Obama Calls on You to Make A Difference The call to service is now be immortalized in a bill signed Tuesday by President Barack Obama, giving $5.7 billion to triple the size of the AmeriCorps national service program and expanding opportunities for students and seniors wanting to earn money for college while volunteering for the country. Read more.

Candidate Hopes to Become First Black Woman Gov A New Jersey woman is hoping to become the nation’s third African-American governor. The Rev. Shannon Wright, an Independent candidate, announced her bid to lead the Garden State just days after resigning as campaign manager for Republican Brian Levine. On Thursday, Levine, the mayor of Franklin Township, was nixed from the GOP primary ballot after judges ruled that his petition did not contain enough valid signatures to justify his nomination. Wright, 42, was a registered Democrat in 2008, so she must obtain 1,000 signatures to run as an independent. She named health care, education and economic development as her focal points. She and her husband are co-founders of Faith, Grace and Mercy World Outreach Ministries.

Obama: I want to talk about the Illinois scandal. President-elect Barack Obama may seem like he’s dodging questions about the ongoing investigation into the alleged misdeeds of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but he said Wednesday that “it’s a little bit frustrating” to not talk in detail about the investigation.  The feds contend that Blagojevich was working on a fat payday as he plotted his strategy to name Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate. The spoils of the victory were to be awarded to the wannabe senator who offered the best political or financial deal for Blagojevich and his family, according to investigators, who taped the governor as he allegedly talked about a deal. FBI agents arrested him last week, saying they had plenty of evidence for a strong case against him.

Rep. Jesse Jackson told the feds about Illinois’ governor. Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has been a government informant, spilling the beans on Illinois’ embattled governor and other miscreant politicians for years, The New York Post reported Tuesday. The newspaper said that a Jackson spokesman, Kenneth Edmonds, acknowledged that Jackson had spoken to the feds about Gov. Rod Blagojevich and others. Blagojevich is now under investigation for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Chicago’s WLS-TV reported that Jackson Jr., the son of the famed civil rights leader of the same name, told investigators Blagojevich refused to make Jackson’s wife director of the state lottery because Jackson would not pledge $25,000 to the governor’s campaign fund. “Blagojevich went out of his way to say, ‘You know I was considering your wife for the lottery job and the $25,000 you didn’t give me? That’s why she’s not getting the job,’” a source told The Associated Press. Jackson doesn’t deny meeting with Blagojevich about his interest in Obama’s Senate seat one day before the governor was arrested on federal corruption charges.

Obama calls for the Illinois governor to resign. As Illinois lawmakers scrambled to find a way to force a disgraced but defiant Gov. Rod Blagojevich out of office in light of his arrest on corruption charges, President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats are calling for his resignation. Read more here.

Charles Barkley says he’s considering a run for governor. Former NBA star Charles Barkley was definite and specific about whether he could run for the governor or Alabama, saying, “I plan on it in 2014. … I can’t screw up Alabama,” he added, saying that with him at the helm of the state, there would be no place to go but up. “We are number 48 in everything, and Arkansas and Mississippi aren’t going anywhere,” he said during the interview, noting that his top priority would be education. “All the way education … the public school system in this country is the worst it has ever been and what that does is that hurts crime, it hurts the judicial system,” Barkley said. “You know if you don’t give people education and hope, they become criminals. They get involved in drugs. So we have got to fix the public school system. I think we need to make these neighborhoods safer. And the third thing, you have got to give people economic opportunity. America for far too long has a small group of people who have got all the money and then we got a bunch of poor people who have no money. And because we have killed the public school system they can’t get the education to make money, and that is just not right.”

An elderly man and a woman head the GOP ticket

Republicans made history Wednesday night when they nominated the oldest first-time nominee in history, 72 year-old Sen. John McCain, and the first woman, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, ever to be the No. 2 on a GOP ticket.  Last night, Palin took the time to beat up on Obama – and to introduce the nation to a new, seemingly formidable candidate for the U.S. presidency. Did you watch the convention? What did you think? Read more about the convention at Pamela On Politics.

Removal hearings for Kwame Kilpatrick scheduled for today

Barring a last-minute plea agreement, historic proceedings are set to begin this morning for the possible removal of Detroit’s mayor. Gov. Jennifer Granholm will preside over the hearings requested by Detroit City Council, in the wake of multiple felony charges leveled against Kwame Kilpatrick this spring. He’s accused of both lying in court about an extra-marital affair with his ex-chief of staff and hiding evidence of the affair by settling a multi-million-dollar lawsuit with ex-cops who could’ve exposed the romance. Kilpatrick’s lawyers worked through Labor Day weekend and on Tuesday trying to negotiate a plea that wouldn’t include jail time for and hoping to get a court order stopping Granholm’s hearings. The mayor reportedly sought to offer his resignation, surrender his law license and state pension, do community service and probation, all in exchange for no jail time. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is said to be unyielding on the question of Kilpatrick’s incarceration. The mayor enjoyed a small victory Tuesday when a court agreed to let him remove his ankle monitor at a bond hearing. But a second judge, followed by the Michigan Court of Appeals, ruled that the governor’s hearing can proceed. Granholm’s removal of Kilpatrick would leave him subject to prosecution without the chance to resign as part of any plea. About a dozen witnesses are expected to testify at the 9 a.m. hearing, which Granholm – former Michigan attorney general – plans to oversee.

Governor To Decide Kilpatrick’s Fate

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s poltical future now rests in the hands of the governor.  Gov. Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday that she may use a provision in the state constitution to have him removed from office for misconduct, The Associated Press reports. Read more about the city counci’s appeal to the governor and the charges Kilpatrick faces at BET.com/News.

Skin head gets 25 years for murdering a Black man. The justice system is finally bringing some closure to the nearly 20-year-old murder of a Black man in Philly. Thomas Gibison, a White supremacist, was convicted of conspiracy in the 1989 shooting death of Aaron Wood and was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, The Associated Press reports. A friend of Gibison testified during the trial that they went to North Philadelphia to find a Black man to kill so they could earn a White supremacist tattoo. Gibison already is serving time in prison for unrelated weapons offenses charges.

March on Washington anniversary remembered. Forty-five years ago, thousands descended on D.C., and changed America forever. See the photos here.

Gov. Crist says that what happened in New Orleans won’t happen in his state.

Residents and vacationers in the Florida Keys are bracing for a powerful storm brewing in the Atlantic that could swell to hurricane strength and pummel the string of tiny islands and Cuba before it’s through. As Tropical Storm Fay began picking up some serious steam early Sunday morning, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) urged folks to pack up and head out. But he assured the world that what happened in the Gulf Coast three years ago would not occur in Florida, saying that emergency workers, including 9,000 National Guard troops, are on standby. In 2005, the Gulf Coast was completely unprepared for hurricane Katrina as it tore the region taking lives and destroying homes and property. Officials at Miami’s National Hurricane Center say that by late Monday or early Tuesday, the storm’s winds and pelting rain could wreak havoc. “My main message today is to remind our fellow Floridians to remain calm,” Crist said Sunday afternoon at state emergency headquarters in Tallahassee. “Florida is prepared. And we are ready. And we’ll be vigilant,” he said.