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Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup and taken to Costa Rica early Sunday morning. His ouster took place on the day of a planned referendum on constitutional reforms which was opposed by the Honduran Congress. Roberto Micheletti, the head of the Congressional Assembly and second-in-line to the Presidency has taken over as acting …

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As part of his on-going efforts to reform the nation’s health care and insurance system, President Obama will hold a town hall meeting this Wednesday in Annandale, Virginia. The debate over health care reform has generated a tremendous amount of debate with Republicans warning against the taxing of employer-provided benefits and accusing the White House of being “socialist.” …

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The Guardian Council of Iran, for the first time, has acknowledged evidence of voting irregularities stemming from the country’s June 12th presidential election. As a result of the probe, the Council, which will deliver its final decision on the disputed election between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mir Hossein Mousavi this Wednesday, said that there were a number of locales …

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Death Penalty Ruled Cruel and Unusual

Back in the day on June 29th, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional. By a narrow 5-4 vote, Justices reviewing the case of Furman v. Georgia decided that state and federal executions were “cruel and unusual” forms of punishment in violation of the eighth amendment. The …

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Death-row inmate Troy Davis’ habeas corpus petition was reviewed yesterday by the Supreme Court. Davis, who was convicted in 1991 for murdering a white police officer in Georgia, has been scheduled for execution on three separate occasions throughout the time of his incarceration. Each time he has barely escaped death due to last-minute stays of execution, …

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Alex Sanchez, the founder and executive director of Homies Unidos, was arrested Wednesday on federal racketeering charges. The prominent gang intervention activist was taken into custody from his home in Bellflower as part of a wider indictment against members of the MS-13 street gang. Sanchez, who is alleged of having been involved in a 2006 conspiracy to …

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Representative Barney Frank introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or ENDA in Congress this week to end workplace discrimination against Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgender persons. Currently federal discrimination laws do not cover LGBT Americans and it is legal in 37 states to fire someone based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. Congressman Frank had introduced the bill two …

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Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on Blacks and the Highway Stimulus Contracts.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information. …

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The Incident at Oglala

Back in the day on June 26th, 1975, FBI agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams followed a red pick-up truck onto the Jumping Bull Ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The FBI would later claim that the two were in pursuit of a Native American named Jimmy Eagle purportedly accused of stealing cowboy boots. …

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The most dramatic scene in the new film The Stoning of Soraya M is disturbingly similar to the searing image of 26 year old Neda Agha Soltani bleeding to death on the streets of Tehran last week. The timing couldn’t have been better for this new film based on a true story as related in the 1995 book by Freidoune …

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