Top 10 Lies about Social Security

Since the season of top 10 lists is upon us, here’s the Social Security Scrooge version:

1. Social Security costs are escalating out of control. No. Costs are projected to rise from roughly five to six percent of GDP before leveling off. [Read more]

Obesity, exercise and black females

The evidence of America's obesity epidemic is all around us. But the problem is particularly acute among African-American women.

About half of African-American women in the U.S. are obese, compared to 30 percent of white women. Black women not only carry more weight, but they start piling on extra pounds years before their white counterparts.

So when does it begin, this excess and unhealthful weight? Research suggests the problem starts early, and it may have a lot to do with when girls give up regular exercise.The evidence of America's obesity epidemic is all around us. But the problem is particularly acute among African-American women.

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Reducing the black-white achievement gap by reducing black unemployment

"If we reduce black unemployment, we reduce black child poverty. Fewer black children in poverty set the stage for higher black student achievement." [Read more]

The crisis of African American unemployment requires federal intervention

Millions of African Americans live in communities that lack access to good jobs and good schools and suffer from high crime rates. African American adults are about twice as likely to be unemployed as whites, black students lag their white peers in educational attainment and achievement, and African American communities tend to have higher than average crime rates. These issues have been persistent problems.

Jobs are essential to improving African American communities. Increased employment would help people in these communities lift themselves out of poverty. In addition, because poor economic conditions are an important causal factor behind poor educational outcomes and high crime rates are correlated with high unemployment rates, creating job opportunities would help improve educational outcomes and reduce crime.

This paper outlines a plan for significantly increasing the number of jobs available to African Americans. The plan, which targets communities with persistently high unemployment, includes three main components: creation of public sector jobs, job training with job-placement programs, and wage subsidies for employers. Although the plan is constructed with African Americans in mind, it would also provide benefits to Latino, American Indian, and white communities in which unemployment has remained high. [Read more]

The Fight for Voting Rights

"For months, the Justice Department has largely been silent as Republican-dominated legislatures in state after state made it harder for minorities, poor people and other Democratic-leaning groups to vote. On Tuesday, however, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. spoke out forcefully and promised to use the full weight of his department to ensure that new electoral laws are not discriminatory. To live up to that vow, he will have his hands full." [Read more]

Government Deporting U.S. Citizens

"A Minneapolis man was arrested and illegally detained for 43 days by federal immigration agents who sought to have him deported even though he is a U.S. citizen, according to a lawsuit filed recently in federal court in Minneapolis." [Read more]


"In a spate of recent cases across the country, American citizens have been confined in local jails after federal immigration agents, acting on flawed information from Department of Homeland Security databases, instructed the police to hold them for investigation and possible deportation." [Read more]

Three Black Chess Masters--Under Age 14!

Fewer than 2 percent of the 47,000 members of the United States Chess Federation are masters — and just 13 of them are under the age of 14.

Among that select group of prodigies are three black players from the New York City area — Justus Williams, Joshua Colas and James Black Jr. — who each became masters before their 13th birthdays. [Read more]

Interesting economic cooperative in Ohio

There’s more to inequality than education

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Rick Santorum Needs to Join Occupy Wall Street

In the United States, economic inequality is also driving down marriage rates. Men who experience worse economic circumstances -- lower earnings, unemployment, and less wealth -- are less likely to marry, or, if they do marry, to stay married. For the past three decades, policymakers have favored policies that have benefitted economic elites at the expense of average working men. By forcing more and more men into worse economic circumstances, these polices have also pushed down American marriage rates. [Read more]

Banks Extract Fees On Unemployment Benefits

The state of Oregon, where Linville lives, deposits his weekly benefits on a U.S. Bank prepaid debit card. The bank allows him to make four withdrawals per month free of charge. After that, he must pay $1.50 for each visit to the ATM and $3 to see a teller. Managing his basic expenses, including rent, bus fare and groceries, typically requires more than four withdrawals, he says. Unexpected needs -- Linville recently bought a sport coat for $20 to prepare for a job interview -- entail more. He's afraid to withdraw his full benefits in one shot, knowing that the bank could sock him with a $17.50 overdraft fee if he exceeds his balance. So he pulls out small amounts of cash as he needs it, incurring about $15 in fees in the last two months he says. [Read more]

Soda marketers target blacks and Hispanics

KAI RYSSDAL: You know how there's been this big push the past couple of years to clean up ads directed at children, mostly about junk food and sugary drinks? Well, there's a new study out about those drinks. Researchers at Yale say kids are actually seeing more ads for that stuff than they used to. It's a pattern that's especially true for black and Hispanic children and teenagers. [Read more]

Unemployment Benefits Do Not Pay the Bills; Obama Still Has Strong Black Support

Unemployment’s Toll on Americans

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Despite a school of thought in Washington that Mr. Obama’s support among blacks has weakened because of the poor economy and a sense of unmet expectations, interviews and public opinion surveys show that his standing remains remarkably strong among African-Americans.

The question now for the Obama campaign is whether it can energize those voters — many of whom were drawn to the polls for the first time in 2008 by the historic nature of his candidacy coupled with an aggressive registration program — even with a rate of joblessness among blacks that far exceeds national figures. [Read more]

Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest 5% of Americans Cost the U.S. Treasury $11.6 million every hour of every day

See the mounting costs here.

Less Science in Texas

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has to varying degrees cut 60% of the undergraduate physics programs in State. This includes both programs at its two largest Historically Black Institutions, Texas Southern University (TSU) and Prairie View A & M University (PVAMU). Although all these institutions have the right to appeal the State’s decision, the dramatic nature of these and other actions strongly suggest that short-term politics, not good science education planning or sound economic policy, is motivating their actions.

[Read more]

Good Documentary: The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975

http://blackpowermixtape.com/

Algernon Austin speaks at Columbia University Friday

More info here.

Russell Simmons: 'Every Single One' Of My Employees Pays More Taxes Than Me

Famed investor Warren Buffett and Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons have at least one thing in common: They both want the U.S. government to raise their taxes.

"All my employees -- every single one -- paid more taxes than I did," Simmons told MSNBC's Martin Bashir on Thursday in a segment highlighted by Think Progress. "We need to make the rich pay their fair share."

[Read more]

Less money, less marriage

Although the Pew research shows “no significant differences by education or income in the desire to get married,” the less money a male has, the less likely he will actually marry.

[Read more]

Alabama Cannot Face Its History

The book chronicles the vast and brutal convict leasing system, which became nearly indistinguishable from antebellum slavery as it grew. In this system, people, in almost all cases black, were arrested by local law enforcement, often on the flimsiest of charges, and forced to labor on the cotton farms of wealthy planters or in the coal mines of corporations to pay off their criminal penalties. Though convict leasing occurred across the South, the book focuses on Alabama.

Mr. Melvin never received the book. According to his lawsuit, he was told by an official at Kilby that the book was “too incendiary” and “too provocative,” and was ordered to have it sent back at his own expense.

[Read more]