Search results for: “node/olopade”
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Why the Dems Can’t Count on Specter
Arlen Specter likes it when he’s described as the best lawyer in the Senate; there are a lot of lawyers in its chambers. Specter, 79, particularly enjoys his reputation as someone who will go wherever the facts lead. This is the man, after all, who served as chief counsel of the Warren Commission, which investigated…
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Sojourner Truth Gets Her Day in Congress
The United States officially enshrined the legacy of barrier-breaking lecturer and civil rights activist Sojourner Truth today, unveiling a memorial that will sit, like those of so many other famous men and women of American history, in Emancipation Hall of the US Capitol Visitors’ Center. Truth was the first black person, male or female, to successfully bring suit in US court—for the return…
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Joe Biden Stands Up to Domestic Abuse
This afternoon—between Specter defections, Clinton-Obama joint appearances and a rare Tony Bennett sighting, one of the strangest I’ve spent on Capitol Hill—it’s worth looking miles from the Beltway, to Austin, TX, where Vice President Joe Biden toured the National Domestic Violence Hotline Center. Joined by Austin Mayor Will Wynn, Biden surveyed the complex that hosts…
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Arlen Specter: Democrat in Training
Forget Day 100—Day 99 was far more interesting. Shortly after noon on Tuesday, Sen. Arlen Specter announced that he will campaign for reelection in 2010 as a member of the Democratic Party. News of the longtime Pennsylvania Republican’s defection sent shock waves through the Capitol and left Democrats enthused and senior Republican Party officials scrambling…
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100 Days Worth of Fashion
Saaret Yoseph is a writer and Assistant Editor at TheRoot.com. She manages and blogs for \”Their Eyes Were Watching …\” The soon-to-be first lady looks on as Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. president. The president and first lady arrive at the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center. Attending the National…
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What Happened to the Office of Urban Policy?
In November 2008, less than one week after winning the votes of city dwellers by a margin of 28 points, President-elect Barack Obama announced he would reward them by creating the first-ever “White House Office of Urban Policy.” Like other new aspects of Obama’s executive branch, appointing a city czar was intended to fast-track communications…
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Who Knew MLK Was so Green?
A coda to this phenomenal Earth Week at THE ROOT: On Earth Day itself, Attorney General Eric Holder took time out from pointed questions about torture memos and prosecutions of Bush administration officials, and celebrated like an increasing number of black Americans: By getting down with nature. After digging and raking (a bit awkwardly) alongside…
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Should Van Jones be Inside the White House?
This Earth Day, it’s pretty clear that if we humans want to keep chilling on this planet, there’s a lot of work to do. The 9 billion person question: Are the right people dong it? My friend Brentin Mock has write a piece for PARLOUR magazine on Van Jones, newly tapped as a green jobs…
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Green Collar Heroes
The green movement is about more than celebrities driving hybrid cars and building green homes. It’s about everyday people around the country doing grassroots work to reshape their streets, blocks, neighborhoods and cities. Through strategies ranging from hip-hop to children’s television to beekeeping—yes, beekeeping!—these 10 community leaders are making the green movement accessible, fun and…
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The Root Goes Green
In honor of Earth Day, The Root is going deep on the ties between black people and the earth. We dig in to everything from Michelle Obama’s potential impact on farming to how to plant gardens on housing project rooftops to creating green jobs in black neighborhoods. Guest writers Majora Carter, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Sen. John Kerry…