Free Republic

Planned Parenthood of Idaho officials apologized Wednesday for what they called an employee's "serious mistake" in encouraging a donation aimed at aborting black babies. They also criticized The Advocate, a right-to-life student magazine at the University of California-Los Angeles, for trying to discredit Planned Parenthood employees in seven states in a series of tape-recorded phone calls last summer. The call to Idaho came in July to Autumn Kersey, vice president of development and marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho. On the recording provided by The Advocate, an actor portraying a donor said he wanted his money used to eliminate black...

ALBANY State Senator Ada Smith has been found guilty of harassment stemming from an altercation with a staffer. The Queens Democrat was accused of throwing hot coffee in a staffer's face at her Albany office in March. She was also accused of pulling a hairpiece from the woman's head. Smith was originally charged with misdemeanor assault, but the charged was reduced to harassment, a violation, in July. Smith will have to pay a $250 fine and any medical expenses for the former staffer, Jennifer Jackson. She will also have to enroll in anger management courses. Jackson says she feels justice...

It's another bit of bad luck for a Marine who lost an arm and a leg in Iraq. Lance Corporal Mark Beyers was mugged and robbed outside a restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland, last month. The Marine from western New York was dining out with his wife, Denise, while finishing up rehabilitation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. As they left the restaurant, five men approached them and asked for a cigarette. Denise Beyers tells The Buffalo News they gave the men a cigarette -- but the men grabbed her purse, kicked her and knocked the couple to the ground....

Two Minnesota Vikings players who want their indecent conduct charges thrown out of court are asking a judge to take a rare step: second-guess a prosecutor over a decision on who gets charged. Legal experts say courts have long shied away from wading into what's known as "prosecutorial discretion." One of the few times judges even consider doing so is when a criminal suspect alleges racially biased prosecution. That's what quarterback Daunte Culpepper and running back Moe Williams asserted in a motion submitted by their attorneys Wednesday in the Lake Minnetonka boat party case. They say that four black football...

If you thought Hurricane Katrina was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, think again. Concerned environmentalists say that unless the United States gets real about the threat of global warming, African Americans and other people of color can expect a repeat of disasters like Katrina. “When you look at the trends and put them all together, it’s undisputable that the sea levels are rising,” says Ansje Miller, director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). “Warmer seas mean more intense hurricanes…. You’re going to have intense flooding like we have never seen before. Katrina is really the hurricane of the future.”

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - An 11-year-old girl arrested on a deadly weapon charge for throwing a rock during a water balloon fight is scheduled to be tried Wednesday after talks between her attorney and prosecutors failed to produce a plea bargain. Maribel Cuevas was arrested in April for throwing a two-pound rock at a neighborhood boy who had pelted her with a water balloon. The rock gashed the boy's forehead, and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm. Since then, the...

In a decision that exposed one of the raw nerves of the criminal justice system, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday that a juror who cannot put aside personal feelings of racial identification with a defendant must be dismissed. Emphatically declaring that race has no place in the jury room, the high court ruled a trial judge was correct in dismissing a juror who said that, as a black woman with children of her own, she could not "see another young black man going to jail for something really stupid." As a result, Leardee Jenkins, 20, of Franklin...

Hiding Racial Bias Can Tax Brain Encounter with 'different' people can drain mental skills, study suggests By Amanda Gardner HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Nov. 26 (HealthDayNews) -- Harboring even a subtle bias toward people of another race can drain your mental function. The bias being spoken of here, however, shouldn't be equated with outright prejudice. An initial encounter with anyone who is "different," be it a physical disability or a racial difference, can be tense, new research says. "On the first meeting, it can be awkward. After a while it goes away, you let your guard down and engage more...

LAW OF THE LAND 'Race bias' could free alleged drug dealer Judge tosses evidence because police routinely search more minorities Posted: September 18, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com A Massachusetts judge might let a Latino man caught with 2 pounds of cocaine in his car go free today because the state police troopers who arrested him had routinely searched more cars driven by minorities than by whites. Worcester, Mass., Superior Court Judge John S. McCann threw out the evidence of the cocaine and the man's admission he planned to sell it, the Boston Globe reported. Excluding evidence because...

Sometime soon the Supreme Court will decide whether diversity is so compelling a public interest that government may racially discriminate in order to realize that goal. It is an astounding testament to the power of the diversity movement, which has worked its way onto the governmental and corporate agenda without much discussion of how much priority it should have when it conflicts with other deeply held American values, such as race neutrality and merit. At issue in this case is the question of whether the University of Michigan broke the law when it favored Hispanic and black students over white...

<p>Despite being new to the country, black immigrants have significantly higher household incomes and a lower unemployment rate than US-born blacks, according to a new study likely to intensify debate about the nature of racial discrimination in the United States.</p>

U.S. National Chicago Firefighters Awarded $2.3M Sun May 19,12:55 AM ET CHICAGO (AP) - Nine white firefighters won more than $2.3 million in back pay and damages because their scores on a lieutenant's test were lowered 16 years ago because the city wanted to promote minorities. A federal jury found Friday that eight of the men would have attained the rank of captain by now if they hadn't been passed over, and at least three of the men would have been promoted to battalion chief after promotional exams this past February. The city lowered the scores of white firefighters to...