ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP)—In a blunt caution to political friend and foe, President Barack Obama said Saturday that partisan rants and name-calling under the guise of legitimate discourse pose a serious danger to America’s democracy, and may incite “extreme elements” to violence.

The comments, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan’s huge football stadium, were Obama’s most direct take about the angry politics that have engulfed his young presidency after long clashes over health care, taxes and the role of government.

WORDS OF WISDOM—President Barack Obama gave the commencement address at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, May 1.

WASHINGTON (AP)—Lawyers for former housing secretary Alphonso Jackson said the Justice Department won’t prosecute the former Bush administration official and has closed its criminal investigation.

The Housing and Urban Development Department secretary left government in 2008 with unanswered questions about whether he had tilted the agency toward Republican contractors and cronies.

On May 3, the Justice Department declined to comment on whether it had closed out the probe.

ALPHONSO JACKSON

(AFRO.com)—In the midst of divorce from husband Jesse James, Sandra Bullock is welcoming a new man in her life—an adopted Black baby from New Orleans, the New York Post reported.

In the most recent issue of People magazine, Bullock revealed that she and James had officially filed for divorce and she had also completed the adoption process, now becoming the mother of 3-month-old Louis Bardo Bullock. Bullock’s new baby was born into post-Katrina New Orleans, where Bullock and James had previously decided to adopt.

NEW MOTHER—Actress Sandra Bullock with her newly adopted child Louis Bardo Bullock on the cover of People magazine.

by Valencia Mohammed
For New Pittsburgh Courier

(AFRO.com)—Richard Barrett, 67, general counsel of the Nationalist Movement, which he founded in Mississippi, was found dead in his home April 22, in Rankin County, Miss.

Police said the attorney, well-known for his public opposition to the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday and his anti-Jena Six demonstrations, was murdered. And they have charged Barrett’s neighbor, Vincent McGee, a 22-year old Black male who was released from prison in February for arson, with the crime. Records indicate Barrett was stabbed and bludgeoned. His home was also set on fire.

RICHARD BARRETT