By Marian Wright Edelman NNPA Columnist In his last Sunday sermon at Washington National Cathedral, Dr. King retold the parable of the rich man Dives who ignored the poor and sick man Lazarus who came every day seeking crumbs from Dives’ table. Dives went to hell, Dr. King said, not because he was rich but because he did not realize his wealth was his opportunity to bridge the gulf separating him from his b ...

By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Rather than deter violence, placing more police officers in schools has led to more students becoming entangled in the criminal justice system for such minor infractions as disorderly conduct, an in-depth study of the issue has concluded. Despite that finding by the Justice Policy Institute, a nonprofit group that seeks ways to decrease incarcerati ...

By Marian Wright Edelman NNPA Columnist When Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, spoke at the Children’s Defense Fund’s recent national conference, she shared some details about her son that reminded the audience both how special Trayvon was to his family and at the same time how much the happy, social high school student was like any mother’s child. “He was very affectionate. He loved to hug and kiss ...

By Frank S. Washington Santa Monica, Calif., -- Four out of five cars sold in the U.S. last year were midsize sedans. And Ford is making a serious push to get a bigger slice of that market which is expected to grow even larger. The Fusion is a global car. Ford will produce it and its sister model, the Mondeo, in Flat Rock, Mich.; Hermosillo, Mexico; Genk, Belgium; Russia and China. We came here to test driv ...

By Marian Wright Edelman NNPA Columnist Americans committed to keep moving forward turned out in record numbers to vote in the battleground states. But we won’t be able to go forward until Congress sits down and makes the hard decisions to create a just budget that invests in children, our poorest group of Americans, and creates jobs for their struggling parents while making sure those who have benefited fr ...

By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist According to a new report, since 2009, 36 million Americans have attended college without earning a degree. Consequently, 850,000 individual private loans valued at more than $8 billion are now in default. With high and variable interest rates, these loans can cost students more in repayment than the actual cost of tuition. From 2005 to 2011 alone, private student loan deb ...

By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist Among the 10.9 million homes that went into foreclosure between 2007 and 2011, more than half of the “spillover” cost to nearby homes have led to a $1 trillion loss in home equity for African-American and Latino families., according to a new report by the Center for Responsible Lending titled, “Collateral Damage: The Spillover Costs of Foreclosures.” The report said, “Fami ...

By Marian Wright Edelman NNPA Columnist When Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, spoke at the Children’s Defense Fund’s recent national conference, she shared some details about her son that reminded the audience both how special Trayvon was to his family and at the same time how much the happy, social high school student was like any mother’s child. “He was very affectionate. He loved to hug and kiss ...

By Harry C. Alford NNPA Columnist It was a great moment when our military brought Osama Bin Laden to justice.  President Obama had three opportunities before this to whack the leader of 9/11 but his advisers, including Vice President Joe Biden and Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett convinced him not to do it for the fear of failure.  But leaders must dare to be great; caution should not be considered in daring, ...

By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Nearly half a million young Blacks face a tough choice as the November 6 presidential election approaches: either get a new, government-issued photo identification or don’t vote. In “Turning Back the Clock on Voting Rights,” the Black Youth Project, a group that fosters political and civil engagement among young African Americans, outlined h ...