Report: Racial profiling alleged at Boston airport : Stltoday

Report: Racial profiling alleged at Boston airport : Stltoday: A newspaper says Transportation Security Administration officers at Boston's Logan International Airport are alleging that a program intended to help flag possible terrorists based on passengers' mannerisms has led to racial profiling.

The New York Times ( http://nyti.ms/P2enzf) reports that in interviews and internal complaints it has obtained, more than 30 officers involved in the "behavior detection" program at Logan say the operation not only targets Middle Easterners, but also passengers who fit certain profiles _ such as Hispanics traveling to Miami, or blacks wearing baseball caps backward.

The program is intended to allow officers to stop, search and question passengers for behavior considered suspicious.

The TSA tells the newspaper that it's investigating the allegations and says if the claims are true, it will take "immediate and decisive action."

NASA Research Partnership Benefiting HBCU Students

NASA Research Partnership Benefiting HBCU Students: GREENBELT, MD. — When NASA electronics engineer Robyn L. King tells the 10 summer interns he oversees at Goddard Space Flight Center that “the sky’s the limit,” it’s not just an empty idiom. Through a three-year collaborative research project that for the first time involves the space flight center and two HBCUs, orbit is a real-life potential destination for the microelectronics designs that the interns work on here each day. When prospective employers see the students’ NASA experience listed on their resumes, King predicts the employers will conclude the students gained meaningful research experience.

“They weren’t at a ‘busy work’ summer program that had a lot of fluff in it,” King says employers will deduce. “It was at least substantive.”

Nation's Largest Gathering of African American Museums in Baltimore :: August 22-25 (BMORENEWS.com : News, video and live rad...

Nation's Largest Gathering of African American Museums in Baltimore :: August 22-25 (BMORENEWS.com : News, video and live rad...: As home to some of the most historic, innovative and contemporary museums of African American history and culture in the nation, it is only fitting that Baltimore is the selected location for the 2012 Association of African American Museums (AAAM) Conference that will take place August 22-25 at Baltimore's Tremont Plaza Hotel. The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture is the host institution for this year's conference, which is the premier gathering of African American museums across the country.



"With over 300 black museums nationwide, AAAM seeks to strengthen and advocate for the interests of institutions and individuals committed to the preservation of African and African American derived cultures. The goal of this year's conference is to broaden the scope of development and networking with a full slate of activities from workshops, concurrent sessions, presentations, tours, vendors, and exhibitors," says AAAM national president Samuel W. Black, of Pittsburgh.

CA Hospital Overcrowding Disproportionately Affects Minority Patients, Study Says

CA Hospital Overcrowding Disproportionately Affects Minority Patients, Study Says: California hospital overcrowding disproportionately affects minority patients, according to a study published today.

The study by UC San Francisco, Stanford University and UCLA researchers measured hospital overcrowding in 202 California facilities by analyzing ambulance diversion rates, or how often ambulances are turned away from an emergency department. They found that hospitals that serve large minority populations were more likely to divert ambulances to other hospitals.

These findings “are a matter of concern given that ambulance diversion has been associated with poorer health outcomes,” the study said.

Ambulance diversion is sometimes used when an emergency room has become so crowded that it is deemed dangerous to admit additional patients, and the study authors used the practice as an indicator of overcrowding.

Settlement reached in Texas shakedown lawsuit

Settlement reached in Texas shakedown lawsuit: A small East Texas town and the county where it's situated will implement procedures aimed at stopping racial profiling to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses former officials of shaking down innocent motorists for cash, according to documents filed in federal court late Friday.

Tenaha and Shelby County have agreed to an "impartial policing policy" that will better document and monitor traffic stops to settle the suit, which brought national attention to the town of 1,160 near the Louisiana border when it was filed four years ago.

The suit accuses former District Attorney Lynda Kaye Russell and four other ex-law enforcement officials of forcing motorists, most of them black, to forfeit their cash or face criminal charges.

The filings Friday show that the defendants, including the city and the county as well as the named individuals, also have agreed to pay the plaintiffs' legal fees of $520,000. The 2011 ruling by U.S. District Judge T. John Ward granting class certification limited the case to injunctive and declaratory relief.

The plaintiffs' attorneys said they were pleased by the far-reaching nature of the proposed settlement.

Chavis Carter's Mysterious Death Shakes Up Bible-Belt City Of Jonesboro

Chavis Carter's Mysterious Death Shakes Up Bible-Belt City Of Jonesboro: Before the death of Chavis Carter, shot while handcuffed in the back of a police car, life in Jonesboro was more like a bustling Mayberry than the stuff of "Unsolved Mysteries."

“It’s a nice place to live until something like this happens,” longtime resident J.W. Mason told The Huffington Post.

Jonesboro, Ark., sits not far from the Tennessee border, about two and half hours from Little Rock, in dry Craighead County, where bars or liquor stores still are illegal. It’s a college town, home to Arkansas State University, and draws students and employees from across the state to the still-burgeoning industrial city of about 67,000. Many are working class, employed at one of the local factories like Nestle, Frito-Lay or Riceland Foods.

And like many other Bible-Belt communities, the hub of its social scene revolves around Sunday morning worship services and midweek bible study. Black churches serve as the bedrock of the black community and it’s hard to find a black leader in town who doesn’t also serve as a minister.

Roy Bryce-Laporte, Who Led Black Studies Program at Yale, Dies at 78 - NYTimes.com

Roy Bryce-Laporte, Who Led Black Studies Program at Yale, Dies at 78 - NYTimes.com: Roy S. Bryce-Laporte, a sociologist who led one of the nation’s first African-American studies departments, at Yale University, and did research that advanced understanding of blacks who came to the United States voluntarily rather than as slaves, died on July 31 in Sykesville, Md. He was 78.

His brother, Herrington J. Bryce, said that the cause was undetermined, but that he had had a series of small strokes.

Professor Bryce-Laporte was named director of Yale’s new department of African-American studies in 1969, when colleges and universities were recruiting black students and searching for ways to include their culture, history and other concerns in the curriculum.

Students participated in the selection of Professor Bryce-Laporte. One of them, Donald H. Ogilvie, praised him as “not all academician and not all activist,” adding that Professor Bryce-Laporte was “still angry.”

Census May Change Race Options - The Daily Beast

Census May Change Race Options - The Daily Beast: The United States Census Bureau is seeking to redefine the way it classifies races in its surveys. After a 2010 survey found that many people filling out the census forms felt limited or offended by their options, the Bureau has decided to address concerns about the current method of counting demographics. Proposed changes include plans to end use of the term “Negro,” new ways to identify Middle Easterners, and options for Hispanics to identify as a distinct category regardless of race. But changes won’t come without controversy. Some groups worry that their race or ethnicity will get a lower count if more options are available, since census data is used to determine more than $400 billion in federal aid and is also used to draw political districts.

New fossil skull from Africa reveals tangled roots at base of the human family tree - The Washington Post

New fossil skull from Africa reveals tangled roots at base of the human family tree - The Washington Post: A 2 million-year-old flat-faced skull pulled from the sandstones of East Africa has shored up claims that at least three species of early humans once coexisted in an “evolutionary experiment” that saw an explosive increase in brain size paired with radically different faces, teeth and jaws.

While the new partial skull and two newly found jawbones look radically different from modern humans, they match an enigmatic, nearly complete skull found 40 years ago that paleoanthropologists have long struggled to fit into the human family tree.

