News & Features

From New America Media:  As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to review the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), California health experts are confident that the state will continue to lead the way on health reform. California has the highest number of uninsured persons of any state. Through the work of health and consumer advocates, the state has focused on building the infrastructure for future coverage expansion and implementing as many of the changes as fast as it can. 

From New America Media and ColorLines: Can GOP voters stomach a presidential candidate who talks about undocumented immigrants without calling them “illegals”? Such are the questions the Republican party has been grappling with in the days since Newt Gingrich, the GOP’s most recent frontrunner, broke away from the pack during CNN’s national security debate last Wednesday and uttered a fairly startling set of words on immigration.

From New America Media: In less than nine months, Mexicans will go to the polls to elect a new president, and already the tantalizing question has set social media here all abuzz: Is Mexico ready to elect a woman? Josefina Vazquez-Mota, a popular lawmaker for the ruling National Action Party, known as PAN, is consolidating her standing as a favorite to win the nomination.

From New America Media: The excuses some Democrats give for their chill toward backing President Obama’s re-election bid would fill up a legal pad. The Blue Dog and moderate Democratic congresspersons and senators representing shaky swing and conservative districts are scared stiff that if they rub shoulders too close with Obama, they will be signing their political obituary for re-election.

 

There is, perhaps, no greater venue for illustrating exactly how vast a disparity exists between the haves and have-nots right now than at the sale of million-dollar artworks. Lending support to the gathering of disgruntled art handlers who have been locked out of Sotheby’s auction house in New York since August, Occupy Wall Street protestors have made things very uncomfortable for the auction house and its clients during the two biggest sales weeks of the year.

From New America Media: As the economy continues to flounder, a growing number of college graduates are shifting their priorities away from forging a career path in their desired field to more immediate demands, such as paying the bills.  As a result, many are taking jobs out of college that they never imagined themselves doing and are finding that once they’ve taken that turn, it isn’t so easy to find their way back.

From New America Media: Ed Lee’s win in last Tuesday’s mayoral race in San Francisco is a major milestone for Chinese voters, but not all members of the community are celebrating the victory as their own. For Daniel Li, a San Francisco resident who came to the United States from China nearly 30 years ago, Lee is among a number of Chinese political leaders who were either born in the United States or came here at a very young age. The result, he says, is that there’s a disconnect between these leaders and the community, which is made up largely of immigrant Chinese. 

From New America Media: President Barack Obama asserted his commitment to achieving comprehensive immigration reform should he be re-elected in 2012. “I will make this a prominent part of my campaign and I’ll talk about it extensively,” Obama vowed. In a recent White House meeting with media reaching the Latino community, he stressed, “It’s going to be hard to have a more clear contrast between what the Republicans stand for on a whole range of issues and what I stand for and Democrats stand for.”