Category: Counting the Cost

You can run, but you can’t hide from racism. I was preparing to write a column on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the trade agreement that President Barack Obama wants to fast track through Congress.

Is Patrick Lynch, president of the New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, (PBA), obliged to defend his members even when they are wrong? The open letter posted on the PBA website and printed in the New York Daily News lacks credibility and contributes to the fractured state of police-community relations. He has cautioned the media, and others, about rushing to judgment of James Frascatore, the walking assault machine that tackled former tennis star James Blake, put his knee to Blake’s back, and then cuffed him. This was captured by a security camera; the footage is ubiquitous online. Lynch says, “No one should ever jump to an uninformed conclusion based on a few seconds of video.”

Congress must approve a budget by Oct. 1, or our government will shut down. That means that people will not be paid and technically, government departments will cease to operate. Social Security payments, veterans’ benefits, and more will cease to be paid. Literally, government will shut down.

Alison Parker, a rookie news reporter at WDJB, the Roanoke, Va., CBS affiliate, had turned 24 just days before she was murdered on Aug. 26. Her work partner, cameraman Adam Ward, was about to move to Charlotte, N.C., because his fiancé, a producer at WDJB, had a new job.

If you had asked me just a year ago if former Secretary of State and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, I’d have replied “no question.” I expected a near-coronation on the Democratic side, and a little rough-and-tumble on the Republican side.

The 17-person race for the Republican nomination for president closely resembles a clown show, starring Donald Trump. The unfortunate contrast to Trump has been the tepid rhetoric of Jeb Bush, and the usual antics of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Two prominent Black Maryland officials– Montgomery County Executive Issiah Leggett and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III–have endorsed White Rep. Chris Van Hollen, over Black Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards in the race to replace retiring Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

It should be unnecessary for an activist movement to hinge on the principle of the equivalency of life. In the worlds of Democratic presidential candidates, there is a compelling need to point out that Black lives matter. The problem with stating the obvious is that White lives have always mattered, and institutional racism has structured a lesser value for Black lives.

Jerry Alan Bailey was sentenced to more than 30 years in federal prison for conspiring to violate federal narcotics laws.
Shauna Barry-Scott was sentenced to 20 years for having cocaine in her possession and intending to distribute it.

After a spirited debate, the South Carolina House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to remove the Confederate battle flag from Statehouse grounds at the urging of Gov. Nikki Haley, who quickly signed the measure into law.