Black lawmakers are accusing Republicans of trying to "manufacture tension" between African-Americans and immigrants on jobs issues.

A coalition of lawyers and educators announced Monday it has filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Boston public schools over a school closure plan it says discriminates against black and Latino students.

George Washington's name is inseparable from America, and not only from the nation's history. It identifies countless streets, buildings, mountains, bridges, monuments, cities — and people.

President Barack Obama says the U.S. must invest in research and development, science, and especially education — or risk seeing the technological breakthroughs of the future happen in some other country.

The Great Migration, the 60-year escape from segregation and racism that brought American blacks to the North, has reversed course. Better jobs and quality of life in the South are beckoning, as is the lure of something more intangible — a sense of home.

President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.73 trillion spending blueprint that pledges $1.1 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade through spending cuts and tax increases.

Two men angry over a dispute at an Ohio fraternity house party left the gathering and returned early Sunday, spraying bullets into a crowd and killing a Youngstown State University student who was trying to separate two groups, authorities said. Eleven other people were injured, including a 17-year-old with a critical head wound.

A group for black employees at the University of Alabama says it wants swift disciplinary action against a white student accused of using a racial slur toward a black student.

U.S. racial minorities accounted for roughly 85 percent of the nation's population growth over the last decade — one of the largest shares ever — with Hispanics accounting for much of the gain in many of the states picking up new House seats.

A federal judge on Wednesday questioned whether a key component of the landmark Voting Rights Act is outdated, expressing skepticism about using evidence of racial discrimination from 40 or 50 years ago to justify continued election monitoring for a group of mostly Southern states.

A federal judge has agreed to postpone a trial for a Mississippi man charged with firing a shotgun at three black men in New Orleans who were wounded in what prosecutors said was a racially motivated attack in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

A Republican drive to repeal the year-old health care law ended in party-line defeat in the Senate on Wednesday, leaving the Supreme Court to render a final, unpredictable verdict on an issue steeped in political and constitutional controversy.

Arthur Leonard Spencer says sure, he made some mistakes back when he was a "snot-nose kid," like joining the Ku Klux Klan. But murder?

A Wake County town is holding its first tribute to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King on Sunday. The celebration comes just three years after the mayor outraged black leaders by saying he didn't want any more southeast Raleigh students at Garner schools.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and filmmaker Spike Lee are calling for more black men to become teachers.

First lady Michelle Obama said Thursday that the military's push to turn recruits into health-conscious warriors could be a model for making people across the U.S. more focused on fitness and nutrition.

Social Security's finances are getting worse as the economy struggles to recover and millions of baby boomers stand at the brink of retirement.

The foreclosure crisis is getting worse as high unemployment and lackluster job prospects force homeowners in an increasing number of U.S. metropolitan areas into dire financial straits.

Some craved words of comfort and a strong signal that the many promises made since a gunman's rampage stunned the nation just might, in fact, be kept.

Little Rock police say a man wanted for murder has kidnapped his infant son at gunpoint.

A White House official says President Barack Obama will call for a five-year freeze in non-security, discretionary spending during his State of the Union address.

A gunman opened fire inside a Detroit police precinct on Sunday, wounding four officers including a commander before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said.

A man hiding in the attic of a home sparked an intense firefight with authorities trying to arrest him on a warrant Monday morning, killing two officers and wounding a deputy U.S. Marshal, police said.

Oprah Winfrey recently learned she has a half-sister — a Milwaukee woman who was put up for adoption by Winfrey's mother nearly 50 years ago.

A classmate of Sammie Burnett Johnson, one of the eight black students who marched onto the Memphis State campus in 1959 to integrate the school, is lamenting that there is now a "missing link" in their group.

A Texas college student who wasn't indicted last year for his role in the hazing death of a fraternity pledge tearfully told police two days after the incident that he was responsible for the death, according to an audio tape obtained by The Associated Press.

The top-ranking African-American in Congress called on President Barack Obama Friday to sharpen his focus on hard-hit minority communities in his plans for bolstering the economy.

A woman stolen as an infant from a hospital crib two decades ago spent Thursday at a Manhattan hotel with her long-lost mother as investigators sought the evidence they need to identify and arrest her kidnapper.

