Politics and Current
FAMU president forced to hit ‘pause’ on historic $238 million gift from mystery black donor as wave of skeptics question gift’s legitimacy

One of the most important donations to a historically black college or university is now being withheld after scrutiny by some HBCU alumni and supporters due to the donor’s confidential background.
Investor Gregory Gerami is behind the historic nine-figure donation to Florida A&M University. His $237.75 million gift is one of the most important awards ever received by an HBCU from a single donor, according to the anonymous donor. FAMU edition from May 4.
But the gift raised concerns amongst some alumni and university board members who were unfamiliar with the Gerami name and company. That, combined along with his connection to a botched $1 million donation to one other university, raised more suspicion, a lot in order that a university official called a news conference on Sunday to dispel that skepticism.
In response to the growing confusion, a gathering was held on Thursday throughout the FAMU Foundation Management Board meeting, attended by, amongst others, according to WCTV. The meeting was broadcast via the Zoom platform. FAMU President Larry Robinson confirmed that officials will “pause” the donation “pending additional information as I become aware of it.”
Adding: “It is in our best interest to put this case on hold.”
Gerami, 30, heads Batterson Farms Corp, a hydroponic farming and hemp plastics company that produces bioplastics and fresh organic products. He founded the corporate in 2021.
Although he didn’t share his fortune, he stated that the majority of his wealth was inherited from his adopted family. According to The Sun News, before the CCU deal fell through, school administrators said his 2020 net value was about $600 million and his money assets were nearly $260 million.
Unlike many millionaire entrepreneurs, Gerami has no online presence, so his dealings are shrouded in secrecy. But he said the skepticism and scrutiny he has faced since news of his donation to FAMU became public explains why he doesn’t share much online.
“This is a prime example of why I don’t have an online presence and don’t care about having one” – Gerami said the Tallahassee Democrat. “People take things out of context. They are running away, harming and hurting people with information that is incorrect and simply inappropriate.”
The need to protect his family also motivates him to determine to stay behind the scenes. “I have a family, younger children and I come from a large family,” Gerami told an area portal. “I was born one of eight children and have nine siblings, even in my adopted family. As a parent and a family person, I have to protect my family and their safety is the most important thing.”
FAMU’s gift was funded by the Isaac Batterson Family seventh Trust, which contributed 14 million shares value not less than $239 million and can contribute a further $61 million over 10 years, according to a set schedule.
According to FAMU’s Sunday announcement, these shares were sent a month ago.
“Mr. The $237,750,000 transfer of Gerami shares was received in the same manner as we accepted all other shares donated to the University through FAMU Foundation Inc.” FAMU wrote. “As with any non-monetary gift received, such as cryptocurrency, real estate and stocks, it will be converted to cash and recorded accordingly.”
While Ivy League colleges across the country, such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, receive massive gifts running into the billions annually, gifts to historically black colleges and universities pale as compared.
In 2019, foundations gave $5.5 billion to Ivy League schools, while 99 HBCUs contributed a complete of about $45 million. Typically, schools like Spelman, Morehouse, Hampton and Howard capture a bigger share of donations to HBCUs annually.
According to a report by ABC 27, the donation is meant for scholarships and programmatic enhancements to the college’s Disability Access and Resource Center, FAMU’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, the College of Agriculture and Food Sciences and the School of Nursing.
It also features a general fund to support student success initiatives and special needs of the university on the president’s discretion, according to the local outlet.
As for why Gerami selected FAMU, he said the college’s focus and research opportunities in hemp production align along with his company’s goals.
While the colleges’ statements suggest the validity of the agreement, questions remain about its transparency, that are compounded by the consequence of its latest commitment to one other university.
According to The Sun News.in 2020. Gerami was an anonymous donor who made a $95 million donation to Coastal Carolina University that fell apart inside 4 months of the announcement. Like FAMU, Gerami has no affiliation with CCU, but was reportedly dating someone from the university on the time of the donation.
The CCU award was announced in July 2020. In the next months, Gerami and the college were at odds after university officials expressed uncertainty about whether Gerami had the resources to finance the donation.
Gerami also claimed that a CCU official made racist and offensive statements towards him before his relationship with the college completely disintegrated. During negotiations with CCU, Gerami also considered making donations to other HBCUs, including FAMU.
Board vice president and FAMU alumnus Deveron Gibbons told the Tallahassee Democrats he was unaware of the donation to a Florida HBCU until the college announced it publicly throughout the commencement ceremony, where Gerami spoke.
“As Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, I have a responsibility to protect the integrity of the university I value, but I have deep concerns that this process is moving too quickly to accept a gift without appropriate oversight.”—Gibbons he said in a press release to Democrats.
Gibbons called for extraordinary board meeting which can happen on May 15.
“We are fully aware of the skepticism that sometimes accompanies such a large gift,” FAMU said in its statement on Sunday. “As expected, some people in the public are and will continue to conduct research into Mr. Gerami. We would like to inform you that FAMU has exercised due diligence in this matter. Additionally, Mr. Gerami has conducted and continues to conduct due diligence on matters that have occurred and are occurring at FAMU.”
Another HBCU alum wrote a viral article with a provocative headline questioning the validity of the donation. Jerell Blakeley, a graduate of Howard University, published a column in: Education News Flash’s HBCU Digest on May 6 under the title “For the love of money, was FAMU deceived?”
Blakeley couldn’t come to terms with the low status of the Gerami, which seems to be at odds with the more famous donors.
“It’s not like Mackenzie Scott and the hundreds of thousands she gave to a number of HBCUs. People know who she is, where her wealth comes from, and the way HBCUs have grow to be a focus for her donations. Robert Smith is the richest black man in America, and since of one gift, Gerami, as a virtual unknown company he founded three years ago, outweighs Smith’s donations?
Blakeley called on all university management to resign “if this turns out to be a fraud”.
Gerami, nonetheless, stays confused by the entire ordeal.
“The stock has been held by the university for over a month now, so I don’t know where there would be any confusion or skepticism since the company is already in the university’s financial account,” Gerami told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Politics and Current
The Department of Defense takes off and then restores the “Dei” website honoring the black medal of honor

