In the News

[MEMPHIS, TN] - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement after learning that his friend and hero Minnie Minoso passed away this morning:

"Ever since an exhibition game in Memphis where he--through a white player because of segregation--gave me a baseball and befriended me when I was only 5, Minnie has been a hero of mine. That initial meeting and the fact that he felt he could not give me, a child on crutches because of Polio, the ball directly and had to hand it to a white player instead made him my hero ."

Close study of major changes in official American policies and attitudes reveals a principle that has been informally given the name of "Nixon-Goes-to-China" — a reference to President Richard Nixon's historic 1971 diplomatic opening to a country that U.S. officialdom had always withheld recognition from.

During Nixon's early prominence, he was a scourge of what he and other Cold Warriors scorned as "Red China," and it was only from that well-established position that he could so dramatically change positions and tilt for a change in policy.

Today’s Big Idea: Gov. Bill Haslam’s Tennessee Promise scholarship program offers two years of free community college or technical school to all of the state’s high school graduates. It was funded by transferring $312 million in reserves from the Tennessee Lottery-funded Hope Scholarship program.

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Gov. Bill Haslam’s Tennessee Promise program so intrigued the White House that President Barack Obama decided to use it as a model for a similar program on a national scale.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) is urging Attorney General Eric Holder to reclassify marijuana as a drug that has medical benefits.

Cohen suggested in a letter to Holder this week that the attorney general move marijuana to a new "schedule" of classification so that it is no longer considered one of the most dangerous drugs with no accepted medical use.

"I urge you to in your remaining time in office to take action, under existing federal law, to reclassify marijuana," Cohen wrote.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen says Shelby County is receiving more than $5.6 million in federal funds to help care for people living with HIV.

Cohen said Wednesday that the funding comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

The program helps local governments provide HIV-related services to more than a half-million people who do not have sufficient health care coverage or financial resources for coping with the disease.

A group of almost two dozen liberal Democrats have signed a letter to the leader of the U.S. House of Representatives asking him to postpone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to a joint meeting of Congress next month.

Netanyahu's speech is controversial because it comes as the Obama administration is negotiating with Iran over that country's nuclear program and just two weeks before Netanyahu faces voters for re-election.

Only one head of government is in the hall of fame of Cheltenham high school, just outside Philadelphia: prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel.

Netanyahu graduated from the school in 1967, when his father was teaching at a nearby Jewish college. But the prize alumnus has angered many members of the large Jewish community in the Philadelphia suburbsby agreeing to speak to Congress next month to condemn Barack Obama’s negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

WASHINGTON -- In a historic step for the rights of dog owners, legislation that would instruct Amtrak to develop a pet-friendly policy is on the verge of passing the House of Representatives.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed by voice vote on Thursday the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act.