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Harris woos donors, to attend awards gala in Washington; Trump fundraises in Utah – UPI.com

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Harris woos donors, to attend awards gala  in Washington; Trump fundraises in Utah – UPI.com


1 of 2 | Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are both scheduled to appear at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Award Gala dinner in Washington on Saturday as the presidential campaign continues. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 14 (UPI) — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke to donors in Washington, D.C., her running mate Tim Walz held a rally in Wisconsin and GOP nominee Donald Trump was set to fundraise in Utah on Saturday.

Harris appeared Saturday afternoon at a private fundraising event in Washington and was set to follow that with a keynote speech later in the evening at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards Dinner at the Washington Convention Center.

During her talk with donors at the Washington Hilton, she touted her performance during Tuesday’s debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump and warned of the possible consequences of a second Trump term in the wake of July’s Supreme Court decision ruling presidents to be immune from criminal prosecution.

“On Tuesday, I talked about my plans on how we will bring down costs, how we will build our economy, how we protect reproductive freedom and keep our nation safe,” Harris said, according to a pool report. “But that is not what we hear from Donald Trump. Instead, it was the same old tired show. He was running from that same tired playbook that we’ve heard for years.”

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Later, she warned of the high court’s ruling, “Imagine the meaning of that court ruling on this individual and what he is prepared to do and what he has already done. Imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.”

President Joe Biden and Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, are also scheduled to speak at the Phoenix Awards Dinner, which serves as the flagship event of the CBCF’s annual legislative conference. Phoenix Awards are given to people who “are serving as leaders and trailblazers for the Black community, creating more opportunities for the next generation in the process.”

At last year’s event — also attended by Harris and Biden — the winners included White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones, and rappers MC Lyte and LL Cool J.

Harris spent Friday campaigning in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, talking to voters in Johnstown, Pa., and sitting down for her first solo television interview since becoming the Democratic nominee.

In her interview with Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV, she was asked about Trump’s enduring appeal to the state’s voters despite his divisive persona and appeals to racism, and how she’s expecting to counter it.

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“I, based on experience, and a lived experience, know in my heart, I know in my soul, I know, that the vast majority of us as Americans have so much more in common than what separates us,” Harris said.

“And I also believe that I am accurate in knowing that most Americans want a leader that brings us together as Americans and not someone who professes to be a leader who is trying to have us point our fingers at each other,” she added.

Walz. who is Minnesota’s governor, continued to campaign in northern Wisconsin, also seen as a crucial swing state in November’s election. His campaigned in Superior, Wis., following a stop Friday in Wausau.

In Superior, located in the northwestern tip of the state across the St. Louis River from Duluth, Minn., Walz similarly praised the outcome of Tuesday’s debate and took aim at Trump’s efforts during his first term to scuttle the Affordable Care Act.

“Not once did he ever worry that he would have to pay a medical bill,” he told attendees at the University of Wisconsin’s branch campus.

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On Friday at Wausau’s Whitewater Music Hall, Walz warned that the United States’ foreign allies “have no respect for [Trump]. They know where he’s at. He continues to brag about being friends with the dictators.”

The former president, meanwhile, is expected to attend a private fundraiser Saturday in Utah after spending Friday at a rally in Las Vegas.

Attendees at the Salt Lake City event are expected to include controversial Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, right-wing radio personality Glenn Beck, former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, KSL-TV reported.

At his rally in Las Vegas, Trump repeated false claims about Venezuelan criminal gangs taking over parts of Aurora, Colo., and Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, declaring that immigration to the United States constitutes an “invasion.”

“Our country is under invasion just like an army,” he said, although refraining from repeating debunked rumors alleging Haitian immigrants in Springfield are killing and eating household pets. After Trump issued those slurs earlier this week, they were linked to a series of bomb threats delivered to the city’s schools and public agencies, forcing children to miss classes.

