Essence’s Editor-At-Large, Mikki Taylor and Roland Martin give Dr. Chris Metzler a fashion lesson. Taylor explains how to add a little contrast between his shirt and tie.

Roland Martin, Karen Finny and Dr. Chris Metzler, joke about Robert Traynham and Cornell Belchers apparel.

The Church Without Walls/Brookhollow Baptist Church
www.churchwithoutwalls.org
Rev Ralph D West Sr., founder/senior pastor
Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30
Sermon Series: Taking A Step Forward
Sermon Title: “Take a Step Forward in Risk”

How many of us connect with being a follower of Jesus and actually taking a risk?

Some of us live by the status quo
Most churches operate by, “we ain’t never done it like this before.”

This scripture is a story about risk.

The kingdom of God is a story about people who take risk.

the real star of this Scripture is about the man with one talent, as opposed to the men with three and five talents.

The person who holds a talent has a major responsibility. It means that God has entrusted you with something.

In this parable, one talent means $30,000. In this biblical time, a week ‘s pay was 15 cents.

Some can handle more money than others, but God does. Of expect you to have less responsibility in handling what you have been given.

The man with one talent chose not to do anything. Jesus is stressing, “be a participant and not a spectator. In the kingdom, you get off the bench and get in the game.

Too often the church is a spectator sport. We will sit, observe, criticize and never get in the game. Anybody can sit back and watch.

When you don’t take a risk, it colors the way you envision life. It distorts how you see things.

Children don’t have as much fear as old folks. It’s something about being young and dating.

Some today look at the tough days of a recession, and forget how God has been providing for you for years.

You’ve got to watch how you let life distort your image. How will you know what God will do if you never participate in God’s plan?

Jesus never said the kingdom of God is like sitting in a LazyBoy chair.

Too many of us don’t associate following Jesus with risk taking.

In this Scripture, the man with one talent was described as lazy. How would you feel if God had that to say about you?

As Christians, we talk about entrepreneurs do. We get caught up in what someone else does? Why do we celebrate risk-taking in industry and capitalism, as opposed to what God is doing every day.

Believing is seeing. In God’s kingdom, believing is not seeing. What you can see is temporary. What you can’t see is eternal.

1. Take a risk by accepting responsibility and not casting blame. (see verse 19-24)

- Jesus is in the business of people taking risk.
- Risk is another word for people having faith.
- Without risk it’s impossible to please God.
- Risk works, but we like to play it safe. When you risk you might lose something .
- There is something about risk that pays off.
- If all you got is God then all you can do is trust.
- Giving is for our benefit and not for him.
- Some of you feel safe because your money is in CDs. Surely you know that financial institutions go belly up? But God never goes belly up.
- you may feel comfortable because you’ve got your money saved. But all it takes is one sickness to wipe that out. The real person who secures our deposit is God. We need to believe, “Lord, it’s in your hands.”

1. Am I registered to vote?
a. If not, where and when can I register to vote, and what must I bring to register?
b. If so, does my voter registration file include my current address? If not, how can I update my address?

2. When is the next election in my city, county, state?

3. When does the voter registration period close for the next election cycle?

4. After I register to vote, how do I verify my registration?

5. If I was convicted of a criminal offense, did I lose my voting rights? If so, how do I apply to have them restored?

6. If I am currently incarcerated awaiting disposition of a criminal charge, am I still eligible to register to vote?
If yes, how do I apply for an absentee ballot?

7. Am I eligible for an absentee ballot? If so, how and when do I request one? When can I cast my absentee vote?

8. Does my state require government-issued photo identification or proof of citizenship to register to vote and/
or to vote?
a. If so, which forms of identification are acceptable?
b. If the form of identification I have is not acceptable, where can I obtain an acceptable one?
c. What documents do I need to get the required identification?
d. Is it free? If not, can I apply for a fee waiver? Note that many offices wait for you to ask for a fee waiver,
and will not offer it themselves, even though you may be entitled to one.

9. Does my state offer early voting? If so, what is the early voting period, and where do I cast my early vote?

10. If I am voting in person on Election Day, where is my polling place? What if I moved since I last voted?

If you are not sure of the answers, then find out from your local board of elections well in advance of Election Day. The Board of Elections in your city/county, and your Secretary of State, must have the answers to each of these important questions.

I told you guys I would start posting some of the ridiculous and ignorant emails I get from folks on a regular basis.

This is what came in my box today from James Edwards, james1134@aol.com, with http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org. I’ve debated this bigot on CNN, and he is a joke. Feel free to email him if you like.

This is the email he sent me under the headline, “I OWN You:”

“So, I am a “bigot,” am I? If you had a working understanding of the English language, you would realize that a bigot is just someone intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions or pre-judgement. So basically, if you won’t change your mind no matter what the evidence, this word applies to you.

“Well, it just so happens that this demographic trend we were discussing is almost entirely “Latino” driven, and “Latinos” are, of course, as I’m sure you know, themselves the descendants of mostly Latin peoples– who interbred with blacks and Amerindians in wide numbers. You are a light-skinned black, which is why you have a working grasp of the English language and don’t speak some “Ebonics” nonsense, but the average IQ of pure Sub-Saharan African blacks is 67. In Nigeria and Zimbabwe, the average IQ is 66, and in Equatorial Guinea, 59. In Haiti, 71. Whites in the U.S. are racially pure thanks to racial integrity laws during our formative years, which also left African-Americans with on average the equivalent of one white grandparent, boosting their average IQ somewhat. For “Latinos” in Mulatto nations like Cuba and Brazil, the average IQ is around 87, the midpoint one would expect. So, cross breeds are higher than the lower parent, but lower than the higher parent.

“And, it just so happens that all of our patents, our technology, our ph.d university curriculum, everything, is the result of the hopes and dreams and creativity of my people. Modern society is our culture. So, indeed, entire cultured civilizations have been lost just to defilement of the blood. Spain is a First World nation, with an average IQ of 99, whereas mestizo Mexico is a Third World nation, with an average IQ of 87. For Indians, 73. So, I am the ‘bigot,’ when entire cultured civilizations have been lost just to defilement of the blood?

“This is proof of horrifyingly vast mental and behavioral differences. Only 3 million nucleotide SNPs separate the races, but these SNPs are evenly distributed across the genome and affect nearly all genes tremendously. In only a couple of decades we will be able to map every SNP, and explain specifically where, how, and what these mutations affect, and how they specifically govern the mind. We can pinpoint the DNA that gives blacks such a remarkable talent for music, Asians a talent for math, and whites an incredible talent for creativity and inventiveness. If it wasn’t for whites, you would be practicing your own culture in Africa– just starving to death in a mud hut. At least, for the 60% or so of your genes that are African. African-Americans are really more like dark Latinos.

“Given this situation, I am really very moderate in my views, almost liberal. I just want segregation and an end to immigration, not the mass genocide that could easily be justified under even the simplest understanding of evolution. Life is supposed to be a struggle for survival; a survival of the fittest. I OWN you, nigger. Whites have invented technology making slavery obsolete– it’s now cheaper to just make everything with technology. So, chuk your spear, use your own culture to fight sniper rifles and helicopters with machine guns; replacing you wouldn’t even be much of a challenge. The economy is going to keep shrinking and shedding jobs from here on out, which will cause third parties to be successful due to the outrage of Americans at their country slipping into the Third World. We are already becoming a Third World nation, but we will be victorious and take this country back, and return it to the `50s, when we had moral and racial integrity. You will be put in your place, and whites will one again take their ruling place as the masters of their own cultural heritage.”

Pres. Barack Obama’s been barnstorming across the country, talking about his jobs plan. He’s been, of course, to Ohio and Virginia [and] North Carolina — critical swing states to his reelection. But I believe the President should take his message to the heart of the opposition.

Pres. Barack Obama’s been barnstorming across the country, talking about his jobs plan. He’s been, of course, to Ohio and Virginia [and] North Carolina – critical swing states to his reelection. But I believe the President should take his message to the heart of the opposition. He should be going to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana – going to those places where Republican senators have been standing in the way of progress. I say go to the home district of Thad Cochran in Mississippi. Go to the home district of Jeff Sessions in Alabama. Go even to Democrat Mary Landrieu’s home place in Louisiana and say, “It’s time for these senators – Republicans and Democrats – to stop blocking measures that could help the American people.”

I don’t understand why the White House isn’t tha- — more aggressive when it comes to this. Look, it might not be in the President’s way to be confrontational, but I say take it to the very people who live in the poorest states in this country. Do you mean to tell me the people in Mississippi who are not Black, the people in Alabama who are not Black, the people in Louisiana who are not Black can’t identify with obstruction of – of issues in Congress? I say, “Mr. President, if you want to put your fighting gloves on, you go to the people who are standing in your way and then have them explain to the voters at home why they refuse to back a jobs bill, while they r- — while they stand in the way of raising taxes on the rich, but keep raising taxes on the middle class. Have them own up to their actions – especially in the poorest states in the Union.”

That’s my perspective. What’s yours?

CNN’s T.J. Holmes caught up with some folks just after the Las Vegas GOP debate ended.

WATCH:

CNN’s Thelma Gutierrez reports on the disproportionate rate of poverty among African-Americans in Omaha, Nebraska.

WATCH:

Roland Martin talks with Dr. Julianne Malveaux about the Occupy Wall Street movement that is spreading across the United States.

Roland Martin talks with Harry Johnson, President and CEO of the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation about the unveiling of the MLK Memorial.

WATCH: Extended coverage from the MLK Memorial Dedication Week.

CNN’s T.J. Holmes talks to Rev. Al Sharpton about the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice.

WATCH:

Roland Martin talks with Congressman Elijah Cummings about the controversy surrounding the Fast and Furious program and Attorney General Eric Holder.

