Politics

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…

NEW YORK—On the eve of the international political conference in Pittsburgh known as the Group of 20, President Barack Obama addressed a packed main hall of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Making his first appearance before the international diplomatic and peacekeeping body, Obama stressed that expectations of global cooperation now drive American…

Sometimes, friends, maintaining “the complexion” of your pool can cost ya. Just ask the Valley Swim Club, who got tuned up recently for its pigment-averse swimming policies. From CNN: The commission ordered monetary damages for humiliation and embarrassment and a civil penalty of not more than $50,000. The decision noted that none of the club’s…

Despite all increasingly alarmed concern over his approval numbers, President Barack Obama is still flying high with the American people—even as we watch to see if his presidency runs aground as a result of his efforts to reform the nation’s health care system. The doom and gloom story of August was that health care was…

Every time two different people from two different backgrounds get in a dispute, race may color the dynamic, but most often it is not the dominant instigator—never mind what Jimmy Carter has to say about race in America. This isn’t to say that we are post-racial or that racism is dead. We aren’t, and it…

Heavy rains caused flooding that took the lives of at least six people yesterday and the shutting down of parts of four major interstates. From CNN: Widely scattered showers were forecast for early Tuesday, with rain falling on saturated ground. Georgia’s governor declared a state of emergency Monday in the 17 counties hardest hit by…