Hispanic Issues Section News Summary, Issue 35

Dear Hispanic Issues Section Members:
Please excuse this rather long News Summary. It’s been four weeks since the last Summary and the news articles have piled up.

The most notable news articles referenced in this summary include articles on law school admissions, poll findings on race relations, and the increasing levels of school segregation.

Law School Admissions – Fewer Mexican Americans were admitted to law schools in 2008 than in 1993 according to a study conducted by the Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic at Columbia Law School and the Society of American Law Teachers. According to the New York Times, the study found that of 46,500 law school matriculants in the fall of 2008, only 673 or 1.4 percent were Mexican-Americans. In 1993 there were 43,520 matriculants of which 710 or 1.6 percent were Mexican-American. These results conflict with combined Hispanic/Latino admissions that increased from 3.1 percent to 5.1 percent during the same period. As a group, Mexican American law school applicants scored one point better on LSAT tests than other Latinos. To read the article go to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/education/07law.html

Race Relations – According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, Hispanics are now seen as the group facing the most discrimination. Overall, 23 percent of poll respondents said that Hispanics are discriminated against a lot compared with 18 percent for Blacks and 8 percent for Asians. The poll also found that Hispanics were less optimistic than other groups about interracial relations. “When whites and blacks were asked how well their group gets along with Hispanics, more than 70 percent say "very" or "pretty" well. In contrast, only about 50 percent of Hispanics feel the same way.” To read the article, go to http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-poll-race,0,1367507.story

School segregation – Today, the number of minority children attending majority white schools has declined to levels last experienced in 1960, when many schools were still opposing the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). One solution identified by the SPLC is the consolidation of school districts. Schools in states with fewer school districts were less segregated than schools in states with more school districts. This story (See “Unmaking Brown”) and others are reported in the SPLC award winning online publication “Teaching Tolerance”. To find the current issue of the magazine, go to http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-37-spring-2010

These are just a few of the articles you find in this edition of the News Summary (Including news stories about pending voting rights cases in Irving and Boerne, Texas).

As always, I hope you find the referenced news articles informative.

Best Wishes.

Prepared by
John Vasquez
Chair-Elect
Hispanic Issues Section, State Bar of Texas
johnvasq@gmail.com


NOTE: This News Summary is a service of the Hispanic Issues Section of the State Bar of Texas, Brian Hamner, Chair. If you would like to support HIS, visit
http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Sections and click “MyBarPage” (near the bottom of the page) to join online. For further information, contact the Sections Department at 1-800-204-2222 or (512) 427-1463 ext. 1420.

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Top News

Law School Admissions Lag Among Minorities
While law schools added about 3,000 seats for first-year students from 1993 to 2008, both the percentage and the number of black and Mexican-American law students declined in that period, according to a study by a Columbia Law School professor.

What makes the declines particularly troubling, said the professor, Conrad Johnson, is that in that same period, both groups improved their college grade-point averages and their scores on the Law School Admission Test, or L.S.A.T.

“What’s happening, as the American population becomes more diverse, is that the lawyer corps and judges are remaining predominantly white,” said John Nussbaumer, associate dean of Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s campus in Auburn Hills, Mich., which enrolls an unusually high percentage of African-American students.

The Columbia study found that among the 46,500 law school matriculants in the fall of 2008, there were 3,392 African-Americans, or 7.3 percent, and 673 Mexican-Americans, or 1.4 percent. Among the 43,520 matriculants in 1993, there were 3,432 African-Americans, or 7.9 percent, and 710 Mexican-Americans, or 1.6 percent. The study, whose findings are detailed at the Web site A Disturbing Trend in Law School Diversity, relied on the admission council’s minority categories, which track Mexican-Americans separately from Puerto Ricans and Hispanic/Latino students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/education/07law.html
To read the report “A Disturbing Trend in Law School Diversity”, go to:
http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/salt/
(Note: The link to the study summary includes some report highlights and a downloadable PowerPoint presentation. One notable conclusion in the report: “Even in real numbers, there are fewer African-American and Mexican-American matriculants in the 2008 class (4,060 combined) than existed in the Fall 1993 class (4,142 combined).”

Poll shows Black optimism has surged since Obama election, Hispanics more skeptical on race
WASHINGTON (AP) — One year after the election of President Barack Obama, black optimism about America has surged, while Hispanics have become more skeptical about race relations, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday.

Thirty-nine percent of blacks say African-Americans are better off now than five years ago, according to the poll. In 2007, just 20 percent of blacks felt that way.

The poll found that Hispanics, not blacks, now are seen as the ethnic group facing the most discrimination. Twenty-three percent of all respondents say Hispanics are discriminated against "a lot," compared with 18 percent for blacks, 10 percent for whites and 8 percent for Asians.

Hispanics also are less optimistic than other groups about interracial relations. When whites and blacks were asked how well their group gets along with Hispanics, more than 70 percent say "very" or "pretty" well. In contrast, only about 50 percent of Hispanics feel the same way.
http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-poll-race,0,1367507.story
To read the report “Blacks Upbeat about Black Progress, Prospects”, go to:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1459/year-after-obama-election-black-public-opinion
(Note: The portion of the report regarding Latinos begins after the sub-heading “Blacks and Discrimination: No Longer the Biggest Target?”)

Teaching Tolerance Magazine Examines the 'New Segregation' in U.S. Schools
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education offered the hope of integrated classrooms, today's schools not only remain racially segregated, but are dividing along gender lines, sexual orientation and immigration status in the name of better education, according to the Spring 2010 issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine.

"The sad truth is that our public schools are more racially segregated today than they were 40 years ago," said Lecia Brooks, director of the Civil Rights Memorial Center at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). "We're back to buying into the belief that separate can be equal -- and this time around we're not limiting segregated classrooms to race."

In a series of articles titled "The New Segregation," Teaching Tolerance examines the state of racial segregation in public schools and how some educators are embracing the idea of creating schools and classrooms that separate other groups of students who are often ill-served by schools.

Today, one-third of black students attend school in places where the population is more than 90 percent black. Almost half of white students attend schools that are more than 90 percent white. One-third of all black and Latino students attend high-poverty schools where more than 75 percent of students received free or reduced-price lunches, as compared to 4 percent of white students.

Teaching Tolerance magazine, published twice a year by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is the nation's leading journal serving educators on diversity issues. In 2007, the magazine was named Periodical of the Year by the Association of Educational Publishers for the second consecutive year. Teaching Tolerance films have garnered four Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teaching-tolerance-magazine-examines-the-new-segregation-in-us-schools-82087017.html
To read the online edition of “Teaching Tolerance”, go to:
http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-37-spring-2010

Judge tosses suit over Irving ISD's at-large system
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Irving school district, ruling Wednesday that the district's at-large system for electing trustees does not violate the Voting Rights Act.