By Roland S. Martin
Editor-in-Chief
RolandMartinReports.com

Whenever there is an uprising among the people of this country in the form of protest and organized dissent — especially with a presidential election 13 months away — the discussion inevitably shifts to what will it all mean for one of the nation’s two political parties.

No matter how hard its representatives have tried to suggest that it isn’t partisan, the tea party is nothing more than a sub-group of the Republican Party. If there were a healthy number of tea-party Democrats, then it would be true that the faction is non-partisan. But there isn’t, so it’s nonsensical to waste time not calling the tea-party Republicans exactly what they are: tea-party Republicans. From day one, the tea party aligned itself with the GOP, and that remains true today.

Yet, the attempt by Fox News, conservative radio show hosts and the GOP presidential candidates to associate Occupy Wall Street protesters with the image of far-leftist radical hippies marching in lockstep with the Democratic Party is wrong, shameful and pure intellectual dishonesty.

Being concerned about the nation’s well-being and the depths to which big-money interests are driving the nation’s policies is not a partisan question; it is a moral one. GOP presidential candidates want to cheapen the discussion by suggesting that Occupy Wall Street protesters hate capitalism. I sense they despise a nation that has come to be one wherein Fortune 500 companies and big banks run ads about how great America is but work hard to destroy America by shipping jobs overseas and engaging in shameful business practices that require the taxpayer to bail them out.

It’s real simple — and insanely stupid — to examine the true anger of Occupy Wall Street as a bunch of young folks with nothing to do. If we recall March 2009, when the AIG bonuses came to light, folks in every corner of this nation were angry at what they heard. Political ideology didn’t matter. It was seen as a matter of right and wrong.

That’s why the various leaders of Occupy Wall Street, no matter how local and de-centralized, must look at their effort as not one whose aim is to galvanize and put one party into office. Instead, the movement should be about candidates of both political parties, as well as independents, speaking to the American people’s needs and desires.

This tea-party-versus-Occupy-Wall-Street construct is a ridiculous one. From a media perspective, it’s a cheap and easy narrative, but in the end, it doesn’t tell the full story.

As someone who is more enamored with studying the intricacies of the civil rights movement rather than memorizing key speeches of its leaders, what was clear to me was that the civil rights movement wasn’t about getting a Democrat or Republican elected; it was always about ensuring full freedom and equality for African Americans who were denied their rights as citizens.

At different points, Republicans and Democrats were allies of the civil rights movement, while at the same time, some Republicans and Democrats were virulent opponents.

It wasn’t about party for civil rights leaders; it was about principle.

And that’s exactly where we sit today. As I listen to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and watch as their protests proliferate across the country just like the lunch-counter sit-ins that spread like wildfire across the south in 1960, I notice that the goals and ideals sound eerily familiar. While in the ’60s, it was about race, the civil rights battlefront today is about class. It’s about the widening gap between the rich and poor and how the middle class is being pushed down into poverty rather than being helped upwards.

This struggle is the moral dilemma the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. frequently discussed. If folks would stop focusing on the last part of his “I Have a Dream” speech and read all of what he said at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, they would understand that.

So what if Russell Simmons, Kayne West and other celebrities have millions and are showing support for Occupy Wall Street? When Harry Belafonte; Dick Gregory; Sidney Poitier; Bob Dylan; Joan Baez; Peter, Paul and Mary; Charlton Heston; Mahalia Jackson and other celebrities attended the 1963 march, no one said, “How dare those individuals with big bank accounts stand in solidarity with those with no bank accounts?” When it comes to fairness, your values matter more than your tax bracket.

If labor unions and politicians want to stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, that’s a good thing. If individuals who work on or used to work on Wall Street want to show their support for the need for systemic changes to this system, more power to them. If self-identified Democrats and Republicans want to show their moral outrage, praise God.

Moral movements aren’t supposed to be poisoned by politics. When that happens, the legitimacy is lost. If politicians want to use their voices in support, they should. But at no time should Occupy Wall Street be about getting one party elected to local, county, state and national office.

The time has come for men and women of conscience in this nation to stand up. It’s vital that we select individuals, regardless of party, who choose not to form an incestuous relationship with the rich, who are only about fattening their bottom lines while ignoring the plight of others.

As Dr. King said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and author of the book “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House as Originally Reported by Roland S. Martin.” Please visit his website at RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM

Roland Martin talks with Sec. Alexis Herman and Harry E. Johnson President and CEO of the National MLK Memorial Foundation about the Martin Luther King Memorial Dedication, Sunday, October 16th in Washington D.C

Television Schedule Update: TV One’s Coverage of the MLK Memorial Dedication will begin at 9 AM ET.

Source: AP / CBS News

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Thursday that officials at the “highest levels” of the Iranian government must be held accountable for a brazen and bizarre plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States on American soil, insisting leaders of the world will believe the U.S. case without dispute once they absorb the details.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, confirmed the Obama administration has had direct contact with Iran over the allegations. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, met with Iranian officials at Iran’s mission to the U.N. on Wednesday — a highly unusual contact for two countries that do not have diplomatic relations.

Obama would not say whether Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, knew of the alleged plan. Yet he called it part of a pattern of “dangerous and reckless behavior” by the Iranian government and said people within that government were aware of a murder-for-hire plot.

The U.S. considers it an attempted act of terrorism.

“We believe that even if at the highest levels there was not detailed operational knowledge, there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity,” Obama said in a news conference tied to the state visit of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Mark Preston / CNN

Las Vegas – Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman said Friday he was skipping next week’s Western Republican Presidential Debate out of deference to New Hampshire, which is locked in a political scheduling fight with Nevada.

Huntsman will instead hold a campaign event in New Hampshire Tuesday evening as his seven rivals for the GOP presidential nomination face off in the debate, which takes place in Las Vegas. Huntsman’s show of loyalty to New Hampshire comes 24 hours after announcing he would boycott the Nevada caucuses unless state GOP officials moved the date of their presidential nominating contest to later in January to accommodate Granite State law.

It also is another sign that Huntsman, a former Utah governor, is focusing his campaign squarely on trying to win the New Hampshire primary and using that victory to try and help him win the Republican presidential nomination.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A Florida woman is found guilty of attempting to hire a hit man to kill her husband and is sentenced to 20 years in jail. NBC’s Dennis Murphy reports.

Roland Martin talks with Valerie Nero, chairperson of the Mahailia Jackson estate about an upcoming biopic staring Fantasia.

From the New York Post:

The producers behind the upcoming Mahalia Jackson biopic say they’re embarrassed over statements made by financial backer Adrian Taylor to Page Six about Jackson’s family not wanting a pregnant Fantasia Barrino to play the legendary gospel singer in the movie.

To read this article in its entirety visit the New York Post.

Source: Marc Stein / ESPN

After roughly 13 hours of negotiations over two days failed to close what he termed a significant gulf “on virtually all issues,” NBA commissioner David Stern cancelled the first two weeks of the 2011-12 regular season Monday night.

Stern also suggested that the cancellations imposed on the 102nd day of the NBA lockout — just the second work stoppage in league history to bleed into the regular season — essentially guarantee that a full 82-game season has also been lost after fruitless talks found NBA owners and players unable to agree on key items such as luxury-tax specifics, contract lengths and annual raises.

To read this article in its entirety visit ESPN.

Source: Stephanie Condon / CBS News

As the “Occupy Wall Street” protests enter their third week and spread to cities across the country, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is expressing skepticism about the demonstrations.

“What do they want?” Cain asked when asked about the protests in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration.”

“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks,” he continued. “If you don’t have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself!”

Cain said the banks were in part to blame with the 2008 financial crisis, but he said, “We’re not in 2008 — we’re in 2011!”

The demonstrations “come across more as anti-capitalism,” he added.

TO read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

“Obama Fried Chicken” has critics finger lickin’ mad. CNN’s Jeanne Moos reports.
WATCH:

Roland Martin talks with Randall Robinson about his new book MAKEDA, An Unbroken Agony.

For more information about Randall Robinson and his new book MAKEDA, visit www.RandallRobinson.com.

President Obama says the American people want Congress to pass his jobs bill.

WATCH:

Source: James Crugnale / Mediaite

Country music singer Hank Williams Jr. compared President Obama to Adolph Hitler in an awkward interview Monday morning on Fox and Friends. Williams called the golf summit the president had with Speaker of the House John Boehner “one of the biggest political mistakes ever.” “It would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu, OK?”

Williams appeared on the program to share his thoughts on politics, but the segment got weird early on as the country music star curiously sulked with his arms crossed.

Anchor Gretchen Carlson asked Williams who he liked in the GOP race, which he replied “Nobody.” A shocked Steve Doocy exclaimed, “Nobody!?”

This triggered Williams to bash Obama and Boehner’s golf game and compare the president to Hitler. All three Fox and Friends anchors sat nonplussed in utter bewilderment.

”Yeah, I don’t understand that analogy, actually,” responded a perplexed Brian Kilmeade.

“Well, I’m glad you don’t, brother, because a lot of people do,” Williams snapped. “You know, they’re the enemy. They’re the enemy.” Kilmeade was thrown for a loop. “Who’s the enemy?”

“Obama!” Williams thundered.

To read this article in its entirety visit Mediaite.

Source: Holly Bailey / The Ticket / ABC News

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in coordination with Yahoo, sat down today for an exclusive interview with the president at the White House.

Some of the interview naturally was on the president’s handling of the economy, his jobs plan and whether he thinks he can turn his political prospects around ahead of next year’s presidential election.

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

Source: Colby Hall / Mediaite

This past Sunday the Washington Post published a lengthy report on a family camping site rented by Texas Governor Rick Perry that went by the name N*ggerhead Rock. The article goes in great detail asking legitimate questions surrounding the camp, and includes contains a denunciation by Perry, but also seems to find the embattled GOP candidate guilty by association for what is suggested to be tolerance of the offensive name.

