Politics
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Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick on Ferguson and Running for President in 2016
Outgoing Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick has thought about himself in the White House. Like most of the protesting public, he also would have liked to see a grand jury indictment of Ferguson, Mo., Officer Darren Wilson, according to an interview he did over the weekend. “I think a trial and the transparency of a…
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Obama: I Will Veto Permanent Tax Breaks for Corporations
President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to veto a package of tax breaks that Republicans send his way if they don’t alter the parts that provide “permanent tax breaks for businesses,” the New York Times reports. “The president would veto the proposed deal because it would provide permanent tax breaks to help well-connected corporations while neglecting…
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Obama Asks Ferguson Protesters to Gather Peacefully as Violence Erupts
President Barack Obama addressed the nation shortly after it was announced that Ferguson, Mo., Officer Darren Wilson would not be criminally charged on any counts in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. The president called for peace, echoing Michael Brown Sr.’s words earlier this week in a video message. “First and foremost we…
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Sorry, Sen. Rand Paul, You’re No Civil Rights Hero
If you’ve noticed all the construction happening on the National Mall lately, like me, you probably assumed it was for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. But apparently, a more fitting tribute to the civil rights movement’s long history of struggle for African Americans would be the erection of a monument…
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Former DC Mayor Marion Barry Dies at 78
Marion Barry, the storied four-term mayor and current Washington, D.C., Council member, died early Sunday, just hours after a brief stay at Howard University Hospital, the Washington Post reports, citing a family statement. He was 78. The family did not release the cause of death, but Barry had suffered from many health problems over the…
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Marion Barry’s Story—the Way He Told It
(Editor’s Note: This article was first published in June of 2014 when Marion Barry released his biography. The 4-term former DC mayor has died at age 78 of an undisclosed illness.) It’s the 1980s and cocaine is being sucked up the nostrils of some of the world’s elite. Mayor Marion Barry is at an exclusive…
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House GOP Sues Obama Administration to Stop ‘Unilateral Actions’ on Obamacare
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Friday that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have sued President Barack Obama’s administration to contest “unilateral actions on the health care law that they say are abuses of the president’s executive authority,” the New York Times reports. At issue is enforcement of two critical facets of the Affordable Care…
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Undocumented Immigrants From 3 Ebola-Affected West African Countries Will Not Be Deported
President Barack Obama will address the nation Thursday night to shed light on his plans to provide deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, and those immigrants who come from the three West African nations most affected by the current Ebola epidemic got some early news. “The Obama administration is…
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The Consequences of Letting the Government Invade Your Privacy
On Tuesday the Senate voted on the USA Freedom Act, legislation designed to give Americans more privacy from the federal government. The bill was a specific attempt to stop the government from collecting phone records, a process that was revealed last year by Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who released classified documents outlining the…
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There’s a Lot That Needs Fixing, So Why Focus on Immigration?
Is executive-order toughness on immigration reform really worth shutting down our $4 trillion government again in a standoff with Republicans? Sure, the U.S. immigration system itself—a bit rickety under the weight of 11 million undocumented immigrants and ranked ninth (pdf) out of 30 countries by the Immigration Policy Center—could use some fixing. But what else rooted…