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If Democrats lose control of the House of Representatives next week, as most political observers expect, there is a good chance that the House Speaker will opt to spend time with her eight grandchildren rather than toil in the relative obscurity of the minority. Even if she wanted to stay on, it's not at all clear that she would win the position of minority leader: seven Democratic incumbents and several candidates oppose her leadership...

Minorities also waking up to smell the TEA! One of the signs of a “conservative surge” going on in America, as well as in the GOP is the move by persons who are minorities. With more members from these communities fighting to survive for not only for themselves, but for their families, the GOP could see a new interest and surge from these persons running for public office. They see that the United States needs to get back on track. From Van Tran of CA, to Jamie Herrera of WA State, to Susana Martinez of NM, to Ryan Frazier of...

Companies using criminal records or bad credit reports to screen out job applicants might run afoul of anti-discrimination laws as the government steps up scrutiny of hiring policies that could hurt blacks and Hispanics. A blanket refusal to hire workers based on criminal records or credit problems can be illegal if it has a disparate impact on racial minorities, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agency enforces the nation's employment discrimination laws. "Our sense is that the problem is snowballing because of the technology allowing these checks to be done with a fair amount of ease," said Carol...

The weekend brought highly interesting developoments in the attempts at forming a new Dutch government ('cabinet', officially our 'goverment' equals 'cabinet + Sovereign'). After Labour leader Cohen rejected several options to make a cabinet with the christian-democrats, the CDA, the potential rightwing partners made a new attempt. As it stands, the VVD (resembling the U.S. Republicans, although they call themselves 'liberal' over here), the CDA, and the PVV, led by Geert Wilders, struck a new deal for the eventual real forming of a cabinet. CDA and VVD provisionally agreed to take place in a minority government, whilst Wilders announced that...

Hundreds of children and parents gathered at an Orlando church early Saturday to raise awareness about health and obesity. The Walk A Mile With A Child event at Grace Bible Church, sponsored by the National Medical Association, was designed to reach black and Hispanic Orlandoans with a message about the benefits of a commitment to physical fitness. (snip) U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is lecturing at the NMA opening ceremony today. (snip) "The number of black physicians has been eroding," said Dr. Nelson Adams, of Miami. Adams is former state and national president of the National Medical Association.

Rainbow Coalition Also Wants Comcast/NBCU To Spend 25% Of Ad Budgets On Minority-Owned Firms The Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition wants Comcast to set aside 10% of its basic tier for networks "owned and controlled by people of color." The organization also wants both Comcast and NBC Universal to spend 25% of their ad and marketing budgets and the same percentage of "vendor dollars" on minority-owned firms. "We want to make sure that independently owned and controlled minority cable networks don't find it harder to gain carriage if this deal happens," said Jackson in written testimony for the July 8...

The following text SNIPPET is a quote: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-1084A1.pdf PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12thSt., S.W. Washington, D.C.20554 News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 DA 10-1084 Released: June 16, 2010 MEDIA BUREAU ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF REQUESTS FOR QUOTATION FOR MEDIA OWNERSHIP STUDIES AND SEEKS SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL STUDIES IN MEDIA OWNERSHIP PROCEEDING MB Docket No. 09-182 Suggestions for Additional Studies Deadline:July 7, 2010 Requests for Quotation for Media Ownership Studies. As part of the Commission’s 2010 Quadrennial Media Ownership proceeding,1the Commission is commissioning nine economic studies to evaluate the current marketplace and the state of...

<p>Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years.</p> <p>In fact, demographers say this year could be the "tipping point" when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers that of babies born to whites.</p>

Whites Moving Closer To Minority Status In U.S.Demographers Say 48 Percent Of Kids Born In 2008 Were Minorities, And This Year Could Be The "Tipping Point" Mar 10, 2010 7:00 am US/Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) - This could be the year that the number of babies born to minorities in America outnumbers babies born to whites. That's because immigration has boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. Hispanic women have an average 2.99 children to 1.87 among white women. In 2008, 48 percent of the children born in the U.S. were minorities. Sociology professor Kenneth Johnson of...

