Category: National News

Some low-income Mississippi residents, still in need of recovery funds five years after Hurricane Katrina, will receive disaster recovery assistance following a Nov. 15 settlement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. After two years of litigation, the department agreed to redirect to needy residents for home rehabilitation a portion of funds earmarked […]

Outgoing U.S. Sen. Roland Burris (D.-Ill.) said he is furious with the lack of African-Americans in the Senate, calling the fact that there will be no Black senators once he completes his term when the 111th Congress adjourns, “unacceptable” and “troubling.” Republican Mark Kirk will replace Burris, who chose not to seek election. Burris is […]

The Chicago-based manufacturers of Four Loko, a popular caffeinated alcoholic energy drink, were among the four recipients of a warning letter issued by the Food and Drug Administration, who claimed the caffeine used in their products was unsafe, according to the Associated Press. The “FDA does not find support for the claim that the addition […]

The Senate cleared a $1.15 billion appropriations measure Nov. 19 to settle a decades-old discrimination suit by Black farmers, paving the way for one of the largest civil rights settlements in history, if the bill clears the House. The nation’s Black farmers were awarded the money as apart of a larger $4.6 billion dollar settlement […]

WASHINGTON – New York Rep. Charles Rangel, a longtime power in the U.S. House, violated its rules with financial misconduct, brought it discredit and will be punished, fellow lawmakers sitting as jurors ruled on Nov. 16. Protesting the enduring stain on his four-decade congressional career, the 80-year-old Democrat said he was treated unfairly for “good […]

President Obama told world leaders that a strong U.S. economy is key to a global recovery as he attempted to create trade opportunities with countries all over the world. However, he found no such luck during his Asian trip. Obama, in a letter Nov. 9 to G-20 members, defended his administration’s spending, a policy that […]

Election Day victories for two Black Republicans raise a rare question in the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress: How will two African-American members of the Grand Old Party interact with the Congressional Black Caucus? Fourteen Black Republicans ran for Congress in the Nov. 2 midterm elections but, after all the votes were counted, […]

Following a Friday night meeting which averted a fearful public Democratic Caucus battle for power, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Nov. 13 asked her party colleagues to support Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., for a newly created “assistant leader” position. The action settles a storm that had been gathering as House Democrats organize themselves as the […]

In an effort to address the epidemic of bedbugs creeping through the nation, federal and local agencies are attacking the menace with effective measures. Bedbugs, biting insects that thrive on the consumption of human and animal blood, have been around for thousands of years. Drawings of bedbugs have been found in ancient caves. By the […]

A woman, who received a handwritten letter from President Obama regarding her financial woes, has reportedly sold the correspondence to pay for her home and medical bills. Jennifer Cline of Monroe, Mich., a wife and mother of two, wrote a three-page letter on notebook paper to Obama in December 2009. “I lost my job, my […]

Amid the debate over its pros, cons, and ramifications, California voters rejected Proposition 19, which would have legalized recreational marijuana use for people over the age of 21 in the state. The measure only received 46 percent of the vote, denying it this time around. But proponents believe that the number of favorable votes is […]

Protesters rioted in Oakland late Nov. 5 and early Nov. 6 in the wake of the two-year minimum prison sentence given to an ex-transit officer who killed an unarmed African-American man. Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant while trying to arrest him on an Oakland train platform two years ago. Since then, the case […]