convicted, so a fingerprint-based check “can prevent people from getting a job even if they were never found guilty of a crime.” That “disproportionately disadvantages people who have been arrested,” which “can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color,” Holder wrote.

Reed’s office and the airport acknowledged receiving the letter but declined to comment on it.

Holder, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 and left office in April 2015, works for law firm Covington & Burling LLP. The firm has a relationship with Uber that is also connected to Holder. Holder’s former chief of staff Margaret Richardson also now works at Covington & Burling and is a member of Uber’s U.S. Safety Advisory Board, providing “critical recommendations and counsel” to Uber.

Holder has written recent similar letters to officials in New Jersey and Chicago amid ride-share debates there.

And former U.S. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan also wrote a letter in support of Uber to Reed. Sullivan is also on Uber’s safety advisory board.

“In my opinion the City’s proposal to require a fingerprint-based background check for drivers doing pick-ups with Uber and Lyft at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlatna International Airport will neither increase nor improve airport security,” Sullivan wrote in his letter. He also wrote: “

Because there is a significant lack of information about the final outcome of cases, an individual may be prevented from a work opportunity even if he or she was never convicted or even charged with a crime.”

However, the state’s requirements for a “for-hire endorsement” on a driver license specify that in order to be eligible, applicants shall not have been convicted of a felony or crime of moral turpitude.

“The standards for the state level are a conviction,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation director of privacy and compliance Dawn Diedrich. A plea of nolo contendere is also considered a conviction.

Diedrich said if there is an arrest on record without information about whether there was a conviction, “you can ask the applicant” if the charges were dismissed.

ATLANTA WITHHELD FED HIV PREVENTION FUNDING (CITY DROPS TO #61)

ATLANTA WITHHELD FEDERAL HIV PREVENTION FUNDING:

STATE OF GEORGIA TAKES OVER ATL HEALTH DEPT.

ATLANTA DROPS TO NO. 61 ON "BEST PLACES TO LIVE".

Sources: AJC, CDC, WABE, WSB-TV,  Youtube

**** Fulton County health department to be run by the state

The top leadership of Fulton County’s health department will be absorbed into the state’s department by next summer, following the passage of a bill that removes the option for counties to have their own boards of health.

The bill, HB 885, is intended to increase cooperation between Fulton and the state following a series of health-related missteps. Two years ago, there was a tuberculosis outbreak in the county, and last year, the county revealed it had not been spending all the grant money it had received to combat HIV. Fulton’s HIV rate is among the worst in the country.

The bill passed the Senate Thursday by a 35-15 vote. Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, said the point was to move the county department closer to the state. A handful of high-ranking workers will become state employees, though the rest will remain with the county.

Later, the updated version was approved by the House, 161-0.

The bill goes to the governor’s desk to be signed.

In objecting to the bill, Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, said the change was “another in a long line of anti-Fulton County legislation.”

He said the problems Fulton was having were related to personnel issues, and that the department’s leadership had changed. Kathleen E. Toomey, a former country director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, started with the department this month.

“This kind of structural change is not needed,” Fort said. “I don’t know what the ulterior is, but I think this is the wrong way to go.”

HILLARY CLINTON'S 2016 VP PICK IS KASIM REED?? BIG MISTAKE (RUMORS)

HILLARY CLINTON'S 2016 VP PICK IS KASIM REED?? BIG MISTAKE (RUMORS)

BETTER CHOICES:  JULIAN CASTRO OR ELIZABETH WARREN

Sources: AJC, 11Alive, WSB, YouTube

There are political rumors floating that 2016 Democrat presidential Frontrunner HILLARY CLINTON has added Atlanta Mayor KASIM REED to her VP pick shortlist.

If this rumor has legs or any credibility, I want to scream from the top of my lungs to Hillary's campaign staff, "NO!"

Before anyone takes this rumor seriously, I would encourage you to visit the city of Atlanta and risk driving over a death-defying Pothole.

Visit Atlanta and stuff your mouth with some Greasy, Ghetto fare.