The campus paper publishes an anonymous letter by a minority student who calls the incident 'a mindless act and stupid mistake.' The UC San Diego student reportedly responsible for hanging a noose last week in a campus library issued a public, but anonymous, apology Monday and said she had no racist motivation. The noose's discovery set off protests at a school that is already tense from recent racially charged episodes and triggered condemnations from UC leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a letter published Monday on the front page of the UC San Diego student newspaper, the Guardian, the student...

What white Americans regard as a recession may feel more like a depression to certain minority groups in the U.S., according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank. 9.7% of American adults were unemployed at the end of 2009. But the percentage of whites who were unemployed at year’s end (8.1%) was well below the national average, while African-Americans and Hispanics saw rates of 15.5% and 12.4%, respectively. Though the national unemployment rate for each group roughly doubled between the end of 2007, when the recession kicked off, and the end of 2009, there...

WASHINGTON --A group of minority broadcasters asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday for financial assistance akin to the aid that has been extended to the financial and auto industries. "Minority-owned broadcasters are close to becoming an extinct species," the letter said. "Even in better economic times, minority broadcasters have historically had difficulties accessing the capital markets." The broadcasters told Mr. Geithner they can bounce back if they are given some temporary assistance while the credit markets are slow. "Unlike the auto business, broadcasting has been healthy for many years," their letter said. The broadcasters appeal follows a proposal sent in...

Minority broadcasters asked for the same kind of federal bailout afforded the auto and financial industries in a July 12 letter from 14 top executives in the group to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. The letter came with a stark warning. "Minority-owned broadcasters are close to becoming an extinct species," the group wrote.

Readers of Needs of the Many know I haven’t been on the racial guilt bandwagon … ever. If you’re an ass, you’re an ass. If you’re a success, you’re as success … that should be applauded. I recently wrote a very popular post about how I reject the term “reverse racism.” The simple fact is that a major portion of the black community uses their race to get away with mediocrity, and it is an insult to the great successes of the black community … which are numerous. It’s also in direct contradiction to what Dr. King advocated. Bill Cosby,...

Diane J. Humetewa, the first female Native American U.S. attorney in history, will soon be out of a job – and not because she’s doing a bad job, either. Instead, she will become a casualty of the political appointee process that comes with each new presidential administration. Humetewa took the oath of office to become a U.S. attorney from Arizona in December 2007 and was formally sworn in a month and a half later. Indian country found big reason to celebrate. Not only was the longtime tribal justice advocate breaking a glass ceiling, she was rising to the heights of...

High-ranking House Democrats are urging the Treasury Department to prop up minority-owned broadcasters suffering from a lack of capital and lost advertising revenue amid the economic slump. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is leading an effort to convince Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to take “decisive action” by extending credit to this sector of the broadcasting industry. Clyburn and other senior members, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), argue that minority-owned broadcasters are sound businesses, but that the recession could undermine the government’s efforts to diversify the airwaves....

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a part of the Voting Rights Act aimed at helping minorities elect their preferred candidates only applies in electoral districts where minorities make up more than half the population. The decision could make it harder for some minority candidates to win election and for southern Democrats, in particular, to draw friendly electoral boundaries after the 2010 Census. The 5-4 decision, with the court's conservatives in the majority, came in the case of a North Carolina plan that sought to preserve the influence of African-American voters even though they made up just 39...

All aspects of federal contracting programs favoring minority-owned businesses have been turned upside down by an injunction issued by a judge in San Antonio.

Politicians and journalists are petrified of seeming hostile toward members of the “coalition of the oppressed.”‘Speak truth to power,” a phrase of Quaker origins adopted by campus radicals, Hollywood gadflies, and establishment journalists, has become shorthand for bravely criticizing government, big corporations, and other stereotypical villains. But where’s the bravery? I don’t know many journalists who are afraid of the government, and most make their living from big corporations. Sure, liberals — which most journalists are — are afraid of what conservatives will do in power and vice-versa. But they aren’t very afraid of what government will do to them,...

Automobile dealers are suffering, and minority dealers are getting hit especially hard by the steep economic downturn, said Legacy Chevrolet owner Emanuel Jones. Jones, acting on behalf of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, is calling for the Obama administration to free up loan money from the Small Business Administration to help the struggling dealerships. "It is a lot more severe for minority dealers," Jones said. "Traditionally, they have smaller stores in smaller communities." Jones, also a Georgia state senator from Henry County, will make his plea today at a news conference in Atlanta. Representatives from other minority business...