• Racial-Profiling Hearing Gets Heated

    Most of the experts who testified on Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing — about the data, emotions, rationale and solutions surrounding racial profiling — agreed that targeting potential suspects on the basis of race, national origin or religion is just shoddy police work. But on the questions of how to stop the practice…

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  • Senate Hearing to Probe Racial Profiling

    On Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will chair a Senate hearing on the topic of racial profiling. By coincidence it comes at a time when, in the wake of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, racial profiling is also a topic of heated national discussion. Called by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil…

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  • Trayvon's Father: 'This Is the Beginning'

    Minutes after learning that George Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of their son, Trayvon Martin, a stoic Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton addressed a crowd on Wednesday at the National Action Network convention in Washington, D.C. Before the parents took the podium, the Rev. Al Sharpton reflected on all that…

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  • Trayvon's Parents Hopeful for Justice

    Amid new reports about criminal charges to be filed against George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case, the slain teen’s parents and their legal team shared their thoughts during a Washington, D.C., press conference at the National Action Network national convention. The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, spoke first to outline…

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  • Attorney General Speaks on Trayvon Martin

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the Trayvon Martin shooting on Wednesday during a speech at the National Action Network’s national convention in Washington, D.C. Speaking to a packed room at the city’s convention center prior to a panel discussion on “The State of Criminal Justice in America Today,” Holder first offered general reflections before…

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  • The Other 2012 Fight: Who Gets the House?

    When Republicans picked up 63 House seats in the 2010 midterm elections, they didn’t just wipe out the previous Democratic majority. They pulled off the largest congressional sweep since 1948. “It was a message from voters, that they were rejecting the big-government agenda pursued by Democrats in Washington during the first two years of Obama’s…

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  • Rick Santorum Drops Out of the Race

    Rick Santorum announced on Tuesday that he is withdrawing from the presidential campaign, citing the recent hospitalization of his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, as his primary motivation. Although Bella, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder, was released from the hospital on Tuesday and is back with her family, Santorum said that his role as a…

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  • White House Easter Egg Roll Draws Stars

    A crowd of 30,000 visitors in total is expected on Monday for the White House’s largest public event: the Easter Egg Roll. On Monday morning President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, “first grandmother” Marian Robinson and daughters Malia and Sasha arrived on the White House balcony (along with 14-year-old singer Rachel Crow of X Factor…

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  • Obama: Women Are Not an Interest Group

    As the general election gets under way, analysts have repeatedly underscored female voters as the group that will determine its outcome. According to a series of recent polls, they’re flocking to President Obama. The latest example is a new USA Today-Gallup Poll that shows the president’s lead with women over Mitt Romney. Among female voters…

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  • A Million Voters Registered on Easter?

    On the last week of February, the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, called together the heads of 30 black church denominations. He wanted to talk about how they could get more involved in social and civic issues. “I felt that the black church had lost its prophetic voice in the community,…

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