By Donald Watkins – This weekend marks the 50th Anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. I did not attend the celebratory events this weekend. I am still deeply troubled by the fact that today’s civil rights movement has morphed into an endless cycle of commemorative events and celebratory parties consisting mostly of photo opportunities. This would…
By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The controversy between the White House, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and African-American Alabama political leaders continues and has not been resolved, according to information obtained by the New American Journal on Saturday. The SCLC held a press conference in Montgomery on Friday reiterating…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The threat of gay marriage in Alabama has roused governor George Wallace to rise from the dead and stand again in the schoolhouse door. When Roy Moore, chief justice of the state supreme court, flung himself this week between a federal judge in Mobile and the local bureau…
Thank You Jere Beasley and Alabama Trial Lawyers – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — I wonder if Jere Beasley and the Alabama trial lawyers are happy now? Old Ten Commandments Judge Roy Moore is making headlines around the country again in another stand in the courthouse door, this time against a growing federal…
Recommends Largest Ever Wilderness Designation to Protect Pristine Habitat – WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama’s administration moved this week to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, widely considered one of the most spectacular and remote areas in the world. The Department of the Interior is releasing a conservation plan for the refuge that…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — If you are really any kind of patriotic American — Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, libertarian, whatever — you must be willing to acknowledge that what happened in Alabama and Washington in 1965 was a pivotal moment in U.S. and world history. By “pivotal” I do not…
By Glynn Wilson – In a historic announcement guaranteed to draw howls from conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama announced an agreement on Wednesday to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and called for an end to the Cold War economic embargo that has been in place since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961.…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Where oh where is Jeb Bush and what is his position on the torture ordered by his brother? As the media across the world continues to cover the story about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report just out on the Bush administration’s CIA torture program,…
Eschew Obfuscation – By Michael Douglass – It was all over before the shouting when county prosecutor Robert McCulloch opted to actually try the case before a secret grand jury as opposed to simply and traditionally allowing the matter to be tried in a public court of law. The fix was in from the start.…
By Justin McCarthy – WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the Affordable Care Act’s second open enrollment period begins, 37 percent of Americans say they approve of the law, one percentage point below the previous low in January. On the other hand, 56 percent of Americans sampled say they disapprove of the law. Americans were slightly more…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – THURMONT, Md. – The weather forecast is calling for a dusting of snow here in the woods north of Washington, D.C. Thursday night, which we might as well call the first act of winter after one of the most lovely falls in memory for the people of…
Watch the video interview – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Independent curator Suzan Shown Harjo, a Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee from Oklahoma living on Capitol Hill, is seeing a long-held dream come to fruition at the Smithsonian Museum on the National Mall. An ambitious project that really started in 1967 — but began…
By Bob Wells – There is an uproar going around the blog-o-sphere right now about proposed new rules that govern use of Public lands. I’ve had several people write me very concerned that our right to use Public Lands was at risk and we would either be kicked off the land or be charged for…
WASHINGTON — ExxonMobil Pipeline Company has agreed to pay a civil penalty for a violation of the Clean Water Act stemming from a 2012 crude oil spill from ExxonMobil’s “North Line” pipeline near Torbert, Louisiana. Under the consent decree lodged Tuesday in federal court, ExxonMobil will pay $1,437,120 to resolve the government’s claim, according to…
Super Lawyer Donald Watkins Thinks So – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – I’ve been following with some interest the stories about the arrest of U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller, sharing some of the links on Facebook and Twitter. But it seemed like a stretch to me that his arrest on misdemeanor battery…
By Glynn Wilson – The Sierra Club filed a petition Friday with the U.S. Department of Transportation requesting an emergency order prohibiting the use of DOT-111 rail tank cars for transporting flammable Bakken and other volatile fracked crudes. The National Transportation Safety Board has repeatedly found that DOT-111 tank cars are prone to puncture on…
Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – With a couple of decisions in 2001 and 2006, the Supreme Court managed to break the Clean Water Act by calling into question what Congress meant by “the waters of the United States.” The existing law had been working just fine for almost 30 years. When the Clean…
By Glynn Wilson – Mercedes was found guilty this week of violating labor law against employees by an administrative law judge ruling for the National Labor Relations board. Judge Keltner W. Locke ruled that Mercedes-Benz U.S. International in Vance near Tuscaloosa committed three violations in dealing with employees who were working to try to unionize…
The American Federation of Government Employees union supports of the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s unanimous vote on Friday to allow federal prisoners serving time for low-level drug offenses to apply for early release, according to a press release issued shortly after the decision was announced. Overcrowding in federal prisons has become a significant problem in recent…
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize. – Voltaire, 1694-1778 – By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Newly captured Africans bound for slavery in the Americas often didn’t arrive directly. They stopped in the Caribbean islands for “seasoning.” There they lost their culture, language, religion.…