One of the sons of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said Saturday evening that the Arizona shootings that claimed six lives and left a congresswoman critically wounded show his father's work must continue.

When she turned 113, Mississippi Winn could still stand up on her own and never thought her age was a detriment to her life.

It used to be "white flight" to the Memphis suburbs, but now it's blacks who are moving.

Signs of trouble are arising for President Barack Obama's plan to put education overhaul at the forefront of his agenda as he adjusts to the new reality of a divided government.

The new Republican Party chairman's celebration may be short-lived.

Will he be fired or not?

President Obama exhorted Americans to refrain from partisan bickering and urged the country to embrace the idealistic vision of democracy held by 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, the youngest Arizona shooting victim and an aspiring politician who is set to be buried Thursday in the first of half-a-dozen funerals.

President Barack Obama says Democrats and Republicans must work together in the new year and share responsibility for moving the country forward.

Searching for unity out of tragedy, President Barack Obama will honor the victims of the Arizona mass shooting in personal terms and remind those in grief that an entire nation is with them. The president is again stepping into his role as national consoler, a test of leadership that comes with the job.

The Food and Drug Administration, which has long maintained that it has nothing to do with drugs used in executions, has quietly helped Arizona and California obtain a scarce type of anesthetic so the states could continue putting inmates to death.

When the personal computer revolution began decades ago, Latinos and blacks were much less likely to use one of the marvelous new machines. Then, when the Internet began to change life as we know it, these groups had less access to the Web and slower online connections placing them on the wrong side of the "digital divide."

Police say a Georgia woman used a friend's baby to collect more than $1,600 in child support from an ex-boyfriend after she convinced him the child was his.

A Las Vegas homeowner association wants a judge to force Floyd Mayweather Jr. to follow its rules and to order the boxing champion to stop threatening its employees.

Two sisters whose life sentences were suspended on the condition that one donate a kidney to the other were released from a Mississippi prison on Friday after serving 16 years for an armed robbery.

With a deep, refined voice, Ted Williams simply asked for help to get off the streets.

Two Mississippi sisters, whose life sentences for armed robbery were suspended last week on the condition that one donate a kidney to the other, will be released from prison Friday.

The liberal Congressional Black Caucus has sworn in its first Republican member in more than a decade, welcoming newly elected congressman Allen West of Florida at a ceremony Wednesday.

Republicans were poised Wednesday to seize control of the House after four years in the minority, vowing to use their clout to battle President Barack Obama on health care, spending, taxes and other issues.

President Barack Obama said Sunday he was honored to sign a bill to provide aid to survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks and first responders who became ill working in the ruins at the World Trade Center.

President Barack Obama said Sunday he was honored to sign a bill to provide aid to survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks and first responders who became ill working in the ruins at the World Trade Center.

The deadliest city blaze in decades killed eight homeless squatters who were burning debris in an abandoned warehouse to stay warm Tuesday, authorities said.

For 16 years, sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott have shared a life behind bars for their part in an $11 armed robbery. To share freedom, they must also share a kidney.

Five young men who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a South Florida motel room were constant companions who acted like brothers and even went shoe shopping together before Christmas so they all would have the same pair, relatives said Tuesday.

Two officers in a remote Alaska town were ambushed as they chatted on a street. A California officer and deputy were killed by an arson suspect with a high-powered rifle as they tried to serve a warrant. Two other officers doing anti-drug work were gunned down by men along a busy Arkansas highway.

President Barack Obama capped a quiet Christmas Saturday with a surprise visit to a Marine base to thank U.S. troops for the sacrifices they've made, including being away from their families at the holidays.

Growing up in segregated Memphis, Tenn., during the Jim Crow era, Augustus White III knew about those certain places off-limits to him as a black man — restrooms, diners and schools.

A politically rejuvenated President Barack Obama arrived here late Wednesday for an 11-day family vacation in his home state.

President Barack Obama signed a landmark law Wednesday repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military, fulfilling one of his major campaign pledges and casting the issue as a matter of civil rights long denied.

Before too long, the government check will no longer be in the mail.

