Category: National News

Leroy Hassell Sr., Virginia’s first Black chief justice, died Feb. 9 at a Richmond hospital, the Supreme Court of Virginia announced in a press release. The cause of his death was not released. Hassell had been a member of the court since 1989 and served as chief justice from February 2003 until shortly before his […]

Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas who emerged as a tea party figurehead in the past year, has taken her conservative activism to another phase. The self-titled “ambassador to the Tea Party movement” recently launched a political consulting business that, according to the company’s website, libertyinc.co, will assist and advocate […]

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Two former Freedom Riders are helping to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the trip through the Deep South that challenged racial segregation in public transportation systems. Joan Trumpauer Mulholland and the Rev. Reginald Green appeared Feb. 7 at the University of Mary Washington to honor the Freedom Rides and their organizer, […]

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) Feb. 2 rebutted fresh skepticism about whether the Voting Rights Act is still needed in the South and whether it is constitutional. Consider Calera, Ala. and its lone Black councilman just five years ago, LDF lawyers said during oral arguments in federal court in Atlanta involving a […]

Laura Murphy traveled to Egypt to celebrate her sister Madeline Murphy Rabb’s birthday, but the already memorable trip evolved into an experience of a lifetime as she bore witness to days of unrest, hope, fear, and the first flickering of a new democracy ready to ignite. Murphy, the Washington Director for the American Civil Liberties […]

The Senate Feb. 2 voted down a bill to repeal the Obama White House’s health care reform measure. The bill, approved in the Republican-controlled House, fell in the Senate, as expected. The vote, a 47 votes for, 51 against, tally that followed party lines, was on a measure to allow a health care reform repeal […]

Unfortunately, most people labor under the mistaken notion that what pharmacists primarily do is just put pills into bottles. Consequently, they sometimes get irritated when it either takes longer than they expect for us to put those pills in those bottles or we simply refuse to do so. Actually, our jobs are a lot more […]

The historic Dakota apartment building in New York faces a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former president of its board. Alphonse Fletcher, Jr., who has lived in the building since 1992, is suing the building for $15 million after the board denied his application to buy an adjacent unit to accommodate his family. According to […]

The 112th Congress has convened with a new chairman for the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II. Coming to the House of Representatives for his third term from Missouri’s Fifth District, he serves on the Financial Services Committee, Homeland Security Committee and the Speaker’s Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The Congressional […]

Retiring Texas Railroad Commissioner and Tea Party favorite Michael Williams has decided to run for the U.S. Senate. The bow tie-clad, boot-shod Black Texan said Jan. 25 that he wants to bring his starkly conservative views—including no preferential treatment for Blacks in higher education, acceleration of oil exploration in coastal areas and a reduced role […]

Revered anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela was released from a South African hospital on Jan. 28 after successfully battling an acute respiratory infection. Mandela’s release ended international speculation about his failing health and rumored death. Reuters photographs showed Mandela, 92, leaving Johannesburg, South Africa’s Milpark Hospital on a stretcher surrounded by […]

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has acknowledged that he erred in not disclosing his wife’s income on his financial statements in the wake of complaints raised by liberal advocacy group Common Cause. In filings dated Jan. 21, Thomas sent seven similarly-worded letters to the Federal Committee on Financial Disclosure asking to amend his disclosure forms. […]