Links to news that matters to you.

1. North Carolina’s senior U.S. Senator, the Republican Jesse Helms has died. Newsday reports on his death.
2. The Nation points out that Helms was a “segregationist, and a nasty one at that.” One terrible story they repeat: “When Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the first African-American woman to sit in the Senate, Helms followed Moseley-Braun into an elevator, announcing: “Watch me make her cry” Then, emphasizing the lines about how “good” things were before the Civil War ended slavery, Helms sang “Dixie.”
3. On the Fourth of July, Obama was in Montana celebrating his daughter’s birthday, according to Reuters.
4. That came after a big speech at Independence, Missouri, in which he addressed what being patriotic means to him. The Financial Times quotes him as saying “he would ‘not stand idly by’ when others questioned his support for the US flag.”
5. The Los Angeles Times discusses the other things Obama has done to deal with allegations about his lack of patriotism, including changing his habits about lapel flag pins.
6. Black America Web rounds up some Black commentators to react to Obama’s speech, and determine whether it reflects mainstream attitudes about patriotism in the African-American community.
7. Dozens of African-American members of Congress and state representatives are having trouble surviving primary challenges because they supported Clinton in her race against Obama, reports the New York Times.
8. Debra Dickerson on Slate announces that she is a racist. Everyone’s racist, she adds, but at least she is honest about it. The point is “[w]e have to learn how to forgive each other, and more importantly ourselves, when we’re stupid.”
9. NPR on Philadelphia, the cradle of independence, and a place where slavery was abolished in 1780 - the first real American melting point.
10. Cullen Jones has set a new American record in the 50m freestyle at Olympic qualifiers. The New York Times says that this is more than an ordinary sporting achievement: “Jones hopes he has put to rest the notion that African-Americans cannot excel at swimming.”