Last night CNN’s Don Lemon very carefully reported on the story then asked fellow panelists if the Perry campaign can recover from even being associated from this story.

Lemon introduced this story with the same surgical tact that a bomb defuser might approach an unmarked package left in a Times Square subway stop. In fairness to all involved in this story, the WaPo story was built around numerous anonymous sources and it’s still too early in this story’s life cycle to truly understand its scale and potential political impact. This could blow up and kill a career, or could be a dud. Only more facts will reveal from which fire this smoke appears to be emanating.

To read this article in its entirety visit Mediaite.

More than 700 protesters demonstrating against corporate greed, inequality and other issues, were arrested Saturday after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down a lane of traffic. (Oct. 1)

A week ago, Washington, D.C., was buzzing as the Congressional Black Caucus held their annual legislative conference. It’s a big event with panels and parties, but a lot of serious talk about the employment disaster in the Black community. Our “Washington Watch” cameras captured a lot of the action, including their town hall meeting on jobs and the economy.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: MSNBC

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain criticized the name of a hunting camp once leased by Gov. Rick Perry’s family as “just plain insensitive” in an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

The name of the camp — “N*****rhead” — was first reported by the Washington Post on Saturday. The paper said the name was painted on a rock at the entrance of the property.

Perry reportedly began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at the secluded ranch early in his career. The offensive phrase has been painted over, but the Post’s sources and the Perry campaign differ on when that was done.

The Post reports that the name can still be seen through the paint.

“My reaction is, that’s just very insensitive,” Cain told Fox. “[There] isn’t a more vile, negative word than the N-word, and for him to leave it there as long as he did, before I hear that they finally painted over it, is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country.”

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

I totally get this whole sense of protecting the President, not wanting to have any criticism against him, so you don’t hear it on Rush Limbaugh and on Fox News. I totally understand that. But the question is, will Black people lose our moral authority to speak to the issues that we care about?

The lesson we can learn from Dr. King is that he understood that Pres. Kennedy was an ally. He understood that Pres. Lyndon Baines Johnson was an ally. Dr. King also understood that the Black agenda should never be compromised and subjected to who is in the Oval Office.

Source: Amy Bingham
/ ABC News

Billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett, who has become the unwitting mascot of President Obama’s jobs plan, is less than thrilled with one of the plan’s main provisions: the millionaires’ tax, or as it’s come to be known, the ”Buffett Rule.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Television today, Buffett said he did not support the president’s plan to increase taxes on people who earn more than $1 million per year.

“It isn’t [my idea] to have the rich pay more taxes. It’s to have the ultra-rich pay more,” he said, according to The Hill. “What I’m talking about would probably apply to 50,000 people in the country.”

Later on CNBC Buffett said if it were up to him, people earning $50 million would not see any tax increases, only people who “make a lot of money and pay a very low tax rate, like me.” Buffett did not put on a number on what he considers a “very high income.”

The Buffett Rule, as President Obama has taken to calling it, is a provision in Obama’s American Jobs Act that would increase the tax rate for millionaires to ensure that high income earners do not pay a lower tax rate than middle- or low-income earners. Obama dubbed this provision the Buffett Rule after the billionaire investor said there should be “shared sacrifice” in reducing the deficit.

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

Roland Martin talks with Gary Howard Editor in Chief of the Sporting News about the NBA lockout.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: The Huffington Post

Pat Buchanan endorsed Herman Cain’s controversial claim that black voters have been “brainwashed” into voting Democratic — and, on Thursday, he added some very controversial opinions of his own to the mix.

On Wednesday, Cain told CNN that black voters “have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view.” The comment received a lot of attention, and MSNBC’s Martin Bashir asked Buchanan about it on his Thursday show. Buchanan said he wholeheartedly approved.

Herman Cain Says Blacks Have Been Brainwashed; Not Open To Conservatism (VIDEO)

“I think the African American community has embraced Great Society liberalism which has been devastating for the African American family,” he said. “…I admire Herman Cain for standing up and going against, if you will, the conventional wisdom, and being a tough African American businessman.”

“Brainwashed?” Bashir said. “That’s a fairly strong term.”

“I think what he’s saying is they bought a lot of liberal propaganda on the liberal plantation and I think he’s right!” Buchanan replied staunchly.

“On the liberal plantation. Wow.” Bashir said. “That’s right,” Buchanan said.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Karen Bouffard and Mike Wilkinson /  The Detroit News

Lansing— Roughly 1 in 10 children in parts of Detroit and Flint will lose welfare benefits Saturday, when cash benefits for families who’ve been on welfare 48 months or longer are cut off.

Although nearly 41,000 people statewide will lose payments averaging $515 a month, the brunt of the impact will be felt in two of the poorest cities in the state, with Detroit accounting for more than half of those losing benefits, according to ZIP code records obtained by The Detroit News through a Freedom of Information request.

The results show high concentrations in neighborhoods deeply afflicted with blight, crime and poverty. In Detroit’s 48205 ZIP code, a roughly five-square-mile section of the northeastern part of the city, nearly 2,000 adults and 1,500 children will be cut off.

“I think it’s tragic,” said state Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, whose district includes the 48205 ZIP code. “You can’t have high violence and crime and poverty and expect that Detroit’s going to be able to compete in its comeback.”
For Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee, the news that more than 21,000 Detroiters will lose their benefits comes at a particularly troubling time.

“It gives us cause for great concern,” he said.

Godbee said he fears the cutoff could lead to increased crime as he announced Thursday stepped-up enforcement measures in the 48205 ZIPcode, recently identified by a Detroit News analysis as the deadliest area in the city.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Detroit News.

Roy Johnson / Fit! Live! Win!

Somebody call my friend Fireman Dan because I burned some calories this morning!

Besides my normal Sprint 8 regiment I do to warm up, and the shoulder and back moves I do once each week, I brought my boxing equipment to the gym and did a rigorous fat-burning cycle that had me dripping like a man with no umbrella caught in a monsoon!

Boxing is not only the sport of kings (at least i used to be) but it’s also one of the best belly-burning workouts you can do. It not only burns calories, but it also builds strengths, size and endurance–especially for your upper-body.

It also tones your legs and works your core–if you use the proper form.

Boxing gyms are popping up all over the country. And they’re not just for folks who actually want to get into the ring and get hit like for real.

They’re also meccas for rigorous no-weight individual training sessions, often less costly than those at a typical high-end gym.

Find out if there’s one in your neighborhood and try it out. Don’t be intimidated by the preponderance of guys with jacked bods (if you’re a woman, I guess intimidated might not be the right word!). Just imagine yourself as one of them after a few weeks of boxing sessions!

If you’ve not boxed before, or not in a long time, I definitely recommend a training session. You’ll learn how exactly to throw a punch, and the different punches, which is essential if you want to maximize your time in the gloves.

If you want to try it on your own, you’re in luck. Most gyms have a boxing room, usually equipped with a heavy bag, punching bag and at least on set of gloves and mitts.

Also, invest in some gloves and mitts of your own, so you can also do a boxing workout at home.

If you’re already got some pugilistic skills, trying one of these three boxing workouts from Men’s Health.

There are even boxing classes and variations on traditional boxing workouts, incorporating kick-boxing and other moves made popular by the rise of mixed-martial arts.

Here’s what I did today with my workout buddy:

1) Alternate punches into the mitts for 1 minute. Rest 30 secs. Repeat three times.

2) Right-Left-Right punches into heavy bag for 1 minute, rotating around the bag. Rest 30 secs. Repeat three times.

3) While one of us on the heavy bag, the other did core floor exercises.

That’s it. Looks simple but by the end our arms were drained and our lungs were burning. Fireman Dan was just around the corner. He almost got a call.

Challenge yourself!

For more information about Roy Johnson and fitness tips visit Fit! Live! Win!

Virginia Girl Gets Alcohol Poisoning After Ingesting Hand Sanitizer at School: MyFoxDC.com

Source: The Huffington Post

An angry father wonders why his 7-year-old girl was able to drink enough hand sanitizer to put her in the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Christy Grant, a second grader at Neabsco Elementary School in Dale City, Va. was unconscious and unresponsive when she was rushed from school to the hospital, Grant’s father told My Fox DC.

“She gave us a story. Somebody dared her. She did the dare,” Glen Grant said. “Under supervision, this would have never happened.”

A Neabsco Elementary official told My Fox DC that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws prevent the school from commenting on the incident.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Rapper/actor Common introduces Top 10 CNN Hero Diane Latiker, who helps youth through her program “Kids Off the Block.”

WATCH:

Source: Doug Gross / CNN

The iPod classic, a venerable stalwart in the world of consumer technology, may be getting the axe along with its cousin, the iPod shuffle, according to a blog that focuses on Apple news.

Citing an unnamed source, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting that, in addition to unveiling the iPhone 5 next week, Apple plans to discontinue the more dated versions of its music player in favor of sleeker models like the iPod Nano and iPod Touch.

The blog notes that Apple teased a “product transition” during its most recent earnings report.

Saying only that the source is not an analyst, TUAW says the rumor makes sense.
Excitement around Amazon, Apple releases

“The classic is a holdover from 10 years of iPod existence, bearing many similarities to the original iPod,” wrote blog editor Victor Agreda, Jr. “The shuffle is basically the same form factor as the nano, minus a screen.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: Alison Gendar and Corky Siemaszko New York Daily News</strong>

Congressional Democrats demanded an ethics investigation Thursday into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for allegedly failing to disclose that his wife was paid $700,000 by a conservative think tank.

They say Thomas marked off the “none” box on his annual financial disclosure form while his wife, Virginia, was raking in the dough working for the Heritage Foundation.

Between 2003 and 2007, she was paid $700,000, they claim.

“To believe that Justice Thomas didn’t know how to fill out a basic disclosure form is absurd,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat from Rochester, N.Y.

