In Florida, Students Born To Illegal Immigrants Sue Over Tuition : NPR

In Florida, Students Born To Illegal Immigrants Sue Over Tuition : NPR: A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Miami by Florida residents being charged out-of-state tuition rates to attend state colleges and universities. The students are American citizens — children who were born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants — and they say Florida's regulations violate their constitutional rights.

Wendy Ruiz, a 19-year-old sophomore at Miami Dade College with a 3.7 grade point average, has a plan. She expects to graduate later this year with a two-year associate's degree in Biology.

Ruiz pays three times what most other students pay for tuition at Miami Dade College. When she enrolled last year, she was told that because her parents lack legal immigration papers, she has to pay out-of-state tuition rates — nearly $5,000 per semester.

Higher Education Academics Say Disaggregation Key to Fighting ‘Model Minority’ Myth for Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians

Higher Education Academics Say Disaggregation Key to Fighting ‘Model Minority’ Myth for Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians: For African-Americans in the 20th century, few civil rights challenges took on greater importance than the issue of desegregation.

For Asian-Americans in the 21st century, one of the most important issues in the arena of civil rights is increasingly being summed up in a word that sounds similar and deals with similar things, only in a different way and on an entirely different level.

The word is “disaggregation,” and it is a word that was uttered dozens of times on Friday by a series of speakers — from presidential appointees to professional academics — at a public policy forum titled, “New Research and Policy on Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians: Meeting the Needs of the Fastest Growing Group in America.”

Lecture: Learning, Educational Attainment Rest on Belief in Students

Lecture: Learning, Educational Attainment Rest on Belief in Students: Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings offered polite criticism, weighty research insights, and humor on Thursday at the Eighth Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington.

“I want to argue that education and race – in this case, literacy and race – have been intricately linked for centuries,” said Ladson-Billings, who has co-edited six books, written four books and published numerous educational articles. “Until we begin to unpack those linkages, we will continue to struggle to make sense of how race operates in our research and scholarship.”

English-Learning Students Far Behind Under English-Only Methods

English-Learning Students Far Behind Under English-Only Methods: ...The scene highlights a continuing California debate: More than a decade after voters approved an initiative to limit bilingual education in public schools, the state is using a hodgepodge of programs. Meanwhile, critics contend, young students pay the price.

Educators cannot agree on the best way to teach English to non-native speakers. Success is anecdotal. Studies appear to contradict each other. Meanwhile, the percentage of California English learners who are proficient in fourth-grade English has dropped on a national test.

The dual-language program at Geddes, where children are taught in Spanish 90 percent of the day until third grade, is a relative rarity in California these days. Since 1998, when voters passed Proposition 227, limiting the use of bilingual education, the number of English learners being taught in their primary language has dropped by half.

At the same time, the number of English learners has grown to about 1.5 million – about a quarter of California’s student population. Nearly 85 percent of them are Spanish speakers.

Alabama immigration battle recalls civil rights past - Associated Press - POLITICO.com

Alabama immigration battle recalls civil rights past - Associated Press - POLITICO.com: The epicenter of the fight over the nation’s patchwork of immigration laws is not Arizona, which shares a border with Mexico and became a common site for boycotts. Nor was it any of the four states that were next to pass their own crackdowns.

No, the case that’s likely to be the first sorted out by the U.S. Supreme Court comes from this Deep South state, where the nation’s strictest immigration law has resurrected ugly images from Alabama’s days as the nation’s battleground for civil rights a half-century ago.

And Alabama’s jump to the forefront says as much about the country’s evolving demographics as it does the nation’s collective memory of the state’s sometimes violent path to desegregation.

Wal-Mart sued in Texas for gender discrimination | The Raw Story

Wal-Mart sued in Texas for gender discrimination | The Raw Story: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. discriminated against female employees in Texas stores in pay and promotion decisions, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in Federal Court in Dallas.

The complaint is the second to be filed since a nationwide class action against the company was thrown by the Supreme Court in June. On Thursday, a similar set of claims was filed in federal court in California. In both Texas and California, plaintiffs are seeking class action status for female Wal-Mart workers in that state.

Attorneys for female Wal-Mart employees are now pursuing a state-by-state strategy, said Joseph Sellers, an attorney for Cohen Milstein, at a news briefing on Thursday announcing the California lawsuit. Sellers represented plaintiffs in the nationwide lawsuit.

Asian Americans most bullied in U.S. schools: study | The Raw Story

Asian Americans most bullied in U.S. schools: study | The Raw Story: Asian Americans endure far more bullying at US schools than members of other ethnic groups, with teenagers of the community three times as likely to face taunts on the Internet, new data shows.

Policymakers see a range of reasons for the harassment, including language barriers faced by some Asian American students and a spike in racial abuse following the September 11, 2001 attacks against children perceived as Muslim.

“This data is absolutely unacceptable and it must change. Our children have to be able to go to school free of fear,” US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday during a forum at the Center for American Progress think-tank.

Obama On $1.2 Billion Black Farmers Settlement: 'Brings Us Closer To The Ideals Of Freedom and Equality'

Obama On $1.2 Billion Black Farmers Settlement: 'Brings Us Closer To The Ideals Of Freedom and Equality': President Barack Obama called a judge's approval of a $1.2 billion government settlement with black farmers who for decades had been denied loans and assistance from the Agriculture Department, a step forward in "addressing an unfortunate chapter in USDA's civil rights history."

This is the second round of settlements in a case filed in 1997, which alleged that thousands of black farmers had been discriminated against between 1983 and 1997. This round is directed at farmers who were not awarded payment because of missed filing deadlines. The judge said payments would likely be dispersed in a year or so, after neutral parties reviewed the individual claims.

"This agreement will provide overdue relief and justice to African American farmers, and bring us closer to the ideals of freedom and equality that this country was founded on," Obama said in a statement.

Catholic University's Muslim Students Should Have Own Prayer Rooms Without Crucifix, Complaint States

Catholic University's Muslim Students Should Have Own Prayer Rooms Without Crucifix, Complaint States: A law school professor has filed a complaint with the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights, alleging that Catholic University of America, a private institution, discriminates against Muslim students.

John F. Banzhaf III claims the school "[denies Muslim students] equal access to the benefits CUA provides to other student groups," according to a press release, posted on PRLog.

The professor's allegations stem from the school's failure to give formal recognition to a Muslim Association, although its law school recognizes a Jewish association, according to theThe Tower, Catholic University's school newspaper.

Iranian, Mexican, Thai Women Win Lifetime Achievement Award For Journalism

Iranian, Mexican, Thai Women Win Lifetime Achievement Award For Journalism: A single mother who was harassed and beaten for reporting on the 2009 Iranian uprising, a Mexican journalist whose work means daily defiance of the drug cartels, and a Thai woman facing 20 years in prison for criticizing the monarchy on her website each received a courage award Tuesday from a women's media group.

The International Women's Media Foundation also gave its Lifetime Achievement Award to the BBC's Kate Adie, whose decades on the job have taken her from Afghanistan, to the Tiananmen Square protests to the war in Bosnia. She has slept in graves, been shot in the elbow and still has shrapnel in her foot.

