Education Matters — By Larry Lee — Debbie Deavours has spent 33 years in the Fayette County school system, the last eight as principal at Berry Elementary in the little town of Berry with its 1,250 people. Debbie has 300 students in pre-K-6. Some 65 percent of whom get free or reduced price lunches. And…
Politics
Plans Move Forward for Removing Bloede’s Dam from the Patapsco River
By Glynn Wilson – PATAPSCO VALLEY STATE PARK, Md. — It may not be as monumental a fight as Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite, but the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is in the process of planning the removal of Bloede’s Dam on the Patapsco River in the Avalon Area of Patapsco Valley State Park to…
Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics
By Robert Reich – Have we learned nothing from thirty years of failed trickle-down economics? By now we should know that when big corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy get special goodies, the rest of us get shafted. The Reagan and George W. Bush tax cuts of 1981, 2001, and 2003, respectively, were sold to…
The Alabama Legislature’s Strange Idea of a ‘Lean’ Budget
Education Matters – By Larry Lee – It was just a little snippet of news. Just a few hundred words. And while few Alabamians probably saw it, it should have made headlines on the front page of every state newspaper and been the lead story on every TV news cast. Because it was another glaring…
Alabama Legislators Want ‘Blood on the Floor’: Especially the Blood of Children and Grandparents
By Pippa Abston – Well. I heard from a very credible source yesterday that our state legislators are not playing chicken with the budget this time. You know, it seems like every year they expect us to display panic and beg them to fund essential programs — it is so predictable it is almost like…
Five Years Ago on Earth Day BP’s Negligence Nearly Destroyed the Gulf of Mexico
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five years ago this month, I was peacefully photographing birds in Birmingham Alabama when I heard the news that British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig had exploded and was on fire and leaking tons of raw crude into my favorite sea. By the time I got my…
Making Government and Democracy Work Are Key to Any President’s Image
By Frank Newport – PRINCETON, N.J. — Most Americans believe that managing government effectively is an important requirement for a good president, and in recent years, sitting presidents’ ratings on this trait have closely matched their overall job approval ratings. For example, 44 percent of Americans say that President Barack Obama is an effective manager…
Republican Field for President in 2016 Lacks Star Power of Past Campaigns
By Jeffrey M. Jones – At the outset of the 2016 campaign for president of the United States, the potential Republican candidates identified so far lack the star power of previous campaigns, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject. The Republican nomination contest is shaping up to be a lot like 2012, with…
Tank Farm Harvest Plans in Mobile — Crude Oil Is the Crop — But What Gets Plowed Under?
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The tank farms became a hot potato, singeing any official who touched them. Residents near sites for new or expanding tank farms fired complaints at the city’s planning commission, which readily tossed the heated hassle to the city council. A majority poised to pass a moratorium on construction…
Earth Shaking News: Google Publishes Paper Considering Ranking Websites Based on Accuracy
You Are Now Looking at The Most Accurate News Website in the World – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Finally, some positive earth shaking news from Webland, and the implications are simply staggering. It means you are now looking at the most accurate news Website in the world, and Google is about…
President Obama Speaks in Selma on the 50th Anniversary of the Bloody Sunday March
Streamed live on Mar 7, 2015 from Selma, Alabama. President Obama spoke at the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches. Live coverage of this event has concluded, but you can watch the video here. Full Text It is a rare honor in this life to follow one…
Ambassador Carlos Alzugaray Speaks on US-Cuban Relations at South Alabama
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The United States and Cuba finally have a chance to normalize relations and benefit both countries from the exchange of cultures thanks to the recent announcement by President Barack Obama that the long and tragic trade embargo should be lifted, according to Cuban Ambassador Carlos Alzugaray. He spoke…
Controversy Continues Over President’s Visit to Selma on Fiftieth Anniversary of Selma-to-Montgomery March
By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The controversy between the White House, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and African-American Alabama political leaders continues and has not been resolved, according to information obtained by the New American Journal on Saturday. The SCLC held a press conference in Montgomery on Friday reiterating…
Former New York Times Reporter Chris Hedges Addresses ‘The State of Journalism’
Back in 2003, when I was telling the New York Times national desk that the invasion of Iraq was a bad plan based on a neo-con think tank study (which they ignored), Chris Hedges was run off from the Times for trying to tell the truth about Iraq — based on his actual reporting on…
Same Sex Marriage and Same History in Alabama
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The threat of gay marriage in Alabama has roused governor George Wallace to rise from the dead and stand again in the schoolhouse door. When Roy Moore, chief justice of the state supreme court, flung himself this week between a federal judge in Mobile and the local bureau…
Alabama Political Future Damaged by Labor vs. Environment Split
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — A few years ago, Princeton graduate Charles Scribner with the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in Birmingham saw my coverage of the BlueGreen Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference in Washington, D.C. and sent me an e-mail asking an important question: Do you think it would be…
Judge Roy Moore Turns the Screws on the Public Again
Thank You Jere Beasley and Alabama Trial Lawyers – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — I wonder if Jere Beasley and the Alabama trial lawyers are happy now? Old Ten Commandments Judge Roy Moore is making headlines around the country again in another stand in the courthouse door, this time against a growing federal…
President Obama’s Job Approval Rating Hits 50 Percent
By Glynn Wilson – Less than a week after President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address to a new Republican-dominated Congress, his job approval rating reached 50 percent in Gallup’s daily tracking poll, the first time since June 2013. Three months ago, in mid-October, only 39 percent of Americans approved of Obama’s…
Obama Administration Proposes Further Wilderness Protections for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Recommends Largest Ever Wilderness Designation to Protect Pristine Habitat – WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama’s administration moved this week to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, widely considered one of the most spectacular and remote areas in the world. The Department of the Interior is releasing a conservation plan for the refuge that…
President Obama is America’s Political Jackie Robinson
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — How can I explain this in a way everyone will understand, including conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats and the national and state press corps? President Barack Obama is and must be our political Jackie Robinson. You may recall or have heard that Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson was the first…
