State Sen. John Edwards comfortably won re-election Tuesday, beating back hard-fought challenges from Republican Nancy Dye and independent Donald Caldwell.

“This is a victory for a philosophy of government that says government should lift people up,” Edwards, D-Roanoke, said triumphantly to a crowd of supporters Tuesday night.

“It’s an affirmation of the service we together have given to this district over the last 20 years.”

Edwards, who won his sixth term in office, added the race for the 21st District seat was “very, very intense” this time around.

“It’s taken a toll on everybody,” he said. “I cannot thank you enough for all that you did. Morning, noon and night, you never gave up. You fought, fought, fought.”

http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/john-edwards-wins-intense-re-election-bid-in-st-district/article_e2053db9-8fbf-5bff-9288-7bea64863686.html

I'm leaning toward endorsing Bernie Sanders. A lot of reasons at work,
but this platform is the main reason.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 9, 2015
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I fundamentally reject the notion that @BernieSanders can't win a general election. He can't beat who? Trump? Carson? Jeb?

He can.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 9, 2015
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The death of Freddie Gray in police custody in Baltimore and the ensuing protests brought the nation’s attention to the economic devastation that continues to grip the city. Now, new data shows powerful hedge funds are profiting off of struggling families in Baltimore by buying up debts as small as $250, charging high interest rates, and taking their homes when they fail to pay. A report just released by the research and advocacy group HedgeClippers documents how the Wall Street hedge fund Fortress Investment Group and the Los Angeles-based Imperial Capital bought up hundreds of these small liens this year — on everything from an unpaid water bills to delinquent property taxes — and could take property worth tens of millions of dollars if the families can’t pay.

Once the hedge funds buy up these small debts, they reap an 18 percent interest, according to the Baltimore-based research group The Abell Foundation. More fees pile up after four months, and if the families can’t pay, they lose their homes. An analysis of those impacted in 2014 found the families had been living in their homes an average of 21 years. Half were elderly, more than a third were disabled, and the majority were African American.

(snip)
The hedge funds reaping these profits in Baltimore are also major donors in national elections.

Imperial Capital’s directors have lavished money on Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates in past races. This year, Several employees of the Fortress Investment Group gave the maximum legal amount to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and its director Michael Novogratz has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into backing Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and other Democrats in congressional races over the past few years.

Clinton, a beneficiary of the hedge fund’s generosity, recently said in a speech about Baltimore’s woes: “Let’s take on the broader inequities in our society. You can’t separate out the unrest we see in the streets from the cycles of poverty and despair that hollow out those neighborhoods.” Thinking back to the beginning of her career as a lawyer at the Children’s Defense Fund, she added, “Our legal system can be and all too often is stacked against those who have the least power, who are the most vulnerable.”


Think Progress

The Department of Homeland Security has been monitoring the Black Lives Matter movement since anti-police protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri last summer, according to hundreds of documents obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The documents, released by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Operations Coordination, indicate that the department frequently collects information, including location data, on Black Lives Matter activities from public social media accounts, including on Facebook, Twitter, and Vine, even for events expected to be peaceful. The reports confirm social media surveillance of the protest movement and ostensibly related events in the cities of Ferguson, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and New York.

They also show the department watching over gatherings that seem benign and even mundane. For example, DHS circulated information on a nationwide series of silent vigils and a DHS-funded agency planned to monitor a funk music parade and a walk to end breast cancer in the nation’s capital.

The tracking of domestic protest groups and peaceful gatherings raises questions over whether DHS is chilling the exercise of First Amendment rights, and over whether the department, created in large part to combat terrorism, has allowed its mission to creep beyond the bounds of useful security activities as its annual budget has grown beyond $60 billion.

Hundreds of people are packing into a Kansas City ballroom and standing along the walls for a @SenSanders event. pic.twitter.com/tOUe4QerZl
Justin Wingerter (@JustinWingerter) July 13, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Societal ills such as income inequality and youth unemployment adversely harm the Hispanic community, Sen. Bernie Sander, I-Vt., told a crowd at a Hispanic conference Monday morning.

About 250 people crowded into a small ballroom at the Kansas City Convention Center to hear Sanders speak as part of the National Council of La Raza’s annual conference. An hour before the event, a line wound through the halls of the convention center as conference goers clamored for an opportunity to see the progressive candidate.

Sanders called for comprehensive immigration reform, free tuition at all public universities, affordable child care and a $15-per-hour minimum wage. Sanders, who has pledged not to accept campaign donations from super PACS, said the U.S. Supreme Court’s “disastrous” ruling on Citizens United should be overturned.