No public displays of affection. No separate bathrooms. No harassment and no special treatment.

The number of executions in the United States dropped 12 percent in 2010, and the number of people sentenced to die is nearing historic lows, a report from an anti-capital punishment group says.

Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the military fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions.

While President Barack Obama this week is expected to clear the way for gays to serve openly in the military, the new law won't go into effect immediately and unanswered questions remain: How soon will the new policy be implemented, will it be accepted by the troops and could it hamper the military in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Aretha Franklin is home from the hospital — and she's already making plans for the holidays.

Civil rights groups say black riders on a Cleveland bus line are unfairly feeling the brunt of an effort against people who don't pay the fare.

President Barack Obama and 20 business leaders worked through lunch Wednesday on ways to boost anemic U.S. job creation and improve their own testy relations amid rising anxiety over the slow economic recovery.

The scorecard on the legal fight over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is two judges in favor and one against.

America's neighborhoods became more integrated last year than during any time in at least a century as a rising black middle class moved into fast-growing white areas in the South and West.

Embattled GOP Republican Party chairman Michael Steele announced Monday that he will seek a second term despite a rocky two years marked by allegations of financial mismanagement and frequent verbal gaffes.

Montgomery organizations have planned a week of events to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the 1955 bus boycott that played a key role in the civil rights movement.

Basketball great Earl "The Pearl" Monroe is challenging restaurants across the country to make menu items more diabetes-friendly.

Homeowners who delayed locking in super-low mortgage rates — think close to 4 percent for a 30-year fixed — may have waited too long.

It's a Saturday morning and a half-dozen adults are sitting in a high school classroom, staring at grim photos of sickly drug addicts and hearing about the deadly consequences of gang crime. They'd rather not be here, but a judge made them come.

Baseball Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins is getting his own stamp for his 68th birthday.

The president of the Mississippi NAACP says the selection of a white man to lead one of the organization's chapters shows its real mission to represent more than one race.

Federal education officials have found Virginia Tech broke the law when it waited two hours to warn the campus that a gunman was on the loose, too late to save 30 students and faculty who went to class and were killed in the 2007 rampage.

President Barack Obama is predicting congressional approval of the tax-cutting compromise he has reached with Republican leaders, but he's not ruling out that unhappy Democrats will make some changes in the mammoth legislation.

Aretha Franklin's cousin says the ailing legendary singer is "doing better than doctors expected" and expects to be released from the hospital this weekend.

Federal officials launched an investigation Wednesday to determine whether 22 mortgage lenders have been discriminating against qualified African-American and Latino borrowers by denying them government-insured loans.

When you extend your hand to shake Mary Haynes-Smith’s the veteran elementary school principal instead pulls you in for a hug. It’s the kind of warmth that she has also embraced her Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School with.

The U.S. Department of Education, headed by former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan, has poured some $4.8 billion – and counting – into addressing poorly performing schools around the nation and has set on a course to promote turnarounds at schools deemed to be “dropout farms.”

In a role reversal, President Barack Obama now has to lobby fellow Democrats to vote for a bill he considers crucial — legislation that would retain existing tax rates for the middle class and stretch the safety net for the jobless.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson says he's visited with Aretha Franklin four or five times recently and says the legendary singer is "recovering very well" from surgery.

Republicans control neither the House nor the Senate — and certainly not the White House. But they largely dictated the terms of President Barack Obama's proposed tax-cut compromise, which disgruntled congressional Democrats want to discuss in closed meetings that are likely to be rowdy.

UPS is now requiring photo identification from customers shipping packages at retail locations around the world, a month after explosives made its way on to one of the company's planes.

The disparity between graduation rates for white and black players at schools headed to bowl games grew again this year even as overall academic progress increased for both, a study released Monday found.

Prosecutors are urging the Nevada Supreme Court to deny O.J. Simpson a rehearing of the appeal of the former football star's armed robbery and kidnapping conviction.

Oprah Winfrey has come a long way since her childhood years in a Mississippi shack and in public housing with a poster of The Beatles on her bedroom wall. Sunday, she was honored with Paul McCartney, one of the Beatles she so loved.