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Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks after she and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage at at Temple University in Philadelphia on August 6, 2024 for Harris’ first campaign rally after she chose Walz as her running mate. Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo



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Washington, D.C

NewDay USA Honors Vietnam Heroes by Hand-Washing Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. as Part of Veterans Day Tribute

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NewDay USA Honors Vietnam Heroes by Hand-Washing Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. as Part of Veterans Day Tribute


Initiative is part of NewDay’s mission to serve the military and Veteran communities

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — In the lead-up to Veterans Day, employees from NewDay USA, a national mortgage lending company serving the Veteran community, today traveled to Washington, D.C. on behalf of the NewDay USA Foundation to help hand-wash the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Coordinated by the National Parks Service, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and surrounding grounds are regularly cleaned and maintained by volunteers who wish to pay tribute to the more than 58,000 servicemen and women who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. The NewDay USA Foundation has been a steadfast supporter, deploying volunteers several times a year for more than a decade to help clean the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, along with other significant memorials and sites in Washington, D.C.

“Joining our fellow citizens in honoring the service of Vietnam Veterans through this unique and very meaningful tradition is an important part of NewDay USA’s mission,” said Rear Admiral Tom Lynch (USN, retired), Executive Chairman of NewDay USA. “As a company dedicated to helping Veterans achieve the American dream of homeownership, we are humbled to participate in this effort to keep the memory of their service and sacrifice alive, especially as we commemorate Veterans Day.”

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For the NewDay USA Foundation, this event aligns with its long-standing commitment to support and honor the nation’s servicemembers and their families. Nearly two dozen NewDay employees and leaders, including Rear Admiral Thomas C. Lynch (USN, retired) will participate in the wall washing alongside Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund founder Jan Scruggs.

“As we approach Veterans Day, NewDay USA is honored to support our Veterans by cleaning and maintaining the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a tradition that reminds us of the sacrifices made by those who served,” said Rob Posner, CEO of NewDay USA. “It’s our privilege to stand alongside local community partners as we preserve and honor the legacy of our nation’s heroes.”

“Maintaining the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is about more than preserving a physical structure; it’s about honoring the sacrifice and memory of those who served, said Jan C. Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. “Having companies like NewDay USA join in this solemn responsibility demonstrates the deep reverence our community has for the 58,276 names etched on this sacred wall.”

The NewDay USA Foundation was established to improve the lives of Veterans, service members, and their families. To date, the foundation has provided more than $10 million in scholarships for children of military families and supported over $1 million in grants to hospitals and charities that serve members of the military community. NewDay USA employees have committed more than 5,000 volunteer hours in support of the foundation’s important work since 2014.

To learn more about NewDay and its mission, please visit here.

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About NewDay USA
A leader in Veteran mortgage lending for 25 years, NewDay USA has proudly served more than 100,000 Veteran families nationwide. From buying a new home to refinancing, NewDay’s goal is to ensure Veteran families improve their credit and get back on the road to savings to live the lives they always imagined and deserve. NewDay has an industry-leading Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) record of loan performance with a delinquency rate that is two times lower than the industry average. Today, 95 percent of NewDay USA’s clients are enlisted Veterans.

About the NewDay USA Foundation

The NewDay USA Foundation is committed to supporting Veterans and their families by providing educational opportunities and resources. With a mission focused on empowering military families, the Foundation has awarded over $10 million in scholarships to more than 125 children of servicemembers, including 14 Gold Star children and 74 children of severely disabled Veterans. The Foundation’s initiatives include community service projects and direct support for Veterans, demonstrating its dedication to corporate responsibility and positive impact. The recognition as a finalist for the United States Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s 2023 Citizens Awards underscores the Foundation’s efforts in promoting corporate citizenship and making a meaningful difference in the lives of those who have served the nation.

SOURCE NewDay USA

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Wonder women in Washington DC

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Wonder women in Washington DC


Dressed in a cotton and silk tutu with linen slippers, Belgian dancer Marie van Goethem stands proud, face upturned, and feet in classic ballerina pose. She’s been immortalised for eternity as Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, a wax sculpture by Edgar Degas. Today revered for being one of his greatest works, Little Dancer wasn’t warmly received by critics and French bourgeois society who called it “ugly”, “repulsive” and oddly, a “threat to society”. All because Marie didn’t fit the society ideal—she was, after all, an “opera rat”, a term given to working-class young dancers with the Paris Opera ballet.

Today, a recast of Marie is one of the highlights at Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art.

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Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer. (courtesy National Gallery of Art)

It speaks volumes that even today women are still often lambasted for not fitting a perfect society ideal. As Marie shows us, it is absolutely alright to stand out from the crowd because history will remember you.

It is my maiden visit to Washington DC, the capital of a country that could soon be electing its first woman President. There, I find many other powerful women, like Marie, whose stories fascinate and delight.

