Sister Betsy Jean Farrakhan, affectionately called by family and close friends as “B.J.,” was a quintessential embodiment of a woman of God. She was as stern as she was beautiful, her heart full of love for the Believers, in particular for the women of the Nation of Islam. While her tenure as National M.G.T. and G.C.C. Captain of the Nation of Islam was and is legendary, her impact in farming and agriculture was and is just as impactful.

Always willing and eager to assist her father, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, in his mission as the National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Sister Betsy Jean began studying agriculture and farming.

She learned from Will Allen, of Growing Power, and was trained in his Sustainable Food Training Program where she became deeply engaged in the science of healthy soil and organic food production. Mr. Allen, a retired professional basketball player turned urban farmer, was very instrumental in that effort.

He told The Final Call that he met Sister Betsy Jean after Minister Farrakhan visited Growing Power for a tour, and later, Mr. Allen hosted she and her husband Brother Maurice, in a five-month training program. They learned how to grow produce and raise red worms to get the worm castings as fertilization for the Michigan Farm. Mr. Allen also worked with Sister Betsy Jean in her desire to construct hoop houses. “And they started growing inside, and all their bedding plants, and then her worm farm started expanding, and I was very proud of them that they followed through on it,” said Mr. Allen.

“I think it’s been a great example of her being able to demonstrate how you can do it, especially with people from the Nation coming up there and seeing what she’s doing. I think that is what has inspired a lot of people to want to grow in their backyards or side yards or do a community farm. So, I think she’s been very instrumental in moving some of the work that I’ve been doing many, many years forward. I think I’m just shocked that we’ve lost her. That was a shock to me …,” said Mr. Allen.

With her new training, Sister Betsy Jean set out to teach others. In July 2015 she organized and helped host the first Michigan Farm Agricultural Workshop at The Farm. For the past several years she also helped bring the Michigan Farm Farmers Market into fruition where fresh, healthy and organic produce is made available for sisters and brothers in the Central Region of the Nation of Islam to travel to and and support the farmers market.

Those who labored alongside Sister Betsy Jean at The Farm shared the impact and influence she had on them as they witnessed her commitment and dedication to growing healthy food and training others to do the same.

Brother Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad is manager of Muhammad Farms in Georgia, a Student Minister of Agriculture for the Nation of Islam, and a member of the Nation of Islam Research Group. Though she was a city girl, she turned herself into a farm girl, and has led the sisters and other believers into doing their own gardening, and some into farming, he noted.

He recalled meeting her in 2002, when Minister Farrakhan invited him and his wife, Sister Ann, to his home at the Michigan Farm to spend time with the family. Sister Betsy Jean was present. “I didn’t really know at that time how much of a farmer that she would become,” said Brother Dr. Ridgely.

“So, she could have been a beauty queen, and she was a beauty and a queen all the way to the end,” said Brother Dr. Ridgely. She gave inspiration to the Nation to get back into farming, “so I say All Praise is due to Allah for Sister Betsy Jean Farrakhan!” he added.

Some members of her team, whom she considered family, reflected on her life and journey, including awards she received for her relentless sacrifice and work. That includes receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2026 Saviours’ Day Awards Banquet.

Sister Mele Muhammad, who began assisting Sister Betsy Jean with with the growing of produce at the Michigan Farm in 2017, described her as an exceptional sister, friend, teacher—strict and highly knowledgeable, while also loving, motherly, and deeply appreciative of the workers.

“That’s what makes everything be successful. She is very on top of what she wants, how she wants it, all the way down to the science of why. We always knew and were able to explain in depth and in detail why she does things the way she does,” said Sister Mele.

Sister Betsy Jean was a wonderful teacher and student, an in-depth researcher who asked questions, she continued. “She’ll look at from the front, from the back, from the side to side, because her goal is to never, and she said this a lot, never let her father down. That was her ultimate goal. Yes, the farmers market, but it was to always to please the Minister. She put that in us day after day: ‘Do not let my father down. I cannot let my father down. This needs to be pleasing to the Minister,’” she stated.

That spirit carried into every effort, according to Sister Mele, from beautifying the area to handling the vegetation. “The spirit we have when we’re handling the vegetation, she always talked about how that’ll go into the food and the taste,” she said.

Sister Mele feels that Sister Betsy Jean’s legacy must and will go on, by Allah’s Grace, Mercy and Will, “and that in her name, we will be able to perpetuate everything that she’s built and continue to provide healthy produce for the believers and just make it better and better each year.”

Sister Shahidah Muhammad, a homesteader with her husband, Brother Student Minister Shahid Muhammad, of Mosque Maryam in Chicago, shared that growing food is one of the many lessons she learned from Sister Betsy Jean.

“I learned from her the importance of tilling the soil, working the land, and it was really more than just the food. It was a spiritual journey that I had with her about working and becoming one with Allah,” she stated, adding, “because when you’re tilling the soil and you’re planting the seed, you’re literally creating life that you will take in, ingest, and it will sustain your own life.”

Sister Shahidah said that she also learned in those many moments together with Sister Betsy Jean in the garden, about the Black women that they were literally cultivating the soil, but also talking about the cultivation of women and what is necessary to nourish the land, the soil, in order to produce the proper food.

“Sister Betsy Jean was a protector and a defender of women, and in those many years that we would go through with the cultivation of the land, and I saw how she took nothing—land that was not useful—and made it useful. She literally created soil! So, I learned so much about Black women and how to cultivate myself under her as a woman learning how to till the land. I will never ever, ever be grateful enough for that,” said Sister Shahidah.

Sister Melody Muhammad met Sister Betsy Jean through the Community Urban Agriculture Certification course led by Mr. Allen in Milwaukee. Their relationship developed through shared physical work, fireside conversations, humor, and a common passion for agriculture, she told The Final Call.

Sister Melody said that Sister Betsy Jean was a hands-on example who duplicated Mr. Allen’s program at The Michigan Farm. “She’s not with us physically, but she’s with us in spirit. … She’s a mentor to me,” said Sister Melody, who brought what she learned at Mr. Allen’s farm and under Sister Betsy Jean’s tutelage to Chester, Pennsylvania.

“I’m just so blessed that I’ve got a chance to know her on a personal level because I know that doesn’t happen for everybody. She was so down to earth and she was so funny,” she added.

Sister Angelita Muhammad, an urban farmer, who has been growing quick crops year-round for retail at local farmers markets for the last eight years, met Sister Betsy Jean in 2014 during agriculture training at Mr. Allen’s Growing Power.

“The farm would serve the 50-plus participants dinner in their warehouse and amidst all the eating, cocktail chatter and movement, in walks this tall, imposing figure that immediately caught my attention. When I realized it was my sister, I excitedly approached her with the greetings and introduced myself. We had the best conversation about composting, of all things,” Sis. Angelita recalled.

“We were like two schools girls giddy about our love of composting. The conversation, although brief, was full of excitement and laughter. I had no idea, at the time, the impact she would have on me and our Nation, being a true vanguard as a Black, Muslim farmer. I am so grateful to have shared time and space with her. May Allah continue to reward her and us for the best of what she accomplished in this life.”

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In the U.S., the summer of 2026 through today has been marked by active wildfires, thunderstorms, and a string of coastal and seismic events. These events will become more frequent, and as the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, warned, “the worst is yet to come.” His National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, has constantly warned to “watch the weather.” For decades, both Divine Servants and Warners taught their followers to prepare for these pending calamities.

September is National Preparedness Month and was established in 2004 by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to encourage individuals, their families, neighborhoods and communities to prepare for natural and man-made weather-related and other disasters and emergencies.

Weather and warning

Southern California felt the effects of Tropical Storm Marie over Labor Day weekend in early September, even though the storm itself never made landfall, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Its Los Angeles/Oxnard office reported a significant southerly swell producing hazardous surf conditions – reaching up to 5- 15 feet high on some beaches and life-threatening rip currents along the coast- alongside increasing heat and humidity causing moderate to major impacts focused on the coasts and valleys.