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel returned to his home turf in the city's Harlem neighborhood on Saturday, saying he still loves Congress — despite a showdown with colleagues over ethics violations that led to his censure by the House.

The conservative-dominated U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has published a report criticizing the Justice Department for its handling of voting rights accusations against the New Black Panther Party.

That late July afternoon in 2008 television screens throughout New York snapped to the image of a stern Gov. David Paterson in an unprecedented statewide address.

Rearview cameras could become more common in future cars and trucks under rules proposed by the government Friday to address concerns about drivers unintentionally backing over children.

Decades-old claims from African American farmers and native Americans that the government mistreated and swindled them out of billions of dollars can finally be settled starting Wednesday.

The country's most prominent civil rights group has come to Raleigh to draw attention to what it calls a growing erosion of the gains made since a 1954 Supreme Court decision made segregated schools illegal.

Defying expectations, a bipartisan majority of President Barack Obama's deficit commission has rallied behind the panel's controversial deficit-slashing proposals.

Defying expectations, a bipartisan majority of President Barack Obama's deficit commission has rallied behind the panel's controversial deficit-slashing proposals.

Charles Rangel has his swagger back, but not his power.

Rep. Charles Rangel faces an almost certain censure by the House, a devastating defeat for a 40-year veteran who insisted to the end that he never meant to violate House rules.

A community prayer vigil has been held in Detroit for Aretha Franklin, a day before organizers say the singing legend is to undergo a medical procedure.

Democrats and Republicans are working to reach a deal to extend Bush-era tax cuts that expire at the end of the year, but neither side is budging as negotiations begin in earnest.

Eleven days after being gunned down near an alley, David Davis didn't get a traditional funeral procession of family and friends. After bullets began flying outside the mortuary during his service, killing two men and critically injuring another, the 27-year-old father of three went to his grave with just the undertakers and the police who escorted his hearse present.

Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay.

The outgoing head of the National Black Conference of State Legislators says redistricting will be a "major, major issue" after the midterm elections in which Republicans made big gains.

A popular Philadelphia pub has settled a lawsuit filed by one of its bartenders who claimed it discouraged nonwhite customers from visiting.

American Indian landowners and black farmers who for years have waited for Washington to address their claims of government mistreatment won a hard-fought victory Tuesday as Congress cleared legislation to pay the groups $4.6 billion to settle a pair of historic class-action lawsuits.

A Pentagon study on gays in the military has determined that overturning the law known as "don't ask, don't tell" might cause some disruption at first but would not create any widespread or long-lasting problems.

Prosecutors say a white man who pleaded guilty to six southwest Ohio robberies used a black mask so lifelike that police initially arrested a black man for one of the crimes.

The much discussed documentary "Waiting for Superman," which offers a harsh portrait of the country's public schools, has inspired a promotional collaboration among the Borders Group superstore chain, an education fundraiser and the publisher of the movie's companion book.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to give a series of lectures at Harvard University.

Community leaders in a suburb north of New York City plan to inventory grave sites and repair headstones at a noteworthy African-American cemetery where several black veterans are buried.

A Boston city councilor is calling for an investigation after a group of Harvard and Yale black students and alumni were denied entry to a downtown club over concerns they would attract criminals.

When a majority of troops told the Pentagon this summer they didn't care if gays were allowed to serve openly in the military, it was in sharp contrast to the time when America's fighting forces voiced bitter opposition to accepting racial minorities and women in the services.

President Barack Obama needed 12 stitches in his lip after taking an errant elbow during a pickup basketball game Friday with a group of family and friends visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House said.

Louisiana's health department says Bayou Classic fans can get free tests for the AIDS virus.

One of Congress' most likable veterans, Rep. Charles Rangel, would become the 23rd House member in the nation's history to be censured if the House goes along with a recommendation of its ethics committee.

A new survey shows most property owners in predominantly black Atlantic Beach favor opening Ocean Boulevard connections to neighboring North Myrtle Beach.

Kansas City-area Congressman Emanuel Cleaver has been elected the leader of the Congressional Black Caucus.

A New Orleans police officer was laughing after he burned the body of a man who had been gunned down by police in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, a fellow officer testified Thursday.

The House ethics committee's chief counsel recommended Thursday that veteran Rep. Charles Rangel be censured for financial and fundraising misconduct as lawmakers neared closure on an embarrassing 2½-year-long scandal.

President George H.W. Bush, poet Maya Angelou and investor Warren Buffett are among the 2010 winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

John Lewis was born the son of southern sharecroppers, was unable to vote as a young man and was beaten during the struggle to end racial segregation in America.

Is marriage becoming obsolete?

Raising the retirement age for Social Security would disproportionately hurt low-income workers and minorities, and increase disability claims by older people unable to work, government auditors told Congress.

A national education assessment released Thursday shows that high school seniors have made some improvement in reading, but remain below the achievement levels reached nearly two decades ago.

Ella Mae Brayboy, a lifelong activist who worked during the civil rights movement to register thousands of black voters, has died.

Top Obama administration adviser David Axelrod says he will leave the White House in the first half of next year to begin the president's re-election campaign.

City officials have hired a company to use ground-penetrating radar to find a possible slave cemetery.

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has presented its highest honor to U.S. Rep. James Clyburn.

Denied his plea for a delay, Rep. Charles Rangel walked out of his ethics trial Monday, leaving the ethics committee's top lawyer to cite Rangel's past statements in arguing that the 20-term New York Democrat violated House rules.

Words like "gumbo" and "chigger" have roots in African words long ago, but those connections might have been lost if not for one of the first black linguists.

The first black cadet to play football at The Citadel is returning to campus.

The father of a black student has sued a Detroit-area school district claiming that his daughter was racially harassed by a fifth-grade teacher's reading aloud from a book about slavery.

A small group of Fisk University alumni have signed a letter requesting the resignation of president Hazel O'Leary in part because of her role in the school's efforts to sell the Alfred Stieglitz art collection.

A grand jury has declined to indict a fraternity member linked to the hazing death of a Prairie View A&M student last year, a prosecutor who presented the case said Wednesday.

Kanye West now says he "didn't have the grounds" to call George W. Bush a racist, and the former president said Wednesday that he appreciates the rapper's regret.

The University of Georgia will mark the 50th anniversary of its desegregation with a series of events, including a reception honoring the first black students to enroll there.

Columbia community leaders are working to correct the record in the 1923 lynching of a black University of Missouri janitor accused of raping a white professor's daughter.

The Nevada Supreme Court has agreed to give attorneys representing former football star O.J. Simpson more time to try to overturn his armed robbery and kidnapping conviction.

The lead lawyer for celebrated death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal has quit the case days before a key appeals court hearing, amid a rift with his famous client over strategy.

A marker finally will be placed Thursday on the grave of a black Civil War veteran who lay in an unmarked Ohio grave for nearly a century.

The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus said Monday that Rep. James Clyburn, the highest ranking African-American in the House Democratic leadership, should be the vanquished party's second in command in the next Congress.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is expected in a Las Vegas court for a criminal arraignment after prosecutors say he hit the mother of his children and threatened to beat his sons if they called 911 during the scuffle.

President Barack Obama is acknowledging in the wake of this week's election rout that he hasn't been able to successfully promote his economic-rescue message to anxious Americans.

Harvard University is presenting a new face to the world.

A federal appeals court is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on the death sentence imposed on Mumia Abu-Jamal in the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

Democratic Rep. James Clyburn says he's seeking the No. 2 job in the House Democratic leadership, setting up a possible showdown with the current second in command, Steny Hoyer.

The U.S. still faces a significant gap in residential broadband use that breaks down along incomes, education levels and other socio-economic factors, even as subscriptions among American households overall grew sevenfold between 2001 and 2009.

Arms flexed in a muscleman pose, Aaron Shannon Jr. was getting ready for a Halloween party while his grandfather snapped photos of him in a Spiderman costume.

One recent day at Dr. Natalie Carroll's OB-GYN practice, located inside a low-income apartment complex tucked between a gas station and a freeway, 12 pregnant black women come for consultations. Some bring their children or their mothers. Only one brings a husband.