Plaintiff Manuel Benavidez, who twice ran unsuccessfully for the school board, had argued that the voting system denied representation to Hispanic voters. He requested the creation of a single-member district elections system.

But U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater found that a district in which a majority of eligible voters are Hispanic U.S. citizen adults could not be drawn because of the large population of noncitizen immigrants.

"Whether they're legal or illegal, documented or not documented, in order to vote you need to be a citizen," said the school board's attorney, C. Robert Heath.

About 69 percent of students in the Irving school district are Hispanic. The school board currently has no Hispanic trustees. Only one Hispanic trustee has ever served on the school board.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories/012010dnmetirvingvoting.989e348a.html

Irving single-member district plan making waves
A U.S. District Court judge has yet to issue the final order creating single-member City Council districts in Irving, but a proposed plan is already creating political waves.

Attorneys for plaintiff Manuel Benavidez and the city must respond by Tuesday to a letter opposing the proposed districts that council members Tom Spink and Beth Van Duyne submitted to Judge Jorge Solis.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories/DN-irvdistricts_17met.ART.West.Edition1.4bf14a4.html

Feliciano protests use of 'Feliz Navidad' for musical spoof about immigrants
NEW YORK — Grammy-winner Jose Feliciano has received an apology after accusing a pair of radio producers of trashing the spirit of Christmas by using his popular holiday song, "Feliz Navidad," for a racist musical spoof about undocumented immigrants.

Feliciano released a statement Wednesday saying that he was "revolted beyond words" and that the song was never meant to be "a vehicle for a political platform of racism and hate."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hEWRRxs3K3GudPMifx9wWPSAMb7g

Racial Lines: The view on race relations hasn't changed in the past year, including the divide on affirmative action
Having the first African-American in the Oval Office for the past year has done little to change Americans' overall view of race relations in the U.S.

In the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 63% of the participants said race relations have remained the same during President Barack Obama's first year in office The findings were remarkably consistent across racial lines, with 63% of whites, 64% of blacks and 58% of Hispanics agreeing.

Americans also tend to agree that race relations are generally good, even as they disagree as deeply as ever about affirmative action.

In the new survey, 72% of whites, 66% of African-Americans and 68% of Hispanics rated race relations as good. But while 73% of African-Americans said they feel strongly that affirmative-action programs are needed to counteract discrimination, just 22% of whites agreed. Just over half of Hispanics feel strongly that affirmative action is still needed.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704541004575011062732870800.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

Sides confident in fight over Boerne voting
Boerne proceeded with plans to begin electing City Council members by district in May despite a new resident's court challenge to that format as an illegal deviation from City Charter provisions.

“Our attorneys assure us we're on the right track and that we didn't overstep our authority,” Mayor Dan Heckler said.

Mike Morton, who on Jan. 6 asked a federal court judge to block the switch, also was confident of prevailing. “The City Council wants to decide how they're elected, and it's unconstitutional,” he said.

The change from cumulative voting to five single-member districts was approved by a divided council Dec. 2 despite appeals for delay and Morton's call for the issue to be decided by voters, as they did in adopting the home rule Charter in 1995.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/82216087.html

Son of migrants carrying water on immigration: Congressman from South Texas is chosen as the face of reform bill
WASHINGTON — Born into South Texas poverty as the son of migrant workers, a man who rose from shoeshine boy to sheriff to U.S. congressman is the face of the immigration reform bill set to slog its way through the House of Representatives this year.

That's by design. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, a 27-year veteran of legislative battles, isn't the only Democrat who concedes the road for immigration reform is steeply uphill in a mid-term election year.

But the bill's backers are counting on the Robstown native to draw on his life experience to argue that immigration reform is needed to protect Americans and immigrants alike.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6820937.html

Former DPS trooper convicted on civil rights charges
CORPUS CHRISTI — A former Department of Public Safety trooper in Kingsville was convicted on Wednesday of depriving several Hispanic motorists of their civil rights by stealing their money.

Michael Anthony Higgins, 42, was found guilty of four counts of violating federal law by stealing money from motorists he stopped on the highway.

The jury deliberated about 1 ½ hours before reaching the guilty verdicts in U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey’s court in Corpus Christi.
http://www.caller.com/news/2010/jan/13/former-dps-trooper-convicted-on-civil-rights/

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Texas

Dallas -Water Utilities faces discrimination lawsuit
Dallas, TX—A federal civil rights lawsuit filed against City Hall by thirteen Dallas Water Utilities employees, alleges they regularly endured racial discrimination at the workplace. The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday, December 16, 2009, portrays a racially segregated workplace where discrimination is a regular occurrence, as reported by the Dallas Morning News.

The plaintiffs, claim they have regularly endured racial slurs, degrading drawings towards blacks, and are often passed over for less qualified white workers for promotions. They also maintain they are worked more, and endure more scrutiny then white employees. The allegations give a picture in which white employees often used threats and bribery to discredit complaints, and to keep the minority workers segregated and prevent them from receiving promotions. A spokesperson for the City Hall, stated the city has not acted unlawfully or put up with discrimination at the city’s water department. In addition the city said, “The city has not had an opportunity to review all of the allegations. However, many of the allegations concern specific incidents that are several years old, about which the city took corrective measures regarding these situations at the time the allegations were first reported.”
http://www.newyorkinjurynews.com/2009/12/19/Employment-Law-News-Dallas-Water-Utilities-faces-discrimination-lawsuit_200912191841.html

VerdictSearch: Race Wasn't a Factor in Promotion Decisions, Jury Finds
On Nov. 10, 2009, a jury rejected claims that a company refused to promote one of its workers because he is Hispanic.

Epifanio Zuniga, an employee in the information technology department of Grant Prideco, said he applied for three different management positions in 2006 and 2007 but was rejected.

He alleged he didn't get the promotions because of his race, noting that the jobs went to white applicants. He also said he wasn't promoted in retaliation for a racial discrimination complaint he filed against a supervisor in 2004.
http://www.law.com/jsp/tx/PubArticleTX.jsp?id=1202437396835&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Irving exemplifies the troubles faced by inner-ring suburbs
In many ways, Irving is the poster child for the issues typical to inner-ring suburbs over the past decade. Its growing pains come not from population booms, but from shifting demographics and attempts at reinvention.