At The National Museum of Women in the Arts, I am reacquainted with that legendary feminist painter, Frida Kahlo. It’s a self-portrait painted for her lover, Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, during their brief affair. She’s dressed in a pink embroidered skirt, gold jewellery and honey-hued shawl, black hair woven with flowers.

Frida Kahlo, a self-portrait.

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Frida Kahlo, a self-portrait. (courtesy National Museum of Women in the Arts)

The revolutionary artist and feminist may be the most famous woman in the museum but hers isn’t the only inspiring work. The museum is the first of its kind dedicated only to women (or those identifying as women) artists, with paintings and sculptures that are big, bold and powerful.

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Take Lalla Essaydi’s Bullets Revisited #3, a staged photo where a henna-d model sleeps on bullet casings. “This photograph is to showcase the role of women in revolutions, which often gets ignored. It’s also a way of talking about how the white gaze has impacted perceptions of Arab women,” says our guide, Micah Koppl.

There’s a floor dedicated to heavier work, sculptures in iron and wood because “work by women are thought to be delicate and small”.

The beauty of this museum is that it is all inclusive—there are non-binary artists’ work on display, it features transgender artists during exhibitions, there’s a nursing lounge for mothers, and all-gender bathrooms.

Interestingly, its grandeur is owed to the fact that it sits in what was once a Masonic temple. Elsewhere, on a visit to a functioning Masonic temple, Scottish Rite House of the Temple, what stands out in this all-male bastion is the fact that my guide is a woman. She has no connection to the freemasons and yet, conducts a tour that is informative, knowledgeable and extremely witty.

While on the subject of women breaking the mould, there’s aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which deservedly pays tribute to this record-setting aviator and pilot. I learn that Earhart was also a trendsetter when on the ground. She designed and wore her own clothes. The line, Amelia Fashions, released in 1933, was revolutionary for its time, being practical, fuss-free and meant for “active women”.

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America’s many women icons can be found in museums and institutions across Washington DC.

A tour of the US Capitol takes me to the rotunda with its paintings and heavily decorated ceiling, and the National Statuary Hall. There, the newest statue is of civil rights leader and journalist Daisy Lee Bates. In the rotunda, a white marble sculpture honours three prominent Suffrage pioneers, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Tour guide Ann mentions that Rosa Parks (also in the hall) was the first woman to lie in honour in the Capitol when she passed in 2005; her statue was the first full-length statue of an African American.

Rosa Parks' statue at Capitol.

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Rosa Parks’ statue at Capitol. (courtesy Architect of the Capitol )

Helen Keller is here too, captured as a seven-year-old showing her expression the first time she touched water. The disability rights advocate’s ashes are interred at the Washington National Cathedral.

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The Neo-Gothic structure is the second largest church building in the country but perhaps best known for possessing a gargoyle of Darth Vader.

The Episcopal cathedral looks like a traditional religious structure, but offers much for those with a keen eye. In the section titled the “Human Rights Porch”, are small sculptural heads of Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt. This year is important to the cathedral—it marks the 50th anniversary of the first ordination of women as priests in the Episcopal Church, and they hired their first woman stonemason.

As religious structures go, it certainly is unique.

Museums and their food

One of my favourite finds in the city is the Mitsitam Native Foods Café in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, which showcases native foods. Mitsitam offers a taste of native foods, some in new avatars. There is frybread, manoomin (wild cakes) with smoked salmon, bison burgers and hotdogs, wild rice salad and corn pudding. This kitchen is pathbreaking also because it is led by chef Alexandra Strong and sous chef Toshiba Veney—the first all-female team at a Smithsonian museum café.

Right outside the museum I find presidential candidate Kamala Harris staring at me. Given that it is election time, she and Donald Trump are everywhere.

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The stretch of road in front of many Smithsonian museums is parked with vans dishing out hotdogs, pretzels and souvenirs. Harris’ face adorns many of the vans, and you can also find it on tees, caps and magnets. Her famous “I’m Speaking” phrase (from the 2020 vice-presidential debate with Mike Pence) is a particular favourite. It may seem like just a cheap souvenir but it is a sign of the time, or possibly of history in the making.

At the Made in Washington store promoting black artists, it is easy to see whom they support—Harris shows up on candles, magnets, coasters, and tea towels.

