I was surprised by Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his running mate. Vance was a late convert to the MAGA cult. He offered several deprecating appraisals of Donald Trump during the runup to the 2016 election, referring to him as “cultural heroin” and fearing Trump could be “America’s Hitler.” Back then, Vance characterized himself as a Never Trumper. It was Vance’s ensuing relationship with Donald Trump, Jr. that reversed his views about Trump, Sr. and may have swayed the ex-President to select the Yale Law School graduate who vaulted onto the national scene with his best-selling memoir Hil ..read more

On Sunday, July 21, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., family and friends of former Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns will gather at the Berean Baptist Church to celebrate 90 years of a life well lived. He will share his big day with his son, Darryl C. Towns, whose 63rd birthday falls on the same day as his father’s. He is a longtime member of the church at 1635 Bergen Street in Brooklyn, New York, 11213. Dr. David Collins Forbes will deliver a special message. There will be a Happy Birthday Fellowship Reception immediately following the afternoon service. Ed Towns, who served in the United States House of Rep ..read more

November 5, 2024, looms as a defining day in the struggle to preserve democracy in the United States. Democrats seek to fend off Donald Trump’s quest to usher in his brand of authoritarianism. The Supreme Court has set the stage with its determination that the President is immune from or presumed to be immune from illegalities emanating from “official acts.” As a prelude, there is another struggle for democracy as would-be Democratic Party voters resist the dictates of its party leaders who say it’s President Joe Biden or no one. They seem to have forgotten that democracy is a system of govern ..read more

Who is Angela Alsobrooks? Barring any unforeseen developments, she probably will be the next United States Senator from the great state of Maryland, the first African American from Maryland to hold the prestigious office, and just the fourth black woman to serve in the Senate. Already a dragonslayer—she handily defeated Democratic rival Congressman David Trone in the May 14 primary, garnering 52.6 percent of votes to Trone’s 43.4 percent—Alsobrooks will take on twice-elected Republican governor Larry Hogan. She racked up 240,611 votes to 187,889 for the three-term congressman representing Mary ..read more

Donald Trump is finally being held accountable for all the crap he has done over the many decades of his inglorious life. And it is just the beginning. I was surprised by the verdict. I did not expect a guilty verdict on all counts. I was prepared for a hung jury. The antithesis attributed to poet activist Maya Angelou, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” best described my sentiments. It seemed there was too much ambiguity surrounding the proceedings. I thought a hung jury was probable, and the best-case scenario would be a guilty verdict on several counts. Hell, I would have taken one ..read more

With the capable Lead Organizer, Amani Desamours, and her Student Leadership Team handling Thursday’s virtual Student Advocacy Day, I had the privilege of attending the pivotal Children’s Bureau’s National Convening on Kinship Care. This gathering, which drew child welfare administrators and practitioners from across the nation, was a crucial platform for discussing the opportunities and challenges presented by the new, flexible licensing standards issued by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in September 2023. The event was organized in collaboration with Think of Us, a self-d ..read more

Former Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns, a distinguished figure in the U.S. House of Representatives, will return to the Hill on Wednesday, March 13, to celebrate another Social Work Day on the Hill, an event he created shortly after retiring from Congress in 2013 after 15 terms and 30 years of service. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, he will be honored with CRISP’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award during the 4:00 p.m. ceremony in Room 2168 in the Rayburn House Office Building, 45 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20515. Michigan U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a respe ..read more

CRISP will resume in-person events on Wednesday, March 13, to celebrate March as Social Work Month after a four-hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s theme is Lifting Every Voice: The Power of Storytelling in Social Work. Our Social Work Day on the Hill day begins with our 10:00 a.m. Policy and Politics Forum at New York University DC’s Abramson Family Auditorium, 1307 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005, featuring a presentation by Dr. Stephanie Boddie, Associate Professor of Church and Community Ministries at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University. Dr. Bodd ..read more

Tuesday was a bad day for the Republican Party, both in substance and appearance. The catastrophes were led by House Republicans’ failure to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This was not surprising because the Republicans’ slim majority of 219 to 212 seats meant they could afford to lose just three votes, which they did. With Steve Scalise unable to join them due to cancer treatment, the final vote resulted in a 215-215 tie, and the impeachment attempt died an ignominious death. GOP conference vice chair Blake Moore of Utah changed his vote to no, resulting in a 214-216 ..read more

With so much madness in the world, vulnerable populations are being left further behind. Children with incarcerated parents are of those forgotten groups. My dissertation completed in 2002 focused on fathers as part of the Fragile Families study. The prison population had exploded from roughly 300,000 in 1980 to nearly two million in 2000. With many parents behind bars, naturally, there were concerns about the well-being of the children they had left behind. Concerns grew exponentially as women’s incarceration doubled that of men—ballooning 700 percent between 1980 and 2016, according to the S ..read more