Tag Archives: US History

The Washington Examiner reports: Just a third of Americans can pass a multiple choice “U.S. Citizenship Test,” fumbling over such simple questions as the cause of the Cold War or naming just one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for. And of Americans 45 and younger, the passing rate is a tiny 19 percent, according to a survey done for the …

CNN Money reports: In the latest indignity for a once-grand retailer, the share price fell below $1 on Friday for the first time in the company’s history, dropping as much as 15% to 85 cents in midday trading. Falling into loose-change territory is more than embarrassing. Nasdaq, the exchange where Sears stock trades, could delist the company. Shares of Sears …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: What would Jimmy Carter do if he became president of the United States again? Pretty much the opposite of what the current Oval Office occupant is doing. “If I were foolish enough to feel I could be president again, I think the first thing I would do would be to change all of the policies that …

CNN reports: Some Democrats, triggered by hundreds of thousands of newly released documents from the Bush library, are eager to return to Kavanaugh’s White House years to further probe his service there and question whether his congressional testimony in 2006 was fully transparent. They could delve into such issues as the war on terrorism, the controversial use of signing statements, …

Arizona Central reports: John McCain, who endured more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam before becoming the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and serving Arizona for more than 30 years on Capitol Hill, died Saturday at age 81. Destined to be remembered among the political giants of Arizona history, the six-term U.S. senator disclosed in July 2017 …

The Washington Post has published a lengthy look at the modest life Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter continue to have in the same rural Georgia house they lived in before the 1976 election. The piece is largely a folksy comparison of the lives led by the Carters and other former presidents. But buried near the end, we get this: Carter has …

TMZ reports: Aretha Franklin, known for having one of the greatest voices in music history, and for hits like “Respect,” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” died Thursday after a long battle with cancer, TMZ has learned. Sources close to the singer tell us Aretha passed away in her Detroit home where she was under hospice care. …

CNN reports: There is something in the current “Notorious RBG” fervor that offers the perfect paradox for a woman whose early career was marked by rejection and work in the trenches of anti-discrimination law. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s superstardom has not been fleeting, precisely because of what she did before and what she represents today. She made the law review at …

Just in from Pew Research: When asked which president has done the best job in their lifetimes, more Americans name Barack Obama than any other president. More than four-in-ten (44%) say Obama is the best or second best president of their lifetimes, compared with about a third who mention Bill Clinton (33%) or Ronald Reagan (32%). Which president has done …

The Hill reports: Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Sunday he believes “Jesus would approve of gay marriage.” “I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else,” Carter, who describes himself as a born-again Christian, told HuffPost …

The Washington Post reports: Dick Leitsch, who became a leading gay rights activist in 1960s New York, where he helped end police entrapment of gays and organized the first major act of civil disobedience by a gay rights group — a boozy sit-in known as the Sip-In — died June 22 at a hospice center in Manhattan. He was 83. …

Via press release: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today proclaimed June 20 Edie Windsor Day in New York State as a tribute to her legacy championing equality and justice for the LGBTQ community, and for being on the front lines of the fight for marriage equality. Today would have been Edie’s 89th birthday. “Edie was an iconic New Yorker who shaped …

CNET reports: Not to get judgy about a judge, but these Ruth Bader Ginsburg action figures win on appeal. The Supreme Court associate justice, 85, has been re-created in action-figure form by Seattle sculptor Mike Leavitt for product incubator FCTRY, which has also made figures of Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and other famous names that certain of your …

Just in from DNC chairman Tom Perez: “Two years ago, our nation witnessed one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. It was an attack on the LGBTQ community, the Latinx community, and LGBTQ people of color everywhere. It was an attack on the American people and the values of diversity and equality that all of us should cherish. …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: An emotional, rain-soaked rally on the eve of the Pulse anniversary Monday evening was mixed with anguish and raw anger over the lack of progress on gun reform and gay rights in Florida and the sheer number of mass shootings that have happened since. “Six hundred and twelve days,” said Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump has granted a posthumous pardon for boxing’s first black heavyweight champion more than 100 years after the late Jack Johnson was convicted by all-white jury of accompanying a white woman across state lines Trump had said he was considering a pardon in April, when he announced on Twitter that the actor Sylvester Stallone, a …

The Wrap reports: Senator John McCain takes a parting shot at Washington politics in the trailer for the new HBO documentary about his life, “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls.” “We need to give the American people what they deserve and right now they’re not getting it,” the Arizona Republican says in the teaser. “I’ve been tested a number …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: The onePULSE Foundation is unveiling the Orlando nightclub’s “interim” memorial today, designed to be a temporary tribute to the victims and survivors of the 2016 mass shooting. During a dedication ceremony this morning, Pulse nightclub owner and onePULSE Foundation founder Barbara Poma thanked local companies that contributed to the project. She also praised the survivors and …

The New York Times reports: It was at his Hidden Valley Ranch where the senator participated in a nearly two-hour HBO documentary and co-wrote what he acknowledges will be his last book, “The Restless Wave,” both of which are set to be released this month. While he continues to defend Ms. Palin’s performance, Mr. McCain uses the documentary and the …

The New York Times reports: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened Thursday on a six-acre site overlooking the Alabama State Capitol, is dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy. And it demands a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities: the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror. …