USA: More Sanctions, Pressure on Syria

Washington, Aug 18 (Prensa Latina) The U.S. government stepped up its pressure on Syria in the form of sanctions and a request from President Barack Obama for Syrian President Bachar el-Assad to resign immediately.

Obama made his statements shortly before leaving to vacation in a luxury resort, followed by sharp criticism for taking a break when the economy is in dire straits and unemployment is rising.

CIA Agent Shot At his Own Planes during 1961 Invasion of Cuba

Washington, Aug 16 (Prensa Latina) A CIA agent mistakenly shot at U.S. planes during the mercenary invasion of Cuba at Playa Giron in 1961, USA Today reported on Tuesday.

Some of the planes provided by Washington to Cuban counterrevolutionaries were camouflaged as Cuban military planes, causing what newly-declassified CIA documents described as friendly fire.

US Activists Mobilize against Restrictions on Cuba Travel

Washington, Aug 16 (Prensa Latina) Cubans resident in the United States and nongovernmental organizations have sent thousands of letters, faxes, and e-mails to the White House expressing opposition to a bill that would restore restrictions on travel to Cuba, according to news reports Tuesday.

The New Old Obama

By E.J. Dionne, Jr.

For President Barack Obama, these are the days of never hearing an encouraging word. Not since his own supporters were losing faith in his presidential campaign in the summer of 2007 has Obama confronted so many bad reviews and such widespread frustration and angry criticism from his own side.

America Is a Spark Away From Riots of Its Own

A shopping mall burns in 1992 on the second day of rioting in Los Angeles. The acquittal of several white police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King lit the fuse.

By Bill Boyarsky

As President Barack Obama tried to calm a United States facing the threat of financial disaster, riots raged across the Atlantic in London and other British cities. Could it happen here, as our nation adopts British-style austerity and suffers through worsening unemployment? It certainly could, just as it has in the past.

Mississippi Still Burning

James C. Anderson was a man in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was attacked by a group of white teenagers.

By Marcia Alesan Dawkins

A scenario ripped from our nation’s troubled racial past made new headlines this week: the slaying of a man allegedly for the simple reason that he was black. But a little digging reveals that there’s more to this story than the label “hate crime” suggests.

This week CNN posted a video capturing the killing of James C. Anderson, 49, an African-American slain in June allegedly by a group of teenagers on a white-power mission. Two members of the group, 18-year-olds Deryl Dedmon Jr. and John Aaron Rice, now await trial. According to reports, Dedmon allegedly ordered Rice and six other teens to beat Anderson, who was then run over with Dedmon’s truck in a motel parking lot in Jackson, Miss., at about 5 a.m. on June 26. Anderson was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

U.S. Co. Suspends Trips to Cuba

Washington, Aug 8 (Prensa Latina) Abercrombie & Kent (A&K) Co., one of the first travel companies to jump into the Cuba trips allowed by a new Obama administration policy, suspended the tours to Cuba after some problems popped up.

A&K, a luxury travel firm, had sold to U.S. citizens 13 tours organized jointly with the Foundation for Caribbean Studies, holder of one of the licenses to organize people to people trips issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC).

The Bizarro FDR

By David Sirota

Barack Obama is a lot of things—eloquent, dissembling, conniving, intelligent and above all, calm. But one thing he is not is weak.

This basic truth is belied by the meager Obama criticism you occasionally hear from liberal pundits and activists. They usually stipulate that the president genuinely wants to enact the progressive agenda he campaigned on, but they gently reprimand him for failing to muster the necessary personal mettle to achieve that goal. In this mythology, he is “President Pushover,” as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently labeled him.

US Debt Law to Hurt Poor Sectors

Washington, Aug 4 (Prensa Latina) Legislation raising the ceiling of the US debt -with which a catastrophic moratorium was avoided- will affect poor sectors of the country, experts said here.

Although US President Barack Obama proposed some adjustments to public health plans for the elderly and a change in the tax code to make rich people pay more, it is yet to be seen whether the Republicans will accept this latter proposal.

CIA Releases Files on Invasion of Cuba

Washington, Aug 2 (Prensa Latina) Pressured by a lawsuit, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Monday released another group of files of its so-called official history of the U.S.-organized invasion of Cuba 50 years ago at Playa Giron.

However, the CIA still refuses to declassify the fifth of five volumes that make up its history of the April 1961 events, known in the United States as the Bay of Pigs invasion.

US-Cuba Friendship Caravan Declares US Blockade on Cuba Unjust

Havana, Jul 31 (Prensa Latina) The economic, commercial and financial blockade the United States imposed on Cuba for nearly 50 years was termed unfair by members of the 22nd US-Cuba Friendship Caravan.

Obama Repeats Call for G.O.P. to Compromise on Debt Ceiling

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama repeated his call Saturday morning for House Republicans to accept a compromise that would allow the federal government to borrow more money, avoiding a potential default on its obligations.

US Political Parties Get Closer Positions on Debt

Washington, Jul 29 (Prensa Latina) US President Barack Obama assured Friday the Republican and Democrat Parties are not too far from reaching an agreement to raise the limit of the debt fixed now in 14.29 trillion dollars.

