Federal appellate judges have upheld a Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision to issue permits allowing a company to leach uranium at an aquifer that supplies drinking water to thousands of Navajos in northwestern New Mexico.

A panel of the 10th U.S. Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 opinion Monday that concluded the NRC took the “hard look” required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

Eastern Dine Against Uranium Mining, Southwest Research and Information Center and ranchers Grace Sam and Marilyn Morris challenged the NRC’s approval of permits for Hydro Resources Inc. to do in-situ leach mining near the Navajo communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock.

The opponents contend the NRC violated federal law in issuing the permits.

Jacked via KOB.com

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans — along with some Democrats — defeated a measure to provide $1.3 billion for summer jobs for young people this year and a $1.3 billion extension of enhanced subsidies for poor families with children.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who introduced the amendment along with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), pleaded with her colleagues not to object.

“I have personally heard the stories of these young men and women whose summer jobs changed their lives across the country,” she said. “This amendment will provide $1.3 billion to create up to 500,000 temporary jobs this coming summer. It will invest in critical employment and learning programs that will help not only these young people but the businesses who hire them.” partially jacked via

Secretary Chu discusses the climate change debate.

From Outkast’s 1996 ATLiens

“13th Floor/Growing” — Andre 3000

I bet you never heard of a playa with no game. Told the truth to get what I want, but shot it with no shame. Take this music dead serious while others entertain. I see they makin’ they paper, so I guess I can’t complain or can I?

I feel they disrespectin’ the whole thang. Them hooks like sellin’ dope to black folks. And I choke when the food they serve ain’t tastin’ right. My stomach can’t digest it, even when I bless it. I’m confessin’ one mo’ lesson, From the South, we in the house tonight

Black student leaders at UC San Diego blasted Chancellor Mary Anne Fox and other college administrators in an emotionally charged campus forum. Students say the campus climate allows for racially offensive incidents to take place.

UCSD students attend a campus forum on February 19, 2010 to discuss recent racially offensive incidents at the school. Minority student leaders blame UCSD administrators for not doing enough to value black students.

Some students broke down in tears while others yelled at Fox. The impromptu meeting follows several days of public outcry over a racially-themed party organized by UCSD students mocking black culture.

Black student leaders handed Fox a list of 32 demands. The demands include everything from creating a safe, central space for black students on campus to fully funding recruitment efforts for black students.

Jacked via KPBS. Found via the Arkitect’s Facebook page.

White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, a friend of President Obama’s from Chicago, is leaving her job to return to the private sector, the White House said Friday.

Rogers’s tenure as the top party and events planner for the administration was marred by the Salahi gate-crashing incident, in which a Virginia couple managed to enter the White House grounds during Obama’s first state dinner in November.

Jacked via: the washpo

Van Jones explains his resignation from the Obama administration for the first time.

Jacked via Irene’s gchat status.

Anthony (Van) Jones, who resigned as an environmental policy adviser to the Obama administration after coming under fire from conservatives for past statements and political activities, has been named as a visiting fellow at Princeton University for the coming academic year. A statement being released by the university today says that Mr. Jones will be a distinguished visiting fellow at both its Center for African American Studies and its Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy, and that he will teach a course on race, ecology, and the environment during the spring 2011 semester. Mr. Jones, a 1993 graduate of Yale Law School and co-founder of three advocacy organizations, served as a special adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality from March to September of 2009. He left the position after being attacked for publicly using a crude insult in reference to Republicans, signing a petition that questioned whether the Bush administration deliberately allowed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and having past connections to a radical Bay Area group with Marxist origins.

99problems.org’s DJ Willie Shakes is hitting the streets of America to talk to folks about Census 2010. Check out our promo of his trip to Philly and Pittsburgh. Census forms hit your mailbox (not your inbox) in March!!! It only takes 10 mins to fill them out. Do it! It’s super important.

Hispanics make up nearly one-sixth of the U.S. population, but a new study shows that they’re almost nonexistent in high-level staff positions on Capitol Hill.

Out of 100 Senate chiefs of staff, only one is Hispanic: Amanda Renteria, who works for Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow. There are no Hispanic legislative directors or deputy chiefs of staff in the Senate, the study shows, and only one Hispanic staff director.

In the House, the study finds, Hispanics hold only 12 of the roughly 440 chief of staff jobs and only nine of about 440 legislative director slots.

The Congressional Hispanic Staff Association calls the results an “outrage.”

“For whatever reason, we’re just not getting into senior-level positions,” said the chairman of the CHSA’s Placement Committee, whose office would not allow him to give his name. “We’re really trying to avoid finger-pointing at any one individual office. The real problem is that every single office is hiring [fewer] Latinos than they should be.”

That’s not to say that lawmakers aren’t hiring Latinos to staff their offices — currently, 156 members of Congress, seven leadership offices and 27 committee offices have at least one Hispanic employee on staff, according to the Latino Leaders Network.

But when Latinos are hired, it’s most often for low-level positions that don’t offer opportunities for policy work. A 2009 House employment survey found that the greatest number of Hispanic staffers in the House work as schedulers, followed by staff assistants.

