The Rev. Jesse Jackson – no stranger to negotiating the releases of hostages from hostile lands – is proposing to go to Iran to try and win the freedom of a jailed American journalist. Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old South Dakotan who has been living in Iran since 2003, was accused of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison. “I would be anxious to travel with a delegation to Iran, if we are permitted, and make an appeal for her freedom,” the longtime civil rights activist said at a peace conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Whenever we’ve brought people out of captivity, whether in Syria, Cuba, Iraq, or Yugoslavia, or Liberia, it’s always opened a diplomatic door to reduce tensions.” President Obama has denounced the Iranian courts for the one-day, closed-door trial that led to the sentence. Saberi’s attorney has promised to appeal the verdict. Jackson has a history of success in winning the release of American hostages. In 1984, he secured the release of a Navy pilot held in Syria; in 1991, he helped get 500 “international guests” freed from custody in Iraq; and in 1999, he convinced Yugoslavia to release three U.S. soldiers held there during the Kosovo conflict. Saberi has freelanced for several news organizations, including National Public Radio; she was also writing a book about Iranian culture.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, hoping to curtail Chicago’s rising murder rate among Black youths, is demanding stiffer gun-control laws. “We cannot just continue to mourn the deaths of our youth – our future; we must begin to march and fight for better gun laws,” Jackson said. “Chicago does not manufacture these weapons, we know where they are coming from and yet not a single gun shop has been closed.” Jackson joined Michele DeLashment, whose son, Kermit, became the city’s 500th homicide victim Monday, WBBM reports. “On Monday, someone took my son’s life. I am asking – pleading – for that someone to come forth. Turn yourself in to Rev. Jackson here at Rainbow PUSH or the police,” she said. DeLashment, 21, was the grandson of Mickey Warren, a longtime friend and associate of Rev. Jackson. The young man’s mother is a long time PUSH supporter and choir member. “We have put forth a plan that is absolutely a sure way to stop easy access to guns,” she said.  “We have the power to stop putting dangerous weapons in the hands of dangerous persons, if we create and implement concrete gun laws. Illinois has not tried good gun laws, and the laws currently in place have huge loopholes.”

Rev. Jackson: Help autoworkers. It’s a good idea to bail out automakers, but any good plan must protect the jobs of autoworkers, says the Rev. Jesse Jackson. “The terms of the loan are unfair to UAW [United Auto Workers], said Jackson of the Bush administration’s $17.4 billion loan to car manufacturers – financed with taxpayers’ dollars. Ultimately, said Jackson, who was in Detroit Sunday, the loan could force members of the union, who already made serious sacrifices on their contracts over the past three years, to be squeezed even more. It’s “unconscionable that they must sacrifice once again,” Jackson said, adding that “automakers, suppliers, dealers, bondholders and unions” must work together to save the industry.