In Malibu, a beachfront driveway on Sea Level Drive collapsed on September 8, forming a sinkhole roughly 25–30 feet deep and 30 by 60 feet wide, and rupturing a natural gas line, prompting the proclamation of a local emergency the same day. City building inspectors ultimately red-tagged seven properties for direct structural damage from the collapse and red-tagged an additional 24 homes because the destroyed roadway cut off emergency vehicle access. The 31 properties were placed under an evacuation order, according to an official statement and Emergency Proclamation, Sept. 8–9.

Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad is the National Assistant to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and a son of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and he recently spoke on these extreme weather events and what they signify.

“I wish we could tell you that it’s going to go away soon. It’s not. It’s not. The only way that God will stay His hand is if America does a miraculous thing,” he said, in part 4 of his message, “Accept Your Own And Be Yourself,” delivered September 16, 2026 at Mosque Maryam in Chicago. He referenced the Bible and the book of Jonah 3:6 and the King of Nineveh and the people humbling themselves before God to repent. Nineveh was a great and powerful nation, and God sent the prophet Jonah to warn them of their wickedness before His Judgment.

“He came out in sackcloth and ashes, and repented, and asked God, but it was from the king all the way down to the little man, and the whole city went out in sackcloth and ashes, and that stayed the hand of God,” Student Min. Ishmael Muhammad explained.

“What if we just did that in a city? … Pray to your God. But the whole point is, see, unless we repent, unless we ask God for forgiveness, then things are not going to get better. But America? America is under divine judgment. That’s the point I’m making: the weather is going continue to intensify, and Minister Farrakhan has told us for years. What does he say?” he asked the audience.

“Watch the weather!” some replied. He repeated, “What did he say?” “Watch the weather,” they replied. “Okay. Well, these rains and these storms are only going to intensify,” added Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad.

The damage from Hurricane Marie sustained in Dana Point, located in Orange County, California, impacted the area’s Beach Road/Capistrano Bay community beginning August 28. When a residential deck was destroyed by coastal erosion undermining a home’s foundation. Inspectors inspected it and red-tagged it the same night.

“It is a war zone down here,” Chris Rogers told ABC 7. Their back deck is gone, and their kitchen now opens up to the ocean, she reported during a tour of their property.

The City’s Director of Emergency Services issued a formal Proclamation of the Existence of a Local Emergency for the Capistrano Bay Community Services District on September 9.

In Long Beach, waves generated by the remnants of Hurricane Marie battered the Peninsula neighborhood for several consecutive days beginning around September 6. The Long Beach Fire Department issued mandatory evacuation orders for approximately 20 homes in the Seaside Walk community, between 63rd and 67th Place, after waves compromised a seawall and damaged the boardwalk.

Earthquakes near Compton and nationwide wildfires

A magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck on September 6 about 2.5 miles Southeast of Compton, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This followed a similar-magnitude earthquake near Ontario, in neighboring San Bernardino County, on September 2. On September 17, USGS recorded a second magnitude 3.1 earthquake at the identical location.

Nationwide, wildfire activity remained severe through late summer. As of August 31, approximately 8.2 million acres had burned across the country and the National Preparedness Level stayed at Level 5, the highest possible, throughout August, with active-duty military and international crews from Australia and New Zealand brought in to help with firefighting resources, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

By early September, the national preparedness level had eased to Level 3, though 56 large fires remained uncontained nationwide as of September 17, with 86 new fires reported in a single day and more than 12,000 personnel assigned to incidents, USGS reported.

Texas became one of the season’s most active states in late August, when the Ross Fire ignited August 24 near Fort Worth and grew to roughly 80,000 acres, prompting the evacuation of about 630 homes overnight, according to Governor Greg Abbott’s office.

Preparedness is key

Nation of Islam Student Southwest Regional Minister Dr. Abdul Haleem Muhammad, an urban planner, strongly suggested that people stop procrastinating and take this lull before the next calamity to prepare to either learn what is required to shelter in place or evacuate during these natural and man-made disasters. “Your very life is at stake. The frequency, intensity, and the sudden unfolding of these events should heighten our awareness and efforts toward preparedness,” he said.

Sister A’ishah Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam Shura Executive Council and National Student Auditing Coordinator, said the pattern of disasters striking unfamiliar regions demands a mindset shift. “It doesn’t matter where we live anymore,” she said. “We used to expect tornadoes in certain parts of the country and hurricanes in others … but at any moment, at any time, it could strike any one of us.”

She described residents of her own town walking around “in a trance” after an EF-1 tornado, unable to believe their community could be hit—and she pointed to Minister Farrakhan’s longstanding instruction to “watch the weather” as guidance too many still dismiss until disaster forces the point home.

“Although we have been talking about and encouraging and pushing and warning others to pay attention to the Divine Warner, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, some of us, as they used to say in the South: ‘don’t believe that fat meat is greasy,’ until we are faced with it, unfortunately. Now we don’t have to really try to convince too many because they see it for themselves. There are still those of us who don’t get it until we feel it, and unfortunately we will have to feel (it) hard! Hopefully we can live beyond that to make sound decisions going forward,” she told The Final Call.

In practical terms, Sis. A’ishah Muhammad explained that it is better to have the items and supplies needed to prepare ourselves and our families than to have nothing.

“It’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it,” she said, describing how households in flood-prone areas should keep a small boat, raft, or canoe with paddles, wading boots, and life vests on hand.

She stressed neighborhood-level readiness—meeting neighbors, discussing what has worked and what has not, and arranging walkable backup shelter agreements—alongside power redundancy. Power redundancy, she explained, means that generators need backups of their own, and even a sump pump’s battery should be swapped every three years, since a working indicator light doesn’t guarantee full power.

She recalled Indiana residents stranded at gas stations during outages, one paying “two dollars and some change” just to beat someone else to the last portion of the fuel.

Sister A’ishah Muhammad also flagged less obvious preparedness gaps, such as safely managing dry ice used to preserve food during extended outages and planning for basic sanitation if toilets stop working.

The Nation of Islam has made online videos available that cover several practical preparedness areas to help individuals protect themselves and their families while sheltering in place as severe weather becomes more frequent.

Panelists discussed situational awareness, cybersecurity, how to respond in a medical emergency, how to secure one’s home, being security-minded, protecting self and family while building alliances in the community, how to secure, organize, and occupy children while sheltering in place, what to do to prepare for an emergency evacuation, handling stress, and other tips.

The videos are available to view on media.noi.org or watch.noi.org under the titles: “The Days of Trouble: Are We Prepared?” and on The Nation of Islam official Facebook Page.

The post Are you and your family prepared? appeared first on Final Call News.

By far the largest outbreak this year involves Cyclospora-contaminated iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico and reportedly supplied by Taylor Farms. Cyclospora is a parasite that can cause cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness. The lettuce made its way into thousands of Taco Bell locations before the link was identified. As of the FDA’s August 27 update, lab results had confirmed 11,458 illnesses across 20 states directly traced to the recalled lettuce, with 495 hospitalizations and two deaths in Michigan.

For decades, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and His National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, taught the importance of Black people growing their own foods amid dangers associated with depending and relying on food grown, regulated and sold by the government or by unreliable sources.

Minister Farrakhan in a 2010 interview with The Final Call under the headline, “Why We Must Produce Food and Control Our Food Sources,” attributed problems on the food horizon to “our food growth is in the hands of those whom we call the Merchants of Death.”

“They’re not caring about how food is raised or how to protect the earth and its nurturing qualities,” he said. “Pesticides and chemicals are being used; hormones are used to grow livestock at faster rates and chemicals are used for the growth of vegetation.”

Minister Farrakhan continued: “It may look good, but in the end, the product is toxic. This is why so many diseases are afflicting us. So, we’re learning how to eat to live, what foods to choose, but now we must be willing to go to the earth and produce that food so that we can extend our days.”

Brother Dr. Ridgely Mu’min Muhammad, manager of the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad Farms in Georgia, emphasized that the more fundamental problem is how far modern food travels before it reaches a plate.

“It’s no telling where that food comes from, and how many times it’s been handled by either humans or equipment,” he said, describing a food system built on long chains of growers, processors, distributors, and retailers rather than direct, local sourcing.

In addition to attributing recall risks to globalized food production, extensive handling, weak inspection, and unsafe agricultural practices, including manure runoff entering irrigation systems, Bro. Dr. Ridgely Muhammad contrasted modern food systems with local gardening, washing, cooking, and same-day consumption.

“People are so used to being able to go and get any type of produce or any type of anything to eat any time they want it. They don’t realize what the possibilities of error are,” he said.

He recalled a time when people grew, washed, and cooked their own food. Agriculture itself began as an alternative to hunting, fishing, and gathering, he said. Instead of foraging for what nature provided, people started saving seeds from the crops they wanted, planting them near their homes or villages, and then simply going out to gather what they needed each day.

“As a matter of fact, when we went to Cuba in 2006, every vacant lot in Havana, there was a garden, raised bed garden,” said Bro. Dr. Ridgely Muhammad, who was among a delegation from the Nation of Islam with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on a trip to Cuba. Without refrigeration, he said, residents simply “go out to the garden in the area, and they would go to the stand and buy what they wanted for that day”—fresh food obtained daily rather than stored and shipped.

Unfortunately, most people have stepped back from growing or preparing their own food entirely, he stated. “We don’t want to cook anymore, so we allow somebody else not only to grow the food, but to mix the food up and to prepare the food and to cook the food. We don’t have any idea where the food comes from nor how it was handled,” Bro. Dr. Ridgely Muhammad said.

Further, he pointed to thinning government oversight as compounding food recall risks. “When government cuts down on the inspectors for inspecting the food system, and you have people who cheat, trying to compete, you left yourself open for such incidents as Salmonella and these other incidents.”

Food-safety advocacy groups have expressed similar concerns, pointing to reduced federal inspection and surveillance staffing as a factor in how outbreaks have unfolded.

“Consumers deserve recall notices that are clear, specific, and actionable,” said former USDA official Sandra Eskin, now CEO of Stop Foodborne Illness.

When done correctly, she told The Final Call, recall messages clearly state what the issue is, what products are affected, and exactly what to do next. “When that information is shared quickly and clearly, it not only reduces public health risks, but it also helps consumers feel more confident that the food industry is taking their safety seriously,” she continued.

The case count crept upward for weeks even after Taylor Farms voluntarily pulled their product on July 17, a delay FDA attributes to the up-to-six-week lag required to confirm whether a sick person belongs to a given outbreak. The FDA has since conducted onsite inspections at Mexican growing and processing facilities and says it is confident the implicated lettuce is off the market, though the investigation remains open.

Taylor Farms has said it voluntarily suspended all iceberg lettuce sourcing and production from central Mexico and commissioned an independent review of food safety protocols at the implicated facility. “We are confident in our food and food safety systems and will continue to be transparent as more information becomes available,” read a company statement online.

According to CDC data cited by U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) Education Fund, a consumer advocacy organization, regulators tracked at least seven cyclospora outbreaks this summer—the Taylor Farms lettuce outbreak plus six unidentified sources—totaling more than 18,445 illnesses and 990 hospitalizations across 47 states as of August 31, with more suspected cases pending. The lettuce outbreak alone ranks as the third-largest foodborne outbreak in U.S. history.

The report also noted that separately, a Salmonella Javiana outbreak traced to Sinaloa-grown jalapeños (distributed by Coast Citrus) sickened 431 people in more than 30 states, hospitalizing 57. A limited late-July recall snowballed into recalls by Whole Foods, Taylor Fresh Foods (the legal and corporate name of Taylor Fresh Farms), NatureBest, Salata, and 18 USDA-flagged meat/poultry products. PIRG notes Chipotle switched suppliers July 20, but USDA didn’t warn the public until August 8, a gap it says allowed preventable illnesses.

The report also notes that a smaller outbreak involves organic frozen blueberries from Chile’s Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur, linked to GreenWise (Publix) and, since September 2, Great Value (Walmart) berries in 16 states—17 illnesses, six hospitalizations, no deaths, as of September 3.

The FDA’s remote review of Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur’s Chilean facility raised enough concerns that it added the company to Import Alert 99-35, allowing future blueberry shipments to be detained at the border unless the issues are resolved.

The FDA also reported on its website that a Listeria outbreak tied to Clover Hill Dairy’s cheese has ended. CDC closed the case in August after tracing 15 illnesses back to March 2023; 14 were hospitalized and one died. The cheese was resold under multiple names—La Colonia, Selectos Latinos, Kesso—making it hard for consumers to track.

The FDA’s response has leaned on import alerts and root-cause facility inspections, like the Chilean assessment and on-site visits to Mexican lettuce growers. Critics say it’s still too slow: the 2022 Food Traceability Rule, meant to speed recordkeeping for high-risk foods, was delayed from January 2026 to July 2028. PIRG says 2025 data show faster tracing could have curbed dozens of downstream recalls.

PIRG also cites a 2025 GAO report on fragmented federal food safety oversight, plus 2025 data showing many outbreaks lack identified sources, recalls, or allergen compliance.

Separately, food safety veterans including Ms. Eskin, weighed in on whether recalls are increasing or is detection just improving?

“Food companies initiate recalls for a number of reasons—contamination with bacteria and other pathogens (or the likelihood of such contamination), unlabeled allergens, and foreign objects (e.g. plastic or metal fragments). Stop Foodborne Illness focuses on reducing pathogenic contamination so we do not focus on the number of recalls, but instead the number of people who have gotten sick from them,” she told The Final Call.

In terms of what regulatory gaps still need closing, she said the prior administration proposed stricter standards for Salmonella contamination in poultry, but the current administration withdrew that proposal.

“It would protect public health,” she said.

According to Ms. Eskin, the major gap in the FDA’s regulatory oversight is the delay in making the traceability rule enforceable. The Food Traceability Rule requires persons who manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods on the Food Traceability List (FTL) to maintain certain records and make records available to FDA, she explained.

Currently, the lag time between when illness starts and when a recall is issued is generally three to four weeks, but it can stretch to six weeks or longer depending on the pathogen, she emphasized.

Beyond the four major outbreaks above, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a string of smaller, unrelated recalls in recent weeks, including Shanghai Ravioli’s uninspected Buffalo chicken items, Indus Foods’ uninspected pickled goat/chicken, Corte Argentino’s beef lacking import reinspection, and Ukrop’s baked dishes contaminated with metal slivers, per FSIS’s active alerts page.

None of these five are connected to the jalapeño, blueberry, lettuce, or cheese outbreaks detailed above; they reflect the routine, ongoing pace of recall activity FSIS handles independent of any single outbreak investigation.

The reason, Minister Farrakhan said during his interview, is “that we are interested in food and the raising of food and how—and the correct foods to eat—is because that is the only way we can prolong human life and that is the gift of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad from Allah to teach us what foods to eat and what foods to store in our houses.”

He continued: “If we go to the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, all economies are based on land and what the land produces.”

“If we now have no earth that we can call our own, then our food consumption is based on what others raise and how others raise that food. So we’re at the mercy of others because we don’t have earth that would give us sustainable agricultural growth and progress,” Minister Farrakhan said.

“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave us an example. When he was here in the 1960s, we went to Georgia and purchased 5,000 acres of land. We went to Alabama and purchased another 8,000 or 10,000 acres of land. We went to Honduras and bought another 20,000 acres of land and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had an ad in our paper at that time, Muhammad Speaks, that said we wanted to lease one million acres of land. Why? Because we wanted to produce a sustainable agricultural program that would give us health, maintain our health and sustain us in a proper way.”

The post Is America’s food supply in jeopardy? appeared first on Final Call News.

It starts with one sweeping new federal law, according to national research, healthcare advocates and professionals, including Lawanda Muhammad, a licensed Medicare and Medicaid advisor.

She works with seniors every day in California—one of the states where these changes are already playing out, and a useful window into what’s unfolding across the country.

In July 2025, the U.S. Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). It cuts hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years from Medicaid—called Medicaid in most states—but known as Medi-Cal in California, MassHealth in Massachusetts, and by other names elsewhere.

The good news is that seniors 65 and older are not affected by the new “work requirement” rule at all. They don’t have to prove they’re working to keep their coverage. That part of the law targets younger adults, ages 19–64.

The real issue for seniors isn’t a work rule—it’s paperwork, mail, and a shrinking safety net underneath the paperwork.

According to KFF, Black people in America are most affected. Roughly 21% of Medicaid enrollees are Black, compared to about 13% of the overall population. Roughly 73.9 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid nationwide, according to KFF’s most recent tracker.

If Black people make up about 18% of that group, that’s roughly 13 million Black people in America on Medicaid—out of an estimated 44–45 million Black Americans in the country overall, per Census Bureau population figures. In other words, nearly 1 in 3 nationally relies on Medicaid, a far higher share than the population as a whole.

For seniors specifically, Black and Latino elders are more likely to be dual-eligible—enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid.  If a state tightens Medicaid rules and someone loses their Medicare Savings Program help, it’s disproportionately Black and Latino seniors who feel that loss first, since more of them rely on that help to begin with, advocates point out.

Every year, the standard Medicare Part B premium (what pays for doctor visits) gets adjusted nationwide. In 2026, it’s $202.90 a month, the same amount for seniors in every state, and it’s projected to rise to around $209.50 in 2027. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), however, won’t confirm the official rate until this fall.

What makes it feel connected is that many low-income seniors do not normally pay that $202.90 out of pocket, noted Ms. Muhammad. Medicaid pays it for them, through something called a Medicare Savings Program, but if they miss their paperwork or deadline for recertification, they lose benefits.

“They’re already on a budget … they look up, and now they’re missing $202.90 out of their check. That’s a big deal,” said Ms. Muhammad. Nearly all of the real damage comes down to seniors missing something in the mail, she continued, and recommended they watch for these three things in their mailbox:

1. Renewal forms. Starting in 2027, some Medicaid recipients nationwide will need to renew their eligibility every six months instead of once a year. Missing the deadline stops coverage—even for someone who still qualifies. “If they don’t respond in the cutoff time, they lose their [coverage],” said Ms. Muhammad, describing what she sees among her California clients.

2. A notice about SSI/SSP-linked Medicaid changing. Some seniors who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) get an extra state check on top of it—in California, called the State Supplementary Payment (SSP); other states have similar supplemental programs under different names.

Ms. Muhammad said some of her California clients are now getting letters saying that extra payment—often a few hundred dollars—is going away, and they’re being moved to a different Medicaid program. This doesn’t necessarily mean losing Medicaid entirely, but it can mean losing the automatic help that was paying a senior’s Medicare Part B premiums, she explained.

3. A letter about bank accounts. Separately, some states are reviving “asset tests” through their own state budget decisions—not the federal law. California brought back an asset test starting January 1, 2026, with a limit of $130,000 in countable assets for an individual, according to the state’s 2025–26 budget act.

Other states have their own limits, or none at all, depending on local budget choices. Illinois, by contrast, has kept a stable $17,500 asset limit in place since 2023—one of the more generous in the country, with no similar disruption for seniors there, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Other large states have kept their own versions: Florida sets a $5,000 limit for aged/disabled Medicaid ($2,000 for nursing home care specifically); and Texas and Georgia generally hold to the federal minimum of $2,000.

This is a state-by-state budget decision, separate from the federal law, but it’s a reminder that Medicaid rules—and how much they can change year to year—vary significantly depending on where someone lives.

Justice in Aging, a national legal advocacy organization focused on senior poverty, has been one of the most vocal critics of how these changes are being implemented.

In comments submitted to federal regulators in July, the organization stated that the new rules take “a more restrictive standard than the statute for determining when an individual should be exempt from work requirements due to health or disability … .”

The group warned, this approach is “especially harmful for older adults, many of whom leave the workforce because of health or functional challenges.”

Justice in Aging has also pushed back on the caregiver exemption specifically, noting the rule “narrows the exemption for caregivers, which will leave out caregivers such as neighbors, friends, and chosen family who provide essential support to older adults.”

More broadly, it warns that the danger isn’t the underlying rule so much as the process around it.  Work requirements create administrative barriers that will lead to improper terminations and disrupted access to crucial healthcare, the group argues.

Further, older adults, people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, and family caregivers face heightened risk of losing Medicaid coverage because these administrative hurdles, reporting requirements, and narrow exemption processes can improperly terminate people, even when they still qualify, continued Justice in Aging.

The organization has also connected the dots to long-term care specifically, reporting that the work requirements could worsen staffing shortages at nursing homes, indirectly affecting residents who aren’t subject to the rule at all.

Ms. Muhammad emphasized, “Pay attention to the mail that’s coming in from the state … there’s a lot of changes.” If a letter looks confusing, she recommends calling the number on it, or call a trusted Medicare/Medicaid advisor, and ask “Do I still have Medicaid? And is it still paying my Part B premium?”

The post Understanding healthcare changes for seniors appeared first on Final Call News.

Included in the records is the “Harding Memo,” the so-called “68 boxes” of documents that surfaced in 2025, after previously not being made available or public, despite Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to New York City and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which previously denied the existence of any such September 11-related records. 

Mayor Mamdani’s FY27 budget includes $34 million to create and maintain the NYC 9/11 Document Portal. “The very least our city owes the families, survivors and first responders whose lives were forever changed by the September 11th attacks is transparency and accountability.

That is why I am proud that our administration has launched the City’s first public records portal dedicated to the environmental and health impacts of 9/11 and reached a settlement in these lawsuits,” said Mayor Mamdani in a press statement. 

“For too long, New Yorkers have had to fight for access to records that should have been available to them in the first place. This portal is part of our administration’s enduring commitment to honor those we lost, care for those living with lasting health consequences and give thousands of New Yorkers the answer they’ve been asking for,” he said.

The move comes after years of pressure from first responders, families of victims, and elected officials for transparency about what city leaders knew about health risks from the toxic dust and debris, and it also resolves a long-running legal fight with the group 9/11 Health Watch over access to these records.

The portal launched September 8, and the city says it will keep adding records to it over the next year as the Law Department finishes reviewing them.

Mayor Mamdani’s administration also plans to help residents connect with federal health benefits under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, passed in 2020. It provides medical monitoring, treatment, and financial compensation to first responders, recovery workers and survivors of 9/11.

“My initial thoughts are that he has pure intentions to be the mayor for all of New York City, but the toxic smoke is not only in what was once the (Twin) Towers. The toxic smoke is in the anti-Islamic sentiment that is in the city,” stated Nation of Islam Student Eastern Regional Minister Arthur Muhammad of Mosque No. 7 in New York.

“So, there is a physical toxic smoke and a figurative toxic smoke, and therefore the pushback that he’s getting from former mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, the pushback that he’s getting from some of the families who have their own ‘isms’ about Muslims,

Or even if they believe that Muslims had something to do with the attack, that somehow Mayor Mamdani’s presence would distract from the solemnness of the occasion,” he argued.

Within weeks of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York, there was reportedly information about asbestos and poor air quality, which was known or at least available through several NYC mayoral administrations: Rudolph Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, and Eric Adams. But it was Mayor Mamdani who released the data.

Yet, ironically, as the 25th anniversary approached, it is Mayor Mamdani, not the officials whose administrations reportedly withheld those records for decades, who faced calls to stay away from the memorial ceremony.

9/11 Health Watch Executive Director Benjamin Chevat credited Mayor Mamdani as the first mayor in 25 years to begin answering what the city knew about Ground Zero’s toxic cloud—and when.

He also praised Corporation Counsel Steve Banks for pushing the Law Department to settle 9/11 Health Watch’s lawsuit and comply with state public records law, resulting in the records release on 9/11 air quality, risk assessments, and public messaging.

According to reporting by U.S. News and World Report, “Representatives for more than 9,000 people who died after 9/11 have filed claims with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and more than 6,000 of those have received compensation so far.” The collapse of the Twin Towers created toxic dust clouds containing a mix of asbestos, metals, concrete, glass and burned jet fuel.

While first responders and rescue workers at Ground Zero experienced the most intense exposure, the hazardous plumes extended across lower Manhattan and into Brooklyn, infiltrating offices, schools and apartment buildings, the outlet reported.

“For 25 years, four different Mayoral administrations kept from the public, the U.S. Congress, and the City Council documents showing what the City actually knew about the danger of the toxic chemicals in Lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn after the World Trade Center collapse, even as City officials continued messaging to the public that the air was ‘safe and acceptable,’” said Mr. Chevat in a Sep. 9 press statement.