Cuban Film Habanastation Premieres in USA

Los Angeles, Jul 28 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban film Habanastation by young director Ian Padron will premiere Thursday at the Traverse City Film Festival in founded by U.S. filmmaker Michael Moore.

Padron and actress Blanca Rosa Blanco, one of the stars of Habanastation, will be at the premiere, a one-time screening at the Lars Hockstand Auditorium in Traverse City, Michigan, for which tickets were sold out in advance.

The Stimulant Stimulus

Ilustración de Dan Goldman

Could something other than Rick Perry’s business-friendly policies be keeping the Texas economy buzzing?

 By Tina Rosenberg 

Texas is a jobs monster. Over the past two years, 37 percent of the net new jobs in the country were created in the state, a track record that governor and maybe GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is quick to tout. He credits his conservative, pro-business policies; skeptics say it’s mainly owed to immigration and the high prices the state is getting for its oil. But there’s another possible contributor to Texas’s growth that no one is talking about: the drug trade.

US Treasury Secretary Says Debt Problem Must be Solved

Washington, Jul 24 (Prensa Latina) US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner considers it inconceivable that the US will not fulfil its financial duties, and acknowledged that his country´s economy has deteriotaed a lot.

Sorry Elizabeth, Wall Street Said No

By Robert Scheer

AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais President Barack Obama shakes hands with Richard Cordray after announcing his nomination as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is at Elizabeth Warren’s right.

So much for the meritocracy. Despite an elite education, effusive charm and brilliant wit, Barack Obama, like Bill Clinton before him, has ended up betraying his humble origins by abjectly serving the most rapacious variant of Wall Street greed. They both talk a good progressive game, but when push comes to shove—meaning when the banking lobby weighs in—big money talks and the best and the brightest fold.

US Central Bank Fears Economic Crisis May Worsen

Washington, Jul 19 (Prensa Latina) The fear of the US Federal Reserve (FED, US Central Bank) on the worsening of the high risk real estate and mortgage crisis in the country became clear Monday with the publishing of the bills from its last meeting.

Alarm, Pessimism Surround U.S. National Debt

Washington, Jul 14 (Prensa Latina) A national debt payment default would weaken the economy, increase the deficit, and affect confidence, and would be a very negative thing, said Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, highlighting increasing concern and pessimism about this issue.

BERNIE SANDERS DEFENDS SOCIAL SECURITY

In a news release from the office of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator criticizes suggestions made by officials that Social Security is eligible for the cutting block in deficit negotiations between President Obama and congressional Republicans. “Social Security has not contributed one nickel to our deficit or our national debt,” Sanders says, as the program is funded by the payroll tax, not the federal Treasury.

US Secretary of State to Visit India

New Delhi,  (Prensa Latina) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will carry out a three-day visit to India from July 19 for the second round of strategic dialogue between the two countries.

Based on a report of the US Department of State, the media said on Saturday that Clinton will travel accompanied by a high-powered US delegation, comprising officials from various departments.

Obama Admits US Economy still Lacks Recovery

Washington,  (Prensa Latina) US President Barack Obama admitted the unemployment rate reported here Friday -9.2 percent- is the biggest reported in nine months, showing that the US economy still lacks recuperation.

“This is one more signal the US economy has not fully recovered,” Obama said Friday in statements from the White House when he referred to the report presented on unemployment by the US Department of Labor.

On the picket line

By Sue Davis 

WISCONSIN NURSES
Win contract extension

To circumvent the vicious anti-collective bargaining law that went into effect in Wisconsin on June 30, the Milwaukee County Board voted 15 to 4 on June 23 to extend the contract for the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals Local 5001. Now the members will have union protection covering working conditions, benefits and a grievance procedure through Dec. 31, 2012. Local 5001 attributes the victory to members bombarding the board with phone calls explaining why the extension is win-win for everyone in the county.

Activist arrested for videotaping police

By Gene Clancy /Rochester, N.Y.

Political activist Emily Good was awakened by police lights flashing in front of her home in an oppressed community on May 12. Concerned about previous cases of Rochester police profiling, she went outside and began videotaping.

Ryan Acuff, Good’s friend and fellow activist, described the scene:

“We both went outside to see what the commotion was about, and we found two police cars blocking the street as they were performing a traffic stop. Later on a third police car pulled up, making a total of four officers on the scene. The person pulled over was a young Black male. It was unclear why the man was originally pulled over, but one of the officers interrogated the man and accused him of possessing drugs.

Black-white solidarity key to San Francisco’s 1934 general strike

By Cheryl LaBash

Workers call it “Bloody Thursday.”

On July 5, 1934, San Francisco port bosses pulled out all stops trying to break a two-month West Coast dock strike. The workers fought back.

Police that day killed Nick Bordoise and Howard Sperry — two of seven workers killed between May 15 and July 20. The capitalist-class assault on the longshore strike angered rank-and-file workers from 100 unions in the Bay Area. They voted to strike in support of the port workers, overruling conservative union leaders.