blogging the beltway

Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings today introduced a resolution to recognize the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program, an initiative that attempts to improve the health of the black community by going to that community in barbershops and hair salons, long known to be informal meeting places for African Americans. Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings today introduced a…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Top government officials convened at the White House Tuesday to unveil the Obama administration’s new blueprint for combating AIDS in America. Before a crowd of about 60, Director of Domestic Policy Melody Barnes, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy Jeffrey Crowley and Assistant Secretary for…