DALLAS – For those of us who follow what the late Ann Richards once called the “contact sport’’ of politics, there is perhaps no gFormer presidential candidate and Sen. John Edwards arrives at a federal courthouse in Greensboro, N.C. Edwards is accused of conspiring to secretly obtain more than $900,000 from two wealthy supporters to hide his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter and her pregnancy. He has pleaded not guilty to six charges related to violations of campaign-finance laws. (Chuck Burton - AP) reater provocateur than the candidate caught cheating. Although marital infidelity is nothing new on the campaign trail, the range of offenses and the creativity of the cover-ups have diversified since the pre-Gary Hart days when affairs were routinely ignored by the political ... Continue reading →
Enthusiastic young volunteers and voters helped nominate President Barack Obama in 2008. Will they support him again this year? U.S. Congressman Mel Watt acknowledged the importance of the question, posed by 19-year-old Johnson C. Smith computer science major Enrique Garcia, during Tuesday's announcement of the "UFuture A Summit for Innovative Young Thinkers" at the university. The cyber summit, to be live-streamed from 10 a.m. to noon on Sept. 4, during the Democratic National Convention, will give representatives from more than 20 colleges and universities a chance to interact with national elected and White House officials, educators, business leaders and celebrities, such as activist and Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actress Alfre Woodard, who also spoke on Tuesday. Watt was representing the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, a ... Continue reading →
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--With the Democratic National Convention only months away, students at Johnson C. Smith University are taking advantage by hosting a cyber summit. The week of the convention, students from all around will have a chance to meet with elected officials via twitter and live stream. Our Keeping it Positive Contributor, Mary Curtis dropped in to explain more about the event and how students are leading the way for the future of Charlotte. Continue reading →
LONDON — Britain’s phone hacking scandal truly is the gift that keeps on giving. On Sunday, news broke from the Cannes Film Festival that “Rebekah Brooks: The Movie” will be coming soon to a theater near you. Most people know Rebekah Brooks as Rupert Murdoch’s erstwhile girl Friday in the British arm of his media empire, News Corp. Until July of last year, she served as chief executive at the London-based News International, before abruptly resigning over her alleged role in the phone-hacking scandal. Brooks was charged last week on three separate counts of obstruction of justice, including conspiring to remove boxes of archive records from Murdoch’s London headquarters, concealing material from detectives, and hiding documents, computers and other electronic equipment from the police. The ... Continue reading →
Should American citizens who have been convicted of crimes and served their time have their right to vote restored? The question is a political issue, part of a voting-rights debate that is being fought in the states and among political candidates. To ex-felons, it From left: 2 Chainz, Kanye West, Rosci and Terrence J in New York City in April. Rapper 2 Chainz has his voting rights after a conviction on drug possession when he was 15. (Craig Barritt - GETTY IMAGES) can be a personal challenge, as well: Will their votes matter, and why should they care? The rapper 2 Chainz, made the case for the vote at a pre-show stop at the Urban League of Central Carolinas in Charlotte on Saturday. He told ... Continue reading →
Or maybe they just never gave up on it. Arizona — where a top election official has said President Obama might not make the ballot because of questions about his birth certificate — is one place where it is enjoying a resurgence. And then there is the latest version of Obama birthology, with a new twist: Okay, maybe he wasn’t born in Africa, but he tried to pretend he was. Here’s where it comes from: A few days back, Breitbart.com came across a 1991 short bio of Obama published by his then-literary agency, which described him as “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” It was included in a booklet that contained descriptions of 90 agency clients and was distributed only within the ... Continue reading →
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Mecklenburg County commissioner Bill James survived his own primary race on May 8. But it was the marquee fight over Amendment One that topped his agenda the following day. Pastor Richard Stidham, center left, embraces his daughter Nicole Stidham as they hear the news that Amendment One has passed during an election party in Raleigh, N.C. Tuesday May 8, 2012. (Robert Willett - AP) It was predicted that the change to the state constitution, with its broad language proclaiming “marriage between one man and one woman … the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized,” would cause confusion. Did it cover civil unions and relationships between unmarried heterosexual couples, and would it affect domestic partnership benefits already adopted in ... Continue reading →
