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The latest round of consumer confidence numbers are, quite frankly, a mixed bag.

Just when you were prepared to believe that the natural forces of The Market were finally going to put Americans back to work, the CBO reported Tuesday that unless we pump more money into the system, the national unemployment rate will in fact increase over the next two years. Today's better than expected job numbers shouldn't lead us to believe that this warning is wrong. As we have seen before in the past three years, things can get better before they get worse.

NEW YORK - Richard Brodsky, plaintiff and lead attorney in the major litigation on nuclear fire safety Brodsky v. NRC today released the following statement concerning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's denial of "exemptions" to fire safety requirements at Indian Point.  Brodsky v. NRC is the leading legal challenge to the illegal NRC practice of "exempting" nuclear plants from binding safety requirements. It is currently awaiting oral argument before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

The gist of this viral video, "S*!# New Yorkers Say," is true: We're hardly for want of opinions.

So when a New York State committee comes out with horribly gerrymandered districts that are being voted on in the next few months, you’d think there would be some public hearings to get feedback.

So much for the First Amendment and for Speaker Boehner’s pledge to ensure transparency and accountability.

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 second 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.