"Reporting is a privilege," Adie said in her acceptance speech. "Tell the world. That's it: the responsibility and the privilege."

Alabama Immigration Law’s Critics Question Target - NYTimes.com

ALABASTER, Ala. — The champions of Alabama’s far-reaching immigration law have said that it is intended to drive illegal immigrants from the state by making every aspect of their life difficult. But they have taken a very different tone when it comes to the part of the law concerning schools.

“No child will be denied an education based on unlawful status,” the state attorney general, Luther Strange, argued in a court filing.

The man who wrote the schools provision says the same thing, that it is not meant as a deterrent — at least not yet. It is, however, a first step in a larger and long-considered strategy to topple a 29-year-old Supreme Court ruling that all children in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, are guaranteed a public education.

Moving Beyond Civil Rights - NYTimes.com

Moving Beyond Civil Rights - NYTimes.com: CIVIL rights have transformed American society, and made it fairer and less divided, by outlawing overt racial discrimination and making bigotry socially unacceptable. That success has inspired a host of social groups to press for new civil rights.

But civil rights have barely made a dent in today’s most severe and persistent social injustices, such as the disproportionate incarceration of African-Americans, the glass ceiling that blocks career advancement for many women and high unemployment among the elderly; in fact, some of these problems have gotten worse despite civil rights laws intended to address them. Today’s most pressing injustices require comprehensive changes in the practices of the police, schools and employers — not simply responses to individual injuries.

Nigerian immigrant wants to give hope to children laboring in hidden jobs - The Washington Post

Nigerian immigrant wants to give hope to children laboring in hidden jobs - The Washington Post: Omolara Aribisala was 12 when her parents sent her from Nigeria to live with relatives in Maryland. An older cousin, with three young children and another on the way, needed help around the house. In exchange, Aribisala would be able to go to school in the United States.

And so the young African girl joined fifth grade at Beacon Heights Elementary School in Prince George’s County and became caregiver for a family of six. The next nine years were an exhausting regimen of cooking and cleaning under the supervision, she said, of a controlling and sometimes-disparaging female relative.

“I wouldn’t say I had a childhood or anything that resembles a childhood,” Aribisala recalled in an interview.

The older cousin declined to discuss Aribisala’s upbringing. “Whatever happens in the family, the family handles it,” the cousin said in an interview.

Aribisala ran away from her family’s Prince George’s home when she was 21. Today she is a 39-year-old single mother of two in Silver Spring. She is a PTA vice president at Brookhaven Elementary School and plays defensive end for the D.C. Divas, a professional women’s tackle football team.

Experts Say Low-Income Students Most Often Miss College Planning Help

Experts Say Low-Income Students Most Often Miss College Planning Help: Students from lower-income families aspire to college as much as their more affluent peers, but high schools and colleges should still provide targeted assistance to such families to ensure that they are better positioned to turn their college dreams into a reality.

That was one of the major recommendations made Thursday during a College Board Advocacy & Policy Center webcast of a panel discussion, titled “Complexity in the College Admission Process: Low-Income Students.”

Although survey data show that lower-income students place a higher value on higher education than their more affluent peers—for instance, 48 versus 36 percent, respectively, agreed that they need a college degree to succeed—one of the biggest areas where low-income families need help is understanding issues of affordability, panelists said.

Women File New Class-Action Bias Case Against Wal-Mart - NYTimes.com

Women File New Class-Action Bias Case Against Wal-Mart - NYTimes.com: After the Supreme Court in June tossed out a massive class-action lawsuit filed by women who claimed they were discriminated against by Wal-Mart Stores, the lawyers for the plaintiffs vowed to pursue the case using new tactics.

On Thursday, the plaintiffs did just that, filing an amended lawsuit that narrows the class from all of the women who work or have worked at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores, estimated at 1.5 million, to those in the retailer’s California regions, estimated to be at least 45,000 current employees and 45,000 former employees.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the lawsuit was the first of many that will be filed against the world’s largest retailer alleging discrimination against women in pay and advancement.

Native Survivors Of Foster Care Return Home : NPR

Native Survivors Of Foster Care Return Home : NPR: ...The Indian Child Welfare Act says that except in the rarest of cases, Native American children who have to be removed from their homes must be placed with relatives, their tribes or other Native Americans. Yet 32 states are failing in some way to abide by the law, according to 2005 government audit.

These children are also more likely to end up in foster care than other races, even in similar circumstances, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association.  The result is generations of children growing up without a connection to their culture, traditions and tribes — as Stenstrom did.

He grew up on the Nebraska plains, on the Winnebago Reservation. He and his brother spent the summers outside on the prairie with their grandfather.

Latino Education Summit Convened, 2011 Obama Scholars Named by Hispanic Scholarship Fund

Latino Education Summit Convened, 2011 Obama Scholars Named by Hispanic Scholarship Fund: Latinos lag in high school graduation and college completion rates, but the numbers are improving and the demographics are changing quickly, according to Frank Alvarez, the president of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

“What we’ve begun to see, because of the slowing down of immigration, is that there are more native births,” said Alvarez. “We have begun to see that students have started to consider themselves differently than they did before. There is a change in the dominance of language—it’s less Spanish for the generation that is coming.”

Alvarez, who was in New York to participate in the HSF’s Alumni Hall of Fame and Education Summit and announce the second cohort of Obama Scholars on Monday and Tuesday, said it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to boost educational attainment among Latinos.

From La Llorona to Chupacabra, Latino Characters Creep into Halloween | Fox News Latino

From La Llorona to Chupacabra, Latino Characters Creep into Halloween | Fox News Latino: When it comes to Halloween decor, most people think skeletons and witches. But this year, you might find yourself face to face with La Llorana and El Chupacabra.

That's because Halloween is slowly taking on a Latino flavor – costume stores are starting to capitalize on the burgeoning Hispanic population by incorporating Latino characters into their retail lineup.

“There seems to be a huge push to appeal to the Latino market,” said Elexia Orlic, owner of the Casa Artelexia store in San Diego, a boutique with a large selection of Dia De Los Muertos gifts and art. “…It’s all an effort to capitalize on a growing opportunity and relate to potential Latino customers.”

Despite a down economy, Americans seem to have a growing fascination with October 31st. According to the National Retail Federation, this year people plan to spend 10 percent more on costumes, decorations and candy than last.

English-Learning Students Far Behind Under English-Only Methods

English-Learning Students Far Behind Under English-Only Methods: More than a decade after voters approved an initiative to limit bilingual education in public schools, the state is using a hodgepodge of programs. Meanwhile, critics contend, young students pay the price.

Educators cannot agree on the best way to teach English to non-native speakers. Success is anecdotal. Studies appear to contradict each other. Meanwhile, the percentage of California English learners who are proficient in fourth-grade English has dropped on a national test.

The dual-language program at Geddes, where children are taught in Spanish 90 percent of the day until third grade, is a relative rarity in California these days. Since 1998, when voters passed Proposition 227, limiting the use of bilingual education, the number of English learners being taught in their primary language has dropped by half.