By the way where are Atlanta's FARMERS MARKETS in the BLACK communities??

Finally I want to encourage you to travel through Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport and experienced being treated like Dirt by Atlanta's arrogant, extremely rude TSA agents who are arrogant & rude by choice.

Atlanta needs more Diversity as in WHITE voters and a WHITE Mayor to cancel out years of Complacent leadership practiced by BLACK leaders who have neglected their constituents.

Hillary Clinton choosing Kasim Reed as her VP is a long shot at this stage in the game.

A better choice would be someone like JULIAN CASTRO or ELIZABETH WARREN.

Kasim Reed would be a good fit for Congress one day but as a VP, let's just say he is not ready yet for politics on such a grand scale national level.

Kasim Reed is a skilled politician but he is NOT on Obama's level......yet.

**** Is Kasim Reed in the running to be vice president?

Hillary Clinton hasn’t locked up the Democratic nomination yet, but rumors are swirling already about her possible vice presidential pick. And one of the names that’s floating out there, at least among some in the local punditry class, is that of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

A local television crew on Wednesday asked the two-term Atlanta mayor, who appeared with Clinton at a campaign event last week, whether he’s been approached. He answered it the way virtually any politician would:

I don’t have any comment on that. I don’t know anything about it. The only thing I’m focused on is being the mayor of the city of Atlanta and going out and doing a great job for Secretary Clinton and making sure she’s the next president. I feel about this campaign the way I felt in 2012 when President Obama was running.

I don’t think any American can sit and watch what is going on in our national discourse and not want to get involved on one side or the other. We will hash it out and pick a president. I haven’t been asked to be considered for the vice presidency. I don’t know anything about that. The only thing I’m focused on is being mayor.

Recall, too, that Sen. David Perdue has answered similar questions about the possibility of being a running mate.

Reed also told our AJC colleague Scott Trubey that Democrats should count on Donald Trump to be the GOP nominee.

“I expect Mr. Trump to be the nominee unless they engineer a way to take the nomination from him. He’s either going to be the nominee or there are going to be a lot of people who voted for him that are going to have a lot of frustration because to avoid him being the nominee they are going to have to engineer a way to prevent him from getting it.”

HILLARY CLINTON IS PROMISED GEORGIA'S BLACK VOTE BY MAYOR KASIM REED

HILLARY CLINTON IS PROMISED GEORGIA'S BLACK VOTE BY MAYOR KASIM REED:

CAN YOU SAY "REED WANTS A JOB IN THE WHITE HOUSE OR IN CONGRESS"??

EXPECT MORE OF REED'S DIRTY, INTIMIDATION STYLE POLITRICKS.

Sources: AJC, Fox Atlanta, YouTube

**** Kasim Reed tells Hillary Clinton: ‘Don’t worry about Georgia’

I do not think President Obama gets the credit he deserves for digging us out of this horrible economy,” she said to a crowd of more than 400 at Atlanta City Hall, earning the loudest applause of the rally.

The frontrunner hopes a strong showing at Saturday’s South Carolina primary and the votes that follow in Georgia and 10 other states on Tuesday will stymie Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ advances. And she’s long seen the diverse Southern states that cast ballots over the next week as a bastion of support.

The South Carolina vote is not only the first in the South, it’s also the first contest with a large chunk of black voters. More than half of the Democratic electorate in 2008 was black, mirroring the voting blocs in Georgia, Alabama and other Deep South states.

She stuck to her stump speech, promising new investment in education for low-income districts, a vigorous defense of Obama’s healthcare overhaul and a promise to tackle unequal wages for women.

“We need to tear down the economic barriers,” she said. “They are still too many and too high for folks who want to get ahead. We need to be sure we’re making investments here in Georgia and across America that will make us more prosperous and stronger.”

She assailed Sanders’ plan for free tuition for public college students, saying that Republican billionaire Donald Trump’s kids shouldn’t attend school on the taxpayers’ dime.

“I want to focus on middle class families, working families, and poor kids who need the help,” she said.

