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New Law Narrows Racially Charged Crack-Powder Divide
The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which will at last narrow the divide between prison sentences for crack and powder cocaine busts, is on its way to President Obama’s desk today. The Senate passed the bill in March, and today the House gave it approval, thus ending an ugly sentencing disparity that’s existed for almost…
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What Obama Should Talk About on 'The View'
When President Barack Obama appears on glorified kaffeeklatsch The View on Thursday, he—and by extension the entire federal government—will be in front of the largest audience than they’ve seen in months. Last year, The View’s average viewership was a little over 4 million people. President Obama’s latest weekly address on YouTube? Thirty-seven thousand views. As…
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The Angriest Black Republican in Florida
One hundred days away from the November election, it seems increasingly likely that at least one—if not two or three—African American Republicans will win seats in the House on Election Day. South Carolina’s Tim Scott is practically a lock, making him the first black Republican congressional representative to serve since Oklahoman JC Watts retired in…
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Tea Party Strangely Mum on Obama's Anti-Waste Bill
President Obama signed into law today his Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, whose name succinctly and accurately describes its goal: to eradicate improper government payouts by $50 billion within two years. Saying the legislation would cut down on “waste, fraud and abuse,” Obama then added that it was a step toward the government he’d…
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Vilsack Apologizes to Sherrod, Offers Her Another Job
In a press conference at the White House just moments ago, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who fired USDA employee Shirley Sherrod on Monday after being duped into believing she gave a racist speech, apologized for his actions and said that he’s offered a new position to Sherrod. Having faced 48 hours of flack since firing…
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Can Financial Reform Narrow the White-Black Wealth Gap?
With the Obama administration’s hard-fought passage of financial reform, Americans are waiting with bated breath and open wallets to see if their windfall is on the horizon. While people of all races have struggled in the past few years, black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the recent economic collapse, and many are eager to…
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The Shameful Shirley Sherrod Witch Hunt
In the wake of former USDA official Shirley Sherrod’s firing for a speech she gave in March, new details have emerged that call into question the punitive actions of her superiors, including the Obama administration. If you’ll recall: Shirley Sherrod, a black woman who served as the USDA’s rural development director for Georgia, says she…
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Obama Issues Stern Rebuke of GOP Filibustering
In an increasingly common reminder of the partisanship of American politics, President Obama used his weekly address on Saturday to harshly condemn Senate Republicans’ obstructionism. In the lead-up to tomorrow’s vote on a federal extension of unemployment benefits—a vote that’s been blocked by GOP senators for nearly two months—Obama said, “too often, the Republican leadership…
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Controversial New Study Undermines Direct Link Between Race and AIDS
A new CDC study exploring the link between AIDS and poverty is proving to be controversial for its suggestion that income is more important than race when determining a person’s chance of infection. In a press briefing this afternoon, Kevin Fenton, Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS; Jonathan Mermin, Director of the Division of…
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Reforming Wall Street
It’s common knowledge that, for myriad historical reasons, America’s black-white wealth gap is atrocious. In 2007 white households had 15 times the total wealth of African-American households. And this year a study showed that median wealth for a single black woman is just $100; for a single white woman, that sum jumps to $41,000. Exacerbating…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