Hispanic-White Reading Proficiency: California Has One Of Nation's Greatest Gaps

Hispanic-White Reading Proficiency: California Has One Of Nation's Greatest Gaps: ...A decade ago, only 10 percent of Soledad fourth-graders demonstrated proficiency on state reading tests. The vast majority of the students are low-income Hispanics, many of them English-language learners.

By 2010, the percentage had leapt to 43 percent. The district plastered a new slogan on bulletin boards across the district: "We're cooking!"

The improvement is impressive, but a large gap in proficiency still exists between Soledad's fourth-graders and the statewide average. Soledad lags behind the rest of the state by 20 percentage points. At the current rate, it will take Soledad's students at least another decade to catch up.

In many ways, Soledad's struggles mirror those of the state as a whole, which has one of the nation's biggest gaps in reading performance between Hispanics and whites.

Student Campaign Against Racist Halloween Costumes

Student Campaign Against Racist Halloween Costumes: Popular costumes such as a Latino man with a sombrero and a poncho or dressing up as a Japanese geisha will be frowned upon by some this Halloween.

A group of ten students, all members of the Students Teaching Against Racism in Society (STARS) at Ohio University, have launched a campaign protesting what they perceive to be racist Halloween costumes.

Their campaign's slogan: "We're a culture, not a costume." Each campaign poster has the image of a student from an ethnic minority holding a photograph of a costumed person imitating that student's ethnicity, with a clear message: "This is not who I am, and this is not okay."

"We wanted to highlight these offensive costumes because we've all seen them," STARS president Sarah Williams told ABC News. "We just wanted to say, 'Hey, this is not cool. This is offensive and this shouldn't be taken lightly.' It's offending a culture and people should be aware."

The Uncertainty of Keeping the Door Open for Black Head Coaches - NYTimes.com

The Uncertainty of Keeping the Door Open for Black Head Coaches - NYTimes.com: When Al Davis hired Art Shell as the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1989, Clarence Shelmon was a 37-year-old running backs coach at the University of Southern California.

Shell became the first African-American head coach in the modern N.F.L. For Shelmon, now the offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers, Shell’s hiring opened up possibilities he had dreamed of but never seriously imagined while growing up in Bossier City, La., in the 1950s.

For many aspiring African-American coaches, becoming a head coach in the N.F.L. seemed an insurmountable mountain.

Telemundo Seeks Spanglish Speakers, Aiming for New Viewers - NYTimes.com

Telemundo Seeks Spanglish Speakers, Aiming for New Viewers - NYTimes.com: Telemundo has long trailed its rival Univision in their competition for Hispanic television viewers in the United States. But as the number of second- and third-generation Hispanic-Americans skyrockets, the perennial runner-up is embracing a new strategy — English-language subtitles and Spanglish — to attract deep-pocketed viewers and the advertisers who covet them.

The new approach, reflecting the changing dynamics of Hispanics across the country, can be seen in the network debut of the Cuban-born television personality Cristina Saralegui as the host of a Sunday variety show, and in a crop of new telenovelas intended to reflect the sensibilities of acculturated Hispanics.

In each case, the programs will feature a sprinkling of English and be available with English subtitles — something not as readily found on the competing Univision.

Army Names First Black Woman As Two-Star General : NPR

Army Names First Black Woman As Two-Star General : NPR: The Army has appointed its first black female two-star general.

Wisconsin native Marcia Anderson was promoted after a military career that spans more than three decades.

And she says she hopes her achievement inspires young service members to become leaders.

A Historic Promotion
Anderson's civilian job is clerk of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Madison, Wis.

"It's just a beautiful fall morning in Wisconsin, and I walked in the building, and everyone greeted me as though I had just left yesterday," she says on her first day back.

Commentary: Falling Through the Cracks

Commentary: Falling Through the Cracks: The number of African-American male students in community colleges is significantly lower than their female and majority counterparts. In fact, more than a quarter of Black males leave community colleges within their first year. After three years, 55 percent will drop out without attaining a degree. This represents the highest dropout rate among every racial, ethnic and gender sub-group. While Black male retention rates are dismal, dropout rates of more than 45 percent are experienced by White and Hispanic males. These statistics signify a need to implement policies that may curb the loss of African-American males as well as other male students.

Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families : NPR

Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families : NPR: Nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being removed from their homes every year, sometimes in questionable circumstances. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is largely failing to place them according to the law. The vast majority of native kids in foster care in South Dakota are in nonnative homes or group homes, according to an NPR analysis of state records.

Years ago, thousands of Native American children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools, where the motto opf the schools' founder was "Kill the Indian, Save the Man." Children lost touch with their culture, traditions and families. Many suffered horrible abuse, leaving entire generations missing from the one place whose future depended on them — their tribes.

In 1978, Congress tried to put a stop to it. They passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, which says except in the rarest circumstances, Native American children must be placed with their relatives or tribes. It also says states must do everything it can to keep native families together.

But 32 states are failing to abide by the act in one way or another, and, an NPR investigation has found, nowhere is that more apparent than in South Dakota.

St. Cloud, Minnesota, School District Near Somali Student Civil Rights Deal

St. Cloud, Minnesota, School District Near Somali Student Civil Rights Deal: A Minnesota school district must report to the federal government any future allegations of harassment against Somali students as part of a tentative agreement to end a civil rights investigation, the district's superintendent said Monday.

St. Cloud Superintendent Bruce Watkins said all but the final details of the agreement had been reached with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. The deal up for board approval Thursday night requires that the district make its schools more welcoming to Somalis; it finds that the district broke no federal rules in handling previous incidents, Watkins said.

If the deal is approved, it would end an investigation that began more than a year ago. In March 2010, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations requested a federal investigation into alleged harassment of Muslim students at two St. Cloud high schools during the 2009-2010 school year.

A Push To Register New Voters Reaches Behind Bars : NPR

A Push To Register New Voters Reaches Behind Bars : NPR: ...Williams has run a medical clinic in Sumter for 30 years, with her husband, Joe Williams, who is also a physician. The Williamses remember all too well the civil rights battles of the 1960s. They always ask their patients — who are often poor and black — if they're registered to vote.

They believe in treating the whole patient. Brenda Williams says voting increases an individual's feeling of self worth, which is also good for one's physical health.

Among the clinic's workers is 26-year-old Amanda Wolf, who until recently was homeless. She says she's trying to pull her life together. Wolf spent six months in the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center for failure to provide child support. She says one bright spot was when Brenda Williams came to register her to vote.

"It was a privilege you know to be able to have the entire pod clap for you as you go up and get your voter registration card," says Wolf. "A little bit of excitement when you feel like all hope is lost."

New Association Aims to Support Asian-American and Pacific Islander–Serving Schools

New Association Aims to Support Asian-American and Pacific Islander–Serving Schools: Earning a college degree isn’t on the radar for many Asian-American and Pacific Islander families. Instead, youths work, often in the family business, or wind up unemployed. Higher education is seen as unaffordable and applying for financial aid, daunting.