MANDELA: An Audio History | The Stories

MANDELA: An Audio History | The Stories: Mandela: An Audio History is a 5-part radio series documenting the struggle against apartheid through rare sound recordings, the voice of Nelson Mandela himself, as well as those who fought with him, and against him.

Hosted by Desmond Tutu with and introduction from Nelson Mandela. Available on iTunes

Mandela: An Audio History has been heard around the world on NPR, BBC, CBC, SABC, and is winner of the duPont-Columbia Award, considered the Pulitzer Prize of broadcasting.

Some Filipino Vets Still Awaiting Recognition | PBS NewsHour

Some Filipino Vets Still Awaiting Recognition | PBS NewsHour: World War II ended almost 70 years ago but some Filipino veterans are still waiting for recognition of their services.

"We are just asking for fair treatment," Celestino Almeda said.

Almeda is one of approximately 4,000 applicants for compensation who were not granted veteran status and are contesting that decision.

The path for recognition began years ago for Almeda, who fought for nearly six years to become a naturalized citizen via his veteran status. Almeda celebrated his 95th birthday this past June.

"Guess where I celebrated my birthday?" Almeda asked, chuckling. Along with other guests, Almeda attended a reception hosted by Secretary Hillary Clinton in honor of Filipino President Aquino. "I was one of the invited guests," Almeda said.

Female College Referee to be First Woman to Officiate NFL Game

Female College Referee to be First Woman to Officiate NFL Game: Shannon Eastin will become the first female to officiate an NFL game when she works as a line judge for the Green Bay at San Diego preseason match Thursday night.

The regular NFL officials have been locked out by the league.

Eastin is a college referee who has worked in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (FCS division). She is one of the replacement officials hired by the NFL and has 16 years of experience.

A resident of Tempe, Ariz., Eastin also has won six national judo championships. She was the youngest judo athlete ever to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, doing so when she was 11.

The officiating team for the Hall of Fame game Sunday night included officials who have worked college games and some professional games, such as in the Arena Football League.

Survey Reveals Depth of Religious, Political Diversity among Millennials

Survey Reveals Depth of Religious, Political Diversity among Millennials: When researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University set out earlier this year to sketch a portrait of college-age millennials, they expected to find a lot of diversity.

What they didn’t anticipate, says Daniel Cox, director of research and co-founder of the institute, was so much division.

“One of the things that we were most startled by was the significant division that we found, particularly on issues of race and religion,” Cox said regarding one of the institute’s latest reports, titled “A Generation in Transition: Religion, Values, and Politics among College-Age Millennials: Findings from the 2012 Millennial Values Survey.”

Affirmative Action Argument by University of Texas Draws Praise, Invites Criticism

Affirmative Action Argument by University of Texas Draws Praise, Invites Criticism: In the latest brief filed in the affirmative action case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, the University of Texas at Austin defends diversity but denies that race is being used in any way that puts a person from a particular race at a disadvantage.

“Diversity improves academic outcomes and better prepares students to become the next generation of leaders in an increasingly diverse society,” the brief says in one passage. “Consistent with the holistic and modest way in which race is considered, it is impossible to tell whether an applicant’s race was a tipping factor for any given admit,” it says in another.

Proponents of affirmative action say the brief makes a strong case for not overturning the 2003 case that allows race-conscious affirmative action, but one observer is skeptical as to how persuasive the university’s arguments will be in convincing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the one justice whose opinion will likely determine the outcome of the case.

Networks Struggle to Appeal to Hispanics Without Using Stereotypes - NYTimes.com

Networks Struggle to Appeal to Hispanics Without Using Stereotypes - NYTimes.com: ...The numbers encapsulate the problem facing English-language television executives and advertisers: they desperately want to appeal to the more than 50 million Latinos in the United States (about three-quarters speak Spanish), especially those who are young, bilingual and bicultural, but those viewers seem to want very little to do with American English-language television.

They do, however, continue to watch Spanish-language networks in huge numbers. In May, on the final night of the most recent season of “Modern Family,” far more Hispanic viewers were watching the top Spanish language show that week, the telenovela “La Que No Podia Amar,” on Univision, which attracted 5.2 million viewers.

“We’re part of the fastest-growing demographic in the country,” said Randy Falco, the president and chief of Univision. The company recently entered into a partnership with ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, to create a 24-hour news channel to serve Hispanic viewers.

Timothy Olmsted, St. Paul Teacher Accused Of Discriminating Against Black Students, Sees Case Move To Federal Court

Timothy Olmsted, St. Paul Teacher Accused Of Discriminating Against Black Students, Sees Case Move To Federal Court: Heights Community School parents have filed a lawsuit that is now moving to federal courts against the St. Paul Public School District in Minnesota, amid an investigation into allegations that teacher Timothy Olmsted discriminated against black students.

Olmsted resigned after the district placed him on paid leave in the spring after parents complained that he called black students "fat, black and stupid" and told them, "you will never amount to anything" and "you only have one parent," WCCO reported.

The teacher also allegedly forced black students to sit in the back of the classroom, or sit with their desks facing the wall.

African-Americans less likely to have strong arthritis drugs - chicagotribune.com

African-Americans less likely to have strong arthritis drugs - chicagotribune.com: Black people with rheumatoid arthritis are less likely than whites to be on powerful drugs that ward off further joint damage and disability, according to a new study from California.

Even when they took into account the severity of patients' arthritis, researchers found blacks with the condition were half as likely to be on so-called biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), compared to the less-potent standard drugs.

"Biologics in (rheumatoid arthritis) are generally very potent and effective treatments to prevent disease progression but are quite expensive," Aniket Kawatkar, from Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Pasadena, told Reuters Health in an email.

Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Hits Philadelphia Blacks, Latinos Harder

Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Hits Philadelphia Blacks, Latinos Harder: A Pennsylvania law that would turn away voters who don't have a valid photo ID would disproportionately suppress voting in Philadelphia's minority neighborhoods, according to a new study.

The study compared lists of people in the state's ID database with its voter rolls. Officials found that a staggering 1.3 million of Pennsylvania's 8.2 million voters -- more than 1 in 7 -- didn't appear to have valid state IDs. In Philadelphia alone, the figure was 362,000 voters, or about 1 in 3.

Those numbers almost certainly exaggerate the sheer size of the problem; the Philadelphia Inquirer, for instance, raised serious doubts about the state's methodology after finding false hits for people with any form of punctuation in their names. But even if the scale of the numbers is off, their distribution shows troubling variances among the city's ethnically and racially distinct neighborhoods.

Racism in the Military: Wisconsin Shooter Wade Page Damages Army Reputation | TIME Ideas | TIME.com

Racism in the Military: Wisconsin Shooter Wade Page Damages Army Reputation | TIME Ideas | TIME.com: In the wake of a tragic shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, my heart is particularly torn. As a Hindu, I share a bond with the Sikh faith rooted in Dharma; more tangibly, their immigrant community in American suburbia closely resembled my own childhood. I can visualize the temple coming under siege, and parents and children alike — not unlike my own uncles and aunties — permanently scarred for life in their worship.

Yet at the same time, I’m a veteran, just like Wade Page. In most news articles, Page’s military service is somewhat tangential to his biography, mainly because he served so long ago, from 1992–98. He never had to see combat, and his record was tainted with alcohol abuse and AWOL status. It’s easy to marginalize him as just an anomaly of the Armed Forces. But to those who continue to read headlines about the lack of cultural civility in our combat arms — whether stories on “Kill Teams” in Afghanistan, the Haditha shootings or Abu Graib in Iraq, or even the suicide of an Asian service member after being racially targeted in his own unit — the 98% of Americans who have no relation to the military service start to see this as common place about the way our service members regard diversity.

