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July 8, 2014
America's second largest city has seen tremendous change since the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, but the fight for economic equality and racial parity are far from over, local civic and political leaders say.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a longtime activist and Los Angeles resident since the early 1960s, has seen most of that change — both good and bad. Despite the changes, she says, the struggle continues.

June 24, 2014
By LAUREN FRENCH | 6/24/14 12:00 AM EDT

House Democrats will launch a campaign Tuesday to re-authorize the Export-Import Bank even as incoming Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is discounting the measure's chance of success.

Authorization for the bank, which provides federal loans intended to boost U.S. exports, expires at the end of September. But Republicans aren't rushing to re-up the charter, saying the bank is ill equipped to carry out its duties.

June 24, 2014
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed its first congressional hurdle 50 years ago this week

Fifty years ago today, the U.S. Senate adopted the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, gender, religion and national origin.

The 73-27 vote on June 19, 1964, after 83 days of Senate debate, was a watershed moment followed quickly by the act's approval in the House of Representatives and President Lyndon Johnson signing it into law on July 2 of that year.

June 11, 2014

The request for discussion of the bill, introduced by Rep. Maxine Waters last year, is in connection with CFPB research on the effects of medical debt on consumers' credit scores.

Following the May 20, 2014, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report on findings that consumers' credit scores may be overly penalized for medical debt, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), called upon House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), to hold a hearing on the issue and her proposed legislation to address the problem.


June 11, 2014
Inaugurations always take place on chilly mornings, but on Jan. 20, 1993, the nation was warmed by the inspiring and hopeful words of poet, author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou as she read "On the Pulse of Morning," which she'd written for President Bill Clinton.

Angelou, who died Wednesday at age 86, was the first African-American and the first woman inaugural poet. In addition, she was just the second poet to read at a presidential inauguration since Robert Frost did so for President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

May 5, 2014

Thousands of homeowners will get a pleasant surprise in the mail this summer: checks to (wait for it) compensate them for foreclosure problems they never suffered.

EverBank Financial is prepared to write $1,050 checks to 25,389 of its customers, even though no errors were found in reviews of their foreclosure files, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.


May 5, 2014
Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) and a panel of constitutional law experts engaged in spirited debate with students last Thursday during a Loyola Marymount University forum weighing the need for domestic electronic surveillance against citizens' rights to privacy.

The panel, moderated by Waters, represented a diversity of viewpoints on the ethics and effectiveness of National Security Administration spying at home and abroad.

April 30, 2014
Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles), who last year pushed legislation to limit the U.S. National Security Agency's ability to collect electronic data on American citizens, will moderate a public forum about domestic spying tonight on the Loyola Marymount University campus.

Panelists include ACLU legislative counsel Gabe Rottman, John C. Eastman of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and "Dragnet Nation" author Julia Angwin, a ProPublica reporter.

April 30, 2014
A new government report suggests that errors made by banks and their agents during foreclosures might have been significantly higher than was previously believed when regulators halted a national review of the banks' mortgage servicing operations.

When banking regulators decided to end the independent foreclosure review last year, most banks had not completed the examinations of their mortgage modification and foreclosure practices.

April 10, 2014

Are you a high school student with artistic talent?

Rep. Maxine Waters is seeking submissions for the annual Congressional Art Competition. Winners will have their art displayed in the United States Capitol building for one year.

To win the competition in Waters' district, contestants must either live in or go to school in the 43rd Congressional District, which includes Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lomita and the eastern portion of Torrance.