Category: National News

Death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal will receive a new hearing on Nov. 9 to review his death sentence for the 1982 murder of a Philadelphia police officer. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Sept. 21 agreed to hear arguments in the case, under a directive from the U.S. Supreme Court to review […]

The national poverty rate has risen and a disproportionately larger percentage of Hispanics and Blacks suffer from poverty than Whites, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report. The report, released Sept. 16, found that, annually, the poverty rate is up to 14.3 percent in 2009 from 13.2 percent in 2008. However, the rate increased […]

Some 75,000 Black farmers have grown weary of the battle they’ve waged over the past two decades for the federal government to provide them with a $1.15 billion settlement after they were routinely denied loans. But they refuse to give up. During a rally on Capitol Hill during the week of Sept. 20 led by […]

Bishop Eddie Long, leader of the 25,000-plus member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., has been accused of sexual coercion and abuse by members of his church-affiliated youth academy. Two suits, filed Sept. 21 in the DeKalb County Court, list 11 counts they want a jury of 12 to rule on including: breach […]

The government is considering making the task of identifying fuel-efficient cars as easy as ABC—literally. A fuel economy grading system that would inform car buyers about gas consumption has been at the center of opposition between automakers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under the new EPA-proposed notion, letter grades of A, B, C and […]

– The Obama administration announced on Tuesday the creation of the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA), which is intended as a challenge to 1 million Americans of all ages to get more involved in physical activities as a way to maintain good health. “Despite our past efforts, the human and financial costs of unhealthy lifestyles […]

A prominent photographer who worked in the trenches during the Civil Rights era has been revealed to have also been a paid informant for the FBI at the time. According to a report by Democracy Now, Ernest Withers worked closely with the FBI to monitor civil rights activists during the 1960s. Withers is also said […]

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous is asking Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to pardon two sisters serving life sentences for their role in a 1993 armed robbery that netted $11. Jamie and Gladys Scott, then 21 and 19 respectively, each were found guilty of two counts of armed robbery when they were accused of luring two men […]

Four Baltimore and Washington, D.C. -area colleges and universities landed on top of a recently compiled list of the 50 most dangerous campuses in the United States. According to a survey conducted by news Web site The Daily Beast, University of Maryland-Baltimore ranked second, University of Baltimore ranked sixth, Howard University was a close seventh, […]

Washington, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) plans to introduce a bill renaming the U.S. Post Office located at 2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E., near the U.S. Capitol in honor of late civil rights icon Dorothy Height. Norton plans to submit her bill when lawmakers reconvene next week from their summer break. “Dr. Height’s immensely impactful […]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) continued its attempts to address the ongoing rise in foreclosures nationally during the week of Sept. 5 with another round of major contributions to state and local governments. The department’s $1 billion contribution will be the third round of funding through HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which […]

Eighteen historically Black colleges and universities recently received grants from the Department of Agriculture to strengthen their research and teaching capabilities and better recruit and train students in agriculture, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Sept. 9. This year, grants totaling $50 million were awarded through the department’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which supports […]