WASHINGTON (NNPA) —As U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., prepares to fight 13 ethics charges, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, another leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus, has also come under scrutiny.

A House panel has announced that Rep. Maxine Waters has been charged with violating ethics rules, setting the stage for a second election-season trial for a longtime Democratic lawmaker and adding to the party’s political woes.

REP. CHARLES RANGEL

The charges against Waters, a 10-term California congresswoman, focus on whether she broke the rules in requesting federal help for a bank where her husband was a board member and owned stock. She immediately denied the charges.

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Former Department of Agriculture Rural Development Director Shirley Sherrod of South West Georgia, still reeling from the blow of an assault on her job, character and civil rights record last week, told the Black Press of America that she hopes the travesty of justice that happened to her will now help America move forward with racial healing.

RELAXING AT HOME--The Rev. Charles and Shirley Sherrod relaxed in their South West Georgia home on July 25 after coming through yet another racial storm. She was still considering the offer of another job from U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. PHOTO: Francine D. Caldwell/NNPA

For the Week of Aug. 7-12

August 7

ANGELA DAVIS

1970—Four people, including the presiding judge, were killed during a courthouse shootout in Marin County, Calif. A group of Blacks led by 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson staged an assault on the courthouse in a bid to free Jackson’s brother—famed Soledad Brother and militant activist George Jackson. Jonathan was among those who died. Professor and communist Angela Davis was charged with providing the guns for the bloody escape attempt but would later be found not guilty.

by Christina Hoag
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP)—After living two decades on the streets of Skid Row, Sheila Nichols was dying. Her body had withered to 61 pounds, ravaged by a heavy-duty crack cocaine addiction, hepatitis, HIV, and late-stage syphilis, when late one night a stranger offered her a sandwich and, just maybe, survival.

AT DEATH’S DOOR—Sheila Nichols, 55, has her temperature checked by a nurse at a clinic in Los Angeles, July 19. After two decades living on the streets of Skid Row, Nichols was dying.