(NNPA) - It has been described as the worst labor market since December 1974. With nearly 600,000 jobs alone lost this past January, the already dismal unemployment rate has been boosted from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent, according to a report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.  A survey by Briefing.com also states that the government's latest assessment of the labor market is even worst than the predictions of economists ...

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced new restrictions Tuesday for banks requesting bailout funds. Under details released Tuesday, banks will be subject to a "stress test" before receiving funding ... to ensure those that need the capital are healthy enough to be able to lend it  ......  "The spectacle of huge amounts of taxpayer money being provided to the same institutions that helped cause the crisis, with limited transparency and oversight, added to public distrust....

NNPA) - Soon after her comments about Beyonce and President Barack Obama set the internet ablaze and made their way to mainstream entertainment news last week, Etta James has come forward to say it was all just a joke. An audio tape of James slamming Beyonce for singing her signature song at the first Inaugural Ball, and ridiculing Barack Obama for allowing it to happen, were not meant to be taken seriously, according to James....

WILMINGTON, N.C. (NNPA) - If recent reports are any indication, people suffering from HIV/AIDS, the elderly and children, and even victims of North Carolina's forced sterilization program, will see the short end of the budget stick after Gov. Beverly Perdue and state lawmakers decide how to make up an estimated $2 billion budget shortfall.
The state NAACP has wasted no time demanding that no matter how bad the deficit, the programs that serve the poor and needy should be protected, not decimated.
''Don't balance the state budget on the backs of the poor,'' ...

9:30 a.m. – Main program at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts as outlined in wa.gov website
3:00 p.m. – Prayer circle with area pastors and ministers in the Rotunda of the Legislative Building
4:00 p.m. – Commission Mtg. / Education Roundtable in the Columbia Room of the Legislative Building– dinner will be served. 

ACORN Working Families Prosperity Center partners meet with ACORN members for the Working Families Prosperity Center open house on Thursday evening, Jan. 29. Partners pictured include: US Bank, Highline Community College, and Seattle Central Community College.
Community partners gathered at the ACORN Working Families Prosperity Center on Thursday to celebrate ACORNs latest initiative – the 2009 Free Tax Preparation program, which will return over $1-million in tax credits to Washington residents over the next three months ...

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Republican Party chose the first Black national chairman in its history Friday, just shy of three months after the nation elected a Democrat as the first African-American president. The choice marked no less than "the dawn of a new party," declared the new GOP chairman, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.
Republicans chose Steele over four other candidates, including former President George W. Bush's hand-picked GOP chief, who bowed out declaring, "Obviously the winds of change are blowing."  ...

(GIN) – A former U.S. banker has secured a huge tract of arable land in southern Sudan in what has been called Africa's largest post-colonial private land deal.
Investor Phillipe Heilberg called the property bordering the Nile "a ripe opportunity for investment and development." Its size is nearly twice the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
Heilberg's company leased 400,000 acres .... This is frontier land. It's also extremely fertile land. ...

King County Executive Sims has been tapped by President Barack Obama to serve as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, working with newly appointed HUD Director. Shaun Donovan, a former New York City housing commissioner. Sims will be moving to Washington D.C. pending his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

During a meeting that nearly descended into a riot, the Seattle School Board last Thursday voted to close five schools and move all or part of eight other programs. Seattle NAACP President James Bible was forcibly ejected from the meeting by Seattle police, although, news reports said, he was quietly leaning against a wall. When two White officers approached him and demanded that he take a seat or leave, the crowd erupted into a furor and Bible was ejected from the meeting ...