According to the local ABC news affiliate, ABC7NY, “City officials said records already reviewed by the Mamdani administration show government leaders understood the dangers posed by burning toxins at Ground Zero. Documents from 2001 indicate officials worried about potential lawsuits related to chemical exposure, even as the city continued to tell the public conditions were safe.”

Corporation Counsel Steven Banks said the portal was a direct response to years of advocates asking for access, and U.S. Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) noted that City Hall had internally predicted responders and nearby residents would face serious long-term health consequences.

“Giuliani’s intentional obfuscation of the truth is a slap in the face to the heroes and community members who were exposed at Ground Zero and in schools, offices, and homes throughout the surrounding area.

By hiding the truth, he prolonged our fight in Congress for funding to take care of victims’ health needs, and cost the lives of other victims through unnecessary delays in healthcare interventions,” said Rep. Nadler.

“While the damage to victims’ health cannot be erased, I am grateful to the Mamdani administration for releasing these files so victims and their loved ones can have the transparency they deserve and officials who misled the public can be held accountable,” he added.

New names continue to be added to the memorial every year, said Student Minister Muhammad, because responders and others have developed cancers, including myelomas, years after the attacks. In addition, some people who responded have died from unknown or untraceable cancer, he said.

On Sept. 2, FDNY added the names of 36 members who died of illnesses related to their work in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center to the FDNY World Trade Center Memorial Wall.

“There’ll be some people that didn’t think that they were affected, and that will now begin to be more concerned. So, we’ll definitely see more talk and chatter about that,” said Student Min. Muhammad. 

“I don’t know if it’s going to open up more lawsuits, but it definitely is going to enlighten people as to the toxic nature that still exists, not only that existed, but that still exists in that area,” he said.

At the news conference announcing the release of the documents, Mayor Mamdani agreed that many people exposed to Ground Zero dust and debris were misled about the risks they faced.

“The leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mayor Mamdani said.

To access the 9/11 NYC Document Portal, visit: sept11documents.cityofnewyork.us

—Charlene Muhammad, National Correspondent

The post Misled for 25 years? 9/11 air quality, environmental reports raise questions about government accountability appeared first on Final Call News.

“When the call was made for all males between 18 and 44, I refused (NOT EVADING) on the grounds that, first, I was a Muslim and would not take part in war and especially not on the side with the infidels. Second, I was 45 years of age and was NOT according to the law required to register.”

Many other male members of the Nation of Islam at that time were themselves imprisoned as conscientious objectors (CO) to World War II.

That status is today being claimed by hundreds of active-duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines across every branch of the U.S. military, as conscientious objectors.

Since the United States and Israel launched military strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 of this year, veterans’ groups and legal counselors say they have fielded a wave of active-duty service members asking how to become conscientious objectors—including officers.

The Center on Conscience and War (CCW), which has advised troops on their rights since 1940, says applications have increased six-fold since the war began, with roughly 140 applicants taken on so far, compared with about 50 in a typical year.

CCW Executive Director Mike Prysner said many current applicants have served more than a decade, span ranks up to major, and in some cases attended military service academies.

“The Iran War was really the breaking point for them when they realized that they had to take action to make sure that they did not participate in something that they were going to regret for the rest of their lives,” said Mr. Prysner to MS NOW in an August 26 interview.

Quaker House’s GI Rights Hotline reported a parallel spike of 429 inquiries in March and 440 in April, with elevated demand persisting since then. The group reported that it is working with about 30 people actively pursuing CO applications, compared with five to 10 before the war.

“The number of those who actually decide to apply does not reflect the complete number of people who have expressed hesitations,” said Lenore Yarger, a longtime peace activist and resource counselor with the GI Rights Hotline.

Operating through Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina, according to the IBTimes UK and The New American. She cited the Minab girl’s school bombing in Iran and “concern about the leadership” as the most common reasons callers gave.

Mr. Prysner said the highest-ranking service member to seek CCW’s help held an O-4 pay grade—equivalent to a major or a Navy lieutenant commander.

According to Mr. Prysner, most of the currently serving soldiers who joined roughly 500 veterans, active-duty troops and military families marching in Philadelphia on July 4—the largest such protest since Vietnam—were born after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“They became adults as the Afghanistan War, which spanned their entire lives, ended in defeat,” he said. “They have grown up with those wars and their lessons: total disasters that turned out to be for nothing, with a devastating humanitarian toll, kept alive endlessly by the lies of those in charge,” he stated.

The Feb. 28, 2026, strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab is cited by multiple sources as a specific catalyst driving objections.

Addressing the Nation of Islam’s 31st Annual National Training Conference on July 25, Minister Farrakhan issued a divine, stern warning:

“You’ve got bloodsuckers of the poor. You’ve got eaters of the dead. See, when you don’t know how to work for what you get, or are waiting for somebody to die to see what you can get, think about it, those sisters, those brothers, taught us this lesson: An aggressor is a loser.

“I am saying this to the president: An aggressor is a loser. Because God is never with those who are aggressors, oppressors, tyrants, bullies, who love to make people afraid. During the demonstrations, there was a brother moving around, but the poor man lost the stick (knocked out of his hands).

“Those brothers were mean out there! And if you are an aggressive fool, looking at what you saw, then the lesson is: Don’t be a bully. Find a better way to solve a problem! Yes, you’ve got an armada. Yes, you’ve got ships. Yes, you’ve got armies.

Yes, you’ve got ballistic missiles. Yes …  But you don’t have God. And if you don’t have God, you don’t have the forces of nature! And God is unleashing the forces of nature now! Don’t try Him. Don’t try Him, please. If you want to live, put the gun down, put the bomb down,” Minister Farrakhan said.

He continued, “You can threaten Iran. Iran has a little something to fight back. But my Teacher told me that this war was going to start with conventional weapons and it will end with nuclear weapons. You heard it first from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

“I say this as warning before the war gets hot. Stop, and think. Precious lives are on those ships, but God can maneuver the water in such a way, which you will see, and sink your ship. See, nothing can stand against the force of nature when it is unleashed.

“Please … I am from God, whether you know it or not! Damn it, if you haven’t seen it yet, you are blind as hell! But I am telling you, I am from God! And what I say, you’re going to meet it again if you think you’re going to destroy people with your bombs, with your weapons! You will be destroyed!”

Dr. Ronald Beavers, founder of the Positive Imagery Foundation, told The Final Call that conscientious objection is nothing new. He ties the current unrest to what he called the Cloward-Piven strategy, a theory of social disruption he said ultimately serves those already in power. The war cannot be sustained, he stated.

“People are leaving the military because folks, just like in Vietnam, are saying it’s not for freedom and justice; it’s for money,” said Dr. Beavers. He said public debate often overlooks the toll already inflicted on those who served, describing some veterans as moving through daily life without recognizing how deeply they’ve been affected: “You see a shell,” he said.

Barry Ladendorf is a Vietnam-era Navy veteran, retired California deputy attorney general and former national president of Veterans for Peace, now president of Veterans for Peace’s San Diego chapter.

He said what he hears from counselors matches CCW and Quaker House’s numbers, and that the Minab strike was a turning point for many service members: “The idea of killing a school full of girls was just, for some of them, too much.”

He also said service members have also raised concerns about Gaza. “They want no part of it. They think the United States should not be giving weapons to Israel to do that. And I agree with it. In fact, doing that is a violation of U.S. law.

We have laws on the books that we’re not following that says the United States cannot give weapons to any nation that is engaged in genocide. And so, when we do that, we’re violating our own laws,” he told The Final Call.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad refused the World War II draft in 1942 and was unjustly imprisoned for it along with other men of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad Ali refused induction in 1967, refusing to fight a people in another poor nation and was therefore stripped of his heavyweight boxing title.

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?

No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end,” he said in part.

Minister Farrakhan has issued repeated warnings over several decades against war and aggression.

Today CCW and Quaker House report hundreds of active-duty service members seeking conscientious objector status or contacting GI rights hotlines since the war on Iran began.

“I think the solution is to get out of these unnecessary wars. We don’t need to be involved in every conflict around the world. There was absolutely no reason to go into Iran,” Mr. Ladendorf said.

