By Bryant Harris       WASHINGTON (IPS) — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and several key Republican and Democrat senators agree on the need for criminal justice reform, and some are now even seeking to restore voting rights to former felons.“There is no rational reason to take away someone’s voting rights for life just because they […]

By Freddie Allen, NNPA Washington Correspondent  WASHINGTON (NNPA) — The Black unemployment rate increased from 11.9 percent in December to 12.1 percent in January, according the Department of Labor’s latest monthly report.At 12.1 percent the Black unemployment rate is nearly double the national unemployment rate of 6.6 percent. The unemployment rate for Black men over […]

By Bryant Harris  WASHINGTON (IPS) – The U.S. government is violating federal leasing policies when it sells land to certain coal-mining companies, according to a new audit from an official watchdog agency.The practice could be costing taxpayers millions of dollars even as mining operations degrade the environmental integrity of the Powder River Basin in the […]

Pioneering woman joins popular Black Heritage Stamp Series NEW YORK — The U.S. Postal Service paid tribute to pioneering Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm with the issuance of a limited-edition 37th Black Heritage Forever Stamp during a special ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall in Brooklyn, NY.The Shirley Chisholm Black Heritage Forever Stamp is now on sale in […]

By George E. Curry, NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) — A “concerned” U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler is expected to rule next week on whether advertising she ordered major tobacco companies to purchase in order to correct their past false statements about the danger of smoking should be expanded to include black media.On Jan. 22, Judge […]

By Bryant Harris WASHINGTON  (IPS) — Pro-immigration reform advocates here are seeking to capitalize on new federal momentum on the issue after conservative lawmakers ended months of dithering late last week and released an initial set of principles that they would be interested in pursuing in broader negotiations.FWD.us, an immigration reform advocacy group funded by […]

By Phill Wilson, NNPA Columnist This Friday, February 7th, is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD). It’s an opportunity for the nation to take a look at the AIDS epidemic in Black America from a uniquely and unapologetically Black point of view.  Given the demographics of the AIDS epidemic in this country, this is a […]

By Valeria Fernández, Special to the NNPA from New America Media PHOENIX – It was tough to convince Viridiana Hernández to call the Phoenix police when her house was broken into. She now has a work permit, under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) plan, which temporarily protects her from deportation.But when someone broke […]

By Lorraine Farquharson NEW YORK — It was a long and hard 10 hours of labor“Don’t give up,” Carolina Pinheiro recalls her doula urging, as she provided both physical and emotional support.“If you feel safer in a hospital then do that, but there should not be an assumption that hospitals are safer than home. " […]

By Jazelle Hunt, Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – George Zimmerman. Paula Deen. And, more recently, Seattle Seahawks star defensive back Richard Sherman. Just the mention of their name ignites a passionate discussion about race.The good news is that we’re talking about race. The bad news is that the discussions too often fall short of the […]