FYI from PRA

Minority Doctorates Data Suppressed

2008-05-14T14:23:00.005-05:00

Those interested in diversifying the ranks of professors lost a key source of information when the National Science Foundation stopped releasing data on racial and ethnic groups in its annual Survey of Earned Doctorates if their numbers are too small. While we know that in 2005, six black people earned doctorates in earth, atmospheric and marine sciences, the NSF won’t reveal how many earned the degrees in 2006. For Native Americans, the impact of the new policy is especially dramatic.

Inside Higher Ed reports.

Texas tops in abstinence education

2008-05-14T14:23:00.001-05:00

Texas, which views abstinence education as its main policy to combat teenage sexual activity, now receives more money through Title V, a stream of federal funding for abstinence programs, than any other state, more than $4.5 million a year. The Texas Legislature's Education Code not only requires that abstinence be given more attention than any other approach, it allows schools to ignore condom instruction because it does not mention it.

Texas Monthly reports

Senate Committee Dangerously Singles Out Muslims in Report

2008-05-14T14:21:00.001-05:00

The ACLU and nearly twenty other groups sent a memo to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee outlining concerns with its new report,"Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorism Threat," most notably the free speech implications of labeling the internet as a "weapon" and the unfair singling out of one religious group as possible "extremists."

"Once we begin trying to regulate belief systems, we have veered perilously far from the Constitution," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "

The ACLU statement here.

Tax rebate excludes many wed to foreigners

2008-05-14T14:17:00.001-05:00

As many as hundreds of thousands of taxpayers - from legal immigrants to soldiers based abroad - are ineligible for the tax rebate checks that started going out last week because of a provision aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from getting rebates. The rule unintentionally snares taxpayers who would have qualified for the bonus but for having filed jointly with a spouse whose immigration status doesn't allow a Social Security number. The Federation for American Immigration Reform lobbied against a version of the bill that didn't require a Social Security number for the rebate.

Boston Globe reports

Daytime soap's gay kiss arouses boycott

2008-05-14T14:12:00.000-05:00

The soap opera "As the World Turns" lifted its ban on gay kissing for the program's April 23 episode, during which characters Luke and Noah shared their first on-screen kiss following seven months of chastity. Proctor and Gamble Productions decided to reinstate the couple's kissing after hearing from both supporters and critics of the gay characters' daytime displays of affection. In response, the American Family Association has called for a boycott of Proctor and Gamble goods and has taken to referring to LGBT people as "g-ys" and same-sex relationships as "h-mos-xuality," as if these words were expletives.

The Advocate reports

Washington's Gay War

2008-04-17T11:25:00.000-05:00

Welcome to gay Washington in the 21st century, where the gay Democrats are proud and out on the Hill and in the lobbying firms on K Street, while many gay Republicans still cower in the closet until they trip themselves up with off-color instant messages to teenage pages, or conduct unbecoming to a United States senator in an airport bathroom. Serving his 14th term in the House, Democrat Barney Frank is the dean of proudly gay government officials in the United States. Since the Democrats recaptured Congress last year, Frank has also been one of the most powerful people in Washington, serving as chairman of the House Financial Services committee.

Charles Kaiser of Out Magazine reports

Torturers in the White House

2008-04-17T11:23:00.000-05:00

The biggest news of the last week went virtually uncovered by the mainstream, print media. ABC News first reported last Wednesday that top Bush Administration officials, including Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft, and George Tenet, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld met to discuss which particular torture techniques should be used against Al Qaeda suspects in U.S. custody. On Friday, ABC added this blockbuster: Bush himself was aware of the meetings.

Ruth Coniff of The Progressive reports

For Obama, Unexpected Support

2008-04-17T11:15:00.002-05:00

As strong and consistent abortion foes, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. and former congressman Timothy J. Roemer are anomalies in a Democratic Party that has overwhelmingly advocated abortion rights. Yet both are backing Sen. Barack Obama, whom one conservative blogger dubbed "the most pro-abortion candidate ever."