Even in school, AAPI students may have a tough time. Data show this group suffers from high dropout rates in high school and low rates of college enrollment and graduation.

A group called APIACU—the Asian Pacific Islander American Association of Colleges and Universities—was formed recently to advocate for institutions serving this very diverse set of ethnicities. Some methods have been effective in helping AAPIs, and APIACU will, among other things, share useful information among its members, according to Mark Mitsui, chairman of the board of directors.

STEM Education And Jobs: Declining Numbers Of Blacks Seen In Math, Science

STEM Education And Jobs: Declining Numbers Of Blacks Seen In Math, Science: With black unemployment reaching historic levels, banks laying off tens of thousands and law school graduates waiting tables, why aren't more African-Americans looking toward science, technology, engineering and math – the still-hiring careers known as STEM?

The answer turns out to be a complex equation of self-doubt, stereotypes, discouragement and economics – and sometimes just wrong perceptions of what math and science are all about.

The percentage of African-Americans earning STEM degrees has fallen during the last decade. It may seem far-fetched for an undereducated black population to aspire to become chemists or computer scientists, but the door is wide open, colleges say, and the shortfall has created opportunities for those who choose this path.

Moreno, Leguizamo Talk Latin Life In 'Hollywouldn't' : NPR

Moreno, Leguizamo Talk Latin Life In 'Hollywouldn't' : NPR: Rita Moreno — the only Latino performer to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony — is reprising some of her most memorable characters in a solo show at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Up the coast in Los Angeles, John Leguizamo, who co-starred opposite Al Pacino in Carlito's Way and voiced Sid the sloth in the animated Ice Age films, is performing another of his acclaimed solo shows. And while their Hollywood success came 40 years apart, the two say they encountered many of the same hurdles.

In the 1961 movie version of West Side Story, Moreno portrayed feisty Anita, the sister of a gang member — and like Moreno, Puerto Rican.

Emory University African-American Studies Expert Rudolph Byrd Dies

Emory University African-American Studies Expert Rudolph Byrd Dies: Rudolph Byrd was known among academic colleagues as an excellent scholar who believed that the key to change was education.

The Emory University professor and African-American studies expert was a founding co-chair of the Alice Walker Literary Society with Beverly Guy-Sheftall of Spelman College and helped bring the literary archive of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and his personal friend to Emory's library.

Byrd died Friday from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, Emory spokesman Ron Sauder said. Byrd was 58.

Emory Provost Earl Lewis said Byrd recognized the importance of fostering connections between the university and the broader Atlanta community.

Michigan Scholars’ Book Explores Arab-American Life in the Motor City

Michigan Scholars’ Book Explores Arab-American Life in the Motor City: Ten years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Detroit’s large and nationally prominent Arab and Muslim communities have faced heightened prejudice, government surveillance and political scapegoating. But they also have enjoyed unexpected gains in economic, political and cultural influence, according to a new book recently released by Wayne State University Press.

Despite the backlash after the September 11th attacks, the Arab community continues to grow. There are between 200,000 and 220,000 Arab or Muslim Americans living in the Detroit area. According to officials, that group has grown by 25 to 30 percent in the past decade.

Congressman John Conyers Urges Hearings on College Sports

Congressman John Conyers Urges Hearings on College Sports: ...Conyers said in his letter that he was concerned about the impact that conference realignment would have on lower-profile sports teams and smaller and independent universities especially historically Black colleges and universities.

The NCAA did not immediately return e-mail and telephone messages Thursday, but President Mark Emmert recently told The Associated Press he was concerned about the perception that money is driving the decisions, saying, “this is not the NFL, the NBA, it's not a business.” He urged school presidents to consider factors besides revenue when choosing conference affiliation.

Univision Calls Latinos to Action with “Educate Yourself, the Moment Is Now” Campaign

Univision Calls Latinos to Action with “Educate Yourself, the Moment Is Now” Campaign: NBC isn’t the only major network taking stock of the nation’s education woes this year with its “Education Nation” summit, which was broadcast in September. Sunday, Univision Networks kicked off “Educate, Es el Momento” (Educate Yourself, The Moment Is Now), a seven-day multi-platform initiative to promote Hispanic educational attainment.

From workshops in Chicago, L.A., Miami and New York, to special programming, and a town hall meeting in Washington, D.C. with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis today, the weeklong event is meant to draw attention to the issues Hispanic students face in K-12, college readiness, and high school and college completion.

A Diverse New York City? In Some Ways, Anything But - NYTimes.com

A Diverse New York City? In Some Ways, Anything But - NYTimes.com: New Yorkers take an imperious pride in the belief that our city is better than other cities — fairer, obviously, and more embracing than a place like, let’s say, Kansas City. New Yorkers don’t actually need to visit Kansas City to convince themselves of this. These beliefs are self-sustaining, fed by a collective egotism and impervious to contravening realities. In matters of race, our arrogance increasingly seems misplaced.

Among the most recent events that ought to intrude on our self-perception was the arraignment last week of a young police officer, Michael Daragjati, who was accused by federal prosecutors of atrociously biased misconduct. Assigned to the Police Department’s anti-crime unit on Staten Island, Mr. Daragjati stopped a black man for no apparent reason last spring, pushed him, the government says, and then, when the man complained about his treatment, arrested him without cause.

Parents: Hispanic kids being bullied in law's wake - US news - Life - msnbc.com

Parents: Hispanic kids being bullied in law's wake - US news - Life - msnbc.com: ...Spanish-speaking parents say their children are facing more bullying and taunts at school since Alabama's tough crackdown on illegal immigration took effect last month. Many blame the name-calling on fallout from the law, which has been widely covered in the news, discussed in some classrooms and debated around dinner tables.

Justice Department officials are monitoring for bullying incidents linked to the law.

"We're hearing a number of reports about increases in bullying that we're studying," the head of the agency's civil rights division, Thomas Perez, said during a stop in Birmingham.

The Justice Department has established a bilingual telephone hotline and special email account for residents to report any violence or threats based on racial or ethnic background that could be linked to the law. Officials would not provide a breakdown on the types of complaints being received.

Gestational diabetes poses extra risk for black women - latimes.com

Gestational diabetes poses extra risk for black women - latimes.com: Having diabetes during pregnancy raises the odds of having diabetes later in life, studies have repeatedly shown. But new research on ethnic variations finds the connection is especially true for African American women.

A study of more than 77,000 women from researchers at Kaiser Permanente showed that black women -- although they are less likely to develop gestational diabetes than women in other racial and ethnic groups -- have a much higher risk of having the disease later in life if they experienced the condition during pregnancy. Black women with gestational diabetes were 52% more likely to develop diabetes later compared with white women.

Women of all racial groups with the disorder should be followed closely after pregnancy, the lead author of the study, Anny H. Xiang, a senior research scientist at Kaiser's Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena, said in a news release.

Tim Wise: White folks have been ‘occupying’ Manhattan for hundreds of years | The Raw Story

Tim Wise: White folks have been ‘occupying’ Manhattan for hundreds of years | The Raw Story: Indigenous activists have recently expressed concern over “language of occupy.” On Friday night, Melissa Harris-Perry and anti-racist activist and educator Tim Wise took on the topic on The Rachel Maddow Show.

