Politics

Video of Derrion Albert’s fatal beating mesmerized and horrified millions of Americans—including, apparently, the White House. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs now says that President Barack Obama discussed the Albert beating with advisers on Wednesday morning, and will address the issue of Chicago youth violence directly sometime “soon.” From the White House press briefing: GIBBS: This…

Newark Mayor Cory Booker was furious about the 8,000-word Esquire magazine profile of him and his beloved city. “I exploded,” he says in the new documentary, Brick City, “with just, rage, when I read it.” The 2008 article described Booker’s heroic quest to awaken the “city of zombies” and the “Goddamn Zulus” residing in Jersey.  Indeed,…

Operating on no coffee and five hours of sleep, I attempted to survive a three-and-a-half hour series of panels on new media during the Congressional Black Caucus’ annual conference and failed. It wasn’t for a lack of effort on the panel members’ part. Robert Townsend bounded around the room trying to sell me on his…

I thought John Edwards would be president one day. I was wrong. The once-promising political career has all but disintegrated. Edwards appears on the verge of admitting he is the father of a child he once denied. Raleigh’s WRAL first reported that Edwards was inching toward reversing his denials about the paternity of the child…

When a team like the Washington Redskins loses to the team with the two-year worst record in the NFL as they did in Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the Detroit Lions, perhaps it’s time to review a bit more than the game film. In fact, if a group of American Indian activists have their way—Pro-Football, Inc.—the organization that…

There’s been an awful lot of talk lately about how Barack Obama’s Democratic Party is increasingly on shaky political ground and how Republicans are set to take great advantage of that setback this fall in gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey—not to mention the 2010 congressional midterm elections. Democrats, as usual, are conflicted about…

Derrion Albert, an honor student from Chicago’s Fenger High School, was beaten to death outside the Agape Community Center last week. From WLS-TV Chicago: Authorities say 16-year-old Derrion Albert was walking from school in broad daylight when he was beaten to death. It happened on Thursday in Chicago’s Roseland community on the far South Side…

The Congressional Black Caucus is 40 years old this year, and with one of its former members in the White House, members are feeling more powerful than ever. As the CBC gathers in Washington for its annual legislative conference weekend—the first since Barack Obama was elected president—some members say the CBC, with a record 43…

Iran has a covert uranium enrichment plant and that makes a lot of nations uncomfortable, not the least of those being the US, France and Great Britain. At the G20 SUmmit today in Pittsburgh, President Obama took it upon himself to let Iran know it was cruisin’ for a bruisin’. From CNN: Iran’s newly unveiled…

A bit of good news in the fight against HIV. In what is possibly the largest HIV vaccine trial ever, researchers found that through a series of inoculations, those who received treatment were 31% less likely to contract the disease than those who were given a placebo. Doctors warn that their gains are modest but…