Slaughter has asked the Judicial Conference of the United States to decide whether Thomas’ disclosure mess should be passed on to the Justice Department for review. The question is whether Thomas has failed to comply with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.

It requires all federal judges to disclose their spouse’s employer. There was no immediate response from Thomas or the influential Heritage Foundation.

In January, after a liberal watchdog called out Thomas for omitting his wife’s place of employment on his disclosure forms, he went back and corrected some 20 years worth of the required documents.

Thomas, in a letter to the committee that handles the reports, said the info “was inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions.”

Nielsen’s Cheryl Pearson-McNeil joins Roland Martin on the Tom Joyner Morning Show to discuss The State of the African-American Consumer Report.

This new report illustrates the qualities of the African-American community, the business opportunities that exist, and the best methods for a productive connection between businesses and this community.

Author Taylor Branch joins Roland Martin on the Tom Joyner Morning Show to discuss his new book, The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA.

Roland Martin talks with Congresswoman Marcia Fudge about Ohio House Bill 194. The bill, which is supported by Ohio House Republicans, is aimed at voter suppression.

Rev. Al Sharpton joins Roland Martin on the Tom Joyner Morning Show to discuss the execution of Troy Davis.

Roland Martin talks with Michelle Singletary about President Obama’s tax plan to raise the taxes of people who can afford to give a little bit more and Republicans plans to cut spending.

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday has denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis after hearing pleas for mercy from Davis’ family and calls for his execution by surviving relatives of a murdered Savannah police officer.

Davis’ case has already taken more unexpected turns than just about any death-penalty case in Georgia history and his innocence claims have attracted international attention. Its resolution was postponed once again when the parole board late Monday announced it would not be making an immediate decision as to whether Davis should live or die.

Davis, 42, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Source: Bill Rankin / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Troy Anthony Davis’ legal team has finished presenting its case to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles in a last-ditch bid to win clemency.

“We believe we have established substantial doubt in this case,” Stephen Marsh, one of Davis’ lawyers, said after a three-hour hearing. The execution should not be allowed to go forward, he said.

The five-member board will now hear from prosecutors and surviving relatives of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail, who was gunned down in a Burger King parking lot in 1989. Members of MacPhail’s family, including his mother, Anneliese, were seen entering the parole board offices as were former Chatham County district attorney Spencer Lawton and and his former chief assistant, David Locke.

The five-member board began its hearing at 9 a.m. and it is expected to stretch into late afternoon. The board has not said whether it will issue its decision today as to whether Davis will be granted clemency or whether his execution should be carried out as scheduled on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church attended the parole board hearing with members of Davis’ family. “They were certainly attentive and expressed how difficult all of this is,” Warnock said of the board members.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Source: MSNBC

Netflix Inc is separating its movie streaming business and its DVD by mail service, which will be called Qwikster, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said in a company blog post.

Andy Rendich, who has worked at Netflix’s DVD service for 12 years and has been leading it for the last four years, will become the CEO of Qwikster, Hastings said.

The streaming business will retain the brand “Netflix,” according to the blog post.

Netflix’s move follows the company’s decision to increase the monthly subscription for a joint streaming and DVD rental service by as much as 60 percent that caused an uproar among customers and bloggers. Netflix shares have fallen sharply since the price increase was announced.

“I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation,” Hastings wrote in a blog post.
Hastings said streaming and DVD by mail were becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures. He also added that these two businesses offered different benefits that needed to be marketed differently.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: AP / The Huffington Post

Washington — Former President Bill Clinton on Monday dismissed Republican criticism of a debt-reduction proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy, and predicted President Barack Obama will see greater cooperation in the upcoming election year.

Republican leaders already are lining up against Obama’s proposal to end Bush-era tax cuts and to increase taxes on the nation’s wealthiest people. But Clinton told NBC’s “Today” show the GOP rhetoric is nothing new and not a deal-breaker for Obama.

“The Republicans in Washington always say the same thing,” arguing that any tax on any upper-income person is bad because it stifles job creation, Clinton said.

“It’s an insult to those people,” he said. “They don’t mind being asked to pay their fair share.”

The GOP opposition should diminish as the 2012 election approaches, just as it did in 1996, Clinton said. His clashes with Republicans in 1995 led to two government shutdowns, but in the 1996 election year he began experiencing greater cooperation, including passage of an increase in the minimum wage.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: MSNBC

Washington — President Barack Obama, setting up another clash with Republicans, has proposed $1.5 trillion in new taxes aimed primarily at the wealthy as part of a deficit reduction plan.

The president pitched his plan Monday morning from the Rose Garden at the White House.

“Today, I’m releasing a plan which details how to pay for the jobs bill, while also paying down our debt over time,” said Obama about his recently-released plan to ease the nation’s unhealthy unemployment rate.
“Washington has to live within its means,” continued the president. “For us to solve this problem everybody … has to pay their fair share.”

Obama added, “I’m proposing real cuts to spending. These would be among the biggest cuts in our history … This plan eliminates tax loopholes that primarily go to the largest corporations.”

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

While the media’s political high priests go gaga over Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s lying about the effects of the HPV vaccine and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s cozy role with pharmaceutical giant Merck, the biggest issue to emerge from the CNN/Tea Party Express debate is virtually being ignored.

On Monday, a basic question about what the GOP should do to appeal to Latinos turned into a vicious discussion about building a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border, about how the DREAM Act is a horrible piece of legislation, and the typical Republican talking points about how awful illegal immigration is for the country.

Remember: The question had nothing to do with confronting illegal immigration. It was a softball question that any amateur politician could have answered in his or her sleep. About the only one who looked like a sane human being was Perry, who defended his efforts to provide state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants, a position that was met with resistance from the other candidates and the Tea Party audience.

Whether it was a foaming-at-the-mouth Rick Santorum or a pouncing Bachmann, what every candidate on that stage should have said is that Latinos should be attracted to the GOP for the same reason as white — or any other — voters. The common interests of good education, low crime and a chance to live the American Dream cut across every age, race, gender and sex.

But when the GOP hears the word “Latinos,” it’s as if something clicks that says, “Oh, yeah! Illegal immigrants!”

There’s no doubt that the ignoring of the original question showed the true intentions of Republicans on the stage; you’d think that Democrats would have seized on the moment, hitting Hispanic radio and TV over the next few days to drive home the idea of a Republican Party that is hostile to Latinos.

Instead, Democrats focused on the gaffes of Bachmann and Perry — and missed a chance to hone in on a group of voters that President Barack Obama desperately needs to win re-election, especially in the western states.

What this revealed is that when it comes to appealing to Latinos, the nation’s largest minority group, a lot of Republican minds revert to a default position of negativity. It reminds me of a group of black Republicans in Illinois that met with party leaders about appealing to African-American voters. When the black Republicans finished their strong presentation, the first statement they heard was, “We are not going to support welfare.”

The party leaders ignored the data on school choice, economic empowerment zones and religious issues, because for the largely white Republican leadership, black outreach was all about welfare.

To gain some perspective on the importance of the Latino vote, I reached out to Matt Barreto, a professor at the University of Washington and a partner with Latino Decisions, a polling firm that works with Pacific Market Research.

“In order to win the presidency in 2012,” Barreto told me, “the Republican challenger is going to need to carry 40 percent or more of the Latino vote nationally.

However, most candidates in the Republican field seem to be doing everything they can to run away from Latino voters as they court the conservative Tea Party crowd. As they currently stand, the Republican field has absolutely no strategy to connect, (reach out), or appeal to Latino voters, which polling numbers back up.
“In the Aug. 2011 ImpreMedia/Latino Decisions tracking poll, 45 percent of Latinos said Republicans don’t care about the Latino community; 27 percent said Republicans were outright hostile to Latinos; and just 18 percent said Republicans were doing a good job connecting with Latino voters. Likewise, there doesn’t seem to be any movement in favor of voting Republican among Latinos in 2012.

“Back in Nov. 2010, Latino Decisions reported that 19 percent of Latino voters said they would vote Republican in 2012, and in our Aug. 2011 tracking poll, exactly 19 percent say they will vote Republican in 2012. The Republican candidates face a considerable gap of 20 points with the Latino electorate if they have any hope of winning states like Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, which all flipped red-to-blue in 2008.”

That would all sound like good news for Democrats, but Barreto said that they, too, have problems.

“If the Republicans have a weakness in reaching out to Latinos,” Barreto said, “the Democrats are currently not exploiting that. The DNC and the Obama re-election campaign have, so far, done very little public outreach on either Spanish- or English-language TV. While things may be happening behind the scenes, connecting with average voters takes targeted outreach, and so far that doesn’t seem to be happening.

“While the Democrats rate much higher than Republicans, just 43 percent of Latinos say the Dems are doing a good job of reaching out to their community, and when it comes to voting in 2012, just 38 percent of Latinos are certain to vote for Obama, with an additional 16 percent saying ‘maybe.’

Rather than waiting until Oct. 2012 to make a mad dash for the Latino vote, both parties need to start now by talking to Latino voters, and whoever takes this seriously in 2011 will reap the benefits in 2012.”

Obama is clearly in a better position to attract a sizeable share of the Latino vote, which will be a crucial cog in his re-election effort. If the GOP wants to actually win, it is going to have to become more than just a southern, white party. The Democrats clearly have a lock on the black vote, which the GOP won’t waste any resources trying to crack.

… Which leaves their opportunities for growth with Latino voters.

But after listening to Monday’s debate, the current crop of GOP candidates mostly showed that if the topic isn’t illegal immigration, they have no plans to appeal to Latino voters. And that’s a position they could come to regret the day after the elections in Nov. 2012.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and author of the book “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House as Originally Reported by Roland S. Martin.” Please visit his website at RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM

Source: AP / CBS News

ATLANTA – Supporters of Troy Davis were making a last-ditch effort Monday to stop his execution for the 1989 murder of an off-duty Savannah police officer, asking the Georgia pardons board to grant clemency to the high-profile death-row inmate now that his legal appeals are exhausted.