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His new legal team has since won the recusal of trial judge John Roach, arguing a television interview Judge Roach gave after the verdict showed bias, and has filed motions seeking a new trial. On August 19, Judge Sid Harle presided over that hearing, ruling that Judge Roach must step aside.

In June, a Collin County jury found Mr. Anthony guilty of first-degree murder in the April 2025 stabbing of Mr. Metcalf during an argument at a Frisco track meet. Both were 17 years old at the time of the incident. Mr. Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison and will be eligible for parole after serving half that time. He has maintained he acted in self-defense after Mr. Metcalf allegedly pushed him.

Hearings for a new trial before a new judge, Michael Chitty, began on August 20, reopening questions about what jurors were never allowed to hear.

Attorney Sadiyah A. Evangelista Karriem, a Houston-based criminal defense lawyer following the case, said the recusal of Judge Roach points to a larger principle now at the center of the appeal.

“The judge who tried this case went on television afterward and said the jury got it right. He said that while he still held the power to undo that verdict himself,” she said. Atty. Karriem said that Judge Harle of the Fourth Administrative Judicial Region indicated that he did not know Judge Roach.

“He (Judge Harle) said he believed Roach would be fair. He took him off anyway, because of how it might look to a third party. That is the principle our courts should run on. Not a judge’s word that he was fair, but the public being able to see it,” she stated.

That principle, she said, is also at the heart of the defense’s push for a new trial over how the original courtroom was run.

“The defense says the courtroom was effectively closed. A handful of public seats, no cameras, no overflow room, a gag order entered 10 months early on nobody’s motion,” Atty. Karriem continued, citing case law (Waller v. Georgia) to emphasize that the public is not shut out absent an overriding reason, a narrow closure, thought given to alternatives, and findings on the record.

“When a court gets that wrong, the reviewing court does not ask whether it changed the verdict, because the injury runs to everyone who was kept outside,” she explained.

She was careful to note, “Nobody is asking anyone to forget Austin Metcalf. Nobody is asking for a dismissal. Anthony was convicted in June and got 35 years. The ask is a trial the public can truly watch,” she said.

Further, she told The Final Call, “I am happy to see the family fighting for this young man’s freedom. Although it is a sad reality a life was lost, let justice demonstrate itself from the beginning and end of this case. It was obvious the previous judge was biased.”

 The case remains highly contested and racially charged in public discourse. Meanwhile, both the prosecution and the defense are presenting selective character evidence to bolster their positions in the ongoing appeal.

Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Anthony sent his then-girlfriend a photograph of a knife. His girlfriend had allegedly told a school administrator she was afraid of him. Prosecutors have also compiled a 75-page character dossier on Mr. Anthony that they intend to present as the hearings continue.

At the August 19 hearing, a motion filed by Russell Wilson—Mr. Anthony’s current attorney handling the bid for a new trial—detailed 53 documented alleged incidents, dating back to 2010, involving Austin Metcalf and his twin brother, Hunter. Atty. Mike Howard.

Who represented Mr. Anthony at the original trial, testified that none of it reached the jury because of a verbal “gentlemen’s agreement” between his team and prosecutors to keep character evidence about both families out of the courtroom—an arrangement he said was kept off paper specifically out of fear it would leak and taint the jury pool.

Among the incidents are allegations that the twins spray-painted racist graffiti, including the phrase “KKK kill all Blacks,” resulting in 12 months of juvenile probation for both brothers. Records described two separate alleged assaults on female students, including a 2018 incident that led to an arrest.

Other records alleged the twins bullied a Black classmate and used racial slurs in October 2023, that Austin was suspended after allegedly discussing plans to bring a gun to school, that he was banned from girls’ basketball games in 2021 for profanity toward players, and that Hunter had referenced “jumping” students from a rival school in messages.

Lead prosecutor Bill Wirskye did not dispute the substance of the allegations, acknowledging in court that Austin Metcalf had a history of fighting and had taken part in graffiti containing racist material.

Houston-based Attorney Pamela Muhammad spoke to the question of “reasonableness,” saying the incidents bear directly on Texas’ self-defense standard.

“The incidents that have now come out from the hearing—that was overwhelming evidence of the propensity for violence, prior bad actions of the victim,” she said, adding, “Under the Texas criminal code, the use of deadly force is authorized if you reasonably believe it’s immediately necessary to protect against another’s use of unlawful force.” This case has garnered national interest. 

Los Angeles-based activist Dr. Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter Grassroots said the recusal of the original judge reflects the impact of sustained community organizing around Mr. Anthony’s case.

“He should have never been forced to defend himself against assailants in the first place. And of course, the trial was a sham,” she argued. “His prosecution as an adult was outrageous, and the idea that he could be sentenced to 35 years in prison is disgusting.”

Student Minister Rashad Muhammad of the Nation of Islam’s Mosque No. 48 in Dallas said that in his view, Mr. Anthony’s new legal team appears far more invested in his defense than his original one. “Everyone is entitled to a proper representation under the law of this country,” he stated.

As for the alleged “gentlemen’s agreement” between the original defense and prosecution, Student Min. Muhammad said he wasn’t surprised.

“We know how games have been played in this country between quote-unquote lawyers and representatives of the law, especially when it comes to our people,” he said. “They seem to be fighting it out in the courtroom, but behind closed doors they can sit at a lunch table, metaphorically speaking, and hash out how they want the case to unfold,” he added.

At Final Call presstime, it was reported that Judge Chitty denied the request for a new trial. According to reporting by CBS, Atty. Wilson expressed his disappointment. 

“We respectfully disagree with the ruling and remain firmly committed to protecting our client’s rights,” Atty. Wilson said, according to CBS.

 “We believe the issues raised in our motion are substantial and deserve meaningful appellate review. The denial of our motion does not end this case. We will continue the appeal in the Fifth Court of Appeals and pursue every legal remedy available to our client.

“Our commitment to our client has not changed. We will continue to advocate vigorously on his behalf through every lawful avenue available,” he said.

The post New legal team fights for new trial for teen Karmelo Anthony  appeared first on Final Call News.

The fear is what Armando Gudino, executive director of the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, wants people to understand first.

“It’s hard to describe the type of fear and intimidation that a community, particularly Brown communities, immigrant communities, are experiencing right now,” Mr. Gudino told The Final Call, in an interview following a federal court hearing on ICE enforcement tactics in Southern California. “… the fear of not knowing if you’re going to be able to go out and take your kid to school and come back home,” he said.

Children are afraid to leave their parents’ homes, families losing income when a parent is detained, and what he called “catastrophic impacts” on communities’ emotional and mental well-being. The effects, he said, will ripple outward into local economies and the country as a whole.

That human toll sits at the center of Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California before Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong.

The suit was originally brought by five individual Latino workers and three membership organizations— the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)—along with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, over what the complaint describes as immigration operations that began around June 6, 2025.

“This case is not about stopping immigration enforcement; it’s about requiring immigration enforcement to indeed follow the Constitution,” Mr. Gudino said. “What it cannot do is treat being Latino as reasonable suspicion.

You cannot stop someone simply because they look Brown, or they speak Spanish, or work what is otherwise categorized by some as a low-wage job, or happen to be standing outside a Home Depot or a car wash, looking Brown,” he argued.

Chandra Bhatnagar, executive director, ACLU Foundation of Southern California, is among the counsel of record for plaintiffs in the case, alongside Public Counsel, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and several other firms and legal clinics named in the amended complaint.

“No one should have to live wondering whether they or someone that they love can simply be disappeared by the government,” Mr. Bhatnagar stated outside the courthouse. “We are here for you, and our fight will continue,” he added.

What’s changed since the case’s early days is discovery—depositions, internal agency records, and other cases argued since Judge Frimpong’s original 2025 restraining order—evidencing that racial profiling, not individualized law enforcement, is happening, noted Mr. Gudino.

He told The Final Call that he left today’s hearing “cautiously optimistic,” adding that the government’s defense felt, to some in the room, insubstantial.

On February 26, 2026, plaintiffs filed a Second Amended Complaint adding two claims – that the government intentionally discriminated against Latino communities in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection guarantee, and that agents used unreasonably intrusive tactics— handcuffing, prolonged confinement, relocation, and force used against compliant individuals— in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The complaint alleges the pattern was sanctioned at the top. It cites “border czar” Tom Homan stating that officers consider a person’s “physical appearance” among the “typical facts” behind a stop, and quotes an unnamed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official acknowledging that agents arrest people based, among other things, on “how they look.”