On Upper East Side, Racial Disparity Remains - NYTimes.com

On Upper East Side, Racial Disparity Remains - NYTimes.com: It has been more than 35 years since the television family the Jeffersons moved on up to the East Side. The main character, George Jefferson — played by Sherman Hemsley, who died last month — was a successful black businessman, and he became a significant cultural touchstone. But he apparently didn’t start a trend.

The proportion of non-Hispanic black residents on the Upper East Side has remained exceedingly low for decades, rising from 2.1 percent of the area’s population in 1990 to just 2.7 percent about 20 years later, according to an analysis of census data by Susan Weber-Stoger of the Queens College department of sociology, which defined the Upper East Side as the area between Fifth Avenue and the East River, from 59th to 96th Streets.

The proportion of white residents, meanwhile, has also held fairly stable, dipping to 81 percent from 88.6 percent.

“I wish there was a little more diversity,” Mr. Walker said.

At the End of Life, Talk Helps Bridge a Racial Divide - NYTimes.com

At the End of Life, Talk Helps Bridge a Racial Divide - NYTimes.com: ...The patient — someone’s spouse, parent, child — is dying. As a palliative care specialist, I am to explain this with clarity and empathy and elicit an informed decision about what to do next.

This encounter has come after days, weeks or even months of terrible emotional and physical anguish, avalanches of bewildering, conflicting information and opinion, hopes raised and lost, and long vigils in the family waiting area. Now, it is the opinion of the I.C.U. staff that survival is no longer an option, and I share this opinion.

Living or dying is not at issue. The question this family confronts is how the patient will die: a little sooner, with adequate morphine, surrounded by loved ones in the hospice unit, or a little later, in a never dark or quiet patch of the I.C.U., ribs broken by failed, if well-intentioned, CPR.

Add to this the following: The patient and family are black. And while race should not be relevant at this moment, research tells us otherwise.

Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion from School — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion from School — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA: The Civil Rights Project (CRP) is proud to publish this important report by Daniel Losen and Jon Gillespie. It is the first national study by our Center for Civil Rights Remedies, which is headed by Dan Losen. Since its founding 16 years ago, CRP’s central focus has been on racial and ethnic inequalities in educational opportunities, and on policies that could remedy the resulting inequalities in school outcomes. We have published studies and books on segregation in schools, inequality in choice programs, issues of equity in testing, discrimination in special education placement, the dropout crisis, and the school-to-prison pipeline, as well as many studies on college access. Losen has done pioneering work on issues of unequal treatment within schools, including the widely cited book, Racial Inequity in Special Education (Losen & Orfield, 2002), and on dropouts.

Millions of Children Find the Schoolhouse Door Locked — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

Millions of Children Find the Schoolhouse Door Locked — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA: Today, the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles issued “Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion From School,” a nationwide report based on an analysis of Federal government suspension-related data from the 2009-10 school year for grades K-12. This first-ever breakdown of nearly 7,000 districts found that 17% of African American students nationwide received an out-of-school suspension compared to about 5% of White students. The comparable rate for Latinos was 7%. The data analyzed covered about 85% of the nation’s public school students. The suspension rates were equally striking for students with disabilities and revealed that an estimated 13% of all students with disabilities were suspended nationally, approximately twice the rate of their non-disabled peers.

Report: Disabled, Minority Students Bear Brunt Of Disciplinary Policies : The Two-Way : NPR

Report: Disabled, Minority Students Bear Brunt Of Disciplinary Policies : The Two-Way : NPR: An analysis of 85 percent of school districts in the country finds that minority and disabled students have felt the brunt of disciplinary action.

NPR's Claudio Sanchez filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Researchers with the civil rights project at University of California, Los Angeles examined disciplinary policies in 7,000 districts and found that from 2009-2010, one in six black students was suspended at least once. Compared to 1 in 25 white students. The reasons? Foul language, disruptive behavior, fighting and tardiness.

"The most alarming figure, according to the report, was that in 400 districts, one in four children with disabilities was suspended at least once, often for reasons related to their disability. The report singles out 200 school districts for particularly harsh disciplinary policies that disproportionately punishes black, latino and disabled kids."

Sikhs say attacks on community are ‘collateral damage’ of 9/11 | The Raw Story

Sikhs say attacks on community are ‘collateral damage’ of 9/11 | The Raw Story: Harjit Jeji Shergill would not go so far as to say there was an inevitability to the murder of six Sikh worshipers at his local temple, but after years of people venomously calling him “Bin Laden” he feared it might come to this somewhere in America.

As Oak Creek’s Sikh community grapples with Sunday’s tragedy it is buffeted by shock and mourning for some its best-known figures. There is also appreciation for the police officers who stopped the gunman – including one who took several bullets – and almost certainly saved other lives.

But underpinning everything is a pouring forth of frustration, just short of anger, at what Sikhs in Oak Creek and other parts of the US say is the frequent assumption that because of their turbans and beards they are Muslims – with all the weight that carries since 9/11.

Teen Claims She Was Handcuffed By Aggressive Cops For Using Student MetroCard: Gothamist

Teen Claims She Was Handcuffed By Aggressive Cops For Using Student MetroCard: Gothamist: A 15-year-old Harlem student claims she was roughed up, handcuffed, and detained by aggressive cops who mistakenly thought she was too old to be using a student MetroCard. “They called me liar,” Alexis Sumpter told the News of the July 26 incident. “Then they grabbed me by my arms and flung me up the stairs. I kept saying, 'I’m only 15—why are you guys doing this?' They said they didn’t owe me an explanation.”


Sumpter, who attends Harlem Village Academies, was on her way to her first day at a marketing internship on Canal Street when two plainclothes cops spotted her using her student MetroCard at the 125th Street Station. “They didn’t approach me in a calm manner and they were very rude the whole time,” she said. “They were talking to me like they were trying to show they were superior to me.” The DOE confirmed the card is valid until Aug. 17.

The cops demanded to know how old she was, but didn't believe her when she said she was 15—she told them she didn't have ID because she had recently been mugged for her iPhone and wallet. She says a third cop joined them, and pressed her face to a wall while the other two cuffed her. Cops called her father, who vouched that she was 15; still not believing her, they called her mother, who rushed over with her daughter's birth certificate. Alexis was held in custody for 90 minutes altogether, and wasn't arrested or given a summons; but she did go to the hospital because the handcuffs caused swelling on her wrists.

Pharmacy College Targets Minority High School Students in Summer Programs

Pharmacy College Targets Minority High School Students in Summer Programs: The St. Louis College of Pharmacy ran two programs this summer geared toward minority high school students interested in pursuing a career in health care.

Jonathan Anderson, a participant in the Walgreens/St. Louis College of Pharmacy Career Explorers Program, said, “It was a great program. It was a life changing program for me.” Anderson is now a Walgreens pharmacist and a graduate of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

Anderson added, “I was thinking about doing medicine, but I really wouldn't have known anything about pharmacy or what a pharmacist did without the program.”

The Career Explorers Program is a collaboration between the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and Walgreens Pharmacy. Although geared toward minority students, the 20-day program accepts 25 rising juniors and seniors of all races and ethnicities.

