Politics
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Liberals, Conservatives Seek Common Ground on Criminal-Justice Reform
Get tough on crime. That was the mantra throughout the United States, both at the local and federal levels, as crime boomed toward the end of the 1970s. Many laws were passed, putting more police on the street and inflicting higher and higher penalties for various crimes in direct response to fears over drugs and…
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CBC Members React as Jesse Jackson Jr. Gets Out of Prison
Today, former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is scheduled to leave an Alabama federal prison after serving time for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds for personal use. The 50-year-old former congressman and son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson received a sentence of 30 months in prison in 2013. Jackson Jr.’s sentence was shortened by three months because he completed a substance-abuse program, and…
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At 5 Years Old, the ACA Is Succeeding at What It’s Meant to Do: Lower the Uninsured Rate for All
Ready to have that other-than-March Madness, watercooler conversation on the fifth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act? Get your pen and pad ready, because the results are in: What you probably know better by the name “Obamacare” is actually working. It’s not perfect; nor is its implementation near complete. But as President Barack Obama’s grandest…
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One-on-One With the Most Influential Big-City Cop in America
When tensions between law enforcement and communities of color rise to a boiling point, President Barack Obama has often, of late, turned to Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, formerly the top cop for Washington, D.C., a 46-year law-enforcement veteran and now CEO of the Police Executive Research Forum. After the spate of police killings of…
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President Obama Celebrates Diversity With Young Scientists at White House Science Fair
The lack of gender and ethnic diversity in the science, technology, engineering and math fields is not a secret—and the 2015 White House Science Fair’s main focus was on just that. The fair, held on Monday, included students from underrepresented backgrounds who could be the next generation of innovators. “We don’t want to just increase…
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CBC Budget Is Too Smart for the Rest of Congress to Care
In the Congressional Black Caucus’ Alternative Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 (pdf), which lays out where the CBC thinks the nation’s finances should be, it finds itself—yet again—in the unenviable position of voiceless “Malcolm in the Middle” screaming through white noise and clamor. The plan is captured in five high-level bullet points: a fairer tax…
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Why Not Make Voting Mandatory?
Convoluted and restrictive voter ID measures got you down? Still rubbing the migraine you got from voter-suppression laws? Banging your head against the wall when voter turnout is too low? Worry no more, fam, we’ve got a magic potion for you: mandatory voting. No more excuses. No more rich folks across town getting better everything…
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If Republicans Believed in a Meritocracy, They’d Confirm Loretta Lynch Now
The U.S. Senate had been expected this week to take up the nomination of Loretta Lynch to replace Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general, but the vote has been delayed, yet again, by the Republican majority as part of an attempt to force Democrats to relent on an unrelated bill. The nomination, which would…
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9 HBCU Students Just Made the Voter-ID War Hot Again
The voter-ID war just opened up a huge new front. This time in Tennessee. A group of nine students from HBCUs Fisk and Tennessee State have filed a federal lawsuit against the Volunteer State’s heavily contested and controversial voter-ID law. Johnston points to identification cards for state university faculty and staff, which are perfectly legal…
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Slow Your Roll, Giuliani. By Your Own Standard, Obama’s More Conservative Than You
I suppose we’re almost to the point where there’s less than nothing to be gained by evaluating Republicans’ now yearslong running narrative about how un-American, unpatriotic and unlike anyone else we’ve ever seen President Barack Obama is. For convenience’s sake, let’s call it “the Othering.” But just in case we’re not quite to that point…