Wise is the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.

During their discussion, Wise said that Occupy Wall Street is taking place on the “site of long-standing racial injustice …and if we’re trying to build a solidarity movement, we have to be clear, we’re trying to decolonize a colonized and occupied place, not just re-occupy it for better purposes.”

Black people blatantly excluded from Alabama juries, lawsuit claims | World news | guardian.co.uk

Black people blatantly excluded from Alabama juries, lawsuit claims | World news | guardian.co.uk: Black people are being systematically and intentionally excluded from jury service in parts of Alabama almost 140 years after the practice was outlawed in the US, a lawsuit lodged with the federal courts alleges.

The class action has been launched on behalf of thousands of black people in Alabama who were allegedly prevented from sitting as jurors in serious criminal cases, many of which carried the death penalty, in a blatant move by prosecutors to achieve all-white or largely white juries. The complaint claims that the practice has been going on for decades.

It relates specifically to the actions of one prosecutor, Douglas Valeska, who is district attorney in the Alabama counties of Houston and Henry. The lawsuit alleges that he, together with his unnamed associate prosecutors, effectively relegated black people in their areas to "second class citizenship".

Poverty rates up in most U.S. states, cities: Census | Reuters

Poverty rates up in most U.S. states, cities: Census | Reuters: The ranks of the poor rose in almost all U.S. states and cities in 2010, despite the end of the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression the year before, U.S. Census data released on Thursday showed.

Mississippi and New Mexico had the highest poverty rates, with more than one out of every five people in each state living in poverty. Mississippi's poverty rate led, at 22.4 percent, followed by New Mexico at 20.4 percent.

New Hampshire had the lowest poverty rate, at 8.3 percent, making it the only state with a poverty rate below 10 percent.

Twelve states had poverty rates above 17 percent, up from five in 2009, while poverty rates in 10 metropolitan areas topped 18 percent, the data showed.

Piri Thomas, Author of ‘Down These Mean Streets,’ Dies - NYTimes.com

Piri Thomas, Author of ‘Down These Mean Streets,’ Dies - NYTimes.com: Piri Thomas, the writer and poet whose 1967 memoir, “Down These Mean Streets,” chronicled his tough childhood in Spanish Harlem and the outlaw years that followed and became a classic portrait of ghetto life, died on Monday at his home in El Cerrito, Calif. He was 83.

The cause was pneumonia, his wife, Suzie Dod Thomas, said.

The memoir, a best seller and eventually a staple on high school and college reading lists, appeared as Americans seemed to be awakening to the rough cultures that poverty and racism were breeding in cities. A new literary genre had cropped up to explore those conditions, in books like “Manchild in the Promised Land,” by Claude Brown, and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.”

“Down These Mean Streets” joined that list. The memoir, Mr. Thomas wrote on his Web site, had “exploded out of my guts in an outpouring of long suppressed hurts and angers that had boiled over into an ice-cold rage.”

ACLU Accuses The FBI Of Racial Profiling

ACLU Accuses The FBI Of Racial Profiling: The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday accused the FBI of targeting racial, ethnic and religious groups for investigation by associating criminal behaviors to specific communities.

Basing its charges on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU said FBI analysts across the country linked criminal behaviors with certain racial and ethnic groups and then used U.S. census data and other demographic information to map where those communities are located in order to launch investigations.

What tea party defeat in Wake County means for schools - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

What tea party defeat in Wake County means for schools - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: School board elections in Wake County (Raleigh) North Carolina delivered an important victory for proponents of integration last week as Democrats swept four of five contested school board seats and led substantially in a fifth race headed for a runoff. Most importantly, board chairman Ron Margiotta, who had led the effort to dismantle a nationally acclaimed socioeconomic school integration plan in North Carolina’s largest school district, was defeated, denying conservatives a majority on the nine-member school board.

The vote has national significance because it demonstrates that if school diversity policies are pursued through choice, rather than compulsion, they can draw strong public support.

Wake County’s widely lauded school integration plan sought to give all students a chance to attend solidly middle-class public schools by limiting the proportion of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch at 40% in any one school.

As Broadway exposure grows for black women writers, ‘Trouble in Mind’ resonates - The Washington Post

As Broadway exposure grows for black women writers, ‘Trouble in Mind’ resonates - The Washington Post: ...The question of how evolved the performing arts are for black women — even in this presumably enlightened era of gender and racial identity — is posed anew by an old play in which Butler is appearing at the moment at Arena Stage. It is a play from the 1950s by another black woman, Alice Childress, who faced her own formidable obstacles in an industry unwilling at the time to yield her total control over her cold-eyed portrait of the subtle forms of racism she observed in the entertainment business.

Childress’s acclaimed “Trouble in Mind” — an exceptional production that runs through Sunday in Arena’s Kreeger Theater — never made it all the way to Broadway; in a foreword to the published version of the 1955 play, the dramatist is quoted as saying that the show’s producers “had me rewrite for two years” but that she declined to provide “the heartwarming little story” they desired. She kept to her vision of the drama, the tale of a first rehearsal of a bad if well-intentioned Southern play, in which the black actors, eager for employment, were forced to play humiliating stereotypes.

Officer Accused of Civil Rights Violation in False Arrest - NYTimes.com

Officer Accused of Civil Rights Violation in False Arrest - NYTimes.com: A New York City police officer was charged on Monday with violating the civil rights of a black man whom he falsely accused of resisting arrest.

The officer, Michael Daragjati, 32, who prosecutors said was recorded using a racial slur to brag about the arrest, was also charged with making a death threat, extortion and fraud in separate episodes.

Officer Daragjati, who is white, was charged in an indictment unsealed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The officer, who wears civilian clothes and drives an unmarked police vehicle, came across the black man on Targee Street in the Stapleton neighborhood of Staten Island on April 15 and decided to stop and frisk him.

Civil Rights and Resisting Arrest - NYTimes.com

Civil Rights and Resisting Arrest - NYTimes.com: The arrest of a New York City police officer, who was accused of violating the civil rights of an African-American man during a stop-and-frisk arrest, provides good reason for Justice Department officials and state lawmakers to investigate whether others on the force are engaging in similar practices.

Federal prosecutors on Monday charged the officer, Michael Daragjati, with violating the man’s constitutional rights by falsely accusing him of resisting arrest. The criminal complaint suggests how easily that charge can be abused. Nearly 6,000 New Yorkers were taken into custody last year with resisting arrest as the most serious charge against them, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services has reported.

Latinos Said to Bear Weight of a Deportation Program - NYTimes.com

Latinos Said to Bear Weight of a Deportation Program - NYTimes.com: A deportation program that is central to the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement strategy has led disproportionately to the removal of Latino immigrants and to arrests by immigration authorities of hundreds of United States citizens, according to a report by two law schools using new, in-depth official data on deportation cases.

The report also found that about a third of around 226,000 immigrants who have been deported under the program, known as Secure Communities, had spouses or children who were United States citizens, suggesting a broad impact from those removals on Americans in Latino communities.

