LAS VEGAS, NV – President Barack Obama today marked the 100th day of the Recovery Act by releasing “100 Days, 100 Projects,” a report from the Vice President that highlights the progress the country has made in the first 100 days of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the work that is already being done to build a new foundation for America’s economic recovery. To view the report, click HERE

“One hundred days ago, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in half a century, we passed the most sweeping economic recovery act in history – a plan designed to save jobs, create new ones, and put money in people’s pockets,” President Obama said. “Now, one hundred days later, we are meeting our economic challenges head-on and beginning to see early signs of progress across the country.”

Among the projects in the report are two new Recovery Act investments totaling over $467 million to expand and accelerate the development and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the country that the President will announce today during a visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Nellis Air Force Base is home to the largest solar photovoltaic array in the United States, and 25 percent of the energy used by the 12,000 people that live and work on the base is generated by the 72,000 solar panel installation. The Recovery Act funds announced today represent a substantial down payment on bringing renewable energy technology like that used at Nellis to the mass market and is expected to create thousands of jobs, particularly in the western United States. To learn more about the new Recovery Act investments in geothermal and solar energy technology, click HERE

I’m not sure that the catastrophic job losses of this recession, the worst since the Great Depression, have really sunk into the public’s consciousness. And that would mean that the ground has not been prepared for the kind of high-powered remedies needed to get the economy back into some kind of reasonable shape.

The Times ran a front-page story on Monday that said job losses are forcing ever larger numbers of homeowners who once had solid credit to fall seriously behind on their mortgages, thus amplifying the foreclosure crisis.

Read the full Editorial by Bob Herbert

Letter to Editor by Emira Woods.

U.S. military "outreach" on Africa's seas and land is in search not of pirates but of oil.

Karin Brulliard's May 21 article, "U.S. Outreach on Rough Seas Off Western Africa" missed the point.

U.S. military "outreach" on Africa's seas and land is in search not of pirates but of oil. Oil-producing countries in Africa, including Gabon, now provide 24 percent of U.S. oil imports. Africa has outstripped the Middle East as an oil supplier to America. Increasingly, Africa's oil is being produced offshore. The effort to strengthen the U.S. military (and naval) presence in West Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is to secure the ever-present fix for the United States' addiction to fossil fuels.

Gabon's Omar Bongo is Africa's longest-running "president for life." Since 1967, his rule has been ruthless and repressive. Yet U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used to train and arm his military. The Obama administration can and must do better by ending our addiction to oil, curbing the flow of arms, and rebuking irresponsible leaders and their militaries.

Emira Woods is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.

A bit of relevant history: Seven current Senate Republicans — plus Arlen Specter — voted for Sonia Sotomayor during her highly contested federal appeals appointment in Oct. 1998.

Senate Republicans, led by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), blocked her nomination by Bill Clinton to the Second Circuit for an entire year, arguing -- presciently -- that she was being tapped in preparation for a SCOTUS appointment.

Read the full story HERE

Read the full post by Rev Lennox Yearwood, Jr. on the Huffington Post

When an award confirms the virtue of a cause at the same time that cause is dying the slow death of underfunding, there is obviously a problem.

Last week Attorney General Eric Holder honored Kenneth Barnes Sr. with the National Crime Victim Service Award, for outstanding service on behalf of victims of crime. But even with that award Barnes, and his organization ROOT, Inc., face an uncertain future.