In an act of civil disobedience, more than 120 members of the protest organizing unions UNITE HERE Local 1, SEIU Local 1, the Grassroots Education Movement and the CTU staged a sit-in in the southbound lanes of LaSalle Street outside of City Hall during Thrusday’s rally and march. Among those led away by police and issued citations for “pedestrian failure to exercise due care,” according to attorney Pat Cal ...

OAK BROOK, Ill.  – The McDonald’s All American Games will stay in Chicago through 2015. After Windy City fans shattered the event’s attendance record in 2011, and returned in-force for the 2012 Games, McDonald’s and the United Center agreed to a two-year contract extension, including an option to renew in 2016. “This is a historic day for the McDonald’s All American Games,” said Douglas Freeland, director o ...

by Jason Lewis Special to the NNPA from the Los Angeles Sentinel Isaac Burns Murphy is arguably the greatest jockey of all time. Isaac Burns Murphy is one of the greatest jockeys ever, and it can be argued that he is in fact the greatest. By Murphy’s calculation, he won 628 of his 1,212 starts in a career that lasted from 1875 to 1895.  The 44 percent winning percentage is the best of all time, and is a rec ...

By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The swift political and personal descent of former Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. has accelerated with criminal information documents being filed accusing him of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and making false statements in connection with allegations that he diverted approximately $750,000 in campaign funds for personal use. H ...

By Maya Rhodan NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – For 97 years, the Association for the Study for African American Life and History has been commemorating the accomplishments of African Americans through Black History celebrations. In 1915, Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and sought to expand the understanding of Black history beyond slavery. ...

WASHINGTON – U.S. citizens suffer from poorer health than nearly all other industrialized countries, according to the first comprehensive government analysis on the subject. Of 17 high-income countries looked at by a committee of experts sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the United States is at or near the bottom in at least nine indicators. These include infant mortality, heart and lung disea ...

By Raynard Jackson NNPA Columnist Just imagine someone in your family travelling half way across the country to help a family they don’t know nor have any connection to; while at the same time his own family is in crisis.  Just imagine how you would feel if your family barely had food to eat, but yet your father goes across town and gives some of your food to a family that he doesn’t even know. I am sure in ...

By Raynard Jackson NNPA Columnist I really had not planned on writing anything about the shooting in Newtown, Conn. because I didn’t have anything fresh or thought provoking to write. As I have indicated before, I can’t muster any extra sympathy for the tragic events in Connecticut when young kids are dying every day in Chicago and they barely get a mention in the news, and definitely not by this White Hous ...

By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – In schools today, Black students get suspended at a rate that is more than triple the rate of their White classmates. As the uneven enforcement of zero tolerance policies disconnect minority students from their schools, juvenile detention centers and, in some cases, adult prisons welcome them with open arms. Data collected by the Office for ...

By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) — Rejecting calls for him to move closer toward his Republican critics, a confident President Barack H. Obama kicked off his second term on Monday by making an impassioned plea for a more inclusive America. “It is not our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began,” Obama said in his inaugural speech. “For our journey is not complete unt ...