The Washington Post reports

Iranian American Student Clashes with Homeland Security

2008-04-17T11:12:00.002-05:00

Justin Mashouf, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Arizona, traveled to Iran this winter to film footage showing the positive side of Iran. He had no trouble with officialdom in Iran, but he hit a brick wall on returning home to the United States. On his return, Mashouf was stopped in the airport by homeland security officers.

The Iran Times reports

Did the Founders want us to be faithful to their faith?

2008-04-17T11:08:00.004-05:00

The Founding Fathers had their own pack of tricks: they turned their backs on the past. If they had meekly inherited the faith of their fathers, they would have written a constitution establishing Christianity as the national religion. They did not.... At a time when all but two states required religious tests for office, the Constitution prohibited them. At a time when most states still had an official religion, the Bill of Rights forbade the federal government from establishing one.

Jill Lepore of The New Yorker explains

FBI provides flawed data for terrorism watch list

2008-03-26T13:57:00.000-05:00

A Justice Department audit has concluded that the FBI provided the government-wide terrorism watch list with incomplete, inaccurate and outdated information about suspects for almost three years. The ACLU's Watch List Counter, now measuring over 930,000 names, points out that the 9/11 hijackers are on the list, even though they are dead.

ACLU Watch List Counter

Senate Republicans Reignite Immigration Fight

2008-03-26T13:23:00.004-05:00

Republican Senators have introduced a wide range of enforcement-only immigration bills that would, for example, create stiff prison sentences for illegal immigrants caught entering the country across the southern border and for destroying border fencing. Others propose to cut off federal funding for states that issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Some will impose penalties on cities that bar local law enforcement from checking an individual's immigration status.

New America Media reports

Abortion Ban – For American Indians Only

2008-03-26T13:22:00.001-05:00

Following scant debate, the Senate approved an amendment to an Indian health care bill that would permanently prohibit the use of federal dollars to fund abortions for Native Americans except in rare cases. The move has prompted an outcry from women’s health advocates—who point out that a similar ban has existed on a temporary basis for years—and from tribal groups, who are asking why Native American women should be subject to restrictions not applicable to other ethnic groups.

washingtonindependent.com reports

Teacher under fire for showing Gore film without rebuttal

2008-03-26T13:19:00.001-05:00

When Mark Colley learned late last year that his daughter viewed "An Inconvenient Truth" during science class without advance parental notice, he was intrigued. When he learned his daughter's teacher allegedly presented no rebuttal to former Vice President Al Gore's popular documentary film warning about the perils of climate change, he was stunned.
"When you do that, you stop becoming a teacher and start becoming an advocate,' said Colley, who considers Gore's movie 'a political statement."

Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Affirmative Action Foes Push Ballot Initiatives

2008-03-26T13:17:00.000-05:00

Sixteen months after voters in Michigan voted to kill affirmative action in the public sphere, Ward Connerly is leading efforts in five more states to ban the practice. Foes of affirmative action, which is meant to address current and historical inequities based on race and gender, delivered 128,744 signatures to Colorado authorities earlier this month. Similar organizations in Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska are circulating petitions as civil rights groups and educators are mobilizing to defeat the measures.

The Washington Post reports.

Mukasey Welcomes Gay DOJ Employees

2008-02-28T11:08:00.001-05:00

Reversing a ban that had been in place since 2003, the Justice Department announced last week that homosexual employees could use office space to host activities for DOJ Pride. As one of his first acts, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who was appointed as Alberto Gonzales's replacement, broke with President Bush's long-standing policy of refusing to sponsor gay pride events. ... What the DOJ's new boss fails to understand is that it's possible to treat all employees fairly without elevating homosexuals to a special status.

Family Research Council: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 "WU08B01"

Pro-Choice Latino Voters No Rarity

2008-02-28T11:07:00.000-05:00

Thirty-five years after the legalization of abortion in the United States, 35 percent of Latinos registered to vote in New York, California, Illinois, Florida, and Texas are pro-choice, according to a recent poll by ImpreMedia – publisher of El Diario/La Prensa. But abortion and gay marriage aren't top issues of concern among Latinos.

El Diario/La Prensa reports.

Blackwater Protestors Given Secret Trial

2008-02-28T11:06:00.001-05:00

The arrest of protestors who staged a "die-in" outside the gates of Blackwater's North Carolina base, and the subsequent five days they spent locked up in jail, is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians.

