Archive - Mar 5, 2009

• Obama convenes health care reform summit
• Congress considers mortgage bill
• 287(g) comes under scrutiny on Capitol Hill
• Humanitarian aid workers expelled from Sudan
• Kenyan dance company brings physical disability into dance

• GM in Danger of Folding
• Statewide Protests in NY Against Anti-Worker Budget Cuts
• Prop 8 Gay Marriage Hearing/Protests in California Supreme Court
• Britain to Resume Ties With Hezbollah
• Palestinians Human Rights Award Winner Prevented From Traveling
• Israel Bombs Gaza/Bulldozer Attack in Jerusalem
• Thai General Denies Hosting CIA Secret Prisons
• Hugo Chavez Setting Price Controls, Seizes Cargill Pant

President Obama convened his White House Summit on health care reform. More than 50 members of Congress and 80 representatives from interested parties came together to discuss how to bring the cost of health care down and how to increase coverage. As D.C. Editor Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, this monumental gathering has brought together people from all spectrums, including those with vastly different goals around health care.

The Obama Administration has outlined plans for a $75 billion loan modification program, which they say will help some nine million homeowners. The Making Home Affordable plan focuses on refinancing and modifying mortgages; but as FSRN’s Karen Miller reports, a bill that’s making its way through Congress is what may make a bigger difference.

A program which is supposed to help federal authorities arrest dangerous criminals came under heavy scrutiny this week on Capitol Hill. Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act was crafted to allow local governments to arrest suspected undocumented criminals and turn them over to federal authorities. But a Government Accountability Office report finds that local agencies have no clear guidelines for running the program – and that 287(g) is sometimes used to racially profile people with brown skin. Africa Jones reports.

FSRN reported yesterday on the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, wanted for war crimes. Following that decision by the ICC, Sudan ordered workers from ten humanitarian groups, including Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders to leave the country. The nation says it cannot guarantee the worker’s safety. More than two million people rely on aid from these groups – and their future is uncertain now that humanitarian workers are leaving Sudan. Aura Bogado speaks with Denise Bell of Amnesty International USA’s Darfur Campaign.

2009 marks the final year of the African Decade of Disabled People: an initiative led by NGOs and member states of the African Union to further equal access for the continent's 80 million men, women and children living with disabilities. In the wake of this initiative, Kenya passed its Disability Act in 2003, yet its 3 million people with disabilities still face alienation and discrimination. Disability groups have tried to get the government to implement the Act, and to change negative perceptions – but in the absence of government action, some groups are developing their own initiatives to break down barriers and empower people with disabilities. Arusha Topazzini met with one such organization, a pioneering dance company called Uwezo Mix that has brought physical disability into dance for the first time in Kenya.