Our federal and state highways and bridges are among America's great assets; they enable us to drive freely and safely all over the country, and they belong to all of us, paid for by our taxes. But they are expensive assets; they require maintenance, repair and expansion due to rising population and traffic. Anyone who does much driving on our highways in ordinary sedans knows how crowded with big trucks the highways already are. President ... [full story]

For 2,000 years, the world's premier archeologists, theologians and historians have sifted through the sands of time in search of evidence supporting the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. So, who claims they may finally have incontrovertible proof? The guy who brought us "The Terminator." Three times. Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron has produced a documentary that claims that the "Lost Tomb of Jesus" has been unearthed in Jerusalem. The tomb in question contained ... [full story]

In November, the National Urban League extended invitations to anyone considering a presidential run to speak at our annual conference this July in St. Louis. We figured they'd have no legitimate excuse not to come if we started our outreach two years before Election Day. Well, we were wrong. After two rounds of invitations, we've received two rejections - from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Giuliani has got ... [full story]

The Iraq war has demonstrated anew the indispensable role of National Guard and Reserve units as vital augments to America's active duty military forces. Yet, years of inadequate budgets and the stresses of prolonged, repeated deployments on a too-small force have left the Guard and Reserve so short of equipment, training and sometimes personnel that their ability to perform missions at home and abroad is increasingly in jeopardy. At present, 88 percent of all Army National ... [full story]

While Black voters continue to reject the Republican Party, conservative Black ministers such as Bishop Harry R. Jackson are looking to Black mega-churches for GOP converts Despite the calculated outreach efforts by the Bush Administration, spearheaded by Ken Mehlman, the former head of the Republican National Committee, to turn the Black vote, exit polling from the 2006 election showed that close to 90 percent of Black voters stayed firmly with Democratic Party candidates. And, although ... [full story]

Richard Cheney and his sizable entourage have returned from nearly nine days in the Orient, Australia and the Middle East. We are moved to wonder anew if vice presidents, like oversized pets, might better be kept close to home. A half-century ago one of our more provocative veeps, Richard Nixon, traveled two weeks on what was intended to be a goodwill mission through Latin America. He became a target of riotous throngs from Montevideo to ... [full story]

Stevie Wonder is not only a legendary singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He's also one of the most socially-conscious artists out there. Through his music and his activism, he has tried to improve the world in his own uplifting way. He's been described as the songwriter whose songs can make you smile even when you don't want to. He pens socially-conscious lyrics - not in bitterness or resignation - but in an accurate yet hopeful light. ... [full story]

There's a part of me that will never forgive the neighbor lady for ratting me out when she saw me smoking behind the shed. I was in the eighth grade, and a lifetime later, I still cringe from the humiliation. Maybe that's why a reader's question has stuck with me months after receiving it. She was fretting because the husband of a pregnant friend continued to smoke around the mother-to-be. Should she say something about ... [full story]

President's 'truest believers' plan mother of all presidential libraries and conservative think tanks After six years of incompetence and cronyism, a failed war against terrorism, the quagmire that is Iraq, wars against science, the environment, corporate regulation and the public's right-to-know, a chummy working relationship with the country's most reactionary conservative evangelical Christians, a politicized faith-based initiative, giveaways to the energy industry, tax relief for the wealthy, a culture of corruption culminating in the forced ... [full story]

Feminists have cooked up a new plan to raid the U.S. Treasury for more feminist pork. They want Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act. They are using a report issued in October by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called "In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence Against Women." The report is said to be based on interviews with 24,000 women conducted by the World Health Organization. Who better to introduce the act ... [full story]

In 1960, editorial cartoons showed Pope John XXIII, suitcase in hand, striding toward the White House, the implication being that if John F. Kennedy were elected, the Vatican would influence U.S. policy. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy may likely spur Kennedyesque concerns regarding his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - commonly known as the Mormons. Though the church has 6 million members in the U.S., few Americans are ... [full story]

Nothing like it has happened since pre-Civil War days - but the incident left an unforgettable blot. On May 19, 1856, Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a powerful speech condemning the South for national unrest. Sumner directed his remarks at an elderly South Carolina colleague, Sen. Andrew Pickens Butler. Reflecting the intemperance of those times, he suggested that Butler had chosen "the harlot, slavery," as his "mistress." Three days later Butler's nephew, Rep. Preston ... [full story]

The National Urban League's economic empowerment agenda concentrates on four different areas - jobs, homeownership, entrepreneurship and wealth accumulation. If we ever expect to close the economic gap that exists between blacks and whites in the United States, our community needs to learn how to handle its finances. The success of the Urban League's agenda hinges heavily on how well people manage their money and make it work for them instead of the other way ... [full story]