Dec. 1, 2025

(TriceEdneyWire.com)—A few days ago, I was on my way out of the country going to Ghana where I was to be an honoree at a celebration. I heard UNANIMOUS CONSENT!  I had found it difficult to pack while waiting on pins and needles to find out how the vote would come out to release the Epstein files so the women who were young girls (some just 14 years old) went through hell while grown men and a woman abused them.

The woman has been convicted of her role in this tragedy. Jeffrey Epstein died at what we’re told was by his own hands—something many found hard to believe.  Many I talk with don’t find that explanation credible; however, that’s what is on the record.  Epstein’s friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving her time in a Texas prison where it’s reported she’s serving with special privileges. 

Brave women, still suffering from the impact of what happened to them have had enough of the harm caused by Epstein, Maxwell and later by Donald and his friends who’ve delayed justice by refusing to release the files we know existed. Epstein’s family was honorable enough to share what they had.  From those files, we learned some important things.    

While waiting for some manner of justice, these women kept up the fight; they earned a lot of support from Democrats immediately, but not Republicans, because the President held them hostage and prevented them from supporting the resolution to have the complete files released.  There was even talk of Trump planning to pardon and release Ghislaine Maxwell.  Naturally, when asked about that rumor, Trump sat feigning innocence by saying he hadn’t ruled it out.

Meanwhile, we went through a lot of drama where nearly all Republicans were waiting for their dear leader to give them instructions. With few exceptions, Republicans were on hold, and the fact that the bill to force the Justice Department to release the files passed the House, and sooner than we had thought, it passed the Senate where it passed by UNANIMOUS CONSENT after their dear leader released them to vote to pass it once he learned enough Republicans were already going to vote for the bill to pass anyway!  That must have come as a shock to him. Never-the-less, the bill was immediately headed to Trump to sign.  At the time of the overwhelming vote to pass the bill, and by unanimous consent in the Senate, Speaker Johnson appeared crushed and blamed our leader in the Senate—not the President!

For once I can say, thank you to Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who withstood Trump’s accusations and calling her a traitor.  She’d pivoted too much truth telling about healthcare and how much it would cost her family. I wonder what Trump thinks about the overwhelming vote against his real wishes!  We know his announcement of “releasing” them to vote came after learning how many were going to do it anyway! Are they all traitors?

We must be cautious about this seeming victory upon releasing the files. This still must stop by AG Pam Bondi.  There’s always the possibility that her gross behavior will be the same she exhibited when called before Senators, after admitting the files were on her desk and she was called in to explain herself once it wasn’t convenient for her to admit she had the files, and claim she was so busy with other matters that she allowed staff to handle the biggest case of her tenure!  

 I guess defending Trump was just far more important to her than doing her job for the people!  She’ll probably have a lot of time to look at the files now because I don’t think she will enjoy being in Washington defending Trump after the way she handled these files and how she sassed the Senators—something not in her job description!

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of The Dick Gregory Society.)

Oct. 4, 2025

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - We certainly live in challenging times.

Shortly before RFK, Jr.’s hand-picked CDC panel met last week to abandon its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, Senator Adam Schiff publicly asked insurers to cover routine vaccines for illnesses, no matter what the group recommended. I applaud Sen. Schiff for continually fighting the good fight.

Throughout my time in Congress, I was also a lifelong advocate for health equity. I spent decades fighting to make healthcare more accessible in underserved communities like the one I represented in Brooklyn. It was both an opportunity and a challenge to fight these inequalities.

But lately, some of our health equity challenges are quietly morphing into crises right before our eyes. I’m talking about pharmacy deserts, which continue to expand as pharmacies close in our cities and surrounding neighborhoods.

Take Sen. Schiff’s efforts, for instance. If pharmacists aren’t around to administer vaccinations, insurance coverage of these COVID-19 shots won't matter for the millions of Americans stuck in pharmacy deserts. 

Pharmacies are closing at an alarming pace. Across America: CVS closed 900 stores between 2022 and 2024, and they will close 270 more stores in 2025; Walgreens is shuttering 1,200 stores; and Rite-Aid, which recently filed for bankruptcy, closed more than 310. 