Hispanics remain the largest racial or ethnic group in the city. Their ranks between 2000 and 2008 grew at five times the rate of the city's overall population. Still, Hispanics often criticize the all-white City Council for not representing their needs or dealing with claims that police racially profile residents.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/frisco/stories/DN-irvvignette_27met.ART.State.Edition2.4bdb9aa.html

Profile: Cecilia Alvarez, interpreter for Nacogdoches County courts
Cecilia Alvarez is an instrumental part of court proceedings for non-English speaking residents in Nacogdoches County.

An interpreter for both county court-at-law and district courts, Alvarez makes sight translations of court documents such as petitions, reports, waivers, statements and forms, as well as interprets for judges, attorneys, court staff and JP's.

"I also help to communicate plea bargains between the defendants and prosecutors," she said. "I also assist in the judge in performing marriage licenses when needed. There are numerous others ways my interpreting skills assist in the day-to-day cases."
http://www.dailysentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2009/12/28/profile_cecy_alvarez_122809.html?imw=Y

De La Garza announces bid for eighth term as district clerk
Cameron County District Clerk Aurora De La Garza has announced she is seeking re-election to an eighth consecutive term.

De La Garza, 68, was first elected in 1980. She is seeking the Democratic Party nomination in the March 2010 primary election.

"By filing today to seek re-election as Cameron County district clerk, I will continue my commitment in providing the outstanding level of service that the constituents of Cameron County deserve and expect from my office," De La Garza said in her announcement.
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/garza-106867-district-clerk.html

Enrollment of poor students spikes in Texas public schools
AUSTIN - A new report shows more and more poor students are enrolling in Texas schools.

Now almost six out of ten public school children in Texas come from low-income families. Analysts said it coincides with the rise of Hispanic students along with a drop in Anglo students in Texas public schools.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Public-school-enrollment-boom-80533877.html

Group Defends Rights of Hispanic Workers in Texas
EL PASO, Texas – A civil rights organization in El Paso is trying to help workers whose civil rights have been violated, regardless of their immigration status.

The Texas Civil Rights Project took over the legal representation of two Mexican domestic employees who filed suit against their employers for not paying them for overtime when they worked for more than 40 hours a week.

The case brought before the El Paso County court seeks for Elvira Corral Olivares and Rosa Peña Perez, both residents of neighboring Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a compensation of more than $60,000 as part of the Labor Justice Program the organization launched in September.

Corral Olivares lived and worked in the home of her employer for a salary of $150 a week and claims that on some occasions she worked more than 50 hours a week, while Peña worked five days a week in the same home for $120.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=350111&CategoryId=12395

Guzman sworn in as first Latina on Texas Supreme Court
Texas has a new Supreme Court justice -- the first Latina to serve on the state's highest court. Eva Guzman was sworn in at a ceremony at the State Capitol Monday afternoon.
http://www.kvue.com/news/Guzaman-sworn-in-as-first-Latina-on-Texas-Supreme-Court-81168327.html

Latinos and the Pay Gap
In 1996, José became the most popular name for newborn males in the state, reflecting population increases and the inroads Hispanics have made as legitimate contributors to Texas culture. But most Latinos haven't seen the same progress in their bank accounts.

Latinos, who account for more than a third of Texas’ workforce, on average earn about 35 percent less than their white counterparts, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. On average, they earn about $11.50 per hour, compared to $17.90 for non-Hispanic whites. The gap is larger here than in the rest of the country: Outside of Texas, Latinos earn $12.42, while their Anglo counterparts earn about $17.55.

Regardless of skill, Latinos were responsible for most of the expansion in the state's labor pool since the mid-1990s and have been a boon to the state's economy. “The Latino population’s increase transformed Texas’ labor force and led to faster economic growth,” the report says. “Latinos accounted for 76 percent of the state’s labor force growth between 1994 and 2008.”
http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/18/latinos-and-the-pay-gap/

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USA

Outback Steakhouse will pay $19M, hire human resources exec to settle sex discrimination suit
DENVER — Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $19 million to female workers to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit.

A consent decree describing the settlement between the Tampa-based restaurant chain and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was filed in Denver federal court Tuesday.
http://blog.taragana.com/business/2009/12/29/outback-steakhouse-will-pay-19m-hire-human-resources-exec-to-settle-sex-discrimination-suit-16067/

FDNY's Hiring Practices Were Discriminatory: Judge
A federal judge has ruled that the largely white Fire Department of New York intentionally used racially discriminatory hiring practices for decades. Brooklyn federal judge Nicholas Garaufis issued the ruling Wednesday.

In the decision, Judge Garaufis determined the city had excluded Blacks and Hispanics from the Fire Department for decades, since the 1960’s, and called it “a persistent stain on the Fire Department’s record."
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/FDNYs-Hiring-Practices-Are-Discriminatory-Judge--81342972.html

Egg Harbor Township police officer sues township, alleging racial discrimination
An Egg Harbor Township police officer is suing the township government, alleging racial discrimination in promotions, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Camden.

Lt. Hector Tavarez, a 23-year department veteran, said in the lawsuit obtained by The Press of Atlantic City this week that he was passed over for a promotion to captain once in 2006 and twice in 2008, despite recommendations from Police Chief Blaze Catania. His attorney, Joseph Grassi, said Tavarez is “a stellar performer as a police officer and a person,” and they could think of no reason that he was not promoted.

Tavarez, 44, who lives in the township, joined the force in 1986. He is the township’s highest ranking Hispanic officer. He also is the executive director of the Egg Harbor Township Police Athletic League, which runs recreation programs for local youth.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic/article_04df6d10-f5af-11de-ba8a-001cc4c002e0.html

Tempe hires Scottsdale attorney in complaints case
Tempe has hired an outside investigator to look into claims that City Manager Charlie Meyer retaliated against the city's diversity director after she investigated a gender discrimination complaint against another city official.

The city hired Scottsdale attorney Michael Sillyman in September after the initial complaint from Diversity Department manager Rosa Inchausti, but did not disclose the matter until this week.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2009/12/31/20091231tr-manager0102.html

ACLU sues Pasco County Fair Association, alleges Mexican-Americans charged more for events
TAMPA — Four women tell the same story:

When they called to reserve the auditorium at the Pasco County fairgrounds in Dade City for various receptions, they were told the deposit would be $1,000.

After it was revealed the women were Mexican-American, they said, the deposit shot up to $1,500.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/aclu-sues-pasco-county-fair-association-alleges-mexican-americans-charged/1064057

At Justice Department, Perez vows action on hate crimes
The leader of the Justice Department's civil rights unit has decried a recent spate of hate-crime cases across the United States and pledged to make prosecuting violent "equal-opportunity bigots" a top priority in the coming year.

The remarks of Thomas E. Perez, who took over the Civil Rights Division about two months ago, came on the same day as federal prosecutors in Roanoke won a criminal conviction against William A. White, a leader of the neo-Nazi group American National Socialist Workers Party, for making threats and intimidating a witness against him.