Gunman in Wisconsin was deeply involved in white-supremacist music scene - The Washington Post

Gunman in Wisconsin was deeply involved in white-supremacist music scene - The Washington Post: OAK CREEK, Wis. — The gunman who killed worshipers at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Sunday had become deeply embedded in the white-supremacist music scene and was well known to anti-hate watchdog groups, one of which said it had been tracking the 40-year-old for more than a decade.

In 2000, Wade Michael Page, an Army veteran, sold everything he owned aside from his motorcycle and journeyed from Colorado, eventually settling in rural North Carolina. He joined prominent “white power” rock bands. And over time, he became frustrated with what he viewed as “people’s apathetic ways” and the lack of “strict discipline in our sick society,” according to an interview he conducted with his record label.

Winchester, Connecticut, 'Systematically' Discriminated Against Minorities: Lawsuit

Winchester, Connecticut, 'Systematically' Discriminated Against Minorities: Lawsuit: A Connecticut town has been accused of working to keep predominately white neighborhoods just that way.

The Housing Authority of Winchester, Connecticut, "systematically and unlawfully" discriminated against minorities in its administration of a federal housing subsidy program, according to a new lawsuit. By giving housing vouchers to mostly white people, the town was "ensuring that overwhelmingly-White communities remain overwhelmingly-White," the lawsuit says (h/t Courthouse News).

The Winchester Housing Authority requires applicants to its Section 8 housing choice voucher program to live in one of 17 Connecticut towns in order to be eligible to receive the vouchers, according to the lawsuit. This residency requirement discriminates against African-Americans and Hispanics because all those towns are more than 91 percent white, the lawsuit says. Winchester itself is 94.5 percent white, and roughly zero percent of Winchester households are African-American, according to the lawsuit.

Authorities search for motive in Sikh killings – USATODAY.com

Authorities search for motive in Sikh killings – USATODAY.com: OAK CREEK, Wis. -- Authorities were trying to determine a motive Monday for a bloody attack on a Sikh Temple outside Milwaukee while Sikhs across the U.S. struggled with new worries about their safety.

On Monday an official identified the shooter as Wade Michael Page, 40, an ex-Army soldier who was reduced in rank before his discharge. The FBI was leading the investigation into the shootings Sunday in Oak Creek, Wis., that left seven people dead, including the gunman, and three wounded.

The official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information yet about the suspect, said that Page entered the Army in 1992 and was discharged in 1998. He said the man was reduced in rank from sergeant to specialist, but he gave no reason.

Activist Attorney Calls for ‘Militant’ Action Against Injustices in Public Education

Activist Attorney Calls for ‘Militant’ Action Against Injustices in Public Education: Washington – Young students are best suited to wage the battle for public education—and against the expansion of charter schools—and large-scale integration of the nation’s public schools should be a paramount goal in the fight.

Those were the major arguments advanced over the weekend by Shanta Driver, an activist attorney who played a pivotal role in the 2003 Supreme Court case that upheld race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions.

“We’ve found that everywhere that we’ve organized as a national organization that the group of people that are most prepared to fight for public education, for advancing desegregation in public education and against charter schools are students themselves,” said Driver, national chair and spokesperson for the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights & Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, more commonly known as BAMN.

Chavela Vargas Dead At Age 93, Famed Mexican Singer Challenged Catholic And Chauvinist Preconceptions

Chavela Vargas Dead At Age 93, Famed Mexican Singer Challenged Catholic And Chauvinist Preconceptions: Chavela Vargas, who defied gender stereotypes to become one of the most legendary singers in Mexico, died Sunday at age 93.

Her friend and biographer Maria Cortina said Vargas died at a hospital in the city of Cuernavaca, where she had been admitted for heart and respiratory problems.

Vargas rose to fame flouting the Roman Catholic country's preconceptions of what it meant to be a female singer: singing lusty "ranchera" songs while wearing men's clothes, carrying a pistol, drinking heavily and smoking cigars.

Though she refused to change the pronouns in love songs about women as some audiences expected, many of her versions of passionate Mexican folk songs are considered definitive.

South Africa marks 50 years since Mandela’s arrest | The Raw Story

South Africa marks 50 years since Mandela’s arrest | The Raw Story: South Africa will unveil its latest monument to Nelson Mandela on Saturday, a new statue along a rural highway to mark the spot where he was arrested 50 years ago for his struggle against white rule.

Mandela, now 94, was arrested as a young liberation fighter on August 5, 1962, near the town of Howick, just months after he founded the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC).

He had recently returned from a trip across Africa drumming up support for the new Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), or “Spear of the Nation”.

A modest monument at the site of his arrest was put up in 1996, but it will now be eclipsed by the monumental sculpture made up of 50 steel rods of between five and 10 metres high symbolizing the prison.

When viewed from the right angle, a portrait Mandela steers into focus.

A makeshift exhibition — modelled from the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg — opened at the site last year, pending the construction of a proper museum.

Mentally Retarded and on Death Row - NYTimes.com

Mentally Retarded and on Death Row - NYTimes.com: Marvin Wilson, with an I.Q. of 61, is scheduled to be put to death in Texas on Tuesday. His execution would directly contradict the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia that “the mentally retarded should be categorically excluded from execution” because of “their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment and control of their impulses.” The court should accept Mr. Wilson’s case for review and end Texas’s illegal defiance of its explicit holding that the death penalty for the mentally retarded is unconstitutional.

The court found a national consensus against executing the retarded. But it said states must apply professional standards in identifying people with retardation because “not all people who claim to be mentally retarded will be so impaired as to fall within the range of mentally retarded offenders about whom there is a national consensus.” 

Schools Producing Latino STEM Graduates Highlighted in Report

Schools Producing Latino STEM Graduates Highlighted in Report: Institutions that produce the most Latino graduates in the STEM fields were singled out for recognition Thursday in a report hailed as a guide for other colleges and universities that are looking to achieve similar results.

“The message here is we need to use this report as evidence to drive our practices,” said Laird Kramer, founding director of the STEM Transformation Institute at Florida International University.

Kramer was referring to “Finding Your Workforce: The Top 25 Institutions Graduating Latinos in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by Academic Level – 2009-10.”

The report was produced by Excelencia in Education, a D.C.-based policy and analysis organization that focuses on issues of Hispanic success in higher education.

19th Century Life: Handwritten Letters Detail Lives Of Freed And Enslaved African Americans (PHOTOS)

19th Century Life: Handwritten Letters Detail Lives Of Freed And Enslaved African Americans (PHOTOS): Life for an African-American southerner was a mixed bag of "troubles" and personal success circa 1841, experiences revealed in a series of 27 handwritten letters that have been recently acquired by the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS).

"What makes these letters so interesting is that they give us a glimpse into the personal and social lives of African Americans before the Civil War," Jennifer Duplaga, Manuscripts Curator at the Kentucky Historical Society, told The Huffington Post.

The letters, written mostly by a woman named Isabel/Isabella Watson between 1841 and 1883, originate in Mississippi City, Miss. and include news of people's health and illnesses, activities, church and religion, the enslaved status of people in the Hopkinsville, Ky., community, births and deaths, and the sale of individuals.

"The bulk of these letters were written before 1859," Duplaga said. "The post Civil War letters, which begin in 1873, appear to have been written by a different generation."

More Americans Live in Economically Segregated Neighborhoods Than 30 Years Ago | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 1, 2012 | PBS

More Americans Live in Economically Segregated Neighborhoods Than 30 Years Ago | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 1, 2012 | PBS: Now to our second economic story, a new report showing how cities have become increasingly segregated not by race, but by income.

