Activist West arrested in Supreme Court protest

Author, commentator, civil rights activist and Princeton University professor Cornel West has been arrested while protesting on the steps of the Supreme Court about corporate influence in politics.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman says 19 people were arrested Sunday afternoon after they refused to leave the grounds of the court.

Idris Elba: Black Men Not Considered “Sexy” By America

Actor Idris Elba said that he felt Black men are not considered “sexy” by mainstream America, during a recent interview.

“Black men, we’re never called sexy. We’re called athletic, intense, we’re described as being the strong type, the silent type. But we’re never really described as being sexy… in general the word sexy doesn’t
apply to black men, particularly … The word has been thrown at me a few times so if I have to say I own it, fine,” Elba said.

Obama Sending Troops To Africa To Help Fight Renegade Group

President Barack Obama said Friday he’s dispatching roughly 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to help battle the Lord’s Resistance Army, which the administration accuses of a campaign of murder, rape and kidnapping children that spans two decades.

King James! LeBron Takes His Talents To England

LeBron James took his talents to Liverpool on Friday – and finally got his hands on a championship trophy.

Wall Street Protests Spread to Four Continents

Protesters opposed to economic inequality amassed on four continents over the weekend, camping out from Hong Kong to London, as a Rome rally turned violent and police in New York and Chicago arrested more than 250 people.

Seeing Value in Ignorance, College Expects Its Physicists to Teach Poetry

“Every member of the faculty who comes here gets thrown in the deep end. I think the faculty members, if they were cubbyholed into a specialization, they’d think that they know more than they do. That usually is an impediment to learning. Learning is born of ignorance.”

Bleak News for Americans' Income

Americans' incomes have dropped since 2000 and they aren't expected to make up the lost ground before 2021, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

 From 2000 to 2010, median income in the U.S. declined 7% after adjusting for inflation, according to Census data. That marks the worst 10-year performance in records going back to 1967. On average, the economists expect inflation-adjusted incomes to rise over the next decade, but the 5% projected gain isn't enough to reach prerecession levels.

Number of the Week: Millions Cut Off Without Unemployment Extension

2,153,700: The number of jobless people currently receiving unemployment benefits who will lose them by Feb. 11, 2012 if an extension isn’t enacted by Congress by the end of the year.

While Republicans and Democrats continue to spar over the best way to inspire job creation, millions of recipients of unemployment benefits may get caught in the cross-fire.

Nearly Half of U.S. Lives in Household Receiving Government Benefit

Families were more dependent on government programs than ever last year.

Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4% lived households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008. 

The share of people relying on government benefits has reached a historic high, in large part from the deep recession and meager recovery, but also because of the expansion of government programs over the years. (See a timeline on the history of government benefits programs here.)

Most Food Stamp Recipients Have No Earned Income

Click here for an interactive map.

 Some 70% of households that relied on food stamps last year had no earned income, a new report shows. 

More than 40 million individuals and nearly 19 million households tapped the food stamp program in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While the recession technically ended in 2009, a sluggish economic recovery left millions out of work or underemployed and leaning on the government for assistance last year.

Related: 

How To Look Good Using Food Stamps: Beautify Yourself with the Foods You Buy at the Market!  ISBN 978-0-557-08788-4

 

Five Black Americans Who Deserve Monuments

While our country has dedicated plenty of our monuments to many great African Americans in various cities and towns, there are still a host of individuals who made a tremendous impact in this country who have yet to be honored in this manner.

How to Make It in America as a TV Soundtracker

He’s known as Broke Mogul, and his specialty is hustling up just the right
songs to play with your Entourage or when you’re struggling with How to Make It in America.

Chris Tucker Facing Foreclosure On Mansion

 Court records show comedian Chris Tucker is facing foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar mansion in central Florida.

Denzel Washington Donates $2.5 Million To Alma Mater

Denzel Washington has donated $2.25 million to Fordham University, his alma mater.

White People Rapidly Moving In To “Do The Right Thing” Hood

The Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, a historically Black neighborhood famously depicted in Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing,” is becoming more and more mixed due to a high influx of whites moving in.


The white migration has made rent prices higher and forced many African Americans to move from the neighborhood.

White-Out! Census Shows Brooklyn Has Fewer Black Residents

Fewer Black Children In Big Cities As Parents Seek Better Lives

Last year’s census found that the number of black, non-Hispanic children living in New York City had fallen by 22.4 percent in 10 years. In raw numbers, that meant 127,058 fewer black kids living in the city of Jay Z and Spike Lee, even as the number of black adults grew slightly.

“There is nothing inherently bad,” about a city having fewer children, Bositis said. “On one level, it is a big plus for the cities. People without children are much cheaper than people with children. Especially young people. They are making very little in way of demands on city services.”

Venezuela Seeks to Shoot Down Drug-Smuggling Planes

The Venezuelan National Assembly will soon debate a bill that, when passed as expected, will allow the government to shoot down airplanes flying over national territory that are suspected of trafficking drugs. President Hugo Chávez, who proposed the measure late Thursday night, said carrying through such drastic actions would be a difficult choice but may help deter smugglers in Venezuela, which U.S. officials have identified as a major stopping point in the international drug trade.