I cannot sit on the sidelines and watch as pharmacies, the lifelines of community healthcare, vanish before our eyes. These pharmacies are essential institutions that serve as trusted, accessible points of care for millions of families with nowhere else to turn.

Nationwide, local drugstores are shutting their doors. These aren’t just a loss for businesses big and small; they are a loss for entire communities. For many, especially in under-resourced areas, these pharmacies are where people fill prescriptions, get vaccinated, manage chronic conditions, and ask health questions they can’t afford to take to a doctor. They’re a pillar of public health.

So why is this happening?

One major reason is a coordinated attack by the pharmaceutical industry on the very companies, the so-called middlemen that help keep drug costs down. These are the organizations that negotiate discounts, enable mail delivery, and manage the logistics that make medicine more affordable and accessible. Despite their role in lowering prices, they’re being blamed in ads, in the press, and in legislation. But without them, drug prices will rise and the pharmacies serving vulnerable neighborhoods will keep disappearing.

When lawmakers pass bills that strip away these providers' ability to negotiate or operate pharmacies, the effects are swift and severe. Just look at Arkansas, where a new law is shutting down pharmacies and cutting off health care access in communities already struggling to meet basic needs. Other states are considering similar legislation, and minority communities will be hit first and worst.

This expanding patchwork of pharmacy deserts is not just inconvenient. It is a looming public health emergency that puts our communities at risk. Already, one-third of neighborhoods in major U.S. cities lack a local pharmacy, and those hardest hit are Black and Hispanic communities. If this trend continues, millions more will lose access to medications they need to stay healthy, manage diabetes or heart disease, or treat depression and anxiety. The list goes on.

We can’t afford to let that happen. Yes, our medicines must be cheaper. I am a lifelong Democrat. And when Republicans and President Trump are wrong, I hold them accountable. As such, the President deserves some acknowledgement with his recent executive order that aims to stop big drug companies from charging Americans the highest prices in the world. As did President Biden, who fought to allow Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices. But the real problem is that big drug companies are responsible for high drug prices, not the companies working to deliver medications affordably and efficiently. Tearing down the system that negotiates lower drug costs is like smashing a fire alarm because it’s too loud. It doesn’t stop the fire. It creates chaos and puts more people in danger.

Let’s stop attacking the parts of the system that are helping people. Parts that our everyday communities rely on. Let’s protect the pharmacies, services, and tools that keep our most vulnerable neighbors connected to care. Because once a pharmacy leaves a neighborhood, it rarely comes back, and the consequences can last a lifetime.

To Be Equal 
October 4, 2025

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “What is at the center of this fight? … 20 million Americans are going to see their health care costs skyrocket. Fifteen million people are going to be jettisoned from Medicaid. They're going to decimate Medicaid. This is historic. This has not happened in U.S. history. In addition, your hospitals were shut down. Nursing homes shut down, clinics.” – U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro

If the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits are allowed to expire, premium payments for the more than 20 million Marketplace enrollees will more than double in 2026.  At least 4 million Americans could lose health care coverage altogether.

If the healthcare cuts in the “Big Ugly Bill” are allowed to stand, 700 rural hospitals – one in three – could shut down, and another 15 million Americans could become uninsured.

Legislation pending in Congress could prevent this catastrophe and end the government shutdown that is devastating families and communities across the country.

It’s no wonder the Trump administration and its allies in Congress would rather fear-monger with lies about undocumented immigrants than confront the facts.

The fact is, as long as the shutdown continues, local communities are losing access to over $60 billion in federal funding, jeopardizing essential services and infrastructure.

The fact is, veterans are being denied transition assistance, career counseling, and outreach. Families aren’t even able to place headstones at their loved ones’ graves in veterans cemeteries. Active-duty military families, many of whom already struggle to make ends meet, are working without pay, making it harder to cover basic living expenses.

The extremists in the White House and Congress are willing to deny nutrition assistance to mothers and children who rely on the WIC program … to withhold surgeries and treatment from patients at military treatment facilities … to delay progress on life-saving research and public health initiatives at the NIH and CDC … to disrupt Social Security and Medicare services for seniors and vulnerable populations … to jeopardize the health and safety of our workforce while Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspections are ceased.

