Politics

From CNN: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Employers cut far fewer jobs from payrolls in July, according to a report from the government Friday, and the unemployment rate fell for the first time in more than a year. The Labor Department reported a net loss of 247,000 jobs in July, the fewest job losses since August…

The Senate, in a vote laden with history and partisanship, confirmed Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday as the 111th justice and the first Hispanic to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. The confirmation of President Obama’s first high court nominee was a milestone for his presidency. But the Senate’s nearly 20 hours of debate over Sotomayor…

Between Jack Nicholson’s 1989 portrayal of the Joker in “Batman” and Heath Ledger’s 2008 characterization in “The Dark Knight,” something sinister happened to the villain’s iconic makeup. What had been a mask, with the clearly delineated lines of a carnival character, became simply war paint, and not very well applied. The visual change signaled a…

Not in the slightest. It’s true that some countries in the region are as poor as England under William the Conqueror, but that doesn’t mean Africa’s on the verge of doomsday. How many serfs had a cellphone? More than 63 million Nigerians do. Millions travel on buses and trucks across the continent each year, even…

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal jury convicted a former Louisiana congressman Wednesday of taking bribes on 11 of 16 counts in a case in which agents found $90,000 in his freezer. Former Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who had represented parts of New Orleans, was accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes and seeking…

From The AP via The Grio: SREDNYAYA AKHTUBA, Russia (AP) — An African-born farmer is making an improbable run for office in Russia, inspired by President Barack Obama and undaunted by racial attitudes that have changed little in decades. Joaquim Crima, a 37-year-old native of Guinea Bissau who settled in southern Russia after earning a…

From the AP: A federal appeals court on Friday revived a discrimination lawsuit brought by more than 200 black police officers who claim they were mistreated by white supervisors with the U.S. Capitol Police. The black officers had sued in 2001, charging white senior officers had created a hostile work environment by regularly referring to…

From the Washington Post: As the Senate prepared to debate the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday, the Republican leadership sought to rally opposition to President Obama’s nominee on grounds that she represents a dangerous new standard of judicial “empathy” rather than impartiality in deciding cases. In a morning floor speech ahead of…

From CNN: “Read my lips: No new taxes.” That famous phrase from George H.W. Bush came as he accepted his party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Committee convention in 1988. At the time, it was exactly the red meat Republicans were looking for. But campaigning and governing are two very different things. Bush was…

By now you surely know this much: It’s August, there’s still no health reform bill in either chamber, and that’s a political setback for Barack Obama. This scorecard is not trivial. In a democracy, the politics matter. That said, we’re talking about society-defining public policy here. How we get and pay for health care affects…