The Pew Research Center found that the percentage of higher-income households living in wealthier neighborhoods doubled in the last three decades from 9 to 18 percent. That's in 27 of the 30 largest metropolitan areas. At the same time, a greater percentage of lower-income Americans live in poorer neighborhoods. Census data show that number jumped from 23 percent to 28 percent.

Paul Taylor is the executive vice president of the center and a co-author of the report.

Gabby Douglas takes gold in women's all-around – USATODAY.com

Gabby Douglas takes gold in women's all-around – USATODAY.com: LONDON – U.S. gymnast Gabby Douglas made history Thursday, winning the most coveted color of all, Olympic gold. Douglas, 16, became the first African-American to win the women's all-around title.

Douglas led from start to finish with 62.232 points, topping Russia's Victoria Komova who had 61.973. . Russia's Aliya Mustafina took the bronze. American Aly Raisman finished fourth after a tie-break ruling. She and Mustafina finished with 59.566 but the Russian won the bronze because the tie-breaker combines their top three scores of the day. Her 16.1 on the unevens to Raisman's 14.333 made the the difference.

In her final event, the floor, Douglas began her routine to cheers of "Go Gabby!" As her techno music played, she had the crowd dancing as she turned North Greenwich Arena into Club Gabby. Cheers filled the place as she finished, her smile spread even wider as she fell into a bear hug from her coach, Liang Chow.

STEAM Ahead: Merging Arts and Science Education | PBS NewsHour

STEAM Ahead: Merging Arts and Science Education | PBS NewsHour: During tough economic times, arts and music programs are often some of the first programs cut in schools. But at Wolf Trap's Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts , investing in arts education has been a priority for the past 31 years.

A study by the National Endowment for the Arts shows that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds who actively participated in the arts tended to score better in science and writing, and were more likely to aspire to college.

The study used survey data gathered over 20 years that followed socially and economically disadvantaged students, from kindergarten into their early twenties.

Anaheim mayor meets with Latino community amid calls for city reforms | The Raw Story

Anaheim mayor meets with Latino community amid calls for city reforms | The Raw Story: The mayor of Anaheim, the city in southern California where public anger over a spate of police shootings has sparked protests among the Latino community, has visited the site of the latest fatality in a show of solidarity with residents.

Tom Tait and city councilwoman Lorri Galloway heard concerns from residents on Tuesday night at the scene of the fatal shooting of Manuel Diaz, 25, who was shot two weeks ago during a police chase.

The major did not comment afterwards but Galloway told reporters they had a “broken community” and hoped the healing could begin. Tait also acknowledged the lack of representation of Latinos within the city leadership and said it was time for a change in the way officials are elected.

Math and science fields battle persistent gender gap – USATODAY.com

Math and science fields battle persistent gender gap – USATODAY.com: ...That's encouraging news for people who are concerned about a persistent gender gap in college degrees in science, technology, engineering and math —STEM, for short. The notion that it might have to do with aptitude has long been dismissed. Yet research shows that girls who enjoy — and excel at — math and science in high school are less likely than boys to pursue a college major in those fields.

And even if they start college majoring in a STEM field, women are more likely than men to change majors, federal data show. Women make up 24% of STEM jobs, which offers some of the most lucrative careers, a Commerce Department report says. More than half have degrees in the physical and life sciences.

The Obama administration has stressed the importance of plugging that leaky pipeline, arguing that expertise in science, technology, engineering and math is crucial to nation's global competitiveness.

Arkansas police claim man shot himself in head despite handcuffs | The Raw Story

Arkansas police claim man shot himself in head despite handcuffs | The Raw Story: A Mississippi mother is accusing police in Jonesboro, Arkansas of killing her son after he was found shot in the head with his hands cuffed behind his back in a squad car.

A police report obtained by KAIT indicated that 21-year-old Chavis Chacobie Carter had been a passenger in a pickup truck when Officer Ron Marsh found “some marijuana” and plastic baggies in his possession. Marsh also determined that Carter had been wanted on a warrant after he missed a court date for drug charges in DeSoto County, Mississippi.

Marsh then had Carter “exit the patrol unit, placed him into handcuffs, searched him a second time then placed him into the back seat of the patrol unit.”

Pew study: Affluent and poor Americans are increasingly likely to cluster in their own neighborhoods - The Washington Post

Pew study: Affluent and poor Americans are increasingly likely to cluster in their own neighborhoods - The Washington Post: Rising income inequality has led to an increasing number of Americans clustering in neighborhoods in which most residents are like them, either similarly affluent or similarly low-income, according to a new study detailing the rising isolation of the richest and the poorest.

A report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center said the percentage of upper-income households situated in affluent neighborhoods doubled between 1980 and 2010, rising to 18 percent. In the same time frame, the share of lower-income households located in mostly poorer neighborhoods rose from 18 percent to 23 percent. Neighborhoods that are predominantly middle class or home to a wider mix of income levels shrank.

Interracial New Jersey couple sues councilman for harassment | The Raw Story

Interracial New Jersey couple sues councilman for harassment | The Raw Story: A New Jersey couple is suing a local city council member and their home borough for allegedly harassing them since moving into their neighborhood eight years ago, The Cherry Hill Courier Post reports.

The suit, filed in federal court, accuses Lindenwold Councilman Joseph Strippoli, has been discriminating against the couple because they are interracial; Strippoli reportedly Deborah Patterson, who is white, “why she had to go and marry someone like her husband.” Patterson’s husband, Alfred, is black.

Strippoli, a former mayor of Lindenwold, also allegedly used his clout as a council member to send police to the Pattersons’ home 32 times for issues ranging from noise complaints to what the suit claims is selective enforcement of housing code violations, like having a basketball hoop on their curb.

Chris Birk: Are Conventional Mortgages Drying Up in Minority Communities?

Chris Birk: Are Conventional Mortgages Drying Up in Minority Communities?: Is mortgage redlining still plaguing communities of color?

A new report from seven housing and policy agencies suggests evidence of a two-tiered mortgage market in which borrowers and communities of color are increasingly cut off from prime conventional financing.

Origination data from seven cities in 2010 show that borrowers in diverse communities receive government-backed loans (FHA and VA) significantly more often than borrowers in predominantly white communities. Researchers analyzed Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data and compared lending statistics based on race, ethnicity and neighborhood composition.

Cities included in the study were Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York City and Rochester, N.Y. The data were part of the sixth edition of the "Paying More for the American Dream" series produced by seven community housing agencies and advocacy groups spread across the country.

Amanda Fernandez: Latinos Answering the Call for Social Justice Through Teach for America

Amanda Fernandez: Latinos Answering the Call for Social Justice Through Teach for America: This coming school year a record 5,800 new Teach For America teachers will enter the nation's highest-need schools, including 550 who identify as Latino. This marks the largest incoming Latino corps in Teach For America's 23-year history. With these incoming teachers, 10,000 first- and second-year Teach For America corps members will collectively reach more than 750,000 students -- 40 percent of whom are Latino -- across 46 regions in 36 states and the District of Columbia. This puts Teach For America among the largest single providers of Latino public school teachers in the country. Who are these Latinos and why did they decide to join this effort?

While the misconception that Teach For America teachers are all people of privilege continues to persist, there is an aspect of truth in that our teachers, including our Latino teachers, have enjoyed the privilege of access to a college degree and many have had the benefit of someone in their life supporting them to persist in their educational pursuits.

