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Black Kos, Week In Review [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-30

Commentary: African American Scientists, Explorers and Inventors

By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor Michael Phillip Anderson (December 25, 1959 – February 1, 2003) was a United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut, who was killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the craft disintegrated after reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Anderson was born in Plattsburgh, New York, into an Air Force family and grew up as a military brat. He attended high school in Cheney, Washington, while his father was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, west of Spokane.

Anderson graduated from the University of Washington in 1981 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. After completing a year of technical training at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, he was assigned to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. At Randolph he served as Chief of Communication Maintenance for the 2015th Communication Squadron and later as Director of Information System Maintenance for the 1920th Information System Group. In 1986 he was selected to attend Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Upon graduation he was assigned to the 2d Airborne Command and Control Squadron, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska as an EC-135 pilot, flying the Strategic Air Command's airborne command post code-named "Looking Glass." While stationed at Offutt, he completed his master's degree in physics at Creighton University in 1990. From January 1991 to September 1992 he served as an aircraft commander and instructor pilot in the 920th Air Refueling Squadron, Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan. From September 1992 to February 1995 he was assigned as an instructor pilot and tactics officer in the 380th Air Refueling Wing, Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York. Anderson logged over 3,000 hours of flight in various models of the KC-135 and the T-38A aircraft. Selected by NASA in December 1994, Anderson reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. He completed a year of training and evaluation, and was qualified for flight crew assignment as a mission specialist. Anderson was initially assigned technical duties in the Flight Support Branch of the Astronaut Office. Anderson flew on missions STS-89 and STS-107, logging over 593 hours in space.....Read More

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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor

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Not surprising, the war against Black government officials continue. The removal of Mike Nedd, BLM’s deputy director for administration and programs, is the latest upheaval in personnel at the agency that is critical for oil and gas production. Politico: BLM official escorted out of building after DOGE conflict

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A senior leader at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management was escorted out its headquarters Tuesday after POLITICO reported that he opposed staffing directions from a former DOGE appointee, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The removal of Mike Nedd, BLM’s deputy director for administration and programs who had been with the department for nearly 30 years, is the latest personnel upheaval at the bureau that oversees oil, natural gas and mineral production on federal land and is considered key for the Trump administration to reach its goal of increasing fossil fuel production on public property.

Nedd had opposed carrying out directives signed by Stephanie Holmes, a former staffer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who is now embedded as Interior’s acting chief human capital officer, people familiar with the situation told POLITICO last week. Holmes’ May 2 memo instructed employees who had been filling in on positions left vacant by departing staff to return to their original positions.

BLM oversees the 245 million acres under federal control, making it a critical player in fulfilling Trump’s pledge of rapidly expanding the nation’s fossil fuel and mineral production. Forcing staff to stop performing the duties of the jobs left empty after the administration’s aggressive workforce cuts could slow the bureau’s efforts to increase oil and gas production on federal land.

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Kyle Bibby of Black Veterans Project tells theGrio that the new guidance represents "another discriminatory policy enacted under a Secretary of Defense with a history of hostility to Black people." The Grio: Marine Corps’ new grooming policy slammed for targeting Black men

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A recently updated grooming policy issued by the United States Marine Corps is being slammed by advocates for negatively targeting Black male service members. The policy is a reversal of a decades-long waiver that allowed Black men with coarse or curly hair to electively wear their beards as a result of a skin condition. The waivers allowed Black service members to avoid the military’s requirements for men to be clean-shaven. In March, the Marine Corps issued a new guidance on pseudofolliculitis, or PFB, which is a skin condition more commonly known as razor bumps or ingrown hairs. PFB disproportionately affects Black men (60%), according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology. Despite allowing waivers since the 1970s, the new guidance from the Marine Corps now states that the condition could lead to a service member being expelled from the military branch if the issue persists, reports NBC News. In January, the U.S. Air Force also updated its guidance on the skin condition, informing service members that waivers will expire 90 days after one’s next annual health exam. The military branch did not indicate what the requirements would be to still qualify for a waiver. The Marine Corps says that its new guidance will best position the military branch for “warfighting capability” and that service members with PFB will have to undergo a medical evaluation within 90 days. If their condition does not improve within a year under a four-part treatment plan, they could be separated from the branch at the discretion of their commanding officer, according to NBC.

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The Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who was censored, imprisoned and forced into exile, a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature and one of few writers working in an indigenous African language, has died aged 87.

“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, this Wednesday morning,” wrote his daughter Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ on Facebook. “He lived a full life, fought a good fight.

He died in Atlanta, and his daughter said more details would be announced soon.

“I am me because of him in so many ways, as his child, scholar and writer,” his son Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ wrote on X. “I love him - I am not sure what tomorrow will bring without him here. I think that is all I have to say for now.”

Ngũgĩ explored the troubled legacy of colonialism through essays, plays and novels including Weep Not, Child (1964), Devil on the Cross (1980) and Wizard of the Crow (2006). Considered a giant of the modern African pantheon, he had been a favorite for the Nobel prize in literature for years. After missing out on the prize in 2010 to Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Ngũgĩ said he was less disappointed than the photographers who had gathered outside his home: “I was the one who was consoling them!”

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WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY PORCH

IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF

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