National Science Foundation Reports Low Minority Representation on STEM Faculties

National Science Foundation Reports Low Minority Representation on STEM Faculties: While the number of minority students who have earned doctorates in science, engineering and health has steadily risen over the past two decades, minority doctoral holders are still poorly represented as faculty members within the ranks of American academe.

That’s the key finding of a new brief from the National Science Foundation, or NSF, titled “Academic Institutions of Minority Faculty with Science, Engineering and Health Doctorates.”

“Both minority doctorate numbers and minority faculty numbers remain low, especially in the leading research institutions,” the brief states. “Data on SEH doctorate recipients show that Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives, as a group, earned about 3,300 SEH doctorates from U.S. universities in 2008, 9 percent of all SEH doctorates. Asians earned about 10,900 SEH doctorates in 2008, 31 percent of all SEH doctorates, most of which (81 percent) were earned by temporary visa holders.”

Mentoring Program Serves Young Women in Business

Mentoring Program Serves Young Women in Business: A new program to boost the number of women in corporate boardrooms is tapping 100 executives from top businesses in New York to mentor young women.

The effort to increase the number of high-level female executives was announced Monday at a New York City event hosted by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Executives from IBM, Citigroup, Time-Warner and Macy's will volunteer for the program, which will start next month and will be open to women who are between two and seven years out of college.

Partnership for New York City chief executive officer Kathryn Wylde, who took part in the announcement, said that though there are many women in business, they don't have the same professional networks that help young male executives on the rise.

RX for Success: Xavier Ranks Among the Top Producers of Black Students Accepted by Medical School

RX for Success: Xavier Ranks Among the Top Producers of Black Students Accepted by Medical School: Even on the sixth anniversary of the hurricane that buckled the Crescent City in 2005, left much of Xavier University of New Orleans under water and its faculty and students scattered by the rushing winds, Dr. JW Carmichael didn’t expect to be talking that morning about Katrina. For him it was a horrific storm that nearly drowned a hundred dreams as his students prepared their applications for medical school.



But on Katrina’s anniversary, Carmichael and his team of two pre-med advisors were off and running, readying this year’s 359 new pre-med majors for where they planned to land in the year 2015 — medical school — and inching Xavier’s juniors and seniors closer to taking and acing the penultimate exam of their undergraduate career — the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT.

Groups Mobilize To Stop Cuts for Minority-Serving Schools

Groups Mobilize To Stop Cuts for Minority-Serving Schools: Many of the nation’s leading higher education groups — from community colleges to the National Collegiate Athletic Association — are urging Congress to reject a House of Representatives plan that would cut spending for Black, Hispanic-serving, tribal and other minority-serving colleges by more than 40 percent next year.

A coalition of 37 organizations says the 2012 plan from a House spending panel would make “drastic cuts” that will have “a disastrous effect on minority students’ college participation and completion” at a time when the federal government wants to raise college success rates.

“Cuts of this magnitude would devastate the campuses that receive this funding and the students who depend on it,” the group said in letters to all House and Senate members.

Director: We can change the world – The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs

Director: We can change the world – The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs: A powerful, new documentary film depicting the horrifying and dangerous practices of human trafficking and modern slavery on a global scale airs this weekend on CNN.

Oscar-nominated director Robert Bilheimer says the movie could be key to unlocking public awareness and calls for action.

"People do not recoil from this. They are angered by it and horrified by it. I think it's genuinely possible that we can move the dime on this, that we can put this in the forefront of the public consciousness. That's all you need," he said.

Filmed on five continents over four years, "Not My Life" shows survivors and anti-traffickers with dignity and compassion, and depicts the unspeakable practices of traffickers.

"Not My Life" features inspiring testimony from survivors; depictions of trafficking, exploitation, and slavery in all parts of the world including forced labor in Africa, street begging and garbage picking in India, sexual trafficking in the United States and Southeast Asia, and various forms of child enslavement and abuse in both North and South America.

When Color Is Reflected in a Janitor’s Outfit - Studied - NYTimes.com

When Color Is Reflected in a Janitor’s Outfit - Studied - NYTimes.com: ...According to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Tufts, Stanford and the University of California, Irvine, people judge other people’s race using cues that extend well beyond skin color and facial features. “Looking white” or “looking black” is freighted with cultural perceptions and social prejudice.

The study involved experiments in which participants were asked to determine the race of different faces, which were scaled in 13 skin tones along a spectrum from black to white. In some cases, the person was shown with a business suit on; in others, with a blue-collar janitorial outfit. The question was whether people wearing janitor attire would more likely be viewed as black. The answer: Yes.

Using a mouse-tracking analysis, researchers found that even when users decided a man dressed as a janitor was white, the speed and path in which they moved their mouse to the “white” button was slower and veered closer toward the “black” button than when the same man was dressed in a business suit. The more racially ambiguous the face, the more pronounced the results.

College Diversity Nears Its Last Stand - NYTimes.com

College Diversity Nears Its Last Stand - NYTimes.com: ...Diversity is the last man standing, the sole remaining legal justification for racial preferences in deciding who can study at public universities. Should the Supreme Court disavow it, the student body at the University of Texas and many other public colleges and universities would almost instantly become whiter and more Asian, and less black and Hispanic.

A judicial retreat from diversity would be deeply symbolic, too. The term — a gauzy, unobjectionable way to talk about the combustible topic of race — has had a remarkable run. If the diversity rationale falls apart in university admissions, it could start to test the societal commitment to it in other arenas, notably private hiring and promotion.

Atlanta students' inspirational journey to MLK Jr. monument – USATODAY.com

Atlanta students' inspirational journey to MLK Jr. monument – USATODAY.com: WASHINGTON – The students from the Coretta Scott King Young Women's Leadership Academy in Atlanta live in one of the geographical centers of the civil rights movement. The Rev. Bernice King, daughter of their school's namesake and Martin Luther King Jr., visits so regularly that the girls call her a big sister.

But even with that exposure, the nine middle- and high-school girls arriving in Washington on Friday morning on Amtrak could barely contain their giggles as they began what will be a historic weekend.

Bernice King and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., former Freedom Rider and one of King's disciples, met the girls on the platform at Union Station to help them start a trip that will include Sunday's dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. The star-studded four-hour event will feature President Obama, Aretha Franklin and civil rights leaders.

Grandmaster Maurice Ashley promotes chess for children in D.C. - The Washington Post

Grandmaster Maurice Ashley promotes chess for children in D.C. - The Washington Post: A good chess match can be hard to find for an international grandmaster, so Maurice Ashley has spent most of his career growing his own competition.

Since becoming the first African American to win the elite title in 1999 according to the U.S. Chess Federation, the Jamaican-born New Yorker has traveled the country to promote the game of kings as a game for children.

He came to Washington this week to square off against 30 young chess players simultaneously on 30 chessboards in an exhibition organized by the District-based U.S. Chess Center.