NAACP Mississippi Leaders Ask If Hit-And-Run Of Johnny Lee Butts Was Racially Motivated?

NAACP Mississippi Leaders Ask If Hit-And-Run Of Johnny Lee Butts Was Racially Motivated?: The Mississippi NAACP on Tuesday called on state and federal authorities to investigate whether the hit-and-run killing of a black man was racially motivated.

A white 17-year-old male has been charged with murder in the July 22 death of Johnny Lee Butts, authorities said. The 61-year-old was struck by a vehicle and killed while he was taking an early-morning walk on a rural road near his home in north Mississippi's Panola County.

District Attorney John Champion told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the case is being presented to a grand jury Wednesday in one of Panola County's two judicial districts. He said his office is investigating whether there was a racial motivation in the incident that left Butts dead at the scene.

Rayville Elementary, Failing Louisiana School, Will Not Transfer White Students Out Because Of 1960s Court Ruling (LETTER)

Rayville Elementary, Failing Louisiana School, Will Not Transfer White Students Out Because Of 1960s Court Ruling (LETTER): Rayville Elementary School in Louisiana received a failing grade this year, based on the state's School Performance Scores. Under the state's Public School Choice policy, eligible students in schools flagged as failing and in need of certain levels of improvement can transfer to an "academically acceptable school."

But an interesting and controversial issue has arisen that may actually challenge equal opportunity intended by the law. In a letter to parents dated July 25, Rayville Elementary school officials inform families of the school's "F" grade and list two other institutions -- with letter grades C- and B -- that the parents can choose to transfer their children to. But there's a disclaimer:

Julian Castro to be first Latino keynote speaker at Democratic National Convention

Julian Castro to be first Latino keynote speaker at Democratic National Convention: San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will be the first Latino to give a keynote speech at a Democratic National Convention. Castro will speak at the opening night of the 2012 convention on Tuesday, September 4th, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Castro, who is 37, is the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city. Castro and his twin brother Joaquin were raised by a single mother, Rosie Castro, a longtime community activist. Julian Castro has been active in the Obama campaign, and was named national co-chairman for the re-election campaign a few months ago.

More Latinos are becoming foster parents or adopting, but need is still great

More Latinos are becoming foster parents or adopting, but need is still great: A college lecture inspired Ray and Connie Gallego to consider what most Latinos still haven’t completely opened up to: adoption.

“My wife and I were working diligently into our successful careers and decided to start a family. We continued trying for years and weren’t successful,” recalls Ray. “I told myself that I needed to act now and start researching adoption agencies.” The desire to raise a child outweighed all the odds against them. After one year into the adoption process, the Gallegos finally brought home their first child, Cristina. The Gallegos described it as “love at first sight.” A couple of years later, the family adopted a sibling pair, Ruby and Anthony.

The system is already short of foster parents. The amount of Latino foster parents is even smaller. There’s a crucial need and hope to raise awareness about the situation.

But like the Gallegos, more Latinos are gradually coming forward to adopt and foster children, as they get increasingly informed of the process and feel welcomed by agencies whose mission is to meet this need. The U.S. Children’s Bureau Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) reports that the percent of public agency adoptions by parents of Hispanic ethnicity has increased every year between 2002 and 2010 to 15.5%.

Community rallies in support of black couple blocked by church - U.S. News

Community rallies in support of black couple blocked by church - U.S. News: Hundreds of people turned out in Crystal Springs, Miss., to support an African-American couple who says a predominantly white Baptist church where they planned to wed turned them away because of race.

The city of Crystal Springs organized the rally to send a message of unity, NBC affiliate WLBT of Jackson, Miss., reported. People held hands in prayer while First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs pastor Rev. Stan Weatherford and New Zion United Methodist Church pastor Rev. Fitzgerald Lovett embraced.

"I pray that God will take a very difficult situation and that he will turn it into good and that we will move beyond tolerating each other," Weatherford told WLBT.
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Charles and Te'Andrea Wilson told WLBT last week they got the news from Weatherford the day before their long-planned nuptials.

Report: Oakland police had ‘racist’ photos of mayor and federal judge | The Raw Story

Report: Oakland police had ‘racist’ photos of mayor and federal judge | The Raw Story: A new report by a federal monitor says Oakland police had pictures altered “in a manner … found to be racist” of two officials, including the judge who placed the department under supervision.

According to The Oakland Tribune, the report by the department’s federally ordered monitor, Robert Warshaw, said the drawings, compounded by the department’s treatment of Occupy Oakland protesters last year, raise serious questions about how seriously it is taking the opportunity to clean up its act.

Warshaw’s report does not name the officials whose faces were defamed, but The Tribune is reporting that they are Oakland mayor Jean Quan, who is Asian-American and U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson, an African-American. In January, Henderson ordered police chief Howard Jordan to “consult” with Warshaw on policy and tactics changes, among other areas, saying the department was “woefully behind its peers around the state and the nation.”

Echoes of Faith: Church Roots Run Deep Among HBCUs

Echoes of Faith: Church Roots Run Deep Among HBCUs: In the years after the Civil War, there were millions of newly-freed Black children and adults who emerged from slavery worn but eager and determined to get something they never had—a chance to learn how to read the Bible, write their names and words on a page, and be educated. Even before the Civil War, some Blacks in the North were pressing their way forward into church-basement-turned schools and rough-hewn wood frame rooms established just for them mostly by benevolent White Christians.

In 1837, the largess of a Quaker philanthropist established Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, which began as the African Institute, a school for Black children. But years later, religious leaders, local churches, missionaries, and denominations were descending across the South in the 19th century, believing that it was worth it to spend their time and money and do the right thing when they decided to establish seminaries, classrooms, colleges, and even medical schools for Blacks.

Disney’s ‘Doc McStuffins’ Adds Animated Racial Diversity - NYTimes.com

Disney’s ‘Doc McStuffins’ Adds Animated Racial Diversity - NYTimes.com: For decades many African-Americans have voiced conflicted feelings about Disney, to put it mildly.

Many fault this entertainment colossus for being slow to introduce a black princess as a peer to Cinderella and Snow White. (There is one now: Tiana, from “The Princess and the Frog.”) The racial stereotyping in early animated movies like “Dumbo” lives on through DVD rereleases. African-Americans can also bring up “Song of the South,” a 1946 film that Disney has labored to keep hidden because of its idyllic depiction of slavery. 

Disney has worked overtime in recent years to leave that past behind, and a surprising groundswell of support from black viewers for a new TV cartoon called “Doc McStuffins” is the latest indication that its efforts may be paying off. 

Aimed at preschoolers, “Doc McStuffins” centers on its title character, a 6-year-old African-American girl. Her mother is a doctor (Dad stays home and tends the garden), and the girl emulates her by opening a clinic for dolls and stuffed animals. “I haven’t lost a toy yet,” she says sweetly to a sick dinosaur in one episode.

Girls' Math Skills May Fall Short Of Boys' Because Of Male Impulsiveness

Girls' Math Skills May Fall Short Of Boys' Because Of Male Impulsiveness: From an early age, boys tend to take a more impulsive approach to math problems in the classroom, which might help them get ahead of girls in the long-run, suggests the latest study to touch on the gender gap in math.

The research claims girls may tend to favor a slow and accurate approach — often computing an answer by counting — while boys may take a faster, but more error-prone tack, calling out an answer from memory. The difference in strategies seems to benefit girls early in elementary school but swings in favor of boys by middle school.