The five-member Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles met at 9 a.m. Monday to consider arguments surrounding Davis, who claims he is innocent of the killing of Mark MacPhail. He’s set to be put to death by injection Wednesday, the fourth time in four years the state has tried to execute the 42-year-old man.

TJMS: NAACP’s Ben Jealous Details The Latest Developments In The Troy Davis Death Penalty Case

Troy Davis in spotlight again as execution nears

Dozens of Davis’ supporters rallied outside the government building housing the pardons board on Monday. They hoisted a massive “Save Troy Davis” sign and formed a makeshift drum line at one entrance to the building. At another entrance, other supporters were holding a somber prayer vigil on his behalf.

The pardons board, which has the power to commute death sentences but rarely does so, decided in 2007 to delay his execution for 90 days to grant the courts more time to review the case. A year later, it denied Davis clemency and allowed his execution to go forward. Since then, though, three new members have been appointed to the panel.

“We are hopeful this tremendous outpouring of support will demonstrate there’s such a huge concern about this case, and that this message will resonate with them,” said Laura Moye of Amnesty International, who delivered thousands of petitions in support of Davis to the board last week. “The very reputation and faith that this public has in its justice system is on the line.”

Among those who support Davis’ clemency request are former President Carter and Pope Benedict XVI.

The board, which meets in a closed-door session, will first hear hours of testimony from Davis’ legal team and its witnesses, although Davis himself is not scheduled to appear. The panel will then hear from prosecutors, MacPhail’s family and their witnesses.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Roland Martin talks with Ben Jealous, CEO of the NAACP about the latest developments in the Troy Davis death penalty case.

Georgia’s parole board convened Monday morning to hear a last-minute appeal by Troy Davis, who is set to die by lethal injection for the murder 21 years ago of a Savannah police officer.

Roland Martin Talks with TourÉ about his new book Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now.

Book info below courtesy of Amazon.com

How do we make sense of what it means to be Black in a world with room for both Michelle Obama and Precious? TourÉ, an iconic commentator and journalist, defines and demystifies modern Blackness with wit, authority, and irreverent humor.

In the age of Obama, racial attitudes have become more complicated and nuanced than ever before. Americans are searching for new ways of understanding Blackness, partly inspired by a President who is unlike any Black man ever seen on our national stage.

This book aims to destroy the notion that there is a correct or even definable way of being Black. It’s a discussion mixing the personal and the intellectual. It gives us intimate and painful stories of how race and racial expectations have shaped TourÉ’s life as well as a look at how the concept of Post-Blackness functions in politics, psychology, the Black visual arts world, Chappelle’s Show, and more. For research TourÉ has turned to some of the most important luminaries of our time for frank and thought-provoking opinions, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Malcolm Gladwell, Harold Ford, Jr., Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Chuck D, and many others. Their comments and disagreements with one another may come as a surprise to many readers.

Source: Melanie Eversley / USA Today

A social media campaign to stop an execution in Georgia next week is drawing support from hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Celebrities, Nobel laureates and national leaders have joined the NAACP, Amnesty International and the grass-roots group Change.org to urge Georgia authorities to grant clemency to Troy Davis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday. They are flooding Twitter with several tweets a minute, signing online petitions and, starting today, planning to rally around the country.

Davis, 42, was convicted of the 1989 shooting death of Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark MacPhail. His supporters say he is innocent, noting that 10 witnesses in the case have signed affidavits recanting their testimony and indicating that police coerced them into implicating Davis. They also point out that nine people have signed affidavits implicating another man.

The case has attracted attention for years. Former president Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu are among the prominent figures who have urged that Davis’ life be spared.

The latest effort, triggered when a new execution date was set last week, includes celebrities John Legend, Mia Farrow, Bianca Jagger and the Indigo Girls. All are tweeting under #TooMuchDoubt, a hashtag, or search term, devised by Amnesty International and the NAACP. Davis supporters also have created Facebook pages.

“In the moment, when our nation stumbles toward complete failure of its justice system, we have to give every citizen the opportunity to express their outrage and their intention that the state not do this in their name,” NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous says. “When the state executes an innocent person, every citizen is implicated in that act.”

The tweets ask the public to contact the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles — the group with the authority to halt Davis’ death — and to urge the panel to grant clemency. They also ask people to sign one of three petitions the groups are circulating online.

“I think the key thing we are trying to express to the Georgia authorities is there are just so many doubts,” says Laura Moye, death penalty abolition campaign director for Amnesty International USA.

The board is scheduled to meet Monday to consider the case. If it does not grant clemency, there is no official next legal step, but “we are not going to stand by quietly if that is what happens,” Moye says. The NAACP also is calling on Chatham County, Ga., District Attorney Larry Chisolm to move to withdraw the death warrant, Jealous says.

Representatives from Amnesty International and the NAACP presented four petitions with more than 660,000 signatures to the state parole board Thursday. An online petition sponsored by Davis’ sister, Kimberly Davis, and Change.org has collected more than 233,000 signatures.

The NAACP has declared today a Global Day of Action around the country. Events include a rally at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the church of Martin Luther King. Amnesty International is sponsoring a Global Day of Solidarity in support of Davis.

To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.

Anderson Cooper looks into the past of one of Gov. Perry’s former aides, a lobbyist who worked for a top drug company.

WATCH:

Source: Anthony Johnson / WABC / ABC News

East Tremont – The death of a 3-year-old girl in the Bronx has been ruled a homicide, and a manhunt is under way for her stepfather.

India Durant was discovered unconscious and pronounced dead at St. Barnabus Hospital.

Police say the incident appears to be a tragic case of child abuse after the medical examiner ruled that India died of blunt force trauma to the chest and other internal injuries.

The stepfather, who identity has not been released, is the one called 911 to report that the girl was unconscious inside the apartment. He apparently told police she had fallen out of a chair, but the medical examiner said the girl’s injuries were inconsistent with that type of fall.

To read this article in its entirety visit WABC / ABC News.

Common talks about his memoir documenting his life on Chicago’s South Side.

WATCH:

Source: Tyler Kingkade / The Huffington Post

Washington- House Republicans rolled out their plan to fund disaster relief in Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) district, but at the cost of almost half of remaining loans set aside to help the American auto industry.

Included in their plan for a continuing resolution to fund the government past Sept. 30 is a provision to cut $1.5 billion of the $3.4 billion in remaining funds for low-cost loans — sometimes referred to as “Section 136 loans.” The money would be reused to pay for aid to states as they clean up after recent natural disasters like Hurricane Irene and the rare east coast earthquake — both of which greatly affected Cantor’s Virginia district. The cost of disaster assistance is usually added to the budget deficit instead of offset with cuts.

Democrats and an auto industry expert warn the funds Cantor picked to pay for disaster aid is currently supporting a successful program that has pulled manufacturing jobs back from other countries and helped keep the industry alive around the eastern Midwest. Taking the money away would jeopardize that program.

“We absolutely need to fund disaster recovery assistance in Eric Cantor’s district and all areas affected by Hurricane Irene and the recent earthquake, but that doesn’t make it ok to kill American manufacturing jobs,” Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in a statement to The Huffington Post. “The Greater Detroit area that I represent has been hit the hardest by the recession and I strongly oppose the Republican plan to kill our jobs and delay our recovery.”

The loan program is part of a $25 billion initiative within the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was a broad plan Democrats pushed to improve energy efficiency in everything from fuel standards to light bulbs.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Stephanie Condon / CNN

As the economy continues to sputter, some are questioning President Obama’s re-election chances. But the president on Thursday insisted, “The odds of me being re-elected are much higher than the odds of me being elected in the first place.”

The president acknowledged his supporters’ concerns at a high-ticket Democratic fundraiser Thursday night, hosted by Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, the former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.

“But we remain very confident about our ability to win a contest of ideas in 2012 — as long as we can get the message out,” Mr. Obama said.

The president said voters in 2012 will understand that the current economic climate stems in large part from long-term problems, like the structural deficit and shortcomings in education and energy policy.

“I think, an innate sense among the American people that things aren’t fair, that the deck is stacked against them,” he said, “that no matter how hard they work, their costs keep on going up, their hours are longer, they’re struggling to make their mortgage, and somehow nobody’s paying attention.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

President Obama Signs The America Invents Act
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia

In a CNN.com article, James Carville warns the White House that the president’s approach isn’t working.

WATCH:

Source: Gabriella Schwarz
/ CNN

She lost the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but over a third of Americans said the U.S. would be better off now if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were president, according to a new poll.

The Bloomberg survey released Friday showed 34 percent of those questioned said America would be superior under a Hillary Clinton administration, while 47 percent said it would be about the same and 13 percent said it would be worse.

A quarter of respondents held similar wishful thoughts in a July poll.

Clinton remains the most popular American political figure with nearly two-thirds of Americans holding a favorable view of the former first lady and New York senator. Half of the respondents felt the same way about President Barack Obama, who received the lowest job approval rating of his presidency, at 45 percent.

Clinton has said publicly she will not seek elected office after her four-year term as America’s top diplomat ends in 2012, shooting down speculation she might run for president in the future.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: AP

Huntsville, Texas – The U.S. Supreme Court has halted the execution of a black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago after his lawyers contended his sentence was unfair because of a question asked about race during his trial.

Forty-eight-year-old John Buck was scheduled for lethal injection Thursday evening.

At issue was a psychologist’s testimony that black people were more likely to commit violence.

A similar request to block the punishment was made to Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Perry is the Republican frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination and his actions have now come under closer scrutiny.

To read this article in its entirety visit AP.

Source: Jennifer Liberto / CNN Money

House Speaker John Boehner drew a line in the sand on taxes on Thursday, saying that a special debt committee tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from federal deficits shouldn’t consider tax hikes.

“Tax increases, I think, are off the table,” Boehner said in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. “It’s a very simple equation. Tax increases destroy jobs. And the Joint Committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country.”

The only things the 12-person super committee should tackle are spending cuts and entitlement reform, he said.

Congress established the super committee when it raised the debt ceiling this summer. It has until Nov. 23 to propose ways to reduce deficits, and Congress must hold an up or down vote by Dec. 23. That panel started meeting last week.

Boehner’s marching orders contrast with a more cordial tone the GOP has taken this past week in reaction to President Obama’s new jobs package.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN Money.

Source: AP / CBS News

San Juan, Puerto Rico – Health officials in Puerto Rico say a middle school student has stabbed at least 40 classmates with a hypodermic needle. All are being tested for possible diseases and are being given preventive medicine.
Health Department spokeswoman Margarita Casalduc says the attack occurred Tuesday at a school in the southern coastal town of Arroyo. She says she does not know if the syringe contained anything or was contaminated.

Education Secretary Jesus Rivera Sanchez said in a statement that the female suspect has been suspended.

Officials said counselors were meeting Thursday with the parents of the stabbed students.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

President Obama Awards Dakota Meyer the Medal of Honor
The White House

Source: CBS News

Washington – In announcing the “new reality” it must face, the financially troubled Postal Service said Thursday it may close more than 250 mail processing facilities across the country and plans to reduce service standards for first-class mail in an effort to cut costs.

Such a change would mean that a letter mailed with a first-class stamp would take longer to arrive at its destination, increasing delivery time from a minimum of one day to two days, the service said.

The steps are part of a broad effort to cut costs for the agency that lost $8.5 billion last year and is facing ever more red ink this year as the Internet siphons off the lucrative first-class mail and the stagnant economy holds down the growth of advertising mail. Over the last five years mail volume has declined by more than 43 billion items.

Postal officials said 252 mail processing facilities across the country will be reviewed over the next three months for possible closing. Currently there are 487 such offices. That’s in addition to about 3,700 local post offices also being reviewed for closure. Closing the mail-processing facilities could affect 35,000 workers.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Live Video streaming by Ustream

A man is arrested but licks his way out of handcuffs. CNN’s Jeanne Moos reports on a back seat escape artist.

WATCH:

New audio tapes released by Caroline Kennedy reveal a different side of her mother.

WATCH:

Source: CNN

Washington - The Republican Party is split right down the middle between tea party movement supporters and those who do not support the two-and-a-half-year-old movement, according to a new national survey.

And a CNN/ORC International Poll released Thursday also highlights the differences in demographics, ideology, and temperament between the two camps. According to the survey, on some issues, the two wings of the GOP are in accord, but tea party activists and supporters do not speak for the entire Republican Party on issues such as the deficit, global warming, evolution, abortion, gay marriage, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Education, or Social Security.

Full results (pdf)

“Demographically, the tea party movement seems to hearken back to the ‘angry white men’ who were credited with the GOP’s upset victory in the 1994 midterm elections,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Ideologically, it effectively boils down to the century-old contest between the conservative and moderate wings of the party.”

According to the survey, roughly half (49 percent) of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support the tea party movement or are active members, with roughly half (51 percent) saying that they have no feelings one way or another about the tea party or that they oppose the movement.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: MSNBC

A fourth-grader was expelled after school officials in Oak Harbor, Wash., discovered he had a loaded handgun in his backpack.

Police took the 9-year-old at Crescent Harbor Elementary, who had a .45 caliber Ruger with the safety on, into custody before the opening bell Wednesday and then released him to his parents, the Whidbey News Times reported.

It was the second time this week that the boy had brought a weapon to school, according to Joe Hunt, spokesperson for the Oak Harbor School District.

On Tuesday, the boy allegedly brought a different handgun to school. Hunt told the Whidbey News Times that a girl had spotted the gun on the bus, and told her parents, who then called the school Wednesday morning.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Tim Murphy from MotherJones.com joins Roland Martin on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Murphy detailed a shocking capital punishment case in Texas where convicted killer Duane Buck was sentenced to death because he is black. A psychologist told jurors that black criminals were more likely to pose a future danger to the public if they are released.

Lawyers for Buck, who is scheduled to be put to death in Texas on Thursday, are asking Gov. Rick Perry to halt the execution amid questions about the role race played in the sentencing.

BLACKAMERICAWEB: Will Gov. Perry Halt Duane Buck’s Execution?

Source: John Parkinson / ABC News

As President Obama continues to drum up support for his jobs $447 billion jobs plan, House Speaker John Boehner will deliver an alternative path for job creation in an address to the Economic Club of Washington later today, focusing chiefly on tax reform by broadening the base of the tax structure without raising taxes and continuing the GOP’s quest to cut red tape from Washington’s bureaucracy.

According to a senior aide to the speaker, Boehner will push to enact the GOP’s Plan for America’s Job Creators by “streamlining and reforming a burdensome tax code, stopping harmful regulations, and cutting Washington spending,” which Boehner will say “have combined to create a toxic environment for job creation that has rattled confidence and prevented job creators from hiring new workers.”

Boehner will add that although there is some common ground between his vision for job creation and the president’s bill known as the American Jobs Act, the speaker will continue to push for Republican alternatives to be part of a jobs bill because Obama’s plan is “no substitute for the pro-growth policies needed to remove barriers to job creation in America.”

The speaker is also expected to explain his belief that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction “should advance fundamental tax reform to support private investment and job creation, and address the structural problems in our entitlement programs that have put our country in danger of more job-destroying downgrades.”

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

Source: WXYZ.com

Detroit – There’s been a positive development in the story of Texana Hollis, the 101-year-old woman evicted from her home . She will now get her southwest Detroit home back after a heartbreaking ordeal.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD asked a 36th District Court Officer to go to the home and remove the locks that were put on the house on Monday. Texana will now be able to return to her house on Carbondale.

The 101-year-old is, however, currently in the hospital. She was rushed by ambulance to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on Monday night. She was suffering from severe anxiety after being evicted from the home she had lived in for 58 years.

To read this article in its entirety visit WXYZ.com.

Presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul faces criticism over his stance on how to treat people without health insurance.

WATCH:

UBS has revealed a $2 billion unauthorized trading loss. CNN’s Jim Bittermann looks at past trade losses.

WATCH:

Source: CNN

The NAACP and Amnesty International on Thursday will deliver petitions with thousands of signatures seeking clemency for convicted killer Troy Davis to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Davis, 42, is set to be executed on September 21 for the murder an off-duty Savannah police officer more than two decades ago.

Since Davis’ conviction in 1991, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the policeman.

The rights groups contend there is too much doubt about Davis’ conviction to let the execution proceed.

“Troy Davis could very well be innocent,” Amnesty International says on its website.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH:

Source: Abdon M. Pallasch / Chicago Sun-Times

Laura Walsh

A Chicago judge issued a preliminary ruling Wednesday against U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) in his child-support dispute with his ex-wife, ordering the Tea Party favorite to explain why he appears to be $100,000 behind in child-support payments.

Cook County Circuit Judge Raul Vega also wanted to know why Walsh wasn’t in court Wednesday — the McHenry Republican’s ex-wife, Laura Walsh, was there — and initially said he expected him to show up for the next hearing.

In court, Walsh’s attorney, Janet Boyle, asked Vega “for what purpose” he wanted the congressman in court.

Vega gave her a puzzled look — to which Boyle responded: “Mr. Walsh is a U.S. congressman.”

“Well, he’s no different than anyone else,” the judge replied.

But after Laura Walsh’s attorney said he didn’t think the congressman needed to appear at the next hearing, Vega ultimately did not issue an order requiring the congressman to appear.

But Vega did issue a “rule to show cause” — which means Walsh has to tell the court why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for falling so far behind in child support over the past five years.

Laura Walsh argues her ex-husband owes more than $100,000, a number the congressman disputes. But Vega’s ruling means that the burden is now on the congressman to prove that he doesn’t owe the money, attorneys for both Walshes agree.

To read this article in its entirety visti the Chicago Sun-Times.

Source: Deadline.com

Los Angeles – The Directors Guild of America today released a report analyzing the ethnicity and gender of directors hired to direct primetime episodic television across broadcast, basic cable and premium cable.

The DGA analyzed more than 2,600 episodes produced in the 2010-2011 television season from more than 170 scripted television series. The report showed that Caucasian males directed 77% of all episodes; Caucasian females directed 11% of all episodes; minority males directed 11% of all episodes and minority females directed just 1% of all episodes. Among one-hour series, Caucasian males directed 80% of episodes, and in half-hour series, Caucasian males directed 74% of all episodes.

The shows highlighted below are from major production companies ABC, CBS, Fox, HBO, NBC, Sony, Warner Bros. and other production companies whose shows appear on broadcast, basic cable and premium cable networks. They do not include series that have been cancelled. First-year shows are broken out separately because hiring decisions on first-year shows are often made differently than shows in their second seasons or beyond. Pilots are not included in the statistics. Shows that primarily hired only one or two directors for the entire season [Big Bang Theory; Eastbound and Down; The Game; How I Met Your Mother; It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia; The League; Louie; Retired at 35; Two and a Half Men] were included in the overall data, but are not singled out in the lists below.