Police made more than 150 arrests as a crowd broke windows and knocked down fences, protesting a Los Angeles court decision to sentence a white former transit officer to the minimum term for fatally shooting an unarmed black man.

For nearly two years, the families of Oscar Grant and Johannes Mehserle have agonized over a fatal shooting caught on video that enflamed racial tensions and led to rioting and unrest in Oakland.

A civil liberties group filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging the use of "stop and frisk" searches by Philadelphia police, alleging that the policy is violating the rights of blacks and Latinos who have done nothing wrong.

The federal government says the names of 581 black World War I veterans are missing from bronze plaques hanging outside the courthouse in Natchez.

Deval Patrick, the first black governor of Massachusetts, on Thursday nominated Roderick L. Ireland to be the first African-American chief justice of the state's Supreme Judicial Court.

An interactive exhibit and website honoring black World War I soldiers from West Virginia's southern coalfields will debut Veterans Day.

Walk the campuses of many black colleges, and you are bound to notice young female students strolling and talking, clusters of women having lunch together, classrooms filled mostly with women. It’s impossible to miss the dearth of male students and not worry about that.

President Barack Obama is too strong a leader to be deterred by his party's setbacks in the U.S. midterm election, Germany's foreign minister said Wednesday, but there was some concern that Democratic losses in Congress could affect Obama's nuclear disarmament plans.

President Barack Obama sought Thursday to retake the political initiative after a bruising election, inviting Republican and Democratic congressional leaders for talks and challenging his Cabinet to make Washington work better.

Republican Hispanic lawmakers had a groundbreaking year in the 2010 midterm elections, picking up two governor posts — the first ever for a Latina — while holding onto a U.S. Senate seat and adding several congressional seats.

It seemed an easy sell in California: The state that gave us medical marijuana would allow pot for recreation.

States across the country are passing laws intended to make ex-offenders more likely to find jobs and, as a result, less prone to commit crime again. Behind the legislative trend is an unusual combination of budget-conscious officials seeking to trim prison populations and activists opposing “structural discrimination” against applicants with criminal records.

Seizing control of the House and gaining strength in the Senate, triumphant Republicans ushered in a new era of divided government Wednesday and served notice they will confront President Barack Obama with a conservative agenda to cut government and spur private-sector jobs.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick bucked the anti-incumbent, pro-Republican trend and won a second term Tuesday with the help of some of the political advisers who hope to do the same in two years for his friend President Barack Obama.

Republicans marched confidently to the brink of House control Tuesday night in midterm elections shadowed by recession, promising a conservative majority certain to challenge President Barack Obama at virtually every turn. The GOP gained Senate seats, as well, but a takeover there appeared out of reach.

Thomas J. Woods joined the military after graduating from an all-black high school in 1950, when Jim Crow laws forced him to the back of buses and Savannah shop clerks would greet him with a surly, "What you want, boy?"

A black family from Detroit has filed a federal lawsuit accusing employees at a Steak 'n Shake restaurant in Anderson of denying them service because of their race.

On the Sunday before Election Day, preachers told black churchgoers across the country to get out and vote — and defy predictions that they'll be complacent or uninterested in a year that President Barack Obama isn't on the ballot.

A gunman who fired shots at a Washington-area Marine Corps museum and is believed to be responsible for three similar incidents may have a grievance against the U.S. Marine Corps, the FBI said Friday.

Lawrence Taylor's lawyer said Thursday that there's no plea bargain in the works that would resolve the pro football great's rape case.

The foreclosure crisis intensified across a majority of large U.S. metropolitan areas this summer, with Chicago and Seattle — cities outside of the states that have shouldered the worst of the housing downturn — seeing a sharp increase in foreclosure warnings.

Anita Hill is refusing to apologize for accusing then-Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her, in an issue that Thomas' wife has reopened 19 years after his confirmation hearings.

Less than halfway through his first term, President Barack Obama has appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history.

NPR's chief executive says she's sorry for how analyst Juan Williams' dismissal was handled — but not for firing him.

A new study shows African-American students at Marshall University graduate at a higher rate than other schools around the country.

An Alabama woman is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 30 on charges she conspired to defraud the federal government by preying on Hurricane Katrina victims who needed their properties rebuilt.