And last week, a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania charged two white men in connection with the fatal beating of a Latino man walking home from a community festival in July 2008, nearly six months after a local jury had acquitted the pair of the most serious charges against them.

Last week, Obama signed a spending measure that will give the civil rights division funds to hire 102 staff members, many of whom will be lawyers assigned to hate-crimes investigations. In October, after more than a decade of consideration, Congress expanded hate-crime protection to cover sexual orientation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/21/AR2009122103333.html

Former Banco employee sues charging race discrimination
Although the warring sides of the failed Banco Buenaventura have settled their legal disputes, a former employee has filed lawsuits alleging he was discriminated against at the largely Latino bank for being a Jewish “white boy.”

Former bank executive Ken Sterling, who handled security and computer systems for the Oxnard bank, filed two lawsuits on Dec. 17 against the bank and two Latino businessmen who served on the board of directors.

In one suit, Sterling alleges he was wrongfully terminated and suffered discrimination because he was white and Jewish in a majority Latino operation.
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/dec/30/former-banco-employee-sues-charging-race/

Jury finds allegations of race discrimination against Mt. Diablo school district unfounded
A Latino couple is seeking a new trial after a jury rejected their allegations the Mt. Diablo school district racially discriminated against them.

"We clearly are not satisfied with the verdict or the judgment," Patrice Zabell, attorney for Edgar and Sonia Ceballos, said Tuesday. "This was a case of intentional discrimination. Employees who were not Hispanic and not of foreign birth were treated more favorably. We plan to continue the fight."
http://www.contracostatimes.com/teens/ci_14127945

Federal grand jury to investigate Arpaio for abuse of power
A federal grand jury in Phoenix is looking at abuse of power allegations against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

County Communications Director Cari Gerchick told the Phoenix Business Journal Thursday night that County Manager David Smith and County Budget Director Sandi Smith have met with federal prosecutors and will appear before a federal grand jury in Phoenix on Jan. 13.

Gerchick said the grand jury is looking at abuse of power charges against the MCSO and Arpaio. Sandra Raynor, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix declined comment.
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2010/01/04/daily69.html

Trial dates set for Munger man accused of ethnic intimidation, assault
A Munger man whose alleged racist inclinations supposedly led him to strike a Hispanic man with his car is heading to trial.

On July 20, Wellman is alleged to have struck a 25-year-old Hispanic man with his car while yelling “white power.” The victim, also of Munger, was walking his dog near Burns and German when Wellman supposedly struck him, troopers from the Michigan State Police Bay City Post reported.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/12/trial_dates_set_for_munger_man.html

Anti-Thomas rally draws more than 250 people in Phoenix
Discontent with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas' and Sheriff Joe Arpaio's legal battles with county officials moved to a public forum Monday and received a boost from an unexpected source with inside knowledge of their cases.

Hundreds of attorneys gathered on the courthouse steps in downtown Phoenix to protest Thomas and Arpaio's public campaign against public corruption. And, in a scathing letter to The Arizona Republic, the Yavapai County attorney, who previously handled some of Thomas' cases against county officials, blasted the prosecutor and sheriff as "a threat to the entire criminal-justice system."

The attorneys who rallied Monday also criticized Thomas and Arpaio for what they see as heavy-handed tactics.

"I think all Maricopa County citizens need to be very concerned about this attack on the independent judiciary," defense attorney John Curry said, "because without an independent judiciary, there is no rule of law."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2009/12/21/20091221thomasrally1221-ON.html

Education a key in NY village voting agreement
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - A suburban New York village with a new, court-imposed election system has agreed to thoroughly educate its residents about how to use six votes rather than one.

Under an agreement filed Tuesday in federal court, the village of Port Chester will hold 12 education sessions before its June 15 trustee election. Six will be in Spanish.
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11718865

Feds charge record number of immigration crimes
Spurred by the relentless surge of illegal immigration in border states such as Texas and Arizona, where immigration prosecutions total in the thousands, the federal government has concluded that simple deportation is no longer an adequate response to repeat offenders with criminal records. Experts attribute the steady rise in prosecutions to several factors, including an increase in immigration and border patrol agents during the Bush administration, and greater emphasis on prosecuting cases that are often easy to prove.

There is ample doubt that criminal enforcement can put much of a dent in the nation's illegal immigration problems. And critics worry that many routine immigration matters are being transformed into federal felony charges with increasingly lengthy sentences. There is also concern about a disproportionate impact on Mexican nationals. A Mercury News review of 52 immigration cases filed in the San Jose federal courts between January and October found every defendant was from Mexico.
"It's riding and walking while Hispanic," said Barry Portman, the Bay Area's federal public defender, whose office typically represents immigrants too poor to pay for their own lawyers.
http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_14116420?nclick_check=1

Bias lawsuit against Carpentersville tossed in case of injured infant
Illinois - A federal judge has dismissed a $30 million lawsuit against the village of Carpentersville and two of its paramedics that claimed a four-month-old boy was left brain damaged after he was refused transportation to a hospital because he is Hispanic.

U.S. District Court Judge James B. Zagel in Chicago threw out the lawsuit alleging paramedics Diane Graham and Martin Gruber acted with gross negligence and violated 4-month-old Osbiel Lopez's civil rights by failing to take him to a hospital after a 911 call in September 2006.

In his written ruling, Zagel said the plaintiff's Constitutional rights were not deprived as "the Constitution itself does not require a state to supply effective rescue services" and that the village "had not adopted a policy of discrimination."

The suit, filed in September 2007 by the boy's mother, Gloria Lopez, said, "Carpentersville had a practice or policy of limiting emergency services to people of Hispanic ancestry."
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=347858

Victim describes alleged assault by police officer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The boyfriend of a woman who was allegedly assaulted by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer spoke exclusively to NewsChannel 36 Wednesday.

Three women have accused Marcus Jackson of sexually assaulting them during traffic stops. The latest victim came forward Tuesday.

Police say three of the four victims in this case, including the boyfriend, are Hispanic. The boyfriend said he feels that Jackson was profiling Latinos because he believed they would be less likely to report it.
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/marcus-jackson-victim-speaks-80853112.html

Federal suit says CTA deserves bigger share of state funds
CTA riders have long grumbled about getting a raw deal with high fares and skimpy service, and a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday argues that the complaint is not just real but fueled by policies that favor white commuters over blacks and Hispanics.