“It’s great to see these kids who think they have a chance,” he said before heading in to face anxious students in school uniforms lined up in front of checkered boards. More and more kids do, he said. “I don’t give them any games, though. They have to beat me.”

Alabama Immigration Law Partially Blocked

Alabama Immigration Law Partially Blocked: Most provisions of a harsh Alabama immigration law were blocked by a federal appeals court on Friday, ending their enforcement until the court can determine whether the law violates the Constitution.

The law, H.B. 56, allows police and some government officials to demand proof of legal status if they have "reasonable suspicion" a person may be in the country illegally. While Alabama police will still be able to detain people they determine are in the country illegally, they will no longer be allowed to stop people they believe to be undocumented immigrants based on "reasonable suspicion."

The decision came after a lawsuit was brought by the Justice Department, contending that the law pre-empted federal immigration law and could lead to racial profiling. The law was upheld by a federal judge in September, allowing it to go into effect.

N.Y. State Presses City on English Language Learners - NYTimes.com

N.Y. State Presses City on English Language Learners - NYTimes.com: New York City schools are broadly failing to meet the needs of many of their thousands of students who are still learning English, and they must improve or they may face sanctions, state education officials announced Wednesday.

“Clearly the services are poor, and the best indication of that are the student outcomes,” John B. King Jr., the state education commissioner, said in a news conference by video link from Albany.

As a measure of the problem, he said, in 2010 only 7 percent of the city’s English language learners were found to have graduated on time and ready for college and careers. In the lower grades, 12 percent were proficient in English and 35 percent in math, well behind city averages.

“These numbers are not acceptable,” Dr. King said. “We can’t leave so many students behind academically without access to college and career opportunities.”

Commentary: We Have a Monument – But What Else?

Commentary: We Have a Monument – But What Else?: At the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial recently, Georgetown Professor Christopher Metzler talked with some fifth- to eighth-grade students.

“Their knowledge of Dr. King was superficial at best,” he told me. “They said he stopped discrimination from happening. That’s the extent of it, and I find that deeply troubling.”

At least, they didn’t confuse Dr. King with being a medical doctor.

As the memorial gets its official unveiling on Sunday, the 30-foot monument seems to dwarf some bitter realities. Many people, including the young, have less of an understanding of what King stood for than we care to admit. Far worse is that, overall, America’s record, in terms of society’s achieving Dr. King’s dream, puts us nowhere near anyone’s notion of a “Promised Land.”

More than 40 years after his death, we still get the dream part. We just haven’t been able to translate it into a full reality.

Stephen Anderson, Ex NYPD Cop: We Planted Evidence, Framed Innocent People To Reach Quotas

Stephen Anderson, Ex NYPD Cop: We Planted Evidence, Framed Innocent People To Reach Quotas: ...Hundreds of hours of tape reveal how bosses threatened street cops if they don’t make enough stop-and-frisk arrests, “but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics,” according to the Voice. “The tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints.” (The popular public radio show, This American Life, did an in-depth feature on the padded stats in the Brooklyn precinct and the organized intimidation of the officer who was trying to blow the whistle.)

According to the DPA, the NYPD has recently come under fire recently for the arrests of more than 50,000 people last year for low-level marijuana offenses – 86% of whom are black and Latino – making marijuana possession the number one offense in the City. The group is also critical of the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk practice.

The marijuana arrests, the group says, are the result of “illegal searches” by the NYPD, as part of stop-and-frisks.

Duke Endowment Awards $35 Million to Johnson C. Smith University

Duke Endowment Awards $35 Million to Johnson C. Smith University: The North Carolina-based Duke Endowment announced Wednesday that it is awarding $35 million to Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). The gift, which is slated to fund a $25 million Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM initiative, is believed to be one of the largest donations awarded to a historically Black college or university, officials say.

In addition, $5.5 million will be used to renovate the university’s Duke residence hall, and $4.5 million will fund student scholarships, the Charlotte Observer reported.

“I know there are the Harvards and the Dukes and the Yales,” JCSU president Ronald Carter told the Charlotte Observer. “But you know what, we have a blue ocean that is waiting for Johnson C. Smith University, and the Duke Endowment has made it possible to sail.”

Commentary: Derrick Bell’s ‘Working Faith’ for Academic Justice

Commentary: Derrick Bell’s ‘Working Faith’ for Academic Justice: When Derrick Bell passed away last week, the academy and the world did not merely lose a prodigious scholar, an exquisite legal mind and a magnetic personality. Injustice, racism, discrimination and sexism in higher education all lost one of its most zealous, longtime enemies. Diversity lost one of its fiercest patrons.

While conservatives and liberals moved American higher education in the post-Civil Rights/Black Power years to a discourse based on assumptions of significant racial progress for all, post-racism, and/or a color blind society, Bell tried to pull us back to the center of truth. When academics echoed the death or failing fitness of racism, Bell showcased its permanence. When intellectuals rejoiced over the moral overtures of White Americans, Bell maintained that they have generally only made overtures for self-interest.

White House Social Outreach to Asians, Pacific Islanders Expanding

White House Social Outreach to Asians, Pacific Islanders Expanding: As it begins its third year, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAPPI) plans to expand its reach into more communities in need of federal programs and protections, officials say.

Those efforts will build upon those by the Initiative in helping to create and implement plans improving AAPI access to educational, health and economic services.

WHIAAPI executive director Kiran Ahuja notes that, when President Barack Obama re-established the Initiative and the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in October 2009, “we didn’t just face a small hill of problems, we faced a massive mountain of challenges. But we’ve clearly started to climb and make real progress for people across the country. We’ve opened doors for hundreds of thousands of people who need programs and services now more than ever.”

African cave yields paint from dawn of humanity - The Washington Post

African cave yields paint from dawn of humanity - The Washington Post: A hundred thousand years ago, not long after Homo sapiens emerged as a species, a craftsman — or woman — sat in a cave overlooking the Indian Ocean, crushed a soft rusty red rock, mixed it inside a shell with charcoal and animal marrow, and dabbed it on something — maybe a face, maybe a wall.

Before the person left, he or she stacked the shell and grindstones in a neat pile, where they lay undisturbed for a hundred millennia.

Unearthed in 2008 and described Friday in the journal Science, these paint “toolkits,” researchers say, push deeper into human history the evidence for artistic impulses and complex, planned behavior. Previously, the oldest evidence of ochre paint was found at another site in South Africa dated to about 60,000 years ago.

NPR Faces More Criticism Over Diversity

NPR Faces More Criticism Over Diversity: A year after NPR's controversial firing of Juan Williams, Joel Dreyfuss, a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, is charging that the network still has a huge "diversity problem."

In an open letter to the network's new CEO, Dreyfuss praised Gary Knell for for his reaction to the political fallout of a tumultuous year, but warned that that NPR's management and staff are still overwhelmingly white.

"Don't mistake the fiery exit of Williams as just a nasty personnel matter gone nuclear," he wrote. "His departure was a sad commentary on the monochromatic vision of many liberal institutions -- a disease that NPR has not escaped."

