News & Features

According to an interview Trump gave on “Fox and Friends” the day after the debate, (the Rosie jab) got “the biggest applause of the evening actually, so it was sort of interesting.” That says a lot about the people present at the debate and their feelings not just about Rosie O’Donnell, but about women in general and what sort of treatment they are deserving of. When Kelly continued to press Trump on his history of derogatory statements about women he responded quite predictably, “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct."

At the end of this year’s U.S. Supreme Court session, the highest ruling body in the land handed down a decision that put a major American retailer on the wrong side of the law. In 2008, a young Muslim woman interviewed for a sales position at Abercrombie & Fitch and, after being recommended for hire by the interviewer, was denied the position because she did not conform to the company’s “look policy,” which states certain rules on attire and appearance that its employees must follow. One 

For African Americans, the passage of the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965, represented the culmination of a centuries-long struggle for citizenship. President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the legislation, designed to end a century of voter disfranchisement in the South and other parts of the nation, was inspired by grassroots protests and organizing that gripped the nation. Martin Luther King Jr.’s efforts in Selma, Ala., linked a local campaign for voting rights to a national movement to redefine American democracy.

Earlier this week, the Senate voted on a measure that would have defunded Planned Parenthood. While the measure was defeated by a narrow margin, more political showdowns over Planned Parenthood funding are expected, even perhaps leading to a government shutdown. While such efforts face fierce opposition from champions in Congress and the White House—it is sobering to consider what might happen if they were to be successful. 

A stroll through Old Havana is enough to convince anyone that the entrepreneurial spirit that is fast-transforming this city into a nation of shopkeepers is in full swing. This isn’t to say that corporate America is about to descend on this island nation of 12 million people. Raúl Castro’s reforms place sharp restrictions on capitalism: one can work for one’s self, but only the state can hire more than two employees. 

Obama essentially followed a lead that then Attorney General Eric Holder took when he virtually ordered US attorneys to take a hard look at who they are prosecuting for drug crimes, and why. Holder minced no words in stating the obvious. The overwhelming majority of those prosecuted are mostly poor, blacks and Hispanics, for low level, petty dealing and use. In legions of cases, those offenders were slapped with draconian sentences of 10 or more years with little prospect of parole. 

The count of black churches in the South that have been torched is not the six that have been burned since the massacre of nine blacks at Charleston's Emmanuel AME Church, but 37. The church burnings occurred in a period of not two weeks but over 18 months. That was only the tip of the church burning iceberg. In a six-year period between 1991 and 1996, the ATF investigated more than 150 churches that had been torched in both the South and the North. 

Indian American taxi driver Makhan Singh, owner of Fremont-based Jet Cab, told India-West he has seen his income drop by almost 50 percent since Uber started picking up fares in Fremont a year ago. “I am losing about $1,500 per month to Uber,” stated Singh, who has two daughters, one who started kindergarten this year. “Business is very slow,” he said, adding that many of his long-time “regulars” are now using Uber for their airport runs.