The complaint also quotes the government’s own words from its filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, in which officials argued that to carry out their mission, agents must be able to rely on “apparent ethnicity” and stop a “relatively broad range of individuals.”

Separately, the complaint cites a June 8, 2025 DHS news release describing the operation as capturing the “worst of the worst”— “murderers, sex offenders, and other violent criminals.”

In September 2025, the Supreme Court granted the government a stay of Judge Frimpong’s original restraining order in a 6-3 decision, allowing the challenged practices to continue while litigation proceeded. The Los Angeles Worker Center Network, a plaintiff, said at the time:

“The Court has opened the door for immigration agents to stop and detain people simply because of the color of their skin, the language they speak, or the work they do. … We will not be silenced.”

Outside the courthouse on August 13, Mayra Morales recounted learning of her husband’s detention through a message from an unknown number that reached her at 2 p.m.—she called him repeatedly afterward, but he never answered.

No ruling on the preliminary injunction was issued by the close of hearing. Mr. Gudino said the fight will continue regardless of the outcome. He concluded, “We’re going to continue to fight in court. We’re going to continue to fight just by virtue of being who we are and saying we’re not going to give up.”

The post Battle continues over constitutionality of ICE raids in L.A. appeared first on Final Call News.

Incidents have hit both ends of the pipeline—drinking water systems like the Clayton County Water Authority near Atlanta, which saw a pressure drop and had to issue a boil-water advisory, and wastewater infrastructure like a lift station in Rapid City, South Dakota, that was also targeted.

According to the agencies, via a July 30 press release, the attackers targeted internet-connected industrial controllers made by Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley—specifically the MicroLogix 1100 and 1400 models.

Which utilities use to manage equipment like pumps and valves. Since July 27, utility companies in at least seven states have reported breaches to the FBI, with some incidents degrading water operations.

Once inside, the hackers changed IP addresses (i.e., location addresses for network devices) and passwords, cutting off operators’ ability to monitor and control their own systems, officials said.

The FBI noted it has so far only confirmed this activity with the Rockwell devices but warned that utilities using other brands of equipment should take similar precautions.

At least one affected organization discovered its controller programming had been altered after noticing inconsistencies in the underlying code across multiple sites. Investigators also found that shared network setups installed by outside vendors may make it easier for hackers to replicate their attacks against other customers with similarly vulnerable configurations.

The consequences for affected facilities have included loss of water pressure and flooding, officials said. A drop in pressure can potentially allow untreated groundwater to seep into pipes.

How badly a facility was affected depended on several factors, including whether the compromised controller was used for monitoring or actively controlling equipment, which model was involved, what function the device performed, and whether staff could switch to manual operation.

The FBI and EPA said they are working directly with affected organizations and are issuing recommendations to help other critical infrastructure operators protect themselves.

To defend against the attacks, the FBI and EPA have urged water utilities to take these controllers off the open internet and place them behind secure firewalls, use strong and unique passwords, and restrict system access to only approved, expected devices.

As word of the breaches spread, the reported number of affected states climbed from seven to as many as 12, according to other sources.

In Michigan, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) confirmed that nine municipal water systems reported activity consistent with the federal warnings.

“All systems continued to operate safely, issues were addressed by local operators, and there are no known impacts that posed a public health concern,” said EGLE spokesman Dale George, adding that the state received “a small number of reports from Michigan communities indicating activity consistent with what federal agencies described.”

Nation of Islam Student Minister Marcus Muhammad of Benton Harbor, who also serves as the city’s mayor, connected the breach to a longer history of water troubles in majority-Black Michigan cities.

He emphasized the strategic importance of water, noting that the Great Lakes region’s economy could be the third largest globally, with 18 million jobs projected in the next 15 years.

Further, he stressed the need for unity, as taught by The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, and His National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Both Divine Servants teach that unity is our key to survival, particularly during challenging times. In the 1930s, The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad began teaching Black people the importance of unity, that we must depend on Allah (God) and ourselves.

“In unity, we can accomplish much,” He writes on page 61 of “Message To The Blackman In America,” in the chapter titled, “The So-Called Negro Must Do Something For Himself.”

“The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that our unity is more powerful than an atomic or hydrogen bomb. So, our unity is so critically important at this time because as America is imploding … if we do not unite as a people, and when I say unite.

I mean our professionals, our carpenters, our electricians, our engineers, our journalists, our scientists, our educators, our spiritual teachers, our politicians—the alternative is death,” stated Student Minister Marcus Muhammad.

He continued, “I can’t speak or say much about an Iranian hacker,” (referring to unsubstantiated allegations on the source of the recent cyberattacks), “but what I can say is that there have been forces—particularly the state of Michigan—that have been a destructive force to the Benton Harbor water system, Flint and Highland Park,” he stated.

Student Min. Marcus Muhammad argued that the Great Lakes region’s water supply is becoming an increasingly contested economic resource, citing former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s remark that “the new oil in the 21st century is water,” and pointed to the rise of data centers as a growing source of demand.

“Right now, there are water wars being waged globally, and the war is being waged on who will control those resources,” he said.

He told The Final Call that he’s seen more damage and destruction to the water systems of Flint, Benton Harbor, Highland Park, revealing what he argues is a concerted effort to take away water capacity or water filtration plants of municipalities that are majority Black.

Monica Patrick-Lewis, a human rights activist and advocate with the Detroit water-rights group: We the People of Detroit, put the breach in the context of decades of underfunding.

She highlighted Detroit’s critical role in national commerce and the impact of privatization on water access and quality, linking the incident to a broader pattern of water crises in Flint, Jackson, Mississippi, Houston and Oscoda, Michigan, and to systemic issues and environmental degradation.

She told The Final Call that federal investment in water infrastructure has fallen from roughly two-thirds of water-project dollars (67-69%) a half-century ago to somewhere between 7% and 9% today.

“When you have antiquated systems that are sometimes 15, 20, 30 years behind their time, then it makes us even more vulnerable for these kinds of attacks,” said Ms. Patrick-Lewis, arguing that growing privatization of water systems tends to raise costs and lower water quality in already underserved communities.

Beyond the technical fixes urged by the FBI and EPA, Ms. Patrick-Lewis pointed to a community-driven approach already underway in Detroit as one way affected cities might build longer-term resilience.

Through We the People of Detroit, local youth have carried out water quality testing across two rounds of sampling on Detroit’s Eastside and in Southwest Detroit—grassroots data collection meant to give residents an independent picture of what’s actually coming out of their taps, she said.

But that data spans beyond with youth researchers into partnerships with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University to layer an economic feasibility study; and a public health analysis on top of the testing results.

According to Ms. Patrick-Lewis, Stanford and UCLA have joined as research partners on related aspects of the project. The goal, she said, is to turn raw sampling data into something residents can actually use and understand.

That work is set to culminate in a public-facing website, built in part by the youth participants themselves, that will combine GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping, water quality data, and flood mitigation strategies in one place.

Rather than presenting the information as a dry technical report, the site will be layered with community art and culture “so that it’s relatable to our community and our people,” Ms. Patrick-Lewis added.

Chicago-based cyber expert Timothy Muhammad is owner of a technology and computer company. He is also a member of the Chicago team for the Ministry of Information for the Nation of Islam. He argued that the incidents serve as a warning sign residents should take seriously, even though he characterized it as a minor breach rather than a major attack.

“Words matter,” he said, echoing sentiments expressed in previous messages by The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. He pushed back on how the incident has been characterized in the press, telling The Final Call, “this isn’t really an attack—it’s a breach, and there’s a difference.”

He noted that no equipment was damaged or destroyed and the intrusions appear to be the work of opportunistic hackers rather than a sophisticated, state-sponsored operation.

He was skeptical of reports linking the incident to Iran, noting that investigators and government officials have not confirmed that attribution. The breach, he noted, likely spread to multiple states because affected utilities were running the same vulnerable, internet-facing equipment.