Read more:

Jasiri X won Album of the Year, Single of the Year and Best Inspirational Artist at this year’s Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards. !

Aided by a handful of Republicans, Senate Democratic leaders on Monday kept alive a $15 billion job-creation measure and are poised to pass the measure later this week. Five Republicans, including new Sen. Scott P. Brown (Mass.), joined 57 Democrats in voting to break a filibuster of the jobs bill, after a suspenseful buildup in which members of both parties wondered whether Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) could cobble together enough support to clear the legislative hurdle. Read more at the Washington Post.

NINA! NINA! NINA! NINA! Whenever I begin the story of my career it begins with Nina Simone.

I was blessed with parents that adored the music of NINA SIMONE. There was no first time I heard her voice… she was like family familiar to me.

I remember sharing her music to a less than enthusiastic audience of my grade school peers. My friends loved me but hated my music….I received some serious tisks & eyes rolls on that one. But it never deterred me because I just loved NINA! I couldn’t explain to my homegirls why I loved this musician that they swore sounded like a man. I wouldn’t defend or explain Nina; I learned quickly to not even try.

Nina is a language that cannot be translated, you either get her or you do not. I won’t even debate the matter. Listening to Nina was like going to Church. What she offered me filled me with such passion that I had to confront the world and myself just to grip her.

Suffice to say Nina effected my universe.  I felt like she was telling me “Have the courage to be Young Gifted and Black!” She was my muse; she inspired me to be an artist, to write. I wanted to create scenes that might give justice to the depth of her music. BLLLLAAACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVES HAIR. And chills would rush over my skin like the breeze of truth and I’d grab a pen and spiral and find a quiet space because I just had to write!

Her intense reverberations relentlessly humming in my ear, telling me to abide by the inspiration and keep it real! For every season there is a NINA song. For every sensation she has a melody. Like Miles Davis said “No one in the 20th century conveys emotion like Nina Simone.”

She has always been my guide. I write to her always, I think to her, I go to her to hear what only her music can say. From my very first full length play which was inspired by “I think it’s gonna rain today” to years later when I was given the biggest honor and was commissioned to write Nina’s life story. TWICE she’s been my Artistic archangel. It’s a connectedness so deep and real to me, that she will never know about. And so how do you say thank you…to that person in your life? (Shrug) I will simply blow a kiss in the air for you! I love you Nina. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE ONE AND ABSOLUTE ONLY DR. NINA SIMONE!

Originally posted here by Ebony Joy at: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA SIMONE!

Friends and Family,

First off thank you for your continued support. Since the release of my debut full length album “A Different Mirror” in June I’ve been continuing to work hard to bring you more. In the last six months I’ve traveled tour the country, released new videos, and been working daily to provide you with more original work.

“BlackMale” is an 8 song digital EP of all brand new music. Seeing that it is Black History month it seemed like a fitting to release this interpretation of African-American manhood. I worked closely with Benzilla, Reggie Reg, Greg Greaze, PC, and Mike Swoop to craft this project. This project was also made possible by the Minnesota State Arts Board’s Cultural Community Partnership Grant. I set the foundation for this project with an organization called CRUNC (Community Roots Under New Construction).

“BlackMale” is available for free download, or as a “choose your own amount” donation. You can give whatever amount you see fit. My friend Jeanine Estime will be returning to her homeland of Haiti to hand out basic needs items (soap, toothpaste, asprin, etc) to people in her old neighborhood that were effected by the earthquake. All donations from the digital downloads will go directly to her via me.

I’m also proud to announce I will headlining my first tour titled the “Black Belt Tour” with Haziq Ali (Organized Rhyme/Atlanta), and Omaur Bliss. Stop by one of the tour dates below to hear new music from the EP and “A Different Mirror.”

Feb 19 - Propaganda - Lake Worth, Florida Feb 25 - Pizza Luce - Duluth, Minnesota Feb 26 - Aquarium - Fargo, North Dakota Feb 27 - Club David - Sioux Falls, South Dakota Mar 1 - The Waiting Room - Omaha, Nebraska Mar 2 – TBA - Lincoln, Nebraska Mar 3 - Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines, Iowa Mar 4 - Warehouse Night Club - La Crosse, Wisconsin Mar 5 – Subterranean – Chicago, IL Mar 7 - Fine Line Music Cafe - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Much Thanks,

Toki Wright Rhymesayers/Soultools

Jay Electronica | Exhibit A (Jazz Cafe London) from Roy Thomas on Vimeo.

via nahright

Spotted via Nahright

With his first proper full length album since 2006, Dres of the legendary Queens outfit Black Sheep is gearing up to once again command the airwaves with the April 6th release of his highly anticipated album, From The Black Pool Of Genius. In an effort to holdover his insatiable fans while finishing up the LP, Dres released the five song EP, From The Black Pool Of Genius: The Prelude to much fanfare in December. The EP served as a promising precursor of what fans can expect from the upcoming album, and since its release Dres has been hard at work in the lab perfecting his sound.

More after the jump.

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Apparently his mixtape drops the week of March 15th.