Politics
-
House of Cards: Watching White Guys Have All the Fun
Disclaimer: If House of Cards has an official fan club, make me its president. Saw the season 1 trailer, sold. Saw the viral promo with Kevin Spacey in a Lincoln Memorial pose, sold. I am the cat who unwittingly binged on the groundbreaking Netflix series in one caffeine-hazed weekend night. I kept telling myself I’d…
-
Obamacare Enrollment at 3.3 Million
Approximately 3.3 million people have signed up for private health insurance coverage through the Obama marketplace since the beginning of October, according to the Obama administration, the New York Daily News reports. Originally, the Congressional Budget Office had estimated about 7 million people would be signing up for the private coverage by the end of…
-
Sen. Rand Paul Files Lawsuit Against Obama for NSA Surveillance
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has officially filed a class action lawsuit against President Obama and other administration officials over National Security Agency surveillance, CBS reports. In conjunction with Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit organization, Paul is accusing the administration of violating the Fourth Amendment through the collection of Americans’ phone metadata. (The…
-
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Found Guilty of Corruption
A federal jury found former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin guilty of 20 out of 21 charges of corruption, including various instances conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud, NPR reports. Nagin, 57, was accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, as well as siphoning money and granite into a business owned…
-
Attorney General Eric Holder: Restore Voting Rights to Ex-Cons
Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for a group of 11 states to restore voting rights to their ex-felons as part of his initiative to fix flaws in the criminal-justice system that have a disproportionate effect on minority groups, the Associated Press reports. “It is time to fundamentally rethink laws that permanently disenfranchise people who…
-
Obama to Sign Executive Order Raising Minimum Wage for Federal Contract Workers
President Barack Obama is set to sign an executive order on Wednesday, effectively raising the minimum hourly wage of federal contract workers to $10.10, according to a press release. The White House touted how the order would “benefit hundreds of thousands of people” working on the federal contracts who are currently making less than $10.10.…
-
Moral Movements: Civil Rights Coming Back to the Future
Black History Month reminds us of the way in which black activism has historically transcended purely race matters to rise into the stratosphere of universal movements for social justice. Fifty-four years ago this month, four black North Carolina A&T students launched a lunch counter sit-in at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, N.C., that sparked a social and…
-
Russian Olympic Torchbearer Blames Racist Obama Tweet on Hackers
Former figure skater Irina Rodnina, who lit the Olympic flame for the Sochi opening ceremony, is now saying that her racist Obama tweet from last year was due to hackers, The Guardian reports. Rodnina, who now serves as a member of parliament from President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party, won three Olympic gold medals in…
-
Report: US Attorney General Eric Holder to Step Down This Year
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder plans to step down some time this year, according to the New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin, whose feature story is slated to run in the magazine’s Feb. 17 issue, the Washington Times reports. The first African-American attorney general told the writer that he planned to remain “well into” 2014, but he…
-
Will the Next Black Senator Be a Familiar Face From Oklahoma?
Oklahoma. With its wide ranges, tornado alleys and young, upstart NBA franchise, it’s the last place you’d think of when considering black political hotbeds. But as Sen. Tom Coburn prepares to retire after a yearslong battle with cancer, black Republicans in the Sooner State are seeking to flip that script on its head. A crowded…