"In our study, we found that boys were more likely to call out answers than girls, even though they were less accurate early in school," Drew Bailey, who led the study, said in a statement. "Over time, though, this practice at remembering answers may have allowed boys to surpass girls in accuracy."

Is a charter school chain called Rocketship ready to soar across America? - The Washington Post

Is a charter school chain called Rocketship ready to soar across America? - The Washington Post: In SAN JOSE, Calif. — Inside a prefabricated beige building hard by the freight tracks, John Danner thinks he has solved one of the nation’s most vexing problems.

This is Rocketship Discovery Prep, one of five charter elementary schools founded by Danner that are bridging the achievement gap — the staggering difference in academic performance between poor and privileged children.

The gap — which has persisted for decades despite heavy investments of time, energy and money — can cement the path a young life takes. Poor children are likely to enter school already behind, never catch up and then drop out, joining an underclass that threatens the country’s economic future.

Policymakers, foundations and business leaders are ravenous for schools that can educate all children, regardless of income. And they don’t want just a handful of successes. They want a big idea, on a grand scale.

White Baptist church in Mississippi bans black wedding | The Raw Story

White Baptist church in Mississippi bans black wedding | The Raw Story: A black couple in Crystal Springs, Mississippi says that a predominantly white Baptist church refused to let them get married because of their race.

Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson told WLBT that the day before they were to be married, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs informed them the ceremony would have to be moved due to the reaction of some white church members — even though the couple had attended the church regularly.

“The church congregation had decided no black could be married at that church, and that if [the pastor] went on to marry her, then they would vote him out the church,” Charles Wilson explained.

Blacks Continue To Lose Ground as Talk of Turning the AIDS Tide Wages

Blacks Continue To Lose Ground as Talk of Turning the AIDS Tide Wages: At a time when the promising practices and the potential of new drugs to arrest the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. are greater than at any other time in the past three decades, recent data released at the International AIDS Conference, July 22-27, show that the most vulnerable people at the epicenter of the disease—African-Americans, especially gay men—are steadily losing ground and their lives in the war against AIDS.

The AIDS crisis among Black men who have sex with men, or MSM, is far from over and not even close to being under control, according to a new report released this week by the Los Angeles-based think tank The Black AIDS Institute. Black MSM account for 1 in 500 Americans, but represent nearly 1 in 4 new HIV infections, according to the report “Back of the Line: The State of AIDS Among Black Gay Men in America.”

“Black men who have sex with men are engulfed in a raging generalized epidemic,” said Phil Wilson, president of the Institute and an openly gay Black man who has been living with HIV for 32 years. In fact, the report found that the odds of a Black man who has sex with men becoming infected increase from a 1-in-4 chance of infection at 25 years old to a 59.3 percent chance by the time he reaches 400 years old.

Head Start Fears Impact of Automatic Federal Budget Cut - NYTimes.com

Head Start Fears Impact of Automatic Federal Budget Cut - NYTimes.com: Tens of thousands of young children from low-income families could be dropped from Head Start programs if Congress cannot find a way to prevent automatic cuts to the federal budget in 2013.

Supporters of Head Start fear the cuts would put more children at a disadvantage even before they reach kindergarten. Critics, including Congressional Republicans who tried to slash the Head Start budget in 2011, say the cuts would help rein in an overpriced program whose benefits have not been proven.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that the automatic cuts would slice $590 million from federal spending on Head Start, which will be more than $7.9 billion in 2012. The National Education Association said the cuts would eliminate 80,000 of the 962,000 slots for children and more than 30,000 jobs of teachers, aides and administrators in the program. It began in 1965 to provide summer school for children about to start kindergarten and later expanded to include year-round preschool classes.

Neanderthal-type species once roamed Africa, DNA shows - The Washington Post

Neanderthal-type species once roamed Africa, DNA shows - The Washington Post: The human family tree just got another — mysterious — branch, an African “sister species” to the heavy-browed Neanderthals that once roamed Europe.

While no fossilized bones have been found from these enigmatic people, they did leave a calling card in present-day Africans: snippets of foreign DNA.

There’s only one way that genetic material could have made it into modern human populations.

“Geneticists like euphemisms, but we’re talking about sex,” said Joshua Akey of the University of Washington in Seattle, whose lab identified the mystery DNA in three groups of modern Africans.

These genetic leftovers do not resemble DNA from any modern-day humans. The foreign DNA also does not resemble Neanderthal DNA, which shows up in the DNA of some modern-day Europeans, Akey said. That means the newly identified DNA came from an unknown group.

“We’re calling this a Neanderthal sibling species in Africa,” Akey said.

African-American Education Office: Obama Announces White House Initiative On Educational Excellence

African-American Education Office: Obama Announces White House Initiative On Educational Excellence: President Barack Obama is creating a new office to bolster education of African-American students.

The White House says the office will coordinate the work of communities and federal agencies to ensure that African-American youngsters are better prepared for high school, college and career.

Obama is announcing his election-year initiative Wednesday night in a speech to the civil rights group the National Urban League as he seeks to rally black voters. Aides say his executive order, to be signed Thursday, will set a goal of producing "a more effective continuum" of programs for African-American students.

The president announced his election-year initiative, the first-ever White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, in remarks to the civil rights group National Urban League Convention Wednesday as he sought to rally black voters.

Alabama State Professor, Civil Rights Pioneer Dies at 96

Alabama State Professor, Civil Rights Pioneer Dies at 96: MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Thelma McWilliams Glass, a longtime professor and civil rights pioneer who helped launch the Montgomery Bus Boycott, has died. She was 96.

A statement from Alabama State University, where Glass was a professor of geography, said Glass died Wednesday.

"The ASU family lost one of its crown jewels today," said President William H. Harris. "Mrs. Glass was the consummate educator, whose life was a shining example of service, courage and commitment. She will be truly missed."

Glass was one of a group of women who helped launch the bus boycott in Montgomery and bring an end to segregation of public transportation in the South. She also was secretary of the Women's Political Council, a group that spread the word through the Black community in Montgomery about the boycott.

Commentary: Making Progress amid Growing Enrollment Disparities at Selective Colleges

Commentary: Making Progress amid Growing Enrollment Disparities at Selective Colleges: The percentage of Black students doubled during the Black Campus Movement to diversify higher education in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since 1976, the Black enrollment has more than doubled once again, from 943,000 to 2,269,000 in 2008. The Black share of the overall enrollment in American higher education increased from about 5 percent in 1965 to 10 percent in 1976 to 14 percent in 2008.

Without question, more Black and Latino students are in college in 2012 than 40 years ago. In terms of the total pie, non-Whites have a larger piece than ever before. They are walking into historically White colleges and universities (HWCUs) in unprecedented numbers.

This is progress.

Commemorating the Frank Hale Legacy

Commemorating the Frank Hale Legacy: When Ohio State University named its standout Black cultural center after the civil rights activist, professor and vice provost who championed such a place, it was commemorating what Dr. Frank W. Hale Jr. stood for. He promoted academic rigor, those who knew him say. He was a lover of art and oratory. He spotlighted the hallmark differences among people, but also their common humanity. He believed every person specialized in something and that such specialties should never be ignored.

A Call to Focus on Finding Jobs for Those with Disabilities | PBS NewsHour

A Call to Focus on Finding Jobs for Those with Disabilities | PBS NewsHour: As the United States prepares to observe the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act Thursday, it's tempting to say, "hold the celebration." That's because for those with disabilities, the employment picture has, sadly, not improved since the ADA was signed into law 22 years ago.

