Just hours after General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally of more than 1,000 people at Michigan’s state Capitol Monday, demanding that the government and industry join forces to save jobs for U.S. auto workers and that laws be enacted to stop the avalanche of home foreclosures. “We demand better,” the civil rights icon said at the gathering. Read more.

A Chicago-based speakers bureau is suing the Rev. Jesse Jackson for $100,000, saying the civil rights leader reneged on a contract to appear at a political rally in the island nation of Trinidad two years ago. Read more.

Muslims are angry over headscarf ruling. Muslim rights activists are outraged at an Atlanta judge who ordered a 40-year-old Muslim woman to serve 10 days in jail for refusing to remove her headscarf before attending a hearing in his courtroom. Although she was released before serving a full day, critics want the Justice Department to look into what sparked the incident in the Atlanta suburb of Douglasville, Ga., a community of about 20,000 people.  We can deal with whether people knew about policies or whether they handled things correctly, but the bottom line is, can a Muslim woman walk into this courtroom wearing religious attire?” said Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim. City court workers will now be required to undergo sensitivity training and post courtroom dress code signs.

N.Y. Pastor celebrates his 106^th birthday. The Rev. Charles Leonard, pastor of Mount Zion Church of Christ, celebrated his 106^th birthday on Christmas Day. He said that his friends, family and God has been the source of his longevity. “My generation coming up, young people, they were brought up in church,” said Leonard, who was born in Philadelphia in 1902. “This is the way it was with me. The secret is God. He keeps me alert. He keeps me active.” Leonard’s grandmother lived to be 108. He was reared in segregated North Carolina and Georgia. In 1933, he moved to New York, where he landed a job as a high-steam engineer for the Washington Heights Laundry Co. Leonard began preaching more than 50 years ago. “He travels by himself, he goes out on his own, he’s totally independent,” said his 48-year-old great-niece, Brenda Greene. “If he doesn’t hear from us, he calls and checks on us. Sometimes he’s more alert than we are.”

Rev. Jackson makes Christmas jail visit. On Christmas Day, the Rev. Jesse Jackson did what he has done for the past two decades – visited inmates in Chicago’s Cook County Jail. During his visit, he described U.S. corrections facilities as “Jail hotels” and said that people must stop thinking of prison as “free meals, medicine, heat and recreational activities.” It’s time to vote and get tested for HIV, he told the 500 inmates who gathered to hear him speak. Jackson, whose Rainbow PUSH Coalition turned 43 on Christmas, urged his audience to “make better choices.”

Rev. Jackson meets Chicago sit-in workers. The Rev. Jesse Jackson is beginning to meet with the hundreds of workers who are staging a sit-in at a Chicago factory that they say gave them no notice or severance before closing, according to The Associated Press. The workers say they won’t leave the Republic Windows and Doors plant until they get some assurance that they’ll receive their severance and vacation pay. Jackson met with the workers Sunday morning, and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition says he’s trying to help get Republic’s creditor, the Bank of America, to reinstate the company’s line of credit so that it can pay the workers and possibly save around 300 jobs. Union organizer Leah Fried says the window manufacturer can’t pay its employees because the Bank of America stopped the money flow. The bank said it isn’t responsible for Republic’s financial obligations to its employees.

Jennifer Hudson kissed the body of her murdered mother goodbye at Chicago funeral services for her mom Darnell Donerson and two other relatives Monday. The Rev. Jesse Jackson addressed the mourning Oscar-winner and others at the program where Hudson’s fellow “American Idol” alumna performed, taking Hudson by the hand to comfort her as she sang. Hudson’s nephew, Julian King, and brother, Jason Hudson, were also memorialized after their shootings last week in an investigation that’s ongoing. No one has been charged in the three murders, but the estranged ex-husband of Hudson’s sister is in custody.