Earlier this year, major corporations like General Motors, Bank of America and Citigroup received federal dollars—taxpayer money—to keep their operations afloat. Despite public outcries of corporate excess and financial mismanagement leading the entities to the mess they were in, the government followed through with these bailouts because it was the right thing to do for the nation’s economy. In the midst of all this, we’ve heard very little about small businesses, which are the backbone of the American economy. This recession has affected them, too. And it’s time we turn our attention in their direction.

On the issue of race in America there is something in the air. Shakespeare’s melancholy Dane might say it is the “scent of morning;” our president would call it a “teaching moment.”

A lawsuit filed in the district court of East St. Louis alleges that Mayor Alvin Parks and City Manager Robert Becks refused to hire Ronald Grimming, a former top commander of the Illinois State Police and former director of the Florida Highway Patrol as the city’s police chief because he is White.

Plaintiffs Wyatt Frazer and Della Murphy, former members of the Police, Fire and Civil Service board, allege that shortly after Parks was elected he let his bias be known, rejecting their recommendation of Grimming because in his words, “the city was not ready to hire a White police chief.” At Parks’ recommendation, the city later hired Michael Braxton, a Black candidate with considerably less experience. Braxton resigned earlier this year following allegations that he has mishandled murder cases and engaged in race-based hiring practices.

(NNPA)—There. I made up a title for the fact that the recent November elections were essentially about the socioeconomic status of voters as the primary factor in their decisions. We know already that in bi-year and mid-term elections after a major presidential election, the winner’s party most often loses seats. So why the excitement? The news value was that the major media tried and tried to nationalize the election by making it a referendum on the performance of President Barack Obama’s nine months in office. He had won both New Jersey and Virginia handily in 2008 and campaigned there for Democratic candidates in 2009.

(NNPA)—What a difference a year makes. This time last year, I was sitting around my living room with a bunch of 30-something Black professionals eating Buffalo wings and checking off red and blue states. Honestly, we were all a little shell-shocked. Some of us had campaigned all over the country for Obama. Others had just sat and watched in awe as history unfolded.

At 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the West Coast was called and Barack Obama was named the victor. We ran out of the house, celebrating with our neighbors. We all poured onto the street as cars stopped and honked their horns. Some folks jumped on the hood of their cars. Washington, D.C. partied in several locations until the wee hours of the morning. Each one of us held both a collective promise and individual expectation of what this presidency would mean for us.