Category: National News

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Though their hopes of achieving health care reform took a hit with the election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate in a special Massachusetts election in mid-January, Democrats have vowed to keep fighting until a reform bill is passed. “You go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence,” House […]

President Obama’s State of the Union Address on January 27 featured a rare confrontation between two branches of American government. The president called out the Supreme Court for their recent decision in the case of Citizens United vs. FEC, which overturned two precedents and allowed corporate financing in political campaigns. In a detour from his […]

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 […]

President Barack Obama, it seems, is the eternal optimist. Despite a year in which Republicans undercut his policies at every turn, the president renewed his call to bipartisanship very early on in his first State of the Union address Wednesday night, calling on lawmakers “to overcome the numbing weight of our politics.” He later said, […]

Legal experts and campaign reform advocates are decrying the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 21 decision that reversed a years-long ban on corporate campaign spending, a move that opens the door for a deluge of negative campaign ads that could transform November’s mid-term elections. “It’s not a happy day; it’s a very, disturbing, disturbing decision,” said […]

After admitting mistakes involving questionable financial practices, Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti charity foundation announced Jan. 22 that it has hired a new accounting firm to help manage its finances. The announcement was made just hours before a globally-broadcast charity concert called “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief.” The foundation’s finances were […]