Citizen Cartwright

Voting Rights Act provision 'in peril'

So says The New York Times. "At risk," says Bloomberg. "Skepticism" among conservatives, say The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.

If the court overturns the provision, nine states, mainly in the South, would be free to change their voting procedures without getting permission from federal officials first.

The court’s conservatives suggested during oral arguments on Wednesday that the South has outgrown its past and the legal burdens on the nine states no longer are justified.

Crucial swing voter Justice Anthony Kennedy asked whether Alabama now is an “independent sovereign” or whether it must live “under the trusteeship of the United States government.”

Justice Antonin Scalia said the law amounts to a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

That remark generated what the New York Times says was the sharpest exchange of the morning, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor asking a lawyer challenging the law, "with an edge in her voice": “Do you think that racial discrimination in voting has ended, that there is none anywhere?”

The ruling is due by the end of June.

Budget cut effects: Who knows?

Well, it's Sequester Eve.

And despite all the fact sheets the White House has been putting out, nobody really knows how bad things are likely to get when the across-the-board spending cuts take effect Friday, The Washington Post says.

U.S. gas boom 'to grow for decades'

Natural gas production will accelerate over the next three decades — "the strongest evidence yet that the energy boom remaking America will last for a generation," says The Wall Street Journal, citing new research.

London Underground turns 150

As the world's oldest subway celebrates its big birthday, the Los Angeles Times is celebrating the Tube's map as an icon of design.

Britons in 2006 named the Tube map as their second-most-loved national design of the last century, after the now-mothballed supersonic Concorde jet.

The map was designed by electrical draftsman Harry Beck, who came up with it in his spare time in 1931. He was paid 5 guineas — about $600 today.

Also in the news

Kerry set to up U.S. nonlethal aid to Syria rebels

EU officials agree on capping bankers' bonuses

China says U.S. routinely hacks its Defense Ministry websites

China suspected in cyberattack on 23 U.S. natural gas pipelines

Deadly virus emerging from Mideast requires swift sleuthing

Fitch warns that U.S. risks losing AAA debt rating

Is Obama's strategy really about destroying the GOP?

Bob Woodward's 'war' with the White House

Lew is confirmed as treasury secretary on 71-26 vote

200 companies sign brief against Defense of Marriage Act

Report: Incarceration rates for blacks have dropped sharply

Van Cliburn, pianist and 'Cold War musical envoy,' dies at 78

Hagel is confirmed; now his challenge is even harder

The former GOP senator was confirmed Tuesday by the Senate on a 58-41 vote — the smallest margin for a defense secretary since the position was created in 1947, according to Senate records.

The close vote is raising questions about whether Hagel will arrive at the Pentagon as a diminished leader even as it is about to face the biggest hit of any government agency from automatic budget cuts.

Supreme Court throws out surveillance case

The court’s conservatives sided with the Obama administration Tuesday in a 5-4 ruling that journalists, lawyers and human rights groups lacked the standing to challenge a federal law allowing surveillance of some international communications.

Black-white wealth gap linked to real estate

In a Brandeis University study that researchers call the most detailed look ever at the issue, the large and growing gap separating white and black families is said to be the result of barriers that disproportionately consign African Americans to less-valuable real estate and lower-paying jobs.

Helping your child have the 'right' amount of self-esteem

A wave of recent research has pointed to the risks of overpraising your child, reports The Wall Street Journal.

As some of you know, one of my joys is tutoring kids; and I study with a neuropsychologist to get the latest expert guidance.

I personally don't find the WSJ article especially illuminating.

But here's an article on the work of Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck, whose research is praised in my training sessions.

Bottom line: If you praise your child for being smart and they find they can't do something, they'll conclude, "I'm not smart enough." 

But if you praise your child for working hard and they find they're unable to do something, they'll conclude they just need to work harder.

Also in the news

U.S. moving toward direct, nonlethal aid to Syria rebels

World powers, Iran end talks with no sign of breakthrough

How the election win of comedian Grillo is upending Italy

100 of China's scholars, journalists, activists call for political reforms

In emotional farewell, pope says he stepped down for good of the church

Fed chairman defends agency's stimulus in Senate testimony

Federal agencies detail expected impact of the automatic budget cuts

Anti-gun Democrat seen as a shoo-in to replace Jesse Jackson Jr.

College Board to make changes to SAT in the face of ACT competition

Yahoo issues statement on work-at-home ban

Arkansas governor vetoes bill banning most abortions at 20 weeks

Nevada, perhaps to match Texas, considers 85 mph speed limit

Rosa Parks statue to be unveiled Wednesday at U.S. Capitol