Media

It was unsurprising to hear, as we did Tuesday, that Claremont McKenna College had lied about its students’ SAT scores to boost its position in the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of colleges. University officials are famously obsessed with these rankings, and this is not the first time that a school has admitted fudging data.

How much would I like to see New York raise its minimum wage? Let's put it this way: in 2001 as New Yorkers fought to increase the minimum from its then-abysmal level of $5.15, I dressed up in a too-large ostrich costume and paraded outside a strip mall in the Bronx. The goofy attire part of a demonstration in front of the district office of then-State Senator Guy Velella (later convicted on corruption charges, now deceased) and it would take another four years and substantial political maneuvering before a minimum wage increase was finally enacted over the veto of Governor Pataki.

This is the first interview in the Black History Month series "Perspectives on Black Politics in the Age of Obama." It has been selectively edited for print, but the full audio will be available at wbai.org. It is being published as a joint HuffPost Politics and Black Voices project.

The New York Times' columnist David Brooks is smart enough to know that inequality is a serious problem in America and you won't find him defending the right's inequality deniers -- those who argue that big income gaps are mostly a statistical illusion or don't matter because everyone can buy whatever they want at Walmart.

Late last year, a federal judge overturned an SEC settlement with Citigroup in which the company was fined over $200 million for financial misconduct -- yet admitted no wrongdoing.

Judge Pannell ruled that, contrary to Georgia's practice, the NVRA requires that public assistance agency clients be provided with the opportunity to receive a voter registration application every time they apply for or renew benefits or submit a change of address.

Not long ago, it seemed the stars were aligned for President Obama to mount a serious bid for corporate tax reform. I have argued often that this is an area ripe with opportunity for Obama -- not to mention a reviled Congress desperate to show it can get something done.