The US Department of Defense removed a website dedicated to a black veteran who served in the Vietnam war, characterizing his honorary medal as a medal “Dei”, but later restored the website after online fury. . side As a matter of the matter, he looked that Army General Charles Calvin Rogers, who received the Presidential Honorary Medal from President Richard Nixon in 1970. According to the defense article in 2021, Rogers stays the highest wounded Black American who received the prestigious Medal of Honor.
“A full long attack of black leadership, disassembly of the protection of civil rights, imposing unjust anti-dei regulations and unprecedented historical erasing in the defense department is a clear sign that New Jim Crow is promoted by our commander.”
Rogers, born in sorted America in 1929, entered the American army just before the army desegregation. In the early Nineteen Fifties and the Sixties, he climbed the ranks, becoming a significant. Later he trained an artillery unit and gained his first battalion order at Fort Lewis in Washington.
According to the Department of Defense, Rogers was commanded by the 1st Battalion, 5. Artillery, 1st Infantry Division. In July 1967 he was sent to Vietnam, where he spent two years at the battle. When the Rogers Battalion was attacked by the North -Wietna Vietnamese army on October 31, 1968, Gen. Rogers led soldiers in the battle. Despite the wounded during the battle, he continued the fight and killed several hostile soldiers on this process.
The battalion finally successfully overcome the invasion; However, there have been two other attacks of different defense lines. Rogers was wounded for the third time and ultimately was unable to proceed the fight, but he still managed and encouraged. Twelve American soldiers were killed and several dozen others were injured in the battle; However, military files show that the losses on the enemy side were much higher.

Rogers wounds were finally treated and returned to the USA in August 1969. The following 12 months, May 14, 1970, he received a medal of honor from President Nixon during the White House ceremony. He still served in the army, commanding more units and served in high -level leadership tasks. After 32 years of service, General Rogers retired in 1984 as the essential general.
When he returned to civil life, Rogers was ordained a Baptist minister and lived in Germany. Later he died of prostate cancer on September 21, 1990, at the age of 61. His stays were buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Since the office of office, President Trump and the Secretary of Defense Pete HegeSth have condemned the variety of US troops and to return armed services to the culture “based on merit”. Last month, President Trump released General Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of joint chiefs of staff. Brown was praised by Trump in 2020, when he called him the head of the US Air Force.
Asked why President Trump released General Brown, the press secretary of the White House Karoline Leavitt said that Brown “does a bad job.”

