Politics

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, President Barack Obama urged Congress to restore jobless benefits for more than a million Americans, saying a failure to do so would slow the economy for everyone, the Associated Press reports. The AP says that a bipartisan proposal in the Senate would restore benefits for three months…

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was scheduled Saturday to reunite with the Navy lieutenant and former hostage whom he helped liberate from Syrian captivity 30 years ago, according to USA Today. Jackson negotiated the release of Navy Lt. (now retired Commander) Robert Goodman on Jan. 4, 1984, after a month of captivity. It was the first…

Rising concerns about the fairness of sentences and the expense of running federal prisons have prompted an unusual alliance of Tea Partiers and liberal lawmakers to push for changes in the country’s mandatory-sentencing laws, the Associated Press reports. The bipartisan congressional push comes as President Barack Obama and his Cabinet focus attention on mandatory sentences,…

Detroit’s new mayor took office Wednesday and got down to brass tacks, despite holding limited powers in a cash-strapped city whose finances are controlled by a state-appointed emergency manager, the Associated Press reports. Mike Duggan, who became the city’s first white mayor in 40 years, held his first staff meetings at City Hall after a…

Over the holidays, first lady Michelle Obama took to the airways to promote the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show, Joe Madison’s radio broadcast and in other outlets with a large black audience, as well as with a group of mothers who were invited to the White House. Before…

Unless you opted for your own news blackout during the holiday season, by now you’ve probably read one of the many year-end recaps that described 2013 as President Barack Obama’s worst year. If not, just read here, here, here, here and here. Reviews were bad, with even Chris Matthews—of “thrill going up my leg when…

Chicago’s Police Department said Wednesday that after leading the nation in homicides in 2012, recording more than 500, the city last year listed the lowest number of killings since 1965, and saw its overall crime rate fall to a level not seen since 1972, the Associated Press reports. By the end of 2013, the city…

Surrounded by his family and former President Bill Clinton, Bill de Blasio was formally sworn in as the 109th mayor of New York City, making him the first Democrat in two decades to hold the position of governing the nation’s largest city, the New York Post reports. De Blasio, a former City Council member, assumed…

Yesterday was the day most New Year’s resolutions began. And tomorrow is the day many of them will end, as that vow to shop less is done in by that once-in-a-lifetime after-Christmas sale. But what if your New Year’s resolutions could change the world? In the case of President Barack Obama, committing to solving a…

As we enter into a new year, the black community should remain focused on five key areas that are vital to the promotion of racial justice and economic equality in 2014. Reducing Violence in Black Communities Nationwide Chicago’s violence-plagued communities have received the most national attention, in part because of President Barack Obama’s ties to…