Just hours before Arizona’s controversial anti-immigrant law was to go into effect, a federal judge today blocked one of its most contentious provisions—the requirement that police stop and question anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” is undocumented. The law does not define “reasonable suspicion,” a fact that many opponents say is a carte blanche for racial profiling. Earlier this month, the federal government filed suit to bock Arizona from implementing the new law, which has drawn heavy criticism from civil rights organizations, immigrant groups, unions and the religious community. Read More>>

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka laid out a 21st century U.S. economic policy at today’s lunchtime keynote session at Netroots Nation before a diverse crowd of more than 1,000 progressive political activists. Restoring the nation’s middle class in part means returning to a “real economy”—one in which we make things, rather than move around complex financial products, Trumka said. Strengthening U.S. manufacturing must be part of the process to reverse five decades of stagnating wages. Read More>>

President Obama this evening signed the unemployment insurance extension bill. The legislation will get jobless benefits flowing once again to more than 2.5 million long-term jobless workers who were cut off after Republican Senate filibusters derailed the program. Read More>>