obama, gun control and first Negro ball players in the majors- Newsmax

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3. Gallup: Immigration, Guns Not Major Concerns
Immigration and gun control are two hot topics in Washington these days, but Americans aren’t especially concerned about either issue, a new Gallup poll reveals.
In the survey of more than 1,000 adults, respondents were asked: “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?”
Only 4 percent cited “immigration/illegal aliens,” and 4 percent said “guns/gun control,” down from 6 percent in February.
Healthcare, another hot topic today, was cited by only 6 percent.
The most-cited problem was “economy in general,” chosen by 24 percent, followed by “unemployment/jobs” (18 percent), “dissatisfaction with government” (16 percent), and “federal budget deficit/federal debt” (11 percent).
Legislation on gun control and immigration reform are both stirring debate in Washington, but “few Americans mention guns or immigration as the most important problems facing the nation today, despite the current attention lawmakers in Washington are giving to these issues,” Gallup observed.
“Instead, Americans focus on economic issues and problems with the government as their top concerns.”
Other problems mentioned by poll respondents include “ethical/moral/family decline” (5 percent), “education” (4 percent), “situation with North Korea” (4 percent), “welfare” (2 percent), “taxes” (2 percent), and “poverty/hunger/homelessness” (2 percent).
Gallup concludes: “All in all, to the degree that Americans would want their elected representatives to focus on the problems they perceive to be the most important of the day, they would prioritize the economy and jobs, efforts to fix problems with the way government functions today, and the deficit.”
Editor's Note:

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4. Before Robinson, Bud Fowler Was First Black Baseball Pro
The release of the Jackie Robinson biopic “42” has focused new attention on the man who “broke the color barrier” in Major League baseball.
But in fact, the first African-American known to have played for a white professional baseball team was Bud Fowler, who joined an International Association team way back in 1878.
Fowler played 10 seasons as a pitcher, catcher, and second baseman for integrated teams in the high levels of the minor leagues, and finished second in batting average in the International Association in 1887, the New York Times disclosed.
Last weekend, Fowler was honored in Cooperstown, N.Y., the site of baseball’s Hall of Fame, when a street in the village was named Bud Fowler Way. A biography of Fowler will be published in June.
Robinson wasn’t the first African-American to play baseball for a major league team, either. The first was Moses Fleetwood Walker, who played in 1884 with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association, which was then a major league.
The so-called color barrier wasn’t established until 1887, when team owners agreed to bar blacks from playing on white professional teams. The move followed threats by Fowler’s teammates on the Binghamton Bingos to go on strike if he was allowed to remain on the team.
The barrier fell on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson — number 42 — took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.