blogging the beltway
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Hill Harper to Join Obama's Cancer Panel
(The Root) — Actor Hill Harper, who plays Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on CBS’ CSI: NY and who chronicles his real-life diagnosis with thyroid cancer and his journey to health in the 2011 New York Times best-seller The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place, will be appointed to the president’s Cancer Panel, the White House…
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Jamar Rogers: We Need Visible People With HIV
(The Root) — It’s been more than 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported in the United States. Yet despite decades of awareness campaigns about prevention and the facts of transmission, the national epidemic persists. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 50,000 Americans become newly infected with HIV…
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Media Chase Jesse Jackson Jr. Mystery
Whereabouts Prompt Speculation, Denials Less than 24 hours after a veteran Chicago television critic scolded the Chicago media for not solving “the summer’s biggest mystery” — the whereabouts of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill. — Jackson’s office issued a statement Wednesday saying, “The Congressman is receiving intensive medical treatment at a residential treatment facility for…
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Vice President Biden Fires Up the NAACP
(The Root) — The speechifying continued at the NAACP Annual Convention in Houston as Vice President Joe Biden took the podium on Thursday. Biden was pitch-hitting for President Obama, who taped a brief video for the convention (and who will appear in person at the National Urban League’s annual conference later this month). Despite Obama’s…
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Romney to NAACP: I'm in Your Best Interest
(The Root) — In his speech at the NAACP Annual Convention on Wednesday, things started off well for Mitt Romney. Addressing the civil rights organization in Houston, the Republican presidential candidate acknowledged the gulf between the GOP and black voters. “With 90 percent of African Americans voting for Democrats, some of you may wonder why…
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Romney to NAACP: I
In his speech at the NAACP annual convention on Wednesday, things started off well for Mitt Romney. Addressing the civil rights organization in Houston, the Republican presidential candidate began by acknowledging the gulf between the GOP and black voters. “With 90 percent of African Americans voting for Democrats, some of you may wonder why a…
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Attorney General Takes on Voter-ID Laws
(The Root) — When speaking about the Justice Department’s work on voting rights and voter protection, Attorney General Eric Holder has tended to be short on details. Over the past year he has repeatedly maintained that the federal agency is reviewing voting changes that have been proposed state by state around the country — including…
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Obama Challenges GOP on Bush Tax Cuts
(The Root) — With the two-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of this year, like clockwork the partisan debate over extending them again is upon us. The last time President Obama dealt with this issue, back in late 2010, he agreed to extend the tax cuts for all…
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Slavery to the White House in 5 Generations
(The Root) — In her new book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama, Rachel L. Swarns digs up the first lady’s family roots. Throughout the meticulously researched tome, Swarns, a New York Times correspondent, uncovers a diverse history that Mrs. Obama hadn’t even known herself — including…