And all of this is happening in defense of an crusade to strip health insurance from millions of working-class Americans and leave vast swaths of the country without access to critical care.

To be clear: unauthorized immigrants are ineligible to purchase health insurance on government exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. They are ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The legislation that could prevent the health care catastrophe and end the government shutdown does not make them eligible for these programs.  Anyone who claims that it does is not telling the truth.

The government shutdown is not simply a conflict between conflicting political ideologies. It’s a conflict between fact and falsehood. It’s a conflict between responsible stewardship of public resources and a reckless grasp of those resources for billionaires. We can continue to fuel bitter partisan division while working Americans continue to lose ground to the wealthiest among us, or we can work together toward and equitable, stable, and healthy future.

August 27, 2025

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The French philosopher Albert reportedly said, “Without work all life is rotten but when work is soulless, life stifles and dies. Now, historians are suggesting he may have not uttered or written those exact words but been paraphrased by one of his biographers.  No matter.  The sentiment is a pertinent one, especially as we lift up Labor Day, its history, and the role that Black women have played in the labor history of our nation.

There is meaningful work and there is soul-crushing work, and the challenge Camus poses is how to find meaning in routine, how to embrace joy in everyday tasks.  Why do we work?  Partly to make a living, to earn money, to live, to provide the means to pursue our joy.  Why do we work?  Because our work makes a difference when we are organizers, cultural workers, paid activists.  We all struggle to find meaning in our work, but this is mostly a late 20^th century/21^st century phenomenon.  Historically, many worked because they had no choice, and meaning was a footnote, not central.

Consider the Black woman “domestic”.  More than half of all Black women held such jobs into the 1940s.  We didn’t love this work.  It was all we could get.  We nurtured white children without having the luxury to nurture our wone.  We were the backbone of white household, cooking, cleaning, and more.  And in the process of our work we were demeaned, often given used clothing instead of wages, often sexually assaulted by depraved white men who headed household.  But we worked because we had to.  We worked because we wanted our babies to live.

       Our nation has been celebrating Labor Day since 1994, after New York’s Central Labor Union drew public attention to the ways that many worked. Then, many workers, children included, worked from sunup to sundown (and beyond) six or seven days a week.  There were strikes, labor actions, and eventually Labor Day, a recognition of workers.  Sadly, a focus on Black workers was absent in these initial celebrations.

Most workers were exploited. In 19o4, the National Child Labor Committee (which I once chaired) was founded to visually document the way that children, and I mean little children, were treated as workers, in the mines, in the fields, and elsewhere.  Children lost their lives and also lost their childhoods when they did back breaking, bone chilling work.

Louis Hine did an exceptional job in documenting children at work.  A challenge, though, was the fact that those who were passionate about labor and about the rights of laborers too often excluded the contributions of Black workers.  If we want to recognize Black workers, we must start with enslavement and the unpaid work of Black people that provided a foundation for this nation.  At every juncture in our nation’s history, we find the work of Black people, including Black women, pivotal.

The flawed leadership of our nation would currently erase this history and celebrate American exceptionalism, but the reality is an inconvenient truth.  Not only would there be no America without the labor of enslaved people, but there would also be no wartime victories without the work of Black women.  I am thinking of the invisible warriors, the Black women who were “Rosies”, women who worked in wartime industries as welders, machine assemblers, riveters, and other assembly line workers.  They faced discrimination on all sides, especially from their white “sisters”, who even protested the fact that they had to use the same bathrooms as Black women (our nation’s obsession with toilets is another story).  The stories of the Black Rosies have mostly been swallowed, and there are those who would lift it up because it is important.  As many as 600,000 Black women were part of the war effort. 

Gregory Cook has amplified the work of the Black Rosies in his film, The Invisible Warriors.  His mom was one of the Rosies and he was moved enough by her story to document it.  In his work, he has lifted up the Black women whose silent contribution to the war effort has been overlooked, sometimes maliciously.  There are those who would erase this contribution to our nation, which is why we must life it up.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author.  Juliannemalveaux.com