Like many of the other iconic women in Washington DC, Harris seems set to become a part of the country’s history.

Joanna Lobo is a Goa-based journalist.

 

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Photos from Washingtonian’s 2024 Tech Titans Reception – Washingtonian

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Photos from Washingtonian’s 2024 Tech Titans Reception – Washingtonian


Washingtonian Tech Titans at ilili Restaurant on Tuesday, October 29th, 2024 in Washington. Photograph by Joy Asico-Smith/Asico Photo.

On Tuesday, October 29th, Washington DC’s Tech leaders gathered at ilili Restaurant to celebrate being named as one of Washingtonian’s 2024 Tech Titans! The list features current tech leaders and rising stars in the industry. The cocktail reception brought honorees together to connect, enjoy food and drinks, and of course, get a picture at the highly sought after Washingtonian faux cover photo booth. 

President and CEO of Washingtonian, Cathy Merrill opened the evening by congratulating the honorees, and thanking the event sponsors. Verizon’s Mario Acosta-Velez followed with remarks highlighting Verizon’s work in the tech industry and shared information on their new initiatives.  

The vibrant atmosphere of ilili created the perfect backdrop for the evening, and guests enjoyed the Lebanese cuisine. ilili’s bar featured PepsiCo products so guests could pick and choose their own mixers. Those who wished to share more intimate chats could sit in the customized PepsiCo or Verizon lounge. 

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Thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible:

PepsiCo

Verizon

J.P. Morgan

Amazon

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Thank you to our venue and vendor partners:

ilili Restaurant

Washington Talent Agency

Mixing Maryland

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Lee’s Flower Shop

Photos by Joy Asico-Smith

The PepsiCo team Shantise Mathis, Kathryn Dunning, Ghilianie Soto, Jonathan George, Greg Yahr, Andrea Moribe, Sarah Towles and Taylor Lustig
The 2024 Tech Titans feature
J.P. Morgan’s Vivienne Pham, Lexi Allner, and Tom Michael
Amazon’s Dan O’Conner and Andrew Harris
Verizon’s Mario Acosta-Velez, Washingtonian‘s Cathy Merrill, ASPR’s Adam Shapiro, and DC Innovation & Technology Inclusion Council’s Thomas Sanchez
Sands Capital Ventures’ Scott Frederick, Ardent Venture Partners’ Phil Bronner, and Sands Capital Ventures’ Nick Graziano
The Kickback With Keri’s Keri Henderson, PROOF’s Jennifer Schretter, ItinAFairy’s Kirsten Tucker, and CoTripper’s Krystin Hargrove
Amazon’s Steve Hartell, NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce’s Grace Abuhamad, Amazon’s Jena Gross, and NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce’s Alan Davidson
J.P. Morgan’s Kevin Sturn and Keymari Johnson
Washingtonian magazine cover photo booth provided by Washington Talent Agency.
ilili Restaurant was the perfect venue to celebrate this year’s honorees!
Attendees were able to experience bites of ilili’s delicious food
Verizon’s Mario Acosta-Velez giving remarks with President and CEO of Washingtonian Cathy Merrill
Verizon’s sponsor lounge
PepsiCo products featured at the bar
SoundExchange’s Emily Fulp and Mike Huppe
Dreamteams’ James Patterson, EVERFI’s Ellen Patterson, Halcyon Venture Partners’ Dahna Goldstein, and Fonbnk’s Chris Duffus
Maryland TEDCO’s Jack Miner and ALIVE Podcast Network’s Yusuf Henriques
Howard University & PNC National Center for Entrepreneurship’s Erin Horne McKinney and Dr. Kwelli Zukeri
Adlumin, Inc’s Robert Johnston and Whitney Johnston, J.P. Morgan’s Vivienne Pham, and Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation’s Tom Weithman
Mixing Maryland spinning some lively tracks!
IRS’s Merici Vinton and CFPB’s Maria Bazon
REQ’s Lisa Throckmorton, Amazon’s Tim Doyle, Salesforce’s Genna Gwynn, and Ellevoy’s Jennie Blumenthal
PAX’s Matthew Hanson, Washingtonian‘s Susan Farkas, and PepsiCo’s Taylor Lustig
ilili ended the night by serving their signature baklava.
Hannah Guy-MozenterHannah Guy-Mozenter

Manager, Marketing & Events



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