Alternet reports.

The big discrimination case before the Supreme Court

2008-02-28T10:55:00.001-05:00

In last year's Supreme Court sleeper case, a woman named Lily Ledbetter lost her right to sue because she didn't go to court the first time her paycheck was docked because of sex discrimination, as opposed to when she later realized she was being shortchanged. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a new employment discrimination case that could also shake up the law of the land and leave the court's liberal dissenters apoplectic. This one may not only prune back employees' rights under the particular statute at issue, but also help the Supreme Court's conservatives rein in discrimination suits more generally."

Slate reports.

Countering Conspiracy Theories on the Left

2008-02-28T10:53:00.003-05:00

Conspiracy thinking is very deep in American culture. There's sort of a Protestant puritan ideology that is central to American culture: "Bad things happen because of bad people." God holds individuals responsible for bad things that happen. So, morally, ethically, legally... we have to find individuals to be responsible for bad things. The simplicity in that is that social reality is much messier. It doesn't take much at a time like 911, when emotions are running high, for political leaders to make vague references to shadowy figures that we don't know. That encourages the thinking that runs in the direction of conspirators and conspiracy. In the case of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the fact that it's a non-Christian religious movement with very strong anti-Christian overtones has enough resonance with the same things that anti-Semitism brings to the surface. It enables a bonding between the religious and political sentiments.

Counterpunch interviews Jerry Lembcke, the sociologist and author of The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory.

New Mexico Is 15th State to Reject Abstinence-Only Funds

2008-01-22T15:43:00.001-05:00

In December, New Mexico became the 15th state to reject federal funds for abstinence-only sex education in high schools. The federal funding for abstinence-only education came before its effectiveness was established, said State Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil. Community organizations that teach abstinence-only programs in New Mexico schools can continue to apply for the federal funding. But it would then be up to individual school districts whether they want those groups to teach in their schools.

Associated Press reports.

Cities Sue Subprime Lenders For Racial Profiling, Public Nuisance

2008-01-22T15:42:00.001-05:00

The City of Baltimore is suing Wells Fargo, the second-largest US mortgage lender, for making loans in Black neighborhoods that it knew borrowers could not afford. Meanwhile, the City of Cleveland is suing Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and 18 other banks and mortgage companies for creating a "public nuisance" by funding and securitizing subprime mortgage loans for borrowers with weak credit. Foreclosures in Cleveland increased from 111 in 2002 to 7,583 in 2007.

Boston Globe reports

Florida marriage amendment hits snag

2008-01-22T15:40:00.000-05:00

Christian Right groups failed to get a "marriage amendment" on the Florida ballot for the fall, after the Division of Elections realized it overcounted their signatures by 27,000. But the organizations have until February 1 to meet their quota, giving them the January 29 primary to collect signatures. The amendment would ban gay marriage, end protections and benefits like healthcare from all unmarried couples (gay and straight), ban civil unions, and dismantle domestic partner benefits that seniors, teachers, police officers, and firefighters rely on in more than 17 communities across the state.

Fairness for All Families reports

Deportations Surge, as "Landscapers" not Criminals are Targeted

2008-01-22T15:39:00.000-05:00

While the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency says it targets criminals -- from violent gang members to fake document peddlers -- for deportation, more and more deportees are not criminals. Across the country, the percentage of criminal deportees fell to 38 percent last year from 48 percent in 2005, because federal agents are "chasing landscapers," as one immigrant advocate put it. The number of overall deportees is rising sharply – to 232,755 last year from 177,489 in 2005.

Boston Globe reports

U.S. ranks with China on privacy invasion

2008-01-22T15:38:00.000-05:00

In its most recent annual survey of 70 countries, Privacy International ranks the United States — along with China, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom — among the worst performers in terms of protecting the privacy of its citizens. These eight nations qualify as "endemic surveillance societies," in which privacy-invasive laws, policies, and regulations are pervasive and systemic. According to the report, "concern over immigration and border control dominated the world agenda in 2007," and the 2007 rankings "indicate an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world."

Bob Barr comments for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution