Commentary By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Many pundits and politicians critical of Obama have been saying that the scheduled Iraq withdrawal is much less than meets the eye. Their points of criticism are that 50,000 troops will stay in the country, at a cost of billions more in U.S. tax dollars, and there’s no firm guarantee that they’ll all go packing any time soon.
The biggest criticism, though, is that President Obama fudged on his campaign promise to end the war and remove all troops from the country by the end of 2011. …

Wisconsin is host to the nation’s highest Black incarceration rate. It also has one the highest recidivism rates. Many experts agree the lack of employment opportunities is a thread between those two statistics.
Several new local pilot projects hope to prove they not only have the formula for cutting the thread, but filling future regional labor needs. The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration funded ‘WIRED’ program provided opportunities to local community groups to explore employment and educational initiatives that would impact on the growth of 21st century economic …

A back-to-school editorial by State Superintendent Tony Evers
The new school year is an exciting time. Students meet new teachers, reconnect with friends, and have an opportunity to learn the knowledge and skills they need to graduate ready for the workforce or further education.
Graduation is a goal we must demand for all students. The cost of young people dropping out of school is too high, for the individual and for our society. From the 4- and 5- year-olds in their first day of kindergarten, to our elementary, middle, and high school …

As I have been patiently gathering information on the storm events that occurred on July 16th & 22nd, there is information that I’m compelled to release concerning the unfortunate personal loss of constituents in the 2nd Aldermanic District. The District that I represent experienced substantial damage from the heavy rains which caused residents to watch in dismay as their streets and alleys filled with storm and sewer water at an alarming rate. During the event of July 22nd, I spent much of my time wading through the water to clean …

Yes indeed it is campaign season, and yes, politics can get ugly, and that is just what some state Republican candidates did on Monday, when President Obama visited Milwaukee. Their campaign tactics were ugly. First up, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann visited City Hall in the morning, delivering one of his books, requesting that Mayor Barrett deliver to President Obama. A campaign book that he wrote that includes criticism on the president’s policies, and criticizing the train funding.
Next, there was State Republican Chair Reince Priebus who held a teleconference with …

By Chris Moews

If you haven’t heard, I am currently running for Milwaukee County Sheriff against David Clarke in the upcoming Democratic primary election. Should I have the honor to be your next Sheriff, improving our justice system will be my top priority.
When I was growing up, my Mom volunteered at a male retreat house on 55th and Vliet where she would help adults learn to read and write. She would take me along, and while she was giving lessons I would shoot pool with some of the guys there.
Years later …

by Rev. Al Sharpton
(NNPA) – Forty-seven years ago, our nation was in the midst of uncertainty, trepidation, fear, frustration, anger and unrest. Forty-seven years ago, we were simultaneously hopeful, dedicated, ambitious, determined and resilient.
Forty-seven years ago, people of all races gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to urge their federal government to live up to the standards and ethos embodied in our Constitution. Forty-seven years ago, we demanded equal access to education, voting rights, desegregation across the board, just employment opportunities and equanimity in society.
And forty-seven years ago, …

By Marian Wright Edelman
(NNPA) – African Americans have always seen education as a key to life and freedom. In his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Frederick Douglass taught us that to educate a man is to “forever unfit him to be a slave,” but to deny a person education is to “[shut him or her] up in mental darkness.” Douglass said that when his former master ordered his wife to stop teaching Douglass to read, he felt he was being treated “as though I …

“No benefit, no improper action, no failure to disclose, no one influenced: no case”
“I have not violated any House rules.
Therefore, I simply will not be forced to admit to something I did not do and instead have chosen to respond to charges made by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in a public hearing.
Starting with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) report released today, the record will clearly show that in advocating on behalf of minority banks neither my office nor I benefited in any way, engaged in …

By Ezrah Aharone
To pacify society, “Media Band-Aids” are constantly placed on open wounds of unhealed racism as the Shirley Sherrod incident demonstrated. Although the William Morris Agency dropped Mel Gibson for spewing the N-Word among other rants, Leonard Rowe’s new Michael Jackson book shows Morris executives using the N-Word 232 times in emails he uncovered during a racial lawsuit. And Omar Thornton tragically killed 8 co-workers and himself after allegedly being fired for stealing at a job where employers called him the N-Word.
While abolishment is preferable, the N-Word won’t just …