And she targeted Sanders for a 2005 vote that gave gun manufacturers immunity from prosecution.

“I’m going to take them on every single chance I get,” she said of the gun lobby.

Several Georgia polls show she has a commanding edge over Sanders. A poll commissioned by WSB-TV this week showed her with 72 percent of voter support, while another poll by WABE 90.1 gave her a 2-1 advantage over her rival.

Clinton’s event in Atlanta was initially supposed to be at Georgia State University’s bustling student center, but it was shifted late Thursday night to a smaller and more tightly controlled venue at City Hall. Campus student leaders were peeved by the move.

The campaign said last-minute changes are typical, but it also suggested the Clinton camp was worried about interruptions to the event.

Clinton’s last public visit to Georgia was hijacked by Black Lives Matter demonstrators who interrupted her speech at Clark Atlanta University for about 10 minutes. And a protester in Charleston made headlines this week by questioning a remark she made in a 1996 speech.

It also meant she would campaign on Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s home turf. The mayor is one of Clinton’s fiercest advocates in Georgia, and he’s repeatedly promised that Sanders “was not going to be the nominee.”

“There was never a doubt in my mind about who I was going to stand shoulder and shoulder with,” said Reed. “We know that all she has to do is win this election and she’s going to be an amazing president.”

As the rally finished, Reed stood beside Clinton and assured her: “Don’t worry about Georgia.”

ATLANTA AIRPORT POLITICS (PRIVATIZE TSA)

ATLANTA AIRPORT POLITICS (PRIVATIZE TSA):

Sources: AJC, Youtube

**** Is there REVERSE DISCRIMINATION being practiced by BLACK citizens against WHITE citizens who live in and visit Atlanta?

Is it time for Atlanta to elect a WHITE Mayor?

Was a packed Flight scheduled to depart Wednesday night Feb 24, from the Atlanta Airport to HOUSTON, repeatedly delayed and finally cancelled due to Partisan 2016 Politics?

Was a Thursday morning re-book Flight from Atlanta to HOUSTON repeatedly delayed in ORLANDO also due to Partisan 2016 Politics? 

Is it time to Privatize TSA at the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport?

**** Airport security lines getting worse, Hartsfield-Jackson officials consider privatizing security

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport officials are frustrated with understaffing at security checkpoints, and are “dreading the outcome of summer 2016,” according to a letter to the Transportation Security Administration.

Wait times during peak periods often exceed 35 minutes. Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Miguel Southwell wrote to the TSA that wait times were as long as 52 minutes last Friday morning, for example.

And, with big increases in passenger traffic, “things appear to be only getting worse, he wrote. “We fear an even busier summer this year.

In the Feb. 12 letter, Southwell wrote to TSA administrator Peter Neffenger that the airport is “giving serious consideration” to privatizing the security screening at the world’s busiest airport. Commercial airports like Hartsfield-Jackson can privatize screening by applying for the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program.

“We have been conducting exhaustive research” with other airports that have privatized screening, “weighing the pros and cons,” Southwell wrote. Airports that use privatized screening include San Francisco International, Orlando Sanford and Sarasota-Bradenton.

Southwell wrote that unless there is a “dramatic shift” in staffing or new technology in the next 60 days, the airport will take steps to launch privatized screening at the airport.

TSA in a written statement responded that it is evaluating Southwell’s letter.

Hartsfield-Jackson “remains a focus airport” for Neffenger, according to the TSA. “We recognize that the issues raised in the letter are a concern, not just in Atlanta.”

“While we are working on better solutions, we believe the public will support our vital mission of ensuring safe air transportation,” TSA said in its written statement.

According to TSA, screeners in Atlanta are screening about 15 percent more passengers a day than last year, or 8,000 extra passengers a day. Yet TSA says its staffing in its current budget allocated by Congress caps screener staffing at the same level as the previous year — the lowest level in five years.

When long security lines were causing concerns at Hartsfield-Jackson last year, Neffenger said lines could get longer, not shorter, amid a TSA initiative to close gaps in security screening.

