Politics

Let’s cut to the chase regarding President Barack Obama’s health care plan, or, as it’s formally called, the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. At least three versions exist at the moment: the administration’s and those of the House and the Senate. In the days remaining until the congressional recess begins this week, they will…

This year, Barack Obama celebrates his birthday in the White House as president of the United States. But, Michelle Obama and the first kids will be hard-pressed to find the right present for the commander in chief who has everything. The Root readers recommend a few gift ideas for the POTUS as he turns the…

From the AP via NewsOne: Osama bin-Laden’s deputy said in a video message released Monday that the al-Qaida leader’s offers of a truce with the U.S. and Europe remained on the table, though he ridiculed President Barack Obama as “the new face of the same old crimes.” In a video posted on an Islamic militant…

CHILMARK, Mass. (AP) — Henry Louis Gates, Jr. said Sunday he has been able to joke about his arrest by a white police officer that led to a national debate on race, but he also has received death threats and bomb threats. In his first public appearance since meeting with Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley…

is a former columnist for TIME magazine and a regular contributor to The Root.

BOSTON (AP) — Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has sent flowers and a note to the woman who unwittingly sparked a national debate on race by calling police to report what she thought might be a break-in at Gates’ home. Wendy Murphy, the lawyer for Lucia Whalen, called the flowers a “gesture of gratitude.”…

From The American Prospect: Before the big House vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), Representative Tom Perriello had a tough choice to make. Perriello won his seat by a small margin and worried about attacks from Republicans campaigning against the bill. Ultimately, he voted for it, in part because he believes…

From the NY Times: The far-flung Obama clan is coming closer together. President Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is moving her family here from Hawaii and will spend the next several months living in the nation’s capital, White House officials say. The extended stay means that the siblings will live in the same city, at least…

From our own David Swerdlick, originally published in the NY Daily News: After two weeks of controversy over the arrest of Harvard‘s Henry Louis Gates by the Cambridge Police Department‘s Sgt. James Crowley, I could really go for a cold brew. Couldn’t you? But that Bud Light at the White House last night wasn’t for…

Miller Time at the White House came and went. Most black people and police critics are still shouting, “Tastes great.” White people and police supporters are still shouting, “Less filling.” The deep problem beneath the surface of the Gates-Crowley encounter has not changed at all. Let the teaching begin. The issue now is the future,…