Category: National News

President Obama intends to overhaul the No Child Left Behind education law, changing the school accountability system that has placed a failing label on over a third of schools, the Associated Press reported. No Child Left Behind pushes schools to improve test scores each year with the goal of making all U.S. children able to […]

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on February 4 filed charges of fraud against corporate giant Bank of America, as well as Kenneth Lewis and Joseph Price, the bank’s former chief executive and financial officer, respectively. According to The Washington Post, Cuomo alleges that the two former Bank of America executives lied to investors and […]

From the days of the late actress Hattie McDaniel and entrepreneur Eunice Johnson in the early 20th century, Black women have always forged paths of leadership, fighting for success while giving tirelessly of themselves. “I don’t think you ever stop giving. I really don’t. I think it’s an on-going process,” Oprah Winfrey has said. “And […]

United States residents who donated to the relief effort in Haiti will be rewarded this spring when they file their income taxes. A measure recently approved by Congress and signed by President Obama will allow them to write off those charitable donations on their 2009 taxes. Under current law, those donations would have had to […]

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer (R) has set off a round of controversy with his comparison of providing government assistances to individuals in Greenville, S.C., to “feeding stray animals.” According to Columbia, S.C. newspaper The State, Bauer’s remarks came during a Jan. 22 town hall meeting which included both lawmakers and residents. “My grandmother […]

Caressa Cameron, 22, a broadcast journalism student enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University, beat out 53 contestants in the annual Miss America pageant held at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 30. She is the first Black Miss America since Ericka Dunlap won the title in 2005. “I hope to gain inspiration, I hope […]

Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Lee Archer, a former Tuskegee Airman during World War II, died January 27 at Cornell University Medical Center in New York City. He was 90. Archer was born on September 6, 1919 in Yonkers, N.Y. and raised in Harlem. He attended New York University before dropping out and enlisting in […]

Dillon County, S.C. has some of the worst public education facilities in the nation, facilities so bad that they caught the eye of then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008. Now, President Obama has decided to do something about the horrid state of the buildings, some of which are nearly 115 years old. The county’s schools will […]

Several pending lawsuits allege northern California police have not taken seriously attacks on Black teens by Latino gang members. The racially-motivated violence resulted in the death of 14-year-old Vernon Eddins, who was shot in front of his Union City, Calif. middle school in December 2007. Eddins’ death is one incident lawyers cite in three pending […]

Despite President Obama’s assurances that the economy is rebounding, residual effects of the ongoing recession have resulted in more job losses. Among the major firms cutting jobs is retail powerhouse Wal-Mart, which said Jan. 24 that it would lay off 11,200 workers at its Sam’s Club division. The Arkansas-based company, which has boasted assets of […]

The Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP is calling for the firing of city police officers who allegedly beat Black teenager Jordan Miles during an arrest. The Pittsburgh branch is also calling for charges against Miles to be dropped. “He had robbed no one—no bank, no establishment, hijacked no car or caused anyone any harm. He […]

A missing man who won $30 million in the Florida lottery in 2006 was found dead on January 28 after a three-month search. Abraham Shakespeare had not been seen by friends or relatives since April and was officially declared a missing person in November. Authorities found his body buried under a concrete slab in the […]