The split of sales tax and state subsidies targeted to Chicago-area mass-transit systems over the last 26 years has "grossly and disparately favored white mass-transit riders ... by over-funding Metra," alleged the proposed class-action lawsuit, filed on behalf of Hispanic and black CTA passengers.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-transit-funding-lawsuitjan07,0,1728469.story

Fremont immigration case focuses on judge's role in elections
In the eyes of those who want to crack down on illegal immigrants, a Fremont case heard by the Nebraska Supreme Court on Thursday is all about banning employers and landlords from hiring and renting to undocumented residents.

But attorneys arguing for the city and for citizens who circulated petitions to get the ban on the city ballot focused instead on when a judge can intervene in a contested election. Higher profile differences about local and state involvement in immigration law in Nebraska will have to wait.
http://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_b6528a4a-fbe6-11de-9021-001cc4c002e0.html

Bay State’s first Latina US attorney is sworn in
They met 30 years ago, when he was a junior lawyer in the US Justice Department in Washington and she was a George Washington University Law School student with a summer internship in his unit.

Yesterday, Eric H. Holder Jr., the nation’s first black attorney general, swore in Carmen Milagros Ortiz as the first woman and Hispanic US attorney in Massachusetts. The ceremony was held at the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse before hundreds of judges, dignitaries, lawyers, and supporters of Ortiz.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/12/bay_states_first_latina_us_attorney_is_sworn_in/

Suit claims Farleigh Dickinson was racially biased in termination
NEWARK — A Hispanic woman is suing Farleigh Dickinson University for racial bias, alleging she was terminated for “economic reasons” while whites were given raises.

Carmen Rodriguez of Hackensack had worked for FDU for nine years when she was informed in January 2009 that her job was being eliminated and she would be terminated on May 27.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/011210_Suit_claims_Farleigh_Dickinson_was_racially_biased_in_termination.html

Justice Dept. sues Montco swim club
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Huntingdon Valley swim club that last summer asked a group of black and Latino children to leave.

In the federal court complaint, the Justice Department asked that the Valley Club be ordered to stop all discrimination, including policies implemented after 56 children from the Creative Steps camp visited the pool June 29.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/81363232.html?cmpid=15585797

Group to Appeal End of Hispanic Desegregation Oversight
Hispanic plaintiffs plan to appeal a federal judge's decision to end court oversight of the Tucson Unified School District's long-standing desegregation order.

U.S. District Judge David Bury last month effectively terminated a 1978 settlement agreement between the district and black and Hispanic plaintiffs that required the district to bring its schools into racial balance.

If the ruling stands, TUSD officials will no longer have to petition the court to approve its operating decisions, from where to open a school to how it draws neighborhood boundaries.
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/politics/2010/1/18/group_to_appeal_end_of_hispanic.htm

Kansas reporter ordered to testify at murder trial
DODGE CITY, Kan. — A western Kansas newspaper reporter has been subpoenaed as a potential witness at the trial of a man accused of second-degree murder, one day after the state Supreme Court blocked prosecution efforts to force her to hand over notes from an interview with the man.

Dodge City Globe reporter Claire O’Brien said a sheriff’s deputy handed her a subpoena late Wednesday afternoon while she was at work. In addition to the notes, Ford County Attorney Terry Malone is trying to force her to reveal the identity of a confidential source.

"This subpoena is basically a blatant attempt by the county attorney and the judge to do an end run-around the Supreme Court’s stay," O’Brien said late Wednesday.

Malone also is seeking the identity of a confidential source who reportedly told O’Brien for her article that one of the victims had "a base of support that is well-known for its anti-Hispanic beliefs" and has a supply of semiautomatic weapons.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/central/view/20100121kansas_reporter_ordered_to_testify_at_murder_trial/srvc=home&position=recent

20% Of Hispanics In Arkansas Report Bias In Health Care Treatment, Study Finds
One in five Hispanics in Arkansas believe they have been the victim of discrimination when receiving health care, according to the most recent statewide survey on minority health care disparities.

The study was released Tuesday by the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, and was conducted over land-line telephones from February through June 2009. The survey polled roughly 2,500 Arkansans in all, including 1,000 whites, 1,000 blacks and 433 Hispanics. A similar survey was conducted in 2004.

Twenty percent of Hispanic respondents believed they had been treated less fairly than others because of their ethnicity, while 15 percent of blacks reported they experienced unfair treatment.
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aid=0.0.131850

Sheriff rebuffs claims of profiling
LAKE COUNTY -- Lake County Sheriff Rod Mitchell has rebuffed claims of racial profiling in four responses posted on the department's Web site this month.

Mitchell also posted a letter from former deputy Brian Lande, who said in a Nov. 12 KGO-TV ABC report that a sergeant taught him to racially profile against Hispanic people and that discrimination was commonplace. Lande defended his claims in the December letter.

People can access the four videos and letter at http://lakesheriff.com along with a Sheriff's Office response from December and another from November.
http://www.record-bee.com/ci_14219127

New state law reduces drug penalties in school zones
A new bill signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine last week rolls back mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenders caught within school and park zones. While the law has been praised by groups that claim the old law had a disproportionate effect on minorities, some local law enforcement officials are concerned whether it sends the wrong message.

The bill was co-sponsored by Englewood Assemblyman Gordon M. Johnson and Trenton Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. Prior to the passage of the new legislation, anyone within 1,000 feet of a school or within 500 feet of a library or park caught either distributing drugs or in possession of drugs with the intent to distribute was sentenced to three years in prison without chance of parole.

The new law allows judges to waive the minimum prison term or parole ineligibility depending on the circumstances of the case. Judges can take into consideration the defendant’s prior criminal record, how far away from the school the offense took place, whether school was in session at the time and whether minors were present at the scene of the offense or were reasonably likely to be exposed to drug-related activity.

Defenders of the bill have argued that the old law had a disproportionately large effect on blacks and Hispanics because cities and other densely populated areas become almost entirely covered by school zones.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/82224657_School_zone_drug_charge_could_carry_lesser_time.html

_______________________________________
General Interest

Service-Learning Helps High School Retention
As their project on high school drop-out prevention unfolded, Cesar, Cristina, and other group members surveyed their high school peers about personal school experiences. Their survey found that students want more hands-on learning and in-class support, and that students, especially Hispanic students, also want more motivation.

Their findings echo the 2006 report, "Silent Epidemic," by the Civic Enterprises, LLC and the Peter D. Hart Research Associates, in which 81 percent of students indicated that applied learning opportunities would increase their chances of staying in school through graduation.

Of the many reasons students drop out, disengagement from school was the main reason, cited by 47 percent of drop-out students. Academic failure, family factors, and economic factors were secondary reasons.
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1757/Service-Learning_Helps_High_School_Retention.html
To read the report “Silent Epidemic”, go to:
http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/thesilentepidemic3-06.pdf
To read the report “Engaged for Success”, go to:
http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/service-learning.pdf

Pew study on Latino youth: Between Two Worlds
The Pew Hispanic Center released a study on Latino youth that reflects the transitional situation of the country’s largest minority: Between Two Worlds . Their story in many ways parallels that of youth in previous generations of immigrant youth. The second and third generations generally fare better than youth born outside the country. But the second generation is often caught in an identity crisis which seems to be behind the third. That happened with the Irish and Italians that preceded them. And there lies the future of the future of the Hispanic community.

Most growth in the Hispanic community – the report uses “Latino” and “Hispanic” interchangeably – is among children born in the U.S. Immigration is still strong, so that between native-born and immigrant children they number one in five children in the U.S. One in four new births is of a Hispanic mother. The white majority in this country will have turned into a minority long before 2050. So how Latino youth assimilate – a loaded word among many Hispanic scholars and activists – will determine what this nation becomes.
http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/2009/12/pew-study-latino-youth-between-two-worlds

Rodriguez: The dark side of white
From 1790 to 1952, only "white people" were eligible to become naturalized U.S. citizens. That fact alone explains why for most of our history, immigrants and their descendants fought to be considered white.

It wasn't a pretty process. Nor did the coveted category of "whiteness" have any clear definition. Oh, sure, some dimwitted people really thought it was a rigidly scientific category. But for the most part, the evolving definitions and elastic boundaries of whiteness were subject to cultural bias and, let's face it, whim and subjectivity.
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/rodriguez-the-dark-side-of-white-156086.html

Studying baseball's other color line
LIKE MOST PHILLIES diehards, Jeffrey Shultz spends the winter counting the days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training in Florida. Unlike his fellow fans, Shultz also pursues his lifelong quest to unravel the mysteries of racial and ethnic discrimination in Major League Baseball.
Young, foreign-born Latino prospects, who are not eligible for Major League Baseball's lucrative draft because they are not U.S. citizens, sign as free agents for thousands of dollars to play in the minors, while American prospects get hundreds of thousands.

"You can hire 10 Dominican players for the price of one American college player," Shultz said. "That college kid [Stephen Strasburg] who signed with the Washington Nationals for millions? That deal doesn't happen for kids coming out of Dominican baseball academies."
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/81207312.html

Obama naming Hispanics to top posts at record pace
MIAMI — President Barack Obama is on track to name more Hispanics to top posts than any of his predecessors, drawing appointees from a wide range of the nation's Latino communities, including Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Colombians.
That won't necessarily give the president a free pass on issues such as immigration, but it may ease Hispanics' worries about whether Obama will continue reaching out to a group that was key to his winning the White House.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJbh4PsFVPUS848CVMxdvbBrQINQD9CNU8303

Be Careful Where You Look ...
Increasingly, employers have turned to the use of background reports, such as criminal history and credit records, to assist in narrowing the applicant pool to a manageable level. According to one 2009 survey, 93 percent of the 1,411 employers questioned reported that they conduct criminal records checks on job applicants. Approximately half of those employers reported that they also check applicants' credit histories.

And who can blame them?

For the nominal fee of a comprehensive background check, an employer can get: (1) a glimpse of the person that is not revealed in the employment application (i.e. fiscal prowess, propensity for trouble, driving ability); (2) a potential shield from negligent hiring or retention suits; and, (3) hopefully, a significant decrease in their loss, fraud, and productivity issues.

Unfortunately, these employers are also getting something they did not bargain for. In addition to finding out the nitty-gritty of job applicants' histories, employers are also finding themselves as defendants in large, unexpected discrimination lawsuits brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as well as groups of private litigants.
http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202437243854&You_Wanna_Background_Check_Me_Well_Be_Careful_emWhereem_You_Look_

Wagner coach strives to make a difference
One of state's best girls basketball coaches works in San Antonio — and is a proud Hispanic.

Christina Camacho, who recently recorded her 400th victory as a girls basketball coach, was about 10 when she started playing hoops in the family driveway with her older brothers and boys from their North Side neighborhood.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sacultura/79993592.html

Commentary: Ready for immigration reform? Think about Yadira Montelongo
As the immigration reform debate gets under way once again, keep Yadira Montelongo in mind. The Obama administration recently announced it will push to overhaul the broken system in 2010, including insisting on a path to legal status for the estimated 12 million people in the country without documentation.

But this effort has been made before without success, despite the shameful consequences of inaction, such as exploitation by employers and hardworking families torn apart when loved ones are caught.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091226/OPINION01/912260310/-1/Clive/Ready-for-immigration-reform?-Think-about-Yadira-Montelongo

Sotomayor keeps community bonds tight
When Lin-Manuel Miranda saw Sonia Sotomayor dining in the back of a small Long Island restaurant, he seized the chance to tell her how "incredibly proud" he and the Latino community were of her.
"I went up to her and said, 'I'm Lin. I wrote that show In the Heights,' " the writer-actor, who like Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican heritage, recalled of the encounter with her shortly before she was confirmed in August as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
In her first opinion, issued this month, Sotomayor took a step that could signal an intention to raise awareness of some Hispanic-related issues at the court as well. Sotomayor invoked the phrase "undocumented immigrants" — a first for a Supreme Court opinion. Typically, the justices have referred to Mexicans and others who have entered the USA without proper visas as "illegal" workers.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-12-28-sotomayor_N.htm

Commentary: In Arizona, don’t ask for Band-aids or food stamps for the kids
Arizona has the toughest state legislation against undocumented immigrants. Its employer sanctions have received most of the attention as challenges to the sanctions are winding their ways up to the Supreme Court. But more disturbing to the Hispanic community is a provision hidden in this year’s state budget that requires state workers to report any undocumented applying for a state benefit to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Failure to do so is a misdemeanor.

The law, which took effect Nov. 24, is so vague that some feared at first that even calling the fire department to put out a blaze would require the fire department to turn in the undocumented caller. The Republican sponsors of the measure said that was silly and asked that some common sense be used. But common sense, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. There is still much confusion as to the extent of the law.
http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/2010/01/arizona-don’t-ask-band-aids-or-food-stamps-kids

Much at stake for Arizona in census
A few years ago, it seemed obvious Arizona would be among the biggest winners in the 2010 census.

The state seemed poised to gain two additional congressional seats, as it did in the 2000 census, and reap a larger share of more than $400 billion in annual population-based federal funding.

The picture is a bit different today.

The housing crisis and subsequent recession have slowed Arizona's population growth - perhaps even halted it, if some state economists and others are correct. There are also worries that tougher immigration-related laws and enforcement could deter participation in the census by many Hispanics. Forms are to be returned after April 1.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/01/03/20100103census0103.html

Public schools in Georgia, South now majority black, Asian, Hispanic
ATLANTA — White students are now the minority in public schools in Georgia and the rest of the South, and that demographic shift comes with a warning in a report issued Thursday.