“I believe that the traveling public is willing to accept that there may be a slightly longer wait to ensure that they’re secure getting on the plane,” Neffenger said last year.

FAA Screws Up Again...Computer Glitch Creates Flight Delays

FAA fixed computer glitch. A computer glitch that caused widespread flight delays earlier in the morning has been resolved.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

FAA says flight computers working again


Air travelers nationwide scrambled to revise their plans Thursday after an FAA computer glitch caused widespread cancellations and delays for the second time in 15 months.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the problem, which lasted about five hours, was fixed around 10 a.m., but it was unclear how long flights would be affected.

Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Union, said controllers were still entering flight plans manually in some locations even after the glitch was fixed.

Aviation officials told The Associated Press that the problem began at the computer center in Salt Lake City. The officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said the problem started between 5:15 and 5:30 a.m. Airplane dispatchers had to send plans to controllers, who entered them by hand.

"It's slowing everything down," Takemoto said.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest, was particularly affected. The problem also exacerbated delays caused by bad weather in the Northeast, with airports in the Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York metro areas reporting problems.

Some flights were more than two hours behind schedule. Airports around the South also reported delays and cancellations.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said the country's aviation system is "in shambles" and the FAA needs more resources to prevent such problems from continuing.

"If we don't deliver the resources, manpower, and technology the FAA it needs to upgrade the system, these technical glitches that cause cascading delays and chaos across the country are going to become a very regular occurrence," he said in a statement.

In Atlanta, sisters Sharon Walker and Sheila James were taking their elderly mother, Rosa Washington, to see their other sister in St. Louis. The trio's 9:30 a.m. flight out of Hartsfield-Jackson was delayed until 4 p.m.

"We were going to be there for a four-day weekend, but now it's getting cut short," James said as she sat with her family in airport atrium. "It's just not a good day."

AirTran canceled at least 22 flights and delayed dozens more. Delta Air Lines was also affected. American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said several hundred flights would be delayed around the country. He said American was told the problem would be fixed soon, "but once you get behind, it tends to stay that way" throughout the day.

Julie King, a spokeswoman for Continental Airlines, said delays averaged about an hour from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and were concentrated at the carrier's hubs in Houston, Cleveland and Newark, N.J. JetBlue Airways said 25 of its flights at JFK had average delays of 60 minutes and delays at other airports were up to 30 minutes.

Passengers were asked to check the status of their flights online before going to airports.

At Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va., nearly all departures were still on time. But passengers on AirTran flight 63 to Atlanta were trying to make other arrangements after that flight was canceled.

Hilda Ruffin of Manassas, a senior citizen who uses a wheelchair, said the airline urged passengers to head to nearby Reagan National Airport to catch another flight to Atlanta. She eventually lobbied the airline for a free shuttle pass to Reagan.

"I really fought for it...I don't have the money to pay for a cab," said Ruffin, who was trying to get to San Antonio.

Houston's two airports and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport reported few delays but said things could get worse, especially for travelers headed east. Los Angeles International Airport also reported that delays were likely later in the day.

The problem hinged on flight plans collected by the FAA for traffic nationwide at two centers -- one in Salt Lake City and the other in the Atlanta area.

Victor Santore, the National Air Traffic Controllers Union southern region vice president, said he began getting e-mail messages from air traffic controllers around 7 a.m. EST Thursday that the Atlanta-area computers had stopped processing plans.

Santore said some controllers were pulled away from their normal duties talking to airplanes or pulled off breaks to help enter the flight plans.

"When something crazy like this happens, we'll pull everybody onto the floor," Santore said. "Every airport at some point some will be affected ... (The delays) are going to ripple through the entire system."

In August 2008, a software malfunction delayed hundreds of flights around the country.

In that episode, the Northeast was hardest hit by the delays because of a glitch at the Hampton, Ga., facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S.

The FAA said at that time the source of the computer software malfunction was a "packet switch" that "failed due to a database mismatch."



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Sources: MSNBC, Google maps