Politics

Car hunting? Soon you’ll go farther for every dollar you spend on gasoline. President Barack Obama announced new, more stringent fuel efficiency standards Tuesday that would raise the mileage of each American-made car to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. The new law will affect cars beginning in model year 2012, and, environmentally, could make…

What is Michael Steele doing? In his latest speech declaring a new day for the GOP, the Republican Party chairman offered up yet another rough and tumble takedown of the Democrats, filled with biting rhetoric and at times lackluster, backward-looking policy initiatives. Among many terse one-liners came a declaration “that the era of the GOP…

*According to the Associated Press, Martin Luther King’s family has become temporarily functional enough to authorize the use of the good doctor’s intellectual property for the purpose of making a feature-length biopic. Steven Spielberg is attached to produce, hopefully having shook off the bad juju from that Indiana Jones debacle. *Having mastered playing blind Black piano virtuosos,…

Recently, longtime Catholic priest and freedom fighter Father Michael Pfleger and members of his parish—the Faith Community of St. Sabina in the South Side of Chicago—made an eloquent plea for justice by flying the American flag upside down in front of his church. Hoisting a flag with the union down is done very rarely and…

Every time Michelle Obama wears a cardigan, it happens again: a nationwide gush-fest over the way that the first lady is boosting retailer J. Crew (JCG). Michelle Obama Lifts J. Crew! Can Michelle Save the Fashion Retailer? The First Lady Brings J. Crew to London! The Crew Cashes In! The theory that the first lady…

DN: Obama to Skip Kenya on African Tour, Says ‘You Got a Whole Chapter in the Book’ BBC: Tamil Tiger Leader Killed, Sri Lanka Declares Beef Squashed AJE: The Block is Quite Hot in Somalia Right Now, Rebels Take Another Town WP: Cannes Do: Director Lee Daniels Makes a Splash at Film Festival JTA: Lost…

Just before Barack Obama hit 100 days as president, I wrote a piece asking “What Happened to the Office of Urban Policy?” I had closely followed the formation of an Urban Affairs office —wondering if the office, intended to coordinate efforts at the departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Education and the like,…

Never has a president so effortlessly dispatched an adversary as President Obama did last Saturday night, with his single-word “Whassup?” dismissal of RNC Chair Michael Steele and his self-proclaimed “hip-hop makeover.” By the time Steele jumped out of his seat to be “recognized,” the only thing missing from the scene at the White House Correspondents’…

NO: Radio Black Out: Performance Fee Bill Passes Committee HP: Bring the Beat(ings) Back! Obama to Revive Military Tribunals of Gitmoans AJE: Sri Lankan Gov’t: ‘We’ll Free Tamils from Tigers Provided We Don’t Kill Everyone in the Process’ BBC: South Africa Grants Dalai Lama Visa, Says ‘He’s Cool; He’s Solid.” WP: Brenda’s Got a Baby,…

If you missed Chris Matthews’ whacked-out tirade against affirmative action last week on his shoutfest Hardball with Chris Matthews, don’t worry. I’m guessing you’ll have plenty of opportunities to hear similar screeds in the weeks leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, the affirmative action case involving promotions in the New…