First Lady Michelle Obama was in my hometown to honor the Arts yesterday
and though much of the NY fashion press coverage was focused on what she wore, like this piece from WWD: Purple Reign: Michelle Obama Makes a Splash at the Met
(she looked stunning in purple)
I was delighted to read that students from local Arts schools were invited to attend the event.
The LA Times reports today Orbitz launches petition drive to end Cuba travel ban:
Blending commerce with politics, Orbitz Worldwide has launched a campaign to reverse a law that prohibits travel to Cuba for most U.S. citizens and green-card holders.
I was doing “the google” this morning, and hadn’t finished my first cuppa java. Not a great typist at the best of times, half-awake I typed Repubican instead of Republican. Much to my amusement, I was linked to the Urban Dictionary definitions of this term .
Warning – strong language below the fold.
One of the names heading the list for possible replacements for retiring SCOTUS Souter is Sonia Sotomayor’s.
On April 9, 2009, New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a joint letter to President Obama urging him to appoint Sotomayor, or alternatively Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to the Supreme Court if a vacancy should arise on the Court during his term.
On May 4th, The New Republic published Jeffrey Rosen’s The Case Against Sotomayor
Reading the news today, like this WaPo piece; Supreme Court Rules that Government Can Fine for ‘Fleeting Expletives’, and blogger responses, brought back memories of Pacifica radio, when WBAI-FM aired George Carlin’s “7 Dirty Words”
In 1973, New York listener-supported radio station, WBAI-FM (owned by the Pacifica Foundation), aired Carlin’s routine which brought a complaint from a father whose son had heard the broadcast. The Federal Communications Commission was notified, an investigation ensued, and eventually WBAI-FM was fined for broadcasting obscene content. WBAI-FM appealed the ruling and it eventually went to the highest court in the United States.
While President Obama has just returned from the Summit of the Americas, another Summit has begun in Los Angeles.
Standing back row from left: Ida Odinga wife of Kenyan prime minister; Hadjia Laraba Tandja of Niger; Penehupifo Pohamba of Namibia; Thandiwe Banda of Zambia; Maria da Luz Dai Guebuza of Mozambique; Mathato Sarah Mosisili of Lesotho and Sia Nyama Koroma of Sierra Leone. Seated front row from left: Adelcia Barreto Pires of Cape Verde; Chantal Biya of Cameroon; Ana Paula Dos Santos of Angola; Queen Inkhosikati LaMbikiza of Swaziland and Dr. Turai Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Organized by US Doctors for Africa and African Synergy, an NGO of 22 First Ladies from Africa, Leadership for Health will focus on maternal health, as well as girls’ education and HIV/AIDS related issues throughout Africa.
Prior to the Summit of the Americas, President Barack Obama wrote an Op-Ed piece that ran in Caribbean and Latin American newspapers, as well as the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald.
Published in English, Spanish and Portuguese, the piece was entitled
Choosing a Better Future in the Americas
According to the White House Press office the piece ran in:
La Nación (Argentina)
O Globo (Brazil)
El Mercurio (Chile)
El Tiempo (Colombia)
La Nación (Costa Rica)
El Comercio (Ecuador)
El Universal (México)
El Comercio (Perú)
El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico)
El País (Uruguay)
El Nacional (Venezuela)
It was also published in the Trinidad Express.
Today may be tax day for some, teabag day for nuts, but for those who love baseball, it is Jackie Robinson Day.
The NY Times Reports:
Every Player to Wear No. 42 Wednesday to Honor Jackie Robinson
There will be No. 42s everywhere on Wednesday as Major League Baseball honors Jackie Robinson’s first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, which came on April 15, 1947. Commissioner Bud Selig has asked that all managers, coaches and players on the 30 major league teams wear Robinson’s number as a sign of unified support for the anniversary, which marks the breaking of baseball’s color barrier
President Obama, and Secretary of State Clinton will be heading to Trinidad for the Summit of the Americas.
Davidow previews Summit of the AmericasAmb. Jeffrey Davidow, President Barack Obama’s special advisor on the upcoming Summit of the Americas, briefed the State Department press today on plans for the summit, which is scheduled to take place April 17 to 19 in Trinidad and Tobago. Leading the U.S. delegation will be Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he said.
On the U.S. agenda for the 34-nation summit, Davidow said, are the economy, the issues of inequity and social development, the environment, clean energy, and public safety.
Obama “is going to Trinidad with the intention of listening, discussing, and dealing with his colleagues as partners,” Davidow said. “One of his concerns, and indeed the concerns of everyone at the summit, but particularly of the President and the Secretary of State, is the question of equity.”
Read an article in the Chicago Tribune this morning that piqued my curiosity.
I give Kudos to Iowa for legalizing gay marriage, but realized that I was totally unaware of Iowa’s legal track record.
The article taught me a history lesson, and smacked me in my East Coast chauvanist face.