Commentary

American jobs are worth fighting for

Thursday, 12 March 2009 12:15 R. Thomas Buffenbarger

In January alone, 598,000 jobs were lost. More than 200,000 of those jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector. The employment rate now stands at a staggering 7.6 percent. The global credit crunch has, finally and decisively, thrown the gears of growth into reverse.

More than 70,000 Minnesotas at risk of losing their jobs

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:34 State Rep. Jeff Hayden

The February forecast, which we received this past week, is an important part of the process we go through at the Legislature to arrive at a balanced budget. It gives us a snapshot of how our economy is performing as well as provides the Legislature with the size of our surplus or deficit for the upcoming budget cycle. As you might expect, the forecast delivered sobering news about the trajectory of our economy and a growing state budget deficit.

I rejected new liberalism and became a conservative

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:30 Joseph C. Phillips

My son is studying ancient Chinese philosophies in his sixth grade history class. The other day he rushed home to tell me that his teacher had compared modern day conservatism to the ancient totalitarian philosophy of Chinese Legalism.

Saying no to stimulus money makes no sense

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:27 Marc H. Morial, NNPA Columnist

When President Obama signed into law the $787 billion stimulus package designed to bring needed relief to struggling economies and families, citizens in almost every state breathed a sigh of relief.
But, due to the misguided stubbornness of a handful of Republican governors who are threatening to refuse stimulus funds for their states, some citizens are still waiting to exhale.

The growing problem of over-policing our schools

Thursday, 05 March 2009 17:23 Marian Wright Edelman

Imagine being four-years-old and put into handcuffs because you and your friend wouldn’t take a nap in your pre-K class. Or being five-years-old, handcuffed, and taken away from your school by ambulance to a hospital psychiatric ward after throwing a tantrum in the kindergarten room. These scenarios might sound far-fetched, but both are true stories that captured the local media’s attention after they happened to children at their New York City public schools.

How do we reverse the brain drain?

Tuesday, 03 March 2009 16:44 Philip Emeagwali, emeagwali.com

For 10 million African-born emigrants, the word "home" is synonymous with the United States, Britain or other country outside of Africa.

Ideas, not money, alleviate poverty

Tuesday, 03 March 2009 16:41 Philip Emeagwali, emeagwali.com

I once believed that capital was another word for money, the accumulated wealth of a country or its people. Surely, I thought, wealth is determined by the money or property in one’s possession. Then I saw a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed: “Ideas are capital. The rest is just money.”