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. . . .

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 . . .

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. . . .

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. . . .

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. . . .

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. . . .

The legislature must enact HB 2649 and HB 3405 to avoid further harming Oregonians, particularly the most vulnerable. The legislature will soon vote on bills that would raise taxes on the wealthiest Oregonians and corporations. If the votes fail, or if the measures are referred to the voters and fail there, middle- and low-income Oregonians — those hardest hit by the economic downturn — should brace for even greater pain than what's already on the way. . . .

The soldiers depicted in Hollywood movies about World War II have been almost exclusively White (Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna being a notable exception).  Photography is just one of many art forms – and museum exhibits of historic photographs just one of many cultural venues – that can tell the African American story.  That is why funding for art and culture is so important. Here's another example from closer to home. . .

Non-sworn personnel are criticizing a Portland Police Bureau proposal to eliminate a vital unit that serves the city's elderly residents, as well as victims of sexual assault and potential suicide victims. At the heart of the employees' dissatisfaction is the Police Bureau's plan to cut — as part of an overall "reorganization" — the Portland Police Information & Referral Unit. The five-member unit has handled nearly 200,000 calls in the last two years. . . .

... How do we protect consumers? In the real world, toothpaste is regulated as a product, and the government ensures a basic level of safety. But credit cards, mortgages, and other financial products are treated as contracts. When it comes to contracts, the government views its job as nothing more than enforcing the terms of the contract, regardless of the outcome. . . .