Commentary

At the precipice of change: The budget

Thursday, 12 March 2009 12:20 Ron Walters, NNPA Columnist

With lightening speed, President Barack Obama has moved from stimulus package to a home foreclosure package, to working on the financial bailout package, and now to the budget.

An African American depression

Thursday, 12 March 2009 12:18 Julianne Malveaux, NNPA Columnist

I was watching the periphrastic pundit, actor and neo-economist Ben Stein on CBS Sunday morning pontificating.

He said that if President Obama offered more happy talk, more conviction that times would get better, then they would.

American jobs are worth fighting for

Thursday, 12 March 2009 12:15 R. Thomas Buffenbarger

In January alone, 598,000 jobs were lost. More than 200,000 of those jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector. The employment rate now stands at a staggering 7.6 percent. The global credit crunch has, finally and decisively, thrown the gears of growth into reverse.

More than 70,000 Minnesotas at risk of losing their jobs

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:34 State Rep. Jeff Hayden

The February forecast, which we received this past week, is an important part of the process we go through at the Legislature to arrive at a balanced budget. It gives us a snapshot of how our economy is performing as well as provides the Legislature with the size of our surplus or deficit for the upcoming budget cycle. As you might expect, the forecast delivered sobering news about the trajectory of our economy and a growing state budget deficit.

I rejected new liberalism and became a conservative

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:30 Joseph C. Phillips

My son is studying ancient Chinese philosophies in his sixth grade history class. The other day he rushed home to tell me that his teacher had compared modern day conservatism to the ancient totalitarian philosophy of Chinese Legalism.

Saying no to stimulus money makes no sense

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:27 Marc H. Morial, NNPA Columnist

When President Obama signed into law the $787 billion stimulus package designed to bring needed relief to struggling economies and families, citizens in almost every state breathed a sigh of relief.
But, due to the misguided stubbornness of a handful of Republican governors who are threatening to refuse stimulus funds for their states, some citizens are still waiting to exhale.

The growing problem of over-policing our schools

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:23 Marian Wright Edelman

Imagine being four-years-old and put into handcuffs because you and your friend wouldn’t take a nap in your pre-K class. Or being five-years-old, handcuffed, and taken away from your school by ambulance to a hospital psychiatric ward after throwing a tantrum in the kindergarten room. These scenarios might sound far-fetched, but both are true stories that captured the local media’s attention after they happened to children at their New York City public schools.