The Southern Education Foundation issued its 34-page report in hopes it will change the way Georgians think about the resources they provide public schools.

Southern schools already lag national averages for student achievement and per-pupil expenditures, the report notes, with non-white students faring the worst in both measures.

“This pattern of underfunding has a long history and is shared by states outside the region. but unlike most other states, Southern states are now underfunding a majority of their students,” the authors wrote.
http://romenews-tribune.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Public+schools+in+Georgia-+South+now+majority+black-+Asian-+Hispanic%20&id=5487586&instance=news_page_secondary_local
To find a link to the report “A new Diverse Majority”, go to:
http://www.sefatl.org/showTeaser.asp?did=620

Santa Clara County Studies Arrest Rates for Black and Latino Youth
SAN JOSE (KCBS) -- A county working group that includes the courts and San Jose's police chief is studying the disproportionate arrests of Hispanic and African American young people.

The data before the Juvenile Justice Systems Collaborative Prevention and Programs Work Group shows Hispanic youth are four times more likely to be arrested than whites of the same age.
http://www.kcbs.com/pages/6062186.php?

Hispanics, long under-represented as voters, are becoming political kingmakers
THE choice of John Pérez to take over as the new speaker of California’s state assembly later this month has been hailed as something of a breakthrough—but only because Mr Pérez is openly gay. That he is also Latino is not considered newsworthy. Kevin de León, who competed with Mr Pérez for the post, is also Latino, as are several of Mr Pérez’s predecessors, including his cousin, Antonio Villaraigosa, who is now the mayor of Los Angeles. The weight of Latinos in the politics of states like California and Texas (where the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus claims 44 of the 150 members of the state House of Representatives) is already understood to be not only large but normal.

This year, after the decennial census that will confirm the huge growth of America’s Hispanic population, this influence will become both evident and normal in even more parts of the country. Arturo Vargas, the executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), reckons that during the last census about 1m Latinos were left out of the statistics because “if you live in a garage or on somebody’s couch”, as many Latinos do, it is easy not to be counted. This time there is a concerted effort to change that. And if the Census Bureau’s estimates are corroborated, almost 16% of America’s population will be shown to be Hispanic (since the label refers to ethnicity rather than race, anybody who considers himself Hispanic is deemed to be so). That will compare with 13.4% for blacks, according to the estimate.
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15213228

Commentary: Joe Sissom: Race shouldn't matter in local representation
A couple of weeks ago, the Department of Justice OK'd a mixed single-member/at-large City Council plan for Irving designed so that a Hispanic member could be elected. It had been previously approved by litigant Manuel Benavidez, local federal district judge Jorge Solis and the Irving City Council.

Two of the three council members that opposed the plan wrote Solis, calling his attention to a number of items that had been ignored.

The miserable history of "ward politics" in cities with single-member districts, including the court-ordered ones in Dallas, was deemed unimportant. The only thing that counts is skin color.

A separate suit demanding the same thing from the Irving ISD, also filed by Benavidez, was thrown out Wednesday by Judge Sidney Fitzwater. The judge noted that, among other things, based on census data, approximately 60 percent of Hispanic adults in the Irving ISD were not citizens.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-sissom_23edi.State.Edition1.2e25289.html

MIT lags in hiring, promoting black, Hispanic faculty, internal report says
MIT must do a better job recruiting and retaining black and Hispanic faculty, who have a significantly more difficult time getting promoted than white and Asian colleagues, according to a frank internal study released today by the university.

In some departments, such as chemistry, mathematics, and nuclear science and engineering, no minorities have been hired in the last two decades, according to the report, which was more than two years in the making.

MIT's first comprehensive study of faculty racial diversity and the experiences of underrepresented minority professors highlights a national problem across academia: the need to improve the pipeline of black and Hispanic scholars.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/mit_lags_in_hir.html

Arizona has become 'ground zero' of immigration fight
PHOENIX — When activists from around the country rally for immigrants' rights Saturday, it's no coincidence that they'll converge here.
Arizona is the flash point of the immigration debate, a place where high levels of illegal immigration have led to state and local restrictions, most recently a law that requires government workers to report illegal immigrants seeking public benefits.

Perhaps the most visible figure in Arizona's immigration politics is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He has won praise and condemnation for having deputies swarm neighborhoods, stopping people in search of criminals and illegal immigrants.

His department is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegations of racial profiling and discrimination based on national origin.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-14-immigration_N.htm

Discrimination May Lead to Smoking in Boys
Minority teen boys smoke more when they suffer discrimination, but that's not the case for minority teen girls, a U.S. study finds.

Perceived discrimination had no effect on smoking rates among minority girls aged 12 to 15 and was associated with lower rates of smoking among minority teen girls aged 16 to 19.

Increased smoking by boys who suffer higher levels of discrimination may be caused by increased stress from male-specific targeting by police and business, the study concluded.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/health/discrimination-may-lead-to-smoking-in-boys-191210.html

Thousands protest sheriff's immigration efforts
PHOENIX -- Thousands of immigrant rights advocates marched in front of a county jail in Phoenix Saturday in a protest that was aimed at Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration efforts and was marked by a clash between a small group of protesters and police officers.

Organizers say the protest was meant to show officials in Washington that Arpaio shouldn't handle immigration enforcement, and that Congress and the Obama administration need to come up with a way for immigrant workers to come to the country legally.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/17/AR2010011700392.html

Editorial: Idaho can't afford not to have Human Rights Commission
Maybe Idaho can do without a Commission on Hispanic Affairs, a State Independent Living Council, a Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing or even state-funded public television. But it needs to keep the Human Rights Commission.

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter wants to phase out the five agencies over four years as a budget-saving move. There’s a strong case to be made for saving each of them, but none as compelling as the Human Rights Commission. That’s because Idaho has an image problem across America. Market researchers who ask New Yorkers or Floridians or Californians about Idaho hear the word “potato” first. The next word they hear is “racists.”
http://www.magicvalley.com/news/article_a122d64e-ee1f-5e17-8fe0-f9ee9eb5f798.html

Testimony by Shanna Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Fair Housing Alliance/Co-Chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Fair Housing Task Force.
Chairwoman Waters, Ranking Member Capito, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify in support of H.R. 476, the Housing Fairness Act of 2009. I would also like to thank Representative Al Green for introducing this important legislation. My name is Shanna Smith and I am the President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA). I have spent my entire career combating housing discrimination in its many forms as well as promoting residential integration, beginning in 1975 as the Executive Director of the Toledo Fair Housing Center. I have lead NFHA's office in Washington, DC since it was established in 1988. I appreciate this opportunity to speak with you today about how this bill would assist the government, non-profit fair housing centers, and the housing and lending industries in creating a more diverse, inclusive America.

The National Fair Housing Alliance is a consortium of more than 220 private, non-profit fair housing organizations, state and local civil rights agencies, and individuals from throughout the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the National Fair Housing Alliance, through comprehensive education, advocacy and enforcement programs, provides equal access to apartments, houses, mortgage loans and insurance policies for all residents of the nation. NFHA's "operating members" are those agencies that meet the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition of "qualified fair housing organization."1

I am here today in strong support of H.R. 476, the Housing Fairness Act of 2009. H.R. 476 will provide resources necessary to realizing the promises of the federal Fair Housing Act. It will improve both enforcement and education efforts surrounding discrimination in home rental, sales, insurance, and lending, will significantly reduce illegal practices, and will open communities and neighborhoods to all Americans. It will provide sorely needed funding for nationwide enforcement testing - funding that will allow HUD and fair housing advocates to systemically address discrimination in all areas of the housing market. It will authorize an increase in funding for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, the federal program that enables private fair housing organizations working in your districts to educate your communities and redress the housing discrimination suffered by your constituents. It calls for a national media campaign so that the public is fully aware of its fair housing civil rights. And finally, it creates a grant program so that the fair housing movement can continue to be guided by the latest research on the causes of housing segregation and segregation's impact on the vitality of communities.
http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=154384

Texas Textbook Controversy

Texas debates how history will be taught
EL PASO -- When it comes to the state's public school history books, civil-rights leader César Chávez and the Christmas holiday appear safe.

But dozens of other requests to revise Texas' social studies curriculum will have to wait until the State Board of Education determines how history for grades K-12 will be taught for the next decade.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/education/ci_14184467

Book vote drops Henry Cisneros
AUSTIN — Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Raul Gonzalez could earn a place in fourth-grade history books but efforts to keep former Mayor Henry Cisneros in those books failed in preliminary votes by the State Board of Education late Thursday.

The board started debate mid-afternoon and took early votes on historical figures to include or delete from textbooks for lower grades. The board was to continue debate into the night and today over new standards for social studies curriculum for 4.7 million Texas public school students. Final action will come in March.

SBOE members have engaged in contentious debate for months over the inclusion of historical figures. An eight-hour public hearing Thursday brought people from all over the state, some of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to appeal to the board to include more Hispanic historical figures for schoolchildren to study.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/81613332.html

Commentary: Civil Civics
State Board of Education members, in seven hours of amending its social studies curriculum Thursday evening, mostly made nice with one another before stopping short of tackling high school history, the most contentious subject area to date. The result: A view of history that grew both more conservative and more multicultural — two goals that have so often seemed at odds.

Conservative members supported the inclusion of Hispanic historical figures in ways some feared they wouldn’t. Board Member Mary Helen Berlanga had earlier said she was prepared to “fight to the bitter end" for Hispanic history, but found little opposition Wednesday night.

In the fourth grade, for instance, the board approved adding Raul Gonzalez, the first Hispanic to serve on the Texas Supreme Court and the first to win a statewide election in Texas. The board also approved, without opposition, a fourth-grade standard calling for study of the Tejanos who died at the Alamo (Though the board declined to list their names in the standards, that would not prohibit textbooks from including them.)
http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/15/civil-civics/

Texas high-schoolers to learn about conservative groups from '80s, '90s under new standards
AUSTIN – Texas high school students will have to learn about leading conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s – but not about liberal or minority-rights groups – under U.S. history standards tentatively adopted by a politically divided State Board of Education on Friday.

The Republican majority on the board also gave a thumbs down to requiring history teachers and textbooks to provide coverage on the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, as well as leading Hispanic civil-rights groups such as LULAC and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Led by the board's social-conservative bloc, Republicans left Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the nation's first black justice, on the list of important figures that will have to be covered in history classes.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-sboe_16tex.ART.State.Edition1.4bfbb61.html

Board adds more diverse historical figures, keeps Christmas in social studies curriculum
AUSTIN — Students enrolled in Texas public schools will learn about Jose Antonio Navarro and Christmas in class, if amendments made to state standards on teaching social studies hold up.

On Friday, the Texas State Board of Education postponed voting on updates to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills guidelines for social studies, history and economics curricula until it reconvenes in March after spending the past few days deliberating numerous amendments.

Along the way, some compromises were made, including the addition of more minority and women historical figures. Some figures were excluded, including Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice; however, labor rights activist César Chávez was put back in the fifth-grade curriculum, and Irma Rangel, the first Hispanic female astronaut, was included, as well as Texas revolutionary Navarro, said Mary Helen Berlanga, the board’s representative for District 2, which includes the Rio Grande Valley.
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/studies-34455-diverse-adds.html

U.S. history to get a conservative bent in Texas schools
Texas high schoolers will learn about conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s but not about liberal groups or organizations representing minority rights, The Dallas Morning News reports.

The change is a result of U.S. history standards tentatively adopted Friday by the Republican-led State Board of Education. Among topics and individuals that will not be required in history classes and textbooks: the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Hispanic civil rights organizations such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the paper said.

New subjects of study will include the National Rifle Association, the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.

A tentative vote was put off until March; a final decision is expected in May. Curriculum standards the board approves will remain in place for the next decade.

Although the standards apply only to Texas, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes, "the decision has a nationwide impact because publishers develop textbooks based on Texas' curriculum because of its large student population."
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/01/us-history-to-get-a-conservative-bent-in-texas-schools/1

Texas State Board of Education abruptly delays vote on social studies curriculum
AUSTIN — The State Board of Education abruptly decided Friday to postpone a tentative vote on proposed social studies curriculum standards, but only after spending 10 hours debating such topics as hip-hop, World War I propaganda and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s significance.

By Friday afternoon, when a vote was originally scheduled, the board still had the majority of a draft of high school social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills to evaluate, and it decided to step back from its work.
http://www.star-telegram.com/texas/story/1897708.html

Vote on social studies curriculum delayed until March
AUSTIN — Conservative rallying points like the Heritage Foundation, Moral Majority and National Rifle Association made it into a preliminary set of new curriculum standards for Texas public school students, but an effort to include other groups in the political arena — like ones that fight discrimination — failed Friday, causing some to question the effect of the partisan balance on the State Board of Education.

After two days of wrestling over what to teach lower grades, the board postponed a first-round vote until March because it could not finish a review of proposed social studies standards for high school students. The March vote will produce curriculum standards for a public hearing in May, when final action is expected.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6818516.html