In fact, during the recent recession, it deteriorated five times as badly as did employment for the rest of American workers. While the non-disability workforce shrank by about 2 percent, for people with disabilities, the number working fell by over 10 percent. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the picture has remained grim as the economy has begun its recovery: While 3 million new jobs were added to the able-bodied work force, workers with disabilities have seen their ranks shrink further.

The chief voice spreading the word about this depressing situation is Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions committee, and a long-time passionate advocate for those with disabilities.

'Kids Count' Report: Child Poverty On The Rise

'Kids Count' Report: Child Poverty On The Rise: The "Kids Count" report, one of the most widely cited surveys of how children are faring in the United States, hasn't offered much good news in recent years, and this year's edition, released on Wednesday, offered few surprises.

Drawing mostly on U.S. Census data, the report noted that the percentage of children living in poverty increased by nearly a third between 2000 and 2010, and that it rose 16 percent between 2005 and 2010. The rate of children whose parents lack secure employment rose by 22 percent in the period roughly coinciding with the first two years of the global recession, beginning in 2008, the report said.

The annual report is published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one of the largest private charitable organizations in the U.S. devoted to improving the lives of children.

Athlete booted from Games for tweet – USATODAY.com

Athlete booted from Games for tweet – USATODAY.com: LONDON – The Twitter Olympics has begun, and Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristo is the first casualty.

Papachristo has been expelled from the London Games by Greece for her Twitter comments on African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party.

Papachristou was to compete in her first Games. The 23-year-old is from Athens.

The IOC has strict guidelines on what athletes can say in social media. This is the first case of an athlete being expelled from an Olympics for social media use.

The Tweet that got Papachristou in trouble was posted July 22: "So many Africans in Greece at least West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food"

Fifty-four people marked it as a "favorite" on Twitter.

She apologized on Twitter and Facebook, saying that her comment was a joke. "I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.

24 arrested at police protests in Anaheim, Calif. – USATODAY.com

24 arrested at police protests in Anaheim, Calif. – USATODAY.com: ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – Police in Anaheim, Calif., have restored order after violent protests over weekend police shootings caused injuries and two dozen arrests.

...Family members of a man who died in a weekend police shooting have poured their anger into a civil rights lawsuit against this Southern California city, as public outrage spilled onto the streets.

Manuel Diaz's family filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Anaheim and its police department, claiming that he was shot and killed Saturday while running away, lawyer James Rumm said. The family, which is seeking $50 million in damages, planned to speak about the case on Wednesday.

.... As California's Hispanic population has grown, so has the Anaheim's, hitting nearly 53 percent in 2010, census figures show.

Residents' concerns about the use of police force in the city aren't new. Last month, Anaheim decided to look into hiring an independent investigator to review police shootings amid protests by relatives of those killed in officers' gunfire.

Latino activists say that isn't enough and want federal officials to investigate the Saturday shooting.

Tait, who has called for state and federal investigations, said: "If the Latino community is saying there is a rift, then there is rift, and we need to address that."

Fairfax County faces two complaints about racial bias at TJ high school - The Washington Post

Fairfax County faces two complaints about racial bias at TJ high school - The Washington Post: Nine years ago, law professor Lloyd Cohen filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging racial discrimination in admissions to Fairfax County’s prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

But he didn’t argue that the system was biased against black and Latino students, as the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP and a local advocacy group alleged in a similar complaint filed Monday with the Department of Education. African American and Latino students are 4 percent of the rising freshmen at Thomas Jefferson, or TJ, but make up 32 percent of the county’s entire student body.

Instead, Cohen contended that it was white students who were losing out, the deck stacked against them as the school system sought to boost black enrollment at the high-flying school.

Baltimore puts out welcome mat for immigrants, hoping to stop population decline - The Washington Post

Baltimore puts out welcome mat for immigrants, hoping to stop population decline - The Washington Post: The fate of Baltimore may rest with immigrants like Alexandra Gonzalez.

A native of Puebla, Mexico, Gonzalez feels more at home in Baltimore with every passing year. She attends city-run nutrition and exercise classes in Spanish and takes her two young children to a Spanish-language storytelling hour at her neighborhood library. She plans to earn a GED and become a teacher.

“I like living here,” said Gonzalez, 24, as she pushed a stroller holding her sleeping 1-year-old daughter and bags of purchases from a dollar store in the blue-collar Highlandtown neighborhood. “They don’t look at you weird because you don’t speak English.”

The degree to which Gonzalez feels welcome is no accident.
After decades of seeing the city’s population slide with every census count, Baltimore officials are trying to turn things around. One key strategy is embracing immigrants, in the hope they will encourage friends and family to join them.

Black Teens Are Getting The Message On HIV, But Risks Are Still There : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

Black Teens Are Getting The Message On HIV, But Risks Are Still There : Shots - Health Blog : NPR: The HIV epidemic among African-Americans is getting deserved new attention at the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. And the news isn't all bad.

New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that black high school students are engaging in risky sexual behavior far less often than they were 20 years ago.

Since black teens are the future of the epidemic for the hardest-hit ethnic group, this is encouraging.


Here are the main results:

The percentage of black high-schoolers who've ever had sex has declined since 1991, from 82 percent to 60 percent.

There's been a big drop in black teens who've had multiple sex partners. In 1991, 43 percent had. Now it's 25 percent, or about half.

The risky-sex gap between white and black high schoolers has been narrowed. (Hispanic teens are between the two in riskiness, and their risk hasn't changed.)

Maryland education board gives preliminary approval to student-discipline reforms - The Washington Post

Maryland education board gives preliminary approval to student-discipline reforms - The Washington Post: Maryland education leaders voted to overhaul student-discipline practices Tuesday, approving regulations that they hope will cut back on suspensions, keep students in class and create a less-punitive culture in the state’s public schools.

The changes place Maryland among states and school systems at the forefront of a national movement to rethink how students in trouble are punished and whether too many are suspended and expelled for offenses that could be handled in other ways.

But the action by the Maryland State Board of Education goes a step further than most, requiring that its 24 school systems track racial disparities in discipline and come up with plans to resolve them. Problems must be reduced within a year and eliminated in three years under the changes.

After a 10 to 0 vote, with two members absent, Board President James H. DeGraffenreidt Jr. said the main accomplishment was redirecting the conversation around student discipline. Students need to be in class to learn he said.

Sherman Hemsley Dead: 'The Jeffersons' Actor Dies At 74

Sherman Hemsley Dead: 'The Jeffersons' Actor Dies At 74: Sherman Hemsley, known for his starring role on "The Jeffersons," has died at age 74.

Although the cause of Hemsley's death is unclear, TMZ reports that the actor passed away at his El Paso, Texas, home.

Hemsley made a name for himself as George Jefferson, carrying the iconic sitcom for a decade and earning a 1984 Emmy nomination for his work as lead actor in a comedy series. The actor went on to appear on a handful of other classic television shows including "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "The Hughleys." He also starred as Deacon Ernest Frye on the NBC series "Amen" for several years.

The Philadelphia born and raised sitcom actor was also an accomplished singer, recording the 1989 single "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" and releasing his R&B album, "Dance," in 1992.

Before becoming a household name, Hemsley served in the Air Force for four years -- dropping out of high school to do so -- before going on to work for the post office for eight years.

Hemsley had no wife or kids.