Politics
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Supreme Court: President Obama Went Too Far With Recess Appointments
President Barack Obama was wrong when he made appointments during an extended Senate break in 2012. At least that’s what the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, saying that the president went too far when he made the appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, Fox News reports. The nation’s highest court unanimously agreed with Senate…
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Mississippi Appoints 1st Black Clerk of Highest Court
Mississippi Supreme Court Clerk Kathy Gillis has tapped Muriel B. Ellis to succeed her once she retires June 30, thus making Ellis the first African-American clerk of the Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. “It will be an honor to serve as the clerk of the Supreme Court,” said the 53-year-old Ellis, Fox News…
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A Rumble in Harlem: 4 Lessons From Charles Rangel’s Primary Fight
Clichéd World Cup metaphors for a knee-scraping Harlem-primary street scuffle might seem corny, but Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) may have defied the odds like an unfavored team entering the dreaded Group of Death. Maybe he’ll watch a few match hours of soccer to decompress—better than eating his fingers into nubs while election officials slowly sort…
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Voting Rights Are in Peril, and Democracy Hangs in the Balance
The 2014 fall midterm elections are gearing up to be among the most significant in decades, since they have the power to determine the balance of U.S. political power. Yet new laws and election changes across the country—from photo-ID requirements and early-voting cutbacks to the removal of polling places and changes in election procedures—may block…
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First Lady Says US Is ‘Ready’ for a Female President
Girls should run the world, or at least the United States, according to first lady Michelle Obama. After Monday’s inaugural White House Summit on Working Families, ABC’s Robin Roberts prompted the first lady to talk about whether women could fill the role of commander in chief. Obama responded that she is positive that a woman…
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Exclusive: Harry Reid Says Rand Paul Is Right on Felon Voting Rights
Though he acknowledges that they rarely agree when it comes to policy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has offered a ringing endorsement of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) latest proposal: the restoration of felons’ voting rights. Paul, a Tea Party darling, just introduced a bill that would restore the rights of nonviolent offenders, a longtime…
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Rep. Charlie Rangel Faces Bitter Rematch Against Espaillat for Harlem Congressional District
It’s Election Day once again in New York, and history is all but repeating itself, with U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel once again coming face-to-face with state Sen. Adriano Espaillat in a Democratic-primary battle for the 13th Congressional District’s seat. Back in 2012, Rangel won the primary with about 44 percent of the vote, according to…
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Why Girls of Color Should Be Included in My Brother’s Keeper
One crisp November morning in 2012, a 14-year-old girl named Maia* grabbed her backpack and rushed out of the house to make the morning bell. She took her normal route to school but picked up her pace when a white van began following her. She ran, but couldn’t outpace the 10 teenage boys who grabbed…
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Ban the Box: A Politician’s Crusade to Get the Felony Question off Job Applications
It’s a common question that appears on almost every job application across the United States. “Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a crime?”—or something to that effect—is usually how the question is phrased. And for some, depending on the employer, it could be the end of the road to attaining meaningful employment and…
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Obama Announces Plans to Encourage Employers to Be More Family Friendly
President Barack Obama will be spending his Monday morning advocating on behalf of working families, announcing steps to create more opportunities and flexibility for families at the first White House Summit on Working Families, according to a press release. Claiming to be representative of a “21st-century workplace,” a presidential memorandum Obama plans to sign Monday is…