National

Las escuelas por contrato (conocidas en inglés como “Charter Schools”) rinden menos que las escuelas públicas, un informe gubernamental recientemente publicado dice.

BATAVIA, Illinois — Cargando banderas norteamericanas y pancartas de Jesucristo y la Virgen María, todo al ritmo de tambores coreanos, 400 trabajadoras inmigrantes con sus familias y aliados desfilaron 80 kilómetros (50 millas) desde Chicago a la oficina del presidente de la Cámara de Representantes federal, Dennis Hastert, para exigir acción sobre la reforma migratoria, y un fin a las redadas y deportaciones.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A judge on Sept. 7 temporarily halted lease sales of more than 1 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that environmentalists say are essential feeding and breeding grounds for caribou and migratory birds.

Earlier this year, I attended a tribute to my late friend Wells Keddie, at the Labor Education Center of Rutgers University. Wells died in April after a lifetime of struggle in the labor movement and as a labor educator.

As far as I can tell (I was not there), U.S. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) was stone cold sober when he managed to call an opposition supporter of South Asian extraction a monkey. Since Allen not only wants to be re-elected to the Senate (over Democrat challenger Jim Webb), but is thought to be interested in running for president in 2008, he had better get his story straight.

George Bush’s recent bellicose speeches on terrorism are a warning to all who care about peace and justice. Those speeches are aimed at discrediting the peace movement and silencing all dissent. They show that the spirit of Joe McCarthy is alive and well and currently living in the White House

The closing scene on Sept. 11, 2006, was Bush spinning selfish big lies to tie the heinous Iraq war to terrorism, to justify the tens of thousands of dead Iraqis and Americans and exhort the country to reject its impulse to compassion, collective peace and unity. The speech was a crass, cheap insult.

Sept. 12 was a “Super Tuesday” with primary elections in nine states. Even those races that turned on seemingly local issues revealed some patterns and trends emerging among voters.

New York Times columnist David Brooks weighed in on the origins of inequality in his column recently. While he wants to assure readers that inequality is not a serious issue, and not caused by policy, he gets almost everything in his article wrong.

WASHINGTON — Whether the topic was violence in Baghdad or the lack of funds to rebuild New Orleans, the theme at the Congressional Black Caucus 36th Legislative Conference Sept. 6-9 was “changing course,” as the title of the meeting put it.