03-19-2024  1:11 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

Sixty years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson left Washington to pursue what he later called "the most important, enduring, and constructive work of [his] life": prosecuting international war crimes committed during WWII. Justice Jackson helped usher in a new international regime that promised to help deter human rights abuses...


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Health care reform, especially with the rising number of Americans losing their jobs and health benefits, is one of the more pressing public policy issues of the day. Yet, to borrow a phrase from Attorney General Eric Holder, too many Democrats and Republicans are cowards when it comes to taking on the powerful insurance and health care lobby...


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In a recent survey prepared for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), roughly seven percent of the adult population, or about 16 million people, reported that they did not know how much they spend on food, housing, and entertainment.  Twenty-six percent, or 58 million people, admitted to not paying all of their bills on time...


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The following is an open letter to the Secretary of U.S Department of Transportation and the Secretary of the US Department of Labor: On behalf of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc., and with the encouragement of Johnny Ford, general secretary of the World Conference of Mayors, and Calvin Smyre, president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, I write this letter to protest the festering and damaging state of affairs at the Federal Highway Administration in regards to Executive Order 11246 and Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. . . .


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My time spent doing legal work in the international human rights community has, without a doubt, been filled with challenges. I am keenly aware of the domestic and international obstacles to ensuring justice and accountability through legal policies. 
I have seen first-hand the power and influence of multi-national corporations on these efforts and their related political limitations. On June 8, a settlement was reached in human rights cases against Royal Dutch/Shell operations in Nigeria. . . .


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On Wednesday evening June 10, I was supposed to have attended the preview of a play by Janet Cohen, an African American writer and wife of Jewish former Secretary of the Army Steve Cohen at the Holocaust Museum. But that day it was attacked by James von Brunn, long time avowed White racist. At the entrance to the Museum von Brunn shot and killed Stephen Johns, a beloved African American security guard who had worked there for six years. This was a supreme irony because Janet's play, "Anne and Emmett," was about introducing more Americans to the lives of Anne Frank and Emmett Till . . .


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By the end of June, the Supreme Court will decide one of the most important voting rights cases in a generation. Argued April 29, the case, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, threatens to strike down Section 5, known as the heart of the Voting Rights Act, the single most effective provision of any civil rights law in our Nation's history. . . .


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FDR realized that, "People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." Why do most economic policies run counter to this basic point?
Faith in markets leads economists to believe that full-employment is impossible, government intervention is destructive, deficits are bad, and planning is futile. That is nonsense. . . .


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At the Children's Defense Fund's Cradle to Prison Pipeline Summit in Sacramento, Calif., earlier this year, we heard from young people from Missouri and California who are trying to get out of the pipeline with the help of caring adults. Here's the story of one of them: At 13, Diego Ramirez's violent, alcoholic father kicked him out of the house and onto the streets of one of San Jose, Calif.'s most dangerous neighborhoods. . . .


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On Friday, June 12, the old fashioned way of watching TV, with rabbit ears and roof-top antennas, will become obsolete. 
On that date the federal government has mandated the complete transition from analog to digital TV, ushering in the biggest change in how television is broadcast into consumers' homes since the advent of color TV half a century ago. 
Digital broadcasting provides a clearer picture, more channels and will free up airwaves for use by emergency responders. 
If you are not ready, the only thing you will see when you turn on your TV on June 13 is a blank screen. . . .


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The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast