The election of President Barack Obama was a huge step forward in America's history regarding race, but long-time civil rights activist Julian Bond believes there is still much more to be done.

 In the 21st Century, says Bond, the concept of civil rights is expanding to include a multitude of other minorities within the larger society, such as gay men and lesbians.

Julian Bond will speak March 20 at Sonoma State University at 7:30pm  in the Person Theater on "The Road to Freedom:  From Alabama to Obama." The event is open to the public.  He's no stranger to college campuses, even today, as a professor at two universities near Washington, D.C. That has given him a clear sense of who today's college generation are, and where their interests and motivations lie.

The chart below offers an illustration of the central role Julian Bond has played in the national conversation about race over the past half century (links shown with dotted lines are no longer current).

Oil companies are consolidating and reaping record profits. And that's not a good thing, for democracy or for planet earth.

Antonia Juhasz' previous book was The Bu$h Agneda:  Invading the World, One Economy at a Time.

It's not the cost of oil at the derrick that has been driving up the price of gasoline at the pump, says researcher, analyst and writer Antonia Juhasz. A far more influential factor is the speculative trading of oil price futures, which happens outside the view or regulatory control of this or any other government.

While most big oil companies have recently begun to portray themselves as newly sensitive to the environment and open to alternative energy, Juhasz isn't buying it.

Two Sonoma State students who were among the thousands present for the inauguration of President Barack Obama share their impressions of the historic event.

A crowd of well over one million people flooded into the Capitol Mall to hear and perhaps see a glimpse of the inauguration. Some 240,000 free tickets to the event were officially distributed beforehand.

You can read the full text of President Obama's inauguration speech here.

The incoming Obama administration gives a Sonoma State sociologist hope that the 1996 federal welfare reform policy will itself get some overdue reforms.

Dr. Shelia Katz studies the ways in which women who are receiving federal assistance can access higher education, and how that affects their lives and incomes thereafter.

Katz is also advocating that provisions for job training be included in any large public works jobs legislation that the new Obama administration promotes.