In The News

The recent resignation of U.S. Department of Justice Pardon Attorney Deborah Leff, just over a year after she was appointed, is alarming.

President Obama's appointment of Leff was a wise move that underscored his commitment to just and careful consideration of the thousands of petitions for clemency still pending.

Her departure, however, is an ominous sign that the office, with a staff of only 10 attorneys and nearly 10,000 petitions still awaiting review, will need significantly more resources to complete its work.

As anyone who has flown recently can tell you, airplane seats are getting smaller. In some cases, they are getting a lot smaller.

In his 2016 State of the State address, Governor Haslam bragged that “Tennessee is the first state in the nation to offer high school graduates two years of community or technical college free of tuition and fees. And we’re doing that without raising any taxes.” Free community college without increased taxes may sound great but Tennessee Promise is not free. It comes at the expense of students who have achieved academic success to attain the Tennessee HOPE Scholarship.

As the Mississippi waters crest and fall, there are certain images that you can’t forget. The mud-soaked kitchen floors, the submerged cars, neighbors wading or even boating from house to house--these pictures of our communities seem both heartbreakingly extraordinary and sadly familiar.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen insists his call for independent prosecutors to investigate cases of deadly police force should not be construed as a slap at the nation's law enforcement officers.

"This is not anti-police," the Memphis Democrat said. "My God, I started my career as a police legal adviser. I appreciate police and law enforcement and am a big supporter thereof. But this is about people having faith in the justice system."

Bill Johnson isn't convinced.

The video that rocked the world in July 2014 showed a group of New York City police officers piling onto Eric Garner, who had resisted when they tried to arrest him for selling loose cigarettes outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

As co-chair of the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus, I have long been a proponent of greater funding for the National Institutes of Health.

There is no one whose life is not touched by disease, and there is no one who cannot benefit from improved medical research. The NIH is our nation's personal Department of Defense for America's health.

On Nov 2, President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 into law, lifting the draconian budget caps imposed by sequestration. Congress should take this opportunity to give the NIH a much-needed boost in funding.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen believes when the American flag rises over the U.S. Embassy in Cuba today for the first time in half a century, other barriers will start to fall.

The normalizing of relations with Cuba will open up more trade opportunities for U.S. companies, give Americans more opportunities to travel to the Caribbean island nation and maybe even provide an opportunity for democracy to take root there someday, Cohen said.