If newspaper readership is plummeting, maybe it's because readers are turning elsewhere to catch a glimpse of the causes behind the official story. Recognizing this, some book publishers courageously are using their printing presses to bring interpretive reporting to the reading public. Here are a dozen books Americans need to read as they paint a realistic picture of how our government's policies are inflicting needless suffering at home and globally. . . .

Incarceration is becoming the new American apartheid and poor children of color are the fodder.
It is time to sound a loud alarm about this threat to American unity and community, act to stop the growing criminalization of children at younger and younger ages, and tackle the unjust treatment of minority youths and adults in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems with urgency and persistence. ...

Dear Editor; How exciting is this; in office just over a week and President Obama has introduced a bill to create, over the next two years, 3 to 4 million jobs. And healthcare for the unemployed. And green jobs ....
Dear Editor; We're headed for the "Great Bush Depression" unless we get this bill passed quickly. Even then, we might still be in hot water for another 18 months. Without it, it will be the beginning of the end for America as the world's single superpower....

An increasing number of people, including two of my journalism colleagues – Rochelle Riley and Cynthia Tucker – are proposing that we stop celebrating Black History Month. I strongly disagree and, evidently, so does Barack Obama, who signed an executive order designating February as African-American History Month....

How many of us have made New Year's resolutions? How many of us have to make economic survival resolutions. Well, if you're a parent, it would be wise and maybe even a bonding tool to make them with your kids, too.
Although children don't purchase the toothpaste or the laundry detergent, they are not exempt from seeing, hearing and feeling the effects of the current economic crisis for the nation, their neighborhood and stress within their family structure....

Singer Chris Brown's arrest for allegedly beating and biting his girlfriend, pop princess Rihanna, the same night vulgar rapper Lil Wayne was being lauded with four Grammy awards, is a reminder of how thuggish rap culture creates a climate for not only male-on male violence but abuse of Black women as well....

As chief executive of a 25-year-old community media organization, I can empathize with the president, congressional leaders and local lawmakers when it comes to figuring out how to get people back to work—or in my case, how to save jobs. Since 1981, Portland Community Media (PCM) has had a successful contractual relationship with the City of Portland, which provides a significant amount of PCM's budget. . . .

A recent CNN poll seems to confirm what a majority of African Americans and a significant percent of Whites seem to think or at least say. And that's that President Obama will have to be better because he's Black. Translated this means that at Obama's first real or perceived screw up there will be howls that that's what you get when you plop a Black into any position that requires a brain and skill. The undercurrent that courses through this warped race tinged view of why Blacks are expected to fail is that they are plopped in an important spot because of affirmative action or unexpunged White guilt, and they're grossly unqualified for it....

As is so often the case, the holiday season marked a time of transition – from warm weather to cold, old to new, from the year gone by to the one yet to come. This year, however, something seems different. This year, a wind blows that portends changes more profound than perhaps any in recent memory. In my estimation, we stand at a point in time when the threads of history have gathered together to pass through the eye of a single needle....

The big buzz around town about Mayor Sam Adams has many people wondering what the city will do about this. Regardless of what type of investigation that may be launched by the Attorney General, we must remember that Portland asked former Police Chief Derrick Foxworth to step down after having a relationship with an adult woman.   The same standards need to be applied here.