DGA’s “WORST OF” Lists
Following are the shows with the worst records of hiring women and minority directors for the 2010-2011 television season:

9 SHOWS HIRED NO WOMEN AND NO MINORITY DIRECTORS:
Title (Production Company) – Percentage of Episodes by Women or Minority Directors:
· Bored to Death (HBO) – 0%
· Burn Notice (TVM Productions/Fox) – 0%
· Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO) – 0%
· Fringe (Warner Bros.) – 0%
· iCarly (Uptown Productions/MTV/Viacom) – 0%
· Justified (Woodridge Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 0%
· Leverage (Leverage Productions) – 0%
· Victorious (Uptown Productions/MTV/Viacom) – 0%
· Weeds (Weeds Productions) – 0%

16 SHOWS HIRED WOMEN OR MINORITY DIRECTORS FOR FEWER THAN 15% OF EPISODES:

Title (Production Company) – Percentage:
· House (NBC) – 4%
· The Office (NBC) – 4%
· CSI (CBS) – 5%
· Supernatural (NS Pictures) – 5%
· Good Luck Charlie (It’s a Laugh Productions) – 6%
· Army Wives (ABC) – 8%
· Boardwalk Empire (HBO) – 9%
· Bones (Fox) – 9%
· Cougar Town (FTP Productions/ABC) – 9%
· Desperate Housewives (ABC) – 9%
· True Blood (HBO) – 10%
· Dark Blue (Horizon Scripted Television) – 10%
· Castle (ABC) – 13%
· NCIS (CBS) – 13%
· Modern Family (Fox) – 13%
· Gossip Girl (Warner Bros.) – 14%

The DGA noted that some series on the DGA’s “WORST OF” lists showed worrisome declines from their previous year hiring patterns. Burn Notice, House and Army Wives hired women or minority directors at significantly higher rates in 2009-2010 but failed to maintain the diversity of their hiring practices for the most recent television season.

DGA’s “BEST OF” List
At the same time, the following shows deserve to be highlighted for their more diverse hiring records in 2010-2011:

SHOWS THAT HIRED WOMEN OR MINORITY DIRECTORS FOR AT LEAST 30% OF EPISODES:
Title (Production Company) – Percentage:
· The Middle (Warner Bros.) – 63%
· Hung (HBO) – 60%
· In Treatment (HBO) – 54%
· 90210 (CBS) – 45%
· Treme (HBO) – 45%
· The Good Wife (CBS) – 39%
· Drop Dead Diva (Woodridge Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 38%
· CSI: NY (CBS) – 36%
· Private Practice (ABC) – 36%
· Rules of Engagement (Montrose Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 35%
· Nurse Jackie (Nurse Productions/Lions Gate) – 33%
· Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) – 32%
· CSI: Miami (CBS) – 32%
· In Plain Sight (NBC) – 31%
· Mad Men (U.R.O.K. Productions/Lions Gate) – 31%
· 30 Rock (NBC) – 30%

First-Year Series
Although the DGA study did not include shows whose first season of production took place during 2010-2011 in the “WORST OF” and “BEST OF” lists above, the DGA feels that it is important to call attention to those shows that have already exhibited unfavorable patterns in their first season with the hope that such attention will help encourage these series to consider more diverse hiring practices in the future.

“WORST OF” First-Year Series
· Franklin & Bash (Woodridge Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 0%
· Hot in Cleveland (King Street) – 0%
· Nikita (NS Pictures) – 0%
· Teen Wolf (On Site Productions/MTV/Viacom) – 0%
· Melissa and Joey (Prodco) – 3%
· Raising Hope (Fox) – 5%
· Breakout Kings (Fox) – 8%
· Harry’s Law (Bonanza Productions/Warner Bros.) – 9%
· Hawaii Five-0 (Eye Productions/CBS) – 13%

Separately, the DGA congratulates the first-year shows, highlighted below, that have already demonstrated a commitment to diverse hiring practices.

“BEST OF” First-Year Series
· Let’s Stay Together (Breakdown Productions/BET) – 100%
· Are We There Yet? (AWTY Productions) – 86%
· Pair of Kings (It’s a Laugh Productions) – 50%
· The Walking Dead (Stalwart Films/Stu Segall Productions) – 50%
· The Killing (Killing Productions/TVM Productions/Fox) – 46%
· Body of Proof (Paige Productions/ABC) – 33%
· Pretty Little Liars (Horizon Scripted Television) – 33%

In the 2009-2010 television season, Caucasian males directed 75% of the episodes surveyed; Caucasian females directed 11% of episodes; minority males directed 12% of episodes; and minority females directed 2% of episodes. While the figures remained static for Caucasian females in 2010-2011, the percentage of episodes directed by minority men dropped (from 12% to 11%) and the percentage of episodes directed by minority women dropped by half (from 2% to 1%). The statistics seem to demonstrate that as a whole, most production companies have demonstrated little or no interest or effort in increasing diversity in their hiring practices from year to year.

Over the years, the Guild’s African American, Asian, Latino and Women’s Committees have held meetings and networking events with producers, networks and studio representatives to introduce talented directors to key producers and television executives.

At the urging of the Guild, several production companies established diversity programs designed to increase the number of women and minority directors and give them exposure to executive producers and others who hire. However, these diversity programs have borne disappointing results.

“It’s not enough to just give lip service to the idea of increasing diversity behind the camera,” said Paris Barclay, the DGA’s First Vice President and Co-Chair of the Diversity Task Force of the DGA National Board. (Barclay also served as an executive producer of In Treatment and is currently an executive producer for Sons of Anarchy.) “These programs are so far failing to live up to their promise. So we’re going to take the discussion straight to the people on each show who make the hiring decisions.”

The DGA negotiated a new provision in its most recent collective bargaining agreements, which took effect on July 1, which will allow it to meet directly with executives responsible for hiring at the individual show level. Now that the Guild has completed its analysis of diversity hiring practices in the most recent television season, the Guild is scheduling meetings with individual shows to address the problem.

“We are encouraging shows, production companies, and networks when they weigh in, to offer opportunities to up-and-coming directors from all backgrounds,” said Lesli Linka Glatter, Board Member and Co-Chair of the Diversity Task Force of the DGA National Board. (Glatter won a DGA Award last year for directing an episode of Mad Men and is currently a co-executive producer for The Playboy Club.) “We’ve heard the excuses from those responsible for hiring that they don’t want to take a chance on a new director. But the truth is that the industry hires new directors all the time; it’s just that most of them are white males.”

DGA statistics show that of the 130 first-time episodic directors hired in calendar years 2009 and 2010, 78% were Caucasian males, 13% were Caucasian females, 7% were minority males and 2% were minority females.

Barclay added, “The question each producer needs to ask is, ‘Am I the type of person who makes excuses or takes action?’”

The DGA compiled the statistics for this report from information provided by the production companies to the DGA pursuant to the requirements of the collective bargaining agreement for episodes produced during the 2010-2011 season, and then made its best effort to validate the statistics with the production companies directly by offering every production company the opportunity to review its own statistics. Some companies failed to verify their statistics.

To follow this topic visit Deadline.com

Source: Roy Johnson / Fit! Live! Win!

If you have kids, you’re probably still adjusting to the new chaos of the first few weeks of school: forcing the kids to go to bed earlier than they have in months; morning who-wants-what-for-breakfast-and-where’s-my-notebook chaos, then the mad rush out the door followed by the staggering (and blissful) silence of the season.

Your body’s adjusting, too. Your summer clock has been obliterated and it can leave you a bit disoriented-particularly when it comes to your workout regiment.

You worked out throughout the summer, but now it seems a bit tired.

Or you haven’t worked out much this summer and you’re just-tired.

Well, just as the kids are re-engaging their brains, let’s re-engage our bodies.

Back-to-school season is the perfect time to get back to basics with our workouts.

If, you’ve been working out, use this change of seasons to embark a change of training. Here are a few ideas:

* Book six sessions with a personal trainer and charge them to kick your butt for the next three weeks, and teach you some new moves in the process.

* Take three fitness classes you’ve never tried. They’ll shock your body, which has probably become used to your regiment.

* If you live in the East, take advantage of these last few weeks of great weather by signing up for an outdoor event, such as a half-marathon, mini-triathlon or a road race. Training for an event will also kick-start your workouts because it’ll keep you focused and force you to re-jigger your routine.

If you haven’t been working out regularly, start now! You don’t want to slip another month or so when you’ll start being able to use “the holidays” as an excuse to allow your ass to swell to the size of a walrus.

Instead:

* Sign up for ten sessions with a personal trainer. You’ll need that long to survive the inevitable period when your body screams: “What the hell are we doing?!”Be honest with the trainer, but still tell them to push you. If you do two sessions per week (along with at least one workout on your own in between), you should be energized at the end of the month and ready to workout through the holidays this year.

* Take exercise classes. You’ll die. Guarantee it. But don’t be discouraged. Most classes are filled with people who’ve been taking them Merilu Henner (left) and Jamie Lee Curtisdonned tights in Perfect.

* Find a workout buddy. You probably have a friend who’d also like to get back in shape. Call them. Make a pact. Make a bet. Whatever it takes to hold each other accountable and keeps you both going.

* Swim! If you can swim, find a nearby pool and get back into is. It’s a great workout and it’s one of the best ways to be back in shape after a long time off. You’ll remember the strokes and you’ll burn calories. But this time, do pushups and situps before and after your swim sessions.

* Sign up for an event. Maybe pick a run/walk 5k (but then don’t just decide to walk the whole thing! Choose, say, a 5k and set a goal of a reasonable, but challenging pace. Then train so you’ll leave that goal in the dust.

While the kids are getting their school-groove back, get your body and mind back into “you” mode.

Challenge yourself!

For more information about Roy Johnson and for fitness tips visit Fit! Live! Win!

Source: CNN

Washington – President Obama’s disapproval ratings may be at an all-time high, but in a new CNN/ORC International poll, more Americans say they trust him on economic matters more than they do Republicans in Congress.

The survey released on Wednesday shows that although a lot of Americans are still unsure what’s in the president’s new jobs bill, they like most of the major proposals offered in the plan that was sent to Congress Monday.