“Because they found a flaw in one waterworks, the other waterworks are using the same equipment,” he stated, comparing the situation to someone checking doors around a neighborhood and walking through the one left unlocked, versus someone breaking in to cause damage.

“If it was a real attack … now you have a citywide problem where now people are going to have to cut off or stop using the water in order to protect themselves. … These are really preludes to the things that may happen, and we have to be in a position to save ourselves and our family,” Timothy Muhammad stated.

He recommended that individuals and communities pursue personal, independent water sources, comparing such efforts to the broader push for energy independence.

“We also want constant personal sources of water and other resources, because when these things happen and they become serious, we’re going to need to save ourselves and our community,” he said.

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This year’s theme, “We Must Make Our Communities a Decent and Safe Place to Live,” carried added weight throughout the weekend, as the conference unfolded in the wake of two significant losses for the Nation of Islam.

Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, wife of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and First Lady of the Nation of Islam, returned to Allah (God) on June 27. Sister Azziza Muhammad, affectionately called “Mama Azziza,” wife of Grandmaster Dr. Abdul Azziz Muhammad, the Student Assistant Supreme Captain of the Nation of Islam, returned to Allah on July 15.

Both heavy losses were felt throughout the weekend by participants and attendees—nowhere more than in a tribute delivered on the mat by the sisters of USOS Lion’s Paw Martial Arts.

And as he has in years past, Minister Louis Farrakhan addressed participants at this year’s International Training Conference (see related coverage this issue), continuing a tradition that has made his presence the weekend’s most anticipated moment for martial artists, security trainers, and families gathered from across the country.

Prior to Minister Farrakhan’s message on July 25, the conference’s opening day and session featured remarks from several of his longtime helpers, including his National Assistant, Student Minister Ishmael R. Muhammad; his son, Student Supreme Captain Mustapha Farrakhan;

Student Minister Nuri Muhammad of Mosque No. 74 in Indianapolis; Student Minister Jeffrey Muhammad of Mosque Maryam in Chicago; and Student Minister Ilia Rashad Muhammad of Mosque No. 55 in Memphis.

Student Min. Ilia centered his remarks directly on the conference theme. As a beekeeper, he drew an analogy to the conference’s theme by describing bees as a model of self-sacrificing, cooperative community-building directly relevant to the conference’s aim of making our communities and neighborhoods a safe and decent place to live, as taught by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

The responsibility is on Black people just like the responsibility for the safety and protection of the “hive” falls on the “community” or “nation” of bees in that hive.

“Everything the bees do they do it for their ‘nation.’ … They do it for the whole,” he said.

‘Accept Your Own And Be Yourself’

In his remarks during the conference opening, Student Minister Ishmael spoke on the discipline that training provides. “The training gives us the requisite discipline that is found in the teachers. The training gives us skill that allows for us to do what Allah (God), through His Messenger Messiah, would have us to do,” he said.

The International Training Conference brings together martial arts practitioners, security professionals and students of all levels, ages and backgrounds. It is a gathering that focuses on not only physical preparation and training, but mental and spiritual training as well.

Student Min. Ishmael spoke on the story of David and Goliath from the Bible, framing the young shepherd’s victory as a matter of faith rather than physical preparation. “It comes from the strength of his heart and the rich soul.

It is the faith that removes fear,” continued Student Min. Ishmael.  He also spoke of the “whole armor of God” as spiritual protection, and described the greater struggle as an internal one. “Satan is already in our heart … the real enemy to defeat is Satan on the inside,” he stated. 

He concluded his remarks with a call to self-discipline. “… develop yourself. Be yourself. Learn about yourself. And cultivate yourself, because yourself is God.”

Over four days, the conference combined martial arts training and competition with workshops on security, family life, agriculture, and youth development, alongside spiritual observance including Friday’s Jumu’ah (congregational) prayer.

Nation of IslamStudent National Imam Sultan Rahman Muhammad, who led Jumu’ah prayer Friday afternoon, focused his khutbah (sermon) around the Arabic roots for light (Nur) and fire (Nar), applying the distinction to the conference’s community-safety theme. “We are charged with the divine command to make a more decent and safe place to live,” he told the congregation.

“Are we part of the fire that is destroying our community? Or are we part of the light that is bringing about the transformation of our people?” he asked.

Throughout the weekend, special workshops and sessions were held. On July 25, martial arts masters and senseis from various styles and schools demonstrated self-defense techniques, giving adults and children a chance to learn and participate.

Then the anticipated moment arrived, when the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan arrived to thunderous applause, before the audience was seated on mats, in anticipation of hearing from him. However, before his message, martial artists continued demonstrating techniques.

Children and youth entered the mat as one played a wind chime before they sat down. Sister Dr. Khalilah T. Muhammad, flanked by Sister Tamiko G. Muhammad, then addressed Minister Louis Farrakhan.

“Brother Minister?”  Sister Khalilah said over the microphone. “Yes!” he answered, breaking into a bright smile as the room laughed. “As-Salaam Alaikum, sir,” she continued. “Walaikum salaam. I can see you!” he replied.

“Today we would like to present a tribute to Mother Khadijah Farrakhan,” Sister Khalilah said. “I have her with me,” Minister Farrakhan interjected.  “We have often heard you say that Mother Khadijah is the wind beneath your wings,” she continued. “Yes,” he said.

“So, every time you hear the wind blow, we want you to know that she is always with you, no matter where you are. This tribute is for you,” Sister Khalilah concluded.

“Yes, I brought her with me!” Minister Farrakhan answered.

Some conference-goers smiled, laughed, others wept.

Minister Farrakhan then received the gift of the tribute itself, telling the Sisters of USOS: “You all go ahead and do what you do and I’m with you if you’re giving a tribute to the woman whom God gave me.

That is the best gift I could have other than His Presence and the presence of the truth and the mission that He gave to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. So, thank you so much for your tribute to her because really that sets the stage so completely perfect for me. Thank you very much.”

“Allahu Akbar” rang out, followed by applause, as the tribute resumed.

Professor Zahalea Anderson, of Ra Life Defense at the Urban School of Self Defense, paid honor with a kata routine filled with grace, reverence, beauty and strength.  As the young students exited the mat, Sister Sensei Gabrielle X stepped forward along with a group of sisters who are students of USOS Lions Paw. 

They gave courtesy (bowing) to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Grandmaster Dr. Abdul Azziz Muhammad, Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, and to Sister Shodan (first-degree black belt) Azziza Muhammad.

In speaking about Mother Khadijah and Sister Azziza, Sister Tamiko said, “May their legacy continue to inspire for generations to come. May their memory forever live in our heart,” adding that the sisters were presenting the kata (form) “as a tribute to strength that does not overpower, but endures, to movement that is fluid but is unwavering, and to power expressed with grace, intention and balance.”

Reflections and lessons learned

There were special men-only, women-only, and youth sessions, as well as other family-friendly events during the weekend like the singles social and a “Rep Your Generation Party.”

Workshop sessions included: “Protecting our houses of worship!” “Hands-on session on emergency response, “The Great Famine,” and “Defensive Driving.” 

Participants and presenters enjoyed the sessions.

Sister Vivian Muhammad and Brother Hadi Muhammad guided youth during a workshop on gardening. Sister Vivian Muhammad runs an urban farming project in Indianapolis.

“Your community, first of all—gardens, neighborhood gardens, your own yard—that’s neighborhood beautification … that is helping to make your community a decent and safe place to live,” she said.

Sister Niara Siddiq, of New Orleans, said a workshop on famine preparedness led by Brother Randy Muhammad of Osafa’s Oasis farm in Georgia impacted her. “We really do need to take charge … because our lives are at stake and we can’t just wait around. He (Bro. Randy) did motivate me to start gardening,” she said.

Sister Angie Muhammad, who traveled from Los Angeles with her three daughters and young niece, described the weekend as something she “could not even put into words,” saying it was her family’s first time physically seeing Minister Farrakhan in person in nearly four years.

A belt promotion ceremony led by Grandmaster Dr. Azziz and Shihan Daniel Muhammad of USOS Lion’s Paw recognized students across ranks, including two Jr. blackbelts.

On the final day of the conference, July 26, the Scimitar Open Martial Arts Tournament offered martial artists a chance to compete in various categories, including kata, martial arts weapons, and sparring.

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