(Tagstranslat) black veterans
Politics and Current
The Federal Court of Appeal raises the block to the orders of Trump Dei

The Court of Appeal with three judges allowed to implement the policy of anti-varnish, own capital and the inclusion of Donald Trump, but the decision just isn’t final, it simply gives administrative freedom to implement this policy, while proceedings regarding politics.
According to the judges, they raised the order issued by a lower federal court in February, and in the opinions of three judges, which explained their voices, the judges indicated that the administration would find a way to prove that they’d respect the right to the first amendment and anti -discrimination provisions.
This, despite the two judges who arouse the fears that the orders of Trump’s administration could potentially violate the structure if federal officials implement them too eagerly due to the narrow scope of enforcement of the ordinance.
Judge Pamela Harris, appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote in her opinion that Trump’s orders should not intended to determine that Dei is unlawful in a broad context.
“Incense orders, about them, have a clearly limited scope,” wrote Harris. “Executive orders are not intended to determine the unlawfulness of any efforts to develop diversity, equality or inclusion, and they should not be understood like that.”
Harris continued, offering the reservation: “Actions in the field of execution of agencies that go beyond a narrow scope of orders, can increase the serious first amendment and fears regarding the proper process.”
The primary judge Albert Diaz, the denominator of President Barack Obama, also argued that the aggressive implementation of executive orders focused on diversity, justice and inclusion in the federal government can present problems in addition to Dei defense.
“I also wonder how the administration enforces these executive orders,” wrote Diaz. “It is not clear what types of programs – formal or informal – the administration is trying to eliminate.”
Diaz continued: “When this country covers true diversity, it recognizes and respects the social identity of its people. When he promotes true justice, it opens possibilities and provides equal opportunities for everyone. And when his policy is really integration, he creates an environment and culture in which everyone is respected and valued. What could be more American? The country is not favorable, scrubbing the shameful moments of its past. “
Unlike the other two judges, Judge Allison Rushing, Trump’s denominator, argued that the defense of other dei judges was disputed on their roles as judges.
“The view of each individual judge about whether some executive is a good politics is not only irrelevant to fulfill our obligation to settle matters and controversy in accordance with the law, this is unacceptable issues,” Rushing wrote. “The opinion of the judge that Dei programs” deserve praise, not Opprobrium “, should not absolutely play a role in deciding about this matter.”
(Tagstranslat) diversity
Politics and Current
Donald Trump wanders when he confronted with the promise to reduce food prices on the first day, he later says that he cannot “guarantee” Americans will not pay again

This is an issue that gained his presidency, many political analysts agree, and Donald Trump promised inflation and rising prices of products and every day services “will fall and they will go down quickly” if he were elected.
How fast? Trump was very specific.
“When I win, I will immediately lower the prices, starting from the first day” He said then.

Americans believed him, but almost a month of his presidency did not fall in any respect. Eggs, most noticeably, cost greater than ever.
When asked about it on Sunday interview With anchor Fox News Channel, Bret Baier, Trump had no answer, as a substitute wandering about “the most beautiful word in English”, tariffs that most economists predict that he will go to consumers the most difficult.
Here is the exchange:
Baier: “There are some signs, consumer trust on the market, they are a bit shaken. So if everything goes to the set, when you think that families would be able to feel falling prices, groceries, energy? Or maybe you talk to them, wait, inflation can get worse until it’s better? “
Trump: “No, I think we will become rich – and look, we are not so rich now. We owe $ 36 trillion. This is because we allow all these nations to use us. The same as $ 200 billion with Canada. We are guilty of $ 300 – we have a deficit with Mexico in the amount of $ 350 billion. I’m not going to do this. I will not let it. “
First, a couple of corrections. According to politicsThe general industrial deficit with Canada falls about $ 41 billion when making an allowance for the surplus in the US in services.
Compared to other US countries, they’re extremely wealthy, boasting the highest gross domestic product in the world, amounting to USD 27.7 trillion. Adapting to the population, the USA ranks fourth in a wealthy place, following only Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland.
Of course, the gliding domestic debt puts the country in the wet. And of the last three presidents, nobody added more to the deficit than … Trump during their first term. In fact, Trump spent the same in a single semester as Barack Obama in two parts.
According to AxiosJoe Biden spent half in a single semester than Trump in the first 4 years of office: USD 4.8 trill per Trump and $ 2.2 trillion per biden. And this excludes expenses due to Covid.
The truth is that the economy might be a burden for anyone who won the presidency, and rapidly growing debt levels coincide with high percentage rates and more people coming in retirement.
Trump began to return before Sunday, the first Speaking NBC News The fact that he could not “guarantee” that prices would fall “, in an interview with time, saying:” It is difficult to reduce the situation when he will grow, when he grew. You know, it’s extremely difficult. “
In an interview with NBC, Trump said that the tariffs would fix all the pieces.
“Americans cost nothing,” he said. “They created a great economy for us.”
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