Full results (pdf)

“By a 43-35 percent margin, a plurality of Americans approve of the economic program Obama outlined in his speech to Congress last week, but more than one in five don’t have any view at all of the jobs bill,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Two-thirds believe that creating jobs should take precedence over the federal budget deficit and only 29 percent say reducing the deficit should be more important that reducing unemployment.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Roland Martin appears on AC360 to analyze the GOP Debate and discuss some of the major issues that should be addressed by the Republican presidential candidates.

President Obama stumps for his jobs bill in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying some in Congress are “purposely divided.”

WATCH:

Source: Tami Luhby / CNN Money

New York – Without help from the federal government, millions more people would have sunk below the poverty line in 2010, U.S. Census data shows.

Unemployment insurance helped keep 3.2 million Americans out of poverty in 2010, according to new statistics released Tuesday. Without this vital lifeline, which lasts up to 99 weeks, these jobless folks would have joined the roughly 46.2 million people now considered in poverty.

Other government assistance programs, such as food stamps, also provided much-needed support to the poor. But because the Census Bureau’s official poverty statistics don’t consider these income sources, they were not taken into account when determining whether a person fell below the line, which is $22,314 for a family of four.

However, the Census Bureau does calculate what impact this assistance would have had if it were measured. Food stamp benefits would have lifted 3.9 million people out of poverty had that aid been counted as income.

And 5.4 million people, including 3 million children, would not have been considered impoverished had the Earned Income Tax Credit been counted. The EITC is a refundable federal income tax credit for low- to moderate-income working Americans. Some 22 states also offer similar credits.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN Money.

Source: Jeanne Sahadi / CNN Money

New York – Cutting spending and raising taxes now could put a drag on the economy.

That was the message Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf delivered Tuesday to the new congressional debt committee, which is in week two of its hurry-up assignment to propose ways to slash deficits.

The good news? There are fiscally responsible ways to spur the economy while simultaneously bringing down long-term deficits, Elmendorf told the 12-member panel.

The “most effective” budget approach, he said, “would be changes in taxes and spending that would widen the deficit today but narrow it later in the decade.”

In other words, pairing policies to spur economic growth while also enacting a longer term debt reduction plan to take effect later.

Elmendorf’s reasoning: The unemployment rate is high. Factories and offices are underused. And interest rates are already at rock bottom.

Thus, he said, “there is no inherent contradiction between using fiscal policy to support the economy today … and imposing fiscal restraint several years from now when output and employment will probably be close to their potential.”

To read this article in its entirety visti CNN Money.

Roland Martin joins Anderson Cooper on AC360 to analyze the CNN GOP Republican Debate.

Roland Martin joins Anderson Cooper on AC360 to detail Gov. Rick Perry’s record as it relates to job creation and balancing Texas’ budget.

Source: Mariano Castillo / CNN

It was a chilling message: Two bodies with signs of torture found hanging from a pedestrian bridge in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Two posters left near the bodies declared that the pair — a young man and woman — were killed for denouncing drug cartel activity on a social network.

Bloggers who specialize in sharing news about trafficking have been threatened in the past, but this could be the first time that users of such social networks have been targeted.

The effect of such threats could be chilling, as several areas in Mexico — including Nuevo Laredo — have media outlets that self-censor out of fear of retribution by the cartels. In light of this censorship, blogs and social networks such as Twitter have surged as alternatives to keep citizens informed of dangers in their community.

Now the users of those networks appear to be under threat.

“This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the internet,” one of the messages said. “You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: CNN

Kabul, Afghanistan - A nearly day-long Taliban siege on the U.S. Embassy and NATO command center in Kabul ended early Wednesday, Afghan and NATO officials said.

A policeman and two civilians were killed and 21 civilians were injured, the Interior Ministry said. Six militants have been killed and the building they were firing from has been cleared, the ministry said.

The strike in central Kabul began Tuesday amid intelligence that insurgents might launch a high-profile attack in the capital around the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, a coalition officer and a senior official of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed to CNN.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN that his group targeted “the U.S. Embassy, governmental organizations and other foreign organizations.”

ISAF said after insurgents attacked the targets Tuesday afternoon “with small arms fire from outside the secure zone surrounding these compounds,” Afghan security forces “responded immediately.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH:

Source: Stephanie Condon / CBS News

As Washington’s use of private contractors grows, the government is paying those contractors billions more than it would pay their government workers to do the same job, according to a new study released Tuesday..

In an attempt to verify frequently made claims that the government can save money by outsourcing its work, the nonprofit Project On Government Oversight (POGO) compared the total annual compensation for federal (and private sector) employees with federal contractor billing rates.

The group found that in 33 of the 35 occupational categories it reviewed, federal government employees were less expensive than contractors. On average, the federal government pays contractors 1.83 times more than it pays federal employees and two times more than what comparable workers in the private sector are paid.

For instance, the government on average pays contractors $299,374 for accounting services, while it pays federal employees $124,851 for accounting services. By comparison, workers in the private sector (not under contract by the government) make on average $83,132. The government on average pays contractors $198,411 for information technology management, while they pay federal workers $124,663.

That discrepancy is significant, given the federal government spends over $320 billion on service contracts each year, and about one-quarter of all discretionary spending goes to service contractors. According to POGO’s report, the contractor workforce rose from an estimated 4.4 million in 1999 to 7.6 million in 2005 — while the size of the federal employee workforce has remained relatively steady at about 2 million.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Martin Wolk / MSNBC

The Obama administration committed more than $500 million in taxpayer money to a maker of solar power panels despite repeated red flags about the company’s viability, NBC News’ Lisa Myers reported Wednesday.

The FBI raided the Silicon Valley headquarters of the company, Solyndra, last week, investigating whether the government was misled when it loaned the company $535 million in taxpayer funds. Solyndra officials say they are cooperating with the investigation.

Solyndra received the loan guarantees in 2009 as part of President Barack Obama’s promise to create millions of so-called “green” jobs. But last month, Solyndra declared bankruptcy, laying off all 1,100 workers.

A committee panel, which has been looking into the company for months, will hold a hearing Wednesday on what went wrong with Solyndra. Two company executives are expected to appear before the panel next week, The Associated Press reported.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Source: Washington Post

A 16-month federal investigation has concluded that BP’s efforts to limit costs on its mile-deep Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico contributed to the disastrous blowout last year that killed 11 workers and sunk the giant rig Deepwater Horizon.

WATCH: Washington Watch with Roland Martin, 07.11.10, Video Podcast [Gulf Coast Edition]

“BP’s cost or time saving decisions without considering contingencies and mitigation were contributing causes of the Macondo blowout,” states the long-awaited report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The report, based on months of hearings and testimony from rig workers and engineers, skewers BP for dozens of mistakes, questionable moves, and a general failure to appreciate the risks of drilling, and then temporarily abandoning, the well in 5,000 feet of water. It also finds abundant fault among BP’s contractors, including Transocean, which owned the doomed rig, and Halliburton, which cemented the well.

BOEMRE conducted its inquiry alongside the Coast Guard, which released its findings earlier this year. Since the blowout, BP, Transocean and Halliburton have traded accusations about which party was most to blame for the disaster. BP and Transocean have released their own reports, for most the part finding fault in the other company.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Washington Post.

President Obama Speaks on the American Jobs Act
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

Roland Martin talks with Pennsylvania Congressman Chaka Fattah about HUD helping distressed homeowners stay in their homes. Fattah explained that if homeowners qualify they will be eligible to receive up to $50k in loans.

For more information call (855) 346-3345 or visit www.findehlp.org.

Source: The Huffington Post

Jon Stewart spent most of Tuesday night’s “Daily Show” covering Monday’s CNN Republican Presidential debate, including the pre-show grandstanding, the ‘beatdown’ frontrunner Rick Perry took from his fellow candidates and some of the Tea party audience’s shocking reactions.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Rachel Weiner and Ylan Q. Mui / The Washington Post

Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren (D) announced her campaign against Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) this morning via web video.

Warren made the plan official in a statement Tuesday afternoon. Warren is spending the day traveling around the state, starting her first day of campaigning at a subway stop in South Boston where she greeted commuters.

The video is conversational. “I’m going to do this,” she says at the outset, sitting by herself near a window in a blue suit jacket. “I’m going to run for the United States Senate.”

While she has never run for office before, Warren has built up a national group of liberal fans for her work on Capitol Hill. She was chosen by Democrats to chair Congress’s panel overseeing bailout spending, and was tapped by President Obama to help create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Washington Post.

Source: AP / CBS News

Detroit – A 101-year-old woman was evicted from the southwest Detroit home where she lived for nearly six decades after her 65-year-old son failed to pay the mortgage.

Texana Hollis was evicted Monday and her belongings were placed outside the home. Her son, Warren Hollis, said he didn’t pay the bill for several years and disregarded eviction notices.

“I kept it from her because I didn’t want to worry her,” Warren Hollis told WXYZ-TV for a report that aired Monday night. “I was just so sure it wasn’t going to happen.”

Wayne County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Hollises took out an adjustable-rate mortgage in 2002. A default and foreclosure notice was filed in November.

“They ended up owing $80,000 on the home,” Szymanski said. “Warren indicates he did not make the payments. He got the notices, but threw them away.”

County records show that property taxes were paid on the home through summer 2010. A winter tax bill of $55.95, including interest and fees, was unpaid, and a $778.44 summer tax bill was due this month.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: MSNBC

Republican Bob Turner won a special House election in New York Tuesday night, giving the GOP a district that Obama had carried with 55 percent in 2008 and which Democrats had held for years.

Meanwhile, Republican Mark Amodei won a landslide victory over Democrat Kate Marshall in a U.S. House special election in Nevada, an important presidential swing state.

The Associated Press called the races for Turner and Amodei shortly after midnight ET.

In the New York contest, Democratic state lawmaker David Weprin got 47 percent of the vote to Turner’s 53 percent, with about 80 percent of the precincts counted. The district had gone Democrat in every election since the 1920s.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.