Three
recent upsets in special elections for US House of Representative seats in the deep South, have Democrats rethinking their political fortunes in the region. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson famously
said: "There goes the South for a generation" as he signed the Civil Rights Act. But recent and unlikely victories mean it might be time for the Democrats to draw a new map.
Both sides of the pond are facing a prison problem. In the US, states
facing budget crises are now looking at an alternative to raising taxes — let's just say it's a lock-checking idea. They're letting prisoners go free well before their sentences are completed.
Federal reporting of
high-school graduation rates hide an embarrassing and depressing reality of the American education system. Only 70 percent of those who start ninth grade finish four years later.
Many states keep two statistics on hand.
CNN is now projecting that Barack Obama has won the primary in Mississippi. The Democrats award a proportionate amount of the delegates, but Obama will get the biggest wedge of that sweet peach pie. Polls indicated all day that
Obama was ahead in the state, which hasn't voted for a Democratic candidate in a the general election in 32 years.