POEA probes plight of Maryland mentors | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features

POEA probes plight of Maryland mentors | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features: The Philippines' top labor export regulator has launched an investigation against Maryland's Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS) and its Filipino recruiter for allegedly violating the country's recruitment rules that placed about 800 Filipino teachers in jeopardy.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Carlos Cao Jr. said they are suspending the PGCPS and Manila-based Arrowhead Manpower Resources Inc. from recruiting workers from the Philippines pending the investigation.

"We find strong prima facie evidence of violation," he said. "There exists reasonable ground to believe the continued deployment to employer Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland will result to further exploitation of our overseas workers."

The US Labor Department earlier imposed a 2-year ban on PGCPS in hiring foreign teachers.

Graduates of Elite New York City Public Schools Tutor Students Seeking Admission - NYTimes.com

Graduates of Elite New York City Public Schools Tutor Students Seeking Admission - NYTimes.com: ...For more than a decade, the number of black and Hispanic students scoring high enough to be offered a seat at the city’s specialized high schools has been on the decline.

Last February, just 12 black and 13 Hispanic students were admitted to Stuyvesant High School, which had 3,287 students. At Brooklyn Technical High School, which is the largest of the elites and offered seats last school year to more black and Hispanic students than any other specialized high school, the percentages are dropping. During the 2010-11 school year, black students were about 11 percent of the school’s 5,140 students, a drop from 21 percent in 2002.

From Ricky Ricardo To Dora: Latinos On Television : NPR

From Ricky Ricardo To Dora: Latinos On Television : NPR: While Spanish has long had a recurring bit role on English-language television, it has slowly but surely become an integral part of the American soundtrack. Think Desi Arnaz on I Love Lucy, Freddie Prinze on Chico And The Man, Sofia Vergara on Modern Family. As part of our series, Two Languages, Many Voices: Latinos in the U.S., here's a look at a few highlights from the past six decades.

Immigrant Parents Rely On Kids For Help Online : NPR

Immigrant Parents Rely On Kids For Help Online : NPR: ...Of course, it's not unusual for younger generations to help adults with strange and challenging new technology. But when you add in the language barrier, that help becomes a crucial family responsibility. Vikki Katz, a professor at Rutgers University, has studied the way immigrant kids help their parents with technology.

"A lot of the resources immigrant families need the most are online, and sometimes they are only online," Katz says — things like visa forms and school applications and important everyday things, too, like finding a local business.

A Spanish speaker in Los Angeles looking for an orthopedist might go to Google.com and type in "oficina ortopedista Los Angeles." The top result is in Madrid.

"There's no excuse for us not doing a better job with this," says Trystan Upstill, an engineer at Google.

Poor kids still lose race despite better scores - Class Struggle - The Washington Post

Poor kids still lose race despite better scores - Class Struggle - The Washington Post: It has become fashionable for our most selective colleges to worry about becoming as representative of American diversity as suburban country clubs.

College admissions experts conferring at the University of Southern California this year were so alarmed that they suggested our most prestigious campuses add space for another 100 students in each class and fill those slots with low-income kids.

Why are our choosiest colleges so dominated by affluent white or Asian students? The explanations are many: not enough financial aid, inadequate preparation in inner-city high schools, poor students’ discomfort mixing with rich kids.

But a new study by researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona suggests something different. Great high schools and families like those in the Washington area may be at fault, at least in part. In the last 32 years, low-income students have significantly raised the grades and test scores that affect college admissions, but have made little headway because students from affluent families have improved even more.

Ken Salazar urges more Latino-themed national parks, sites - The Washington Post

Ken Salazar urges more Latino-themed national parks, sites - The Washington Post: With the nation’s Latino population booming and now the country’s largest minority group, the Obama administration’s top Hispanic official is concerned that the federal government is not giving enough attention to Hispanic history and culture.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in the past year has pushed the National Park Service to identify more sites or properties related to the histories of women and minorities that could be added to the National Register of Historic Places or be preserved as national parks or historic landmarks.

Report Provides Close Look at Diversity among Asian American, Pacific Islander Students

Report Provides Close Look at Diversity among Asian American, Pacific Islander Students: As immigration and population growth continue to reshape the demographic landscape of the United States, college and university leaders should pay closer attention to the growing number of their Asian-American and Pacific Islander students.

That was the crux of the message delivered Tuesday on Capitol Hill in conjunction with the release of the 2011 report of the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education, or CARE.

Among other things, the report, titled The Relevance of Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders in the College Completion Agenda , provides a more nuanced picture of the enrollment and degree completion rates of Asian-American and Pacific Islander students. Panelists contended that this group of students often gets lumped together as “Asians” and are often regarded as likely to do well in college because of notions of academic giftedness that are wrongly ascribed to all students of Asian descent.

Robert Johnson, First Black American Billionaire, Proposes Plan To Reduce Black Unemployment

Robert Johnson, First Black American Billionaire, Proposes Plan To Reduce Black Unemployment: As Congress moves toward a test vote on the Obama administration's jobs package, RLJ Companies CEO Robert Johnson is pushing a proposal that he says marshals the capacity of the nation's biggest companies to significantly reduce black unemployment.

Johnson has dubbed his idea the "RLJ Rule." It calls on U.S. Fortune 1000 companies to voluntarily consider a more diverse pool of qualified candidates when filling senior level job openings and hiring contractors. Johnson has described it as the business version of the National Football League's Rooney Rule, a 2003 mandate that required teams consider diverse candidate pools when filling senior positions.

A Look At Iowa's First Majority Hispanic Town : NPR

A Look At Iowa's First Majority Hispanic Town : NPR: One place the Hispanic population is growing is in the overwhelmingly white state of Iowa. The latest census figures show the Hispanic population, while only 5 percent of the state, has almost doubled since 2000.

 And one small town — West Liberty — is the first in Iowa to have a majority Hispanic population.

Downtown West Liberty, Iowa, is quintessentially Midwestern American, both quaint and historic, with brick buildings lining brick streets. A typical stroll involves walking past the bank, a renovated theater, a hair salon, restaurants and stores.West Liberty Mayor Chad Thomas says that unlike a lot of other small Midwestern towns that are dying, West Liberty is alive.

"I see a lot of businesses that are open, and not vacant storefronts," Thomas says. "Probably half of the businesses are Hispanic-owned.

Justice Breyer Honors Federal Judge Responsible for Helping Desegregate Virginia Schools

Justice Breyer Honors Federal Judge Responsible for Helping Desegregate Virginia Schools: Unlike politicians, judges cannot let popularity influence their decisions, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Thursday.

“Congress is the expert on popularity,'' Breyer told an invitation-only gathering of lawyers, judges and academics at the University of Richmond School of Law.

Breyer spoke at a ceremony dedicating the law school's moot courtroom in memory of the late U.S. District Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr., whose orders to desegregate Virginia's public schools in the early 1970s were highly unpopular among some Whites. Merhige required 24-hour security for a while. A cottage on his property was burned, and his dog was killed.

Breyer did not specifically mention those incidents in his speech, but he did cite the 1957 Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis as an example of the courts—and, in this case, President Dwight D. Eisenhower—taking a stand that was unpopular among some at the time.