Category: National News

Maryland still operates a segregated higher education system – and those students attending the state’s four historically Black colleges and universities are not receiving as qualitative an education as if they were at Maryland’s traditionally White institutions, an expert witness testified Tuesday. “The dual education systems remain,” testified Clifton F. Conrad, a professor at the […]

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A task force is recommending that people who were sterilized against their will under an old North Carolina state program be paid $50,000 each in compensation. About half a dozen states have apologized for similar 20th century practices, called eugenics. But North Carolina is the first to move toward paying damages […]

The definition of the act of rape is being revised to apply to a broader range of victims, circumstances and actions, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Jan. 6. Under the updated definition, the act will cover “any gender of victim or perpetrator, and includes instances in which the victim is incapable of giving consent because […]

David Wilson took a light-hearted turn, Tuesday, in explaining how Morgan State University would finance $15 million in equipment for its Benjamin Banneker Communications Center. “This is almost comical, but we would have to rob a bank,” Wilson said to laughter in testimony before U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake in Baltimore. “But we […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the National Urban League said Tuesday that Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum tried to leverage a stereotype about Black people and public assistance programs to gain an advantage in the Iowa caucuses. Urban League President Marc Morial called on other GOP candidates to repudiate Santorum’s comments, which were made […]

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — One presidential campaign claims an impressive effort in Iowa this year: eight offices opened, 350,000 phone calls to potential supporters and 1,280 events to recruit and train volunteers. It’s not Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul. It’s Obama for America, the president’s re-election campaign, which badly wants to […]

Education desegregation has had a tumultuous history in Maryland. Another effort begins Jan. 3, when a lawsuit filed by the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education against the state of Maryland goes to trial in federal court in Baltimore. The action seeks to make Maryland’s four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) […]

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday rejected South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, saying it makes it harder for minorities to cast ballots. It was the first voter ID law to be refused by the Obama administration. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said South Carolina’s law […]

First Lady Michelle Obama’s physical dimensions were the target of criticism by a Wisconsin Republican recently who criticized the First Lady’s Healthy Food Initiative as unwarranted government intrusion. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) issued an apology to the First Lady Dec. 22 in a handwritten note. The congressman’s spokeswoman declined to detail what the note said. […]

WASHINGTON – A small but star-studded ceremony today at Joint Base Andrews, Md., marked the return of U.S. Forces Iraq’s last troops. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter joined family members of about 30 returning […]

Leading the way for minorities and women in the largest beverage corporation in the world, Johnnie B. Booker first took over as director of Supplier Diversity in 2001. After a decade of diligently improving diversity within the Coca-Cola ranks, Booker has now decided to go into her second hard earned retirement. “I was taught as […]

While the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education Inc. sued the Maryland Higher Education Commission in 2006, the lawsuit – which goes to trial Jan. 3 in a Baltimore federal court – is really rooted in more than 50 years of education litigation, beginning with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education […]