The number of women in America's state prisons has reached a record high, yet many states have inadequate policies for dealing with the large portion of them who have children or are pregnant, according to a new 50-state survey.

"I'm not a bigot," longtime news analyst Juan Williams said. Then he talked about getting nervous on a plane when he sees people in Muslim dress. Fair game for one of his employers, Fox News Channel, but a firable offense for the other, NPR.

A lawyer rejected from practicing law in Pennsylvania in the 1800s because he was black has been posthumously admitted to the state's bar.

Baltimore officials say black male students are the main reason behind the city school system's improvement in its graduation and dropout rates.

A federal judge has barred New York City from hiring new firefighters after criticizing its handling of a discrimination lawsuit against the fire department.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is seeking to curb racial violence at juvenile halls and detention camps.

While U.S. colleges have grown more racially diverse in recent years, minority students — especially Hispanics — still lag behind on key measures of academic progress, a new report says.

In a no-drama White House on the brink of big changes, there will remain a constant — Valerie Jarrett, longtime friend and trusted adviser to President Barack Obama.

Public schools in Washington have started serving dinner to about 10,000 students to help curb childhood hunger.

First lady Michelle Obama asked women on Monday to support Democrats in next month's midterm elections, urging them not to lose faith in her husband's vision for the country even if they are frustrated by the poor economy and slow pace of change he promised.

Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday it lost $7.65 billion during the third quarter due to a charge related to credit and debit card reform legislation passed over the summer.

Democrats are making a pre-election pitch to give Social Security recipients a one-time payment of $250, part of a larger effort to convince senior voters that their party, and not Republicans, will best look out for the 58 million people who get the government retirement and disability benefits.

The Defense Department said Tuesday that it is accepting openly gay recruits, but is warning applicants they might not be allowed to stick around for long.

A group of black Washington firefighters are alleging systematic racial discrimination in a federal lawsuit that claims they are subjected to harsher discipline and promoted less often by white supervisors.

Purdue University is renovating a library that will become the first major campus facility to be named for a black alumnus.

Two black men accused of voting illegally in 2008 have challenged Wisconsin's prohibition on felon voting, saying the ban discriminates against African-Americans because they're convicted of felonies more often than whites.

Mildred Jefferson, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and a nationally recognized leader of the anti-abortion movement, has died at age 84.

Authorities say two post office workers have been killed in a shooting at a post office in West Tennessee.

A judge has approved about $21,000 for a defense review of surveillance videos which could provide clues in the killing of 11 women whose remains were found at the suspect's home.

On the corner of Collington Road and Route 301, a bright blue poster screams the Democratic Party's wishful thinking at passing cars: "We've got your back President Obama."

Students from Murray State University are helping look for unmarked African-American burial plots.

Race, place and ethnicity still play large roles in whether a baby is born prematurely or to a teenager or single mother in Michigan, according to a new report.

Going after the youth vote, President Barack Obama got a grilling Thursday from a mostly under-30 crowd of adults, who sternly challenged him across his economic and social agenda and showed little hesitation to press him for greater results.

And you thought it was strange to hear that Barack Obama was related to Dick Cheney. Well, betcha can't guess who he's related to now!

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says abruptly ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy would have "enormous consequences" for the troops.

Officials in 50 states and the District of Columbia have launched a joint investigation into allegations that mortgage companies mishandled documents and broke laws in foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homeowners.

Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the District of Columbia's public schools, is expected to announce Wednesday that she is stepping down after a tension-filled, three-year tenure during which she gained a national reputation as a reformer who also fired hundreds of teachers.

U.S. Hispanics outlive whites by more than two years and blacks by more than seven, according to the government's first calculation of Hispanic life expectancy.

Democrats struggling to hold onto their congressional seats — or just make it to Washington — are getting backup, a cash infusion and a dash of star power from a political spouse who's making a highly anticipated return to the campaign trail: first lady Michelle Obama.

A federal judge issued a worldwide injunction Tuesday immediately stopping enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, suspending the 17-year-old ban on openly gay U.S. troops.

Langston University has received an $800,000 federal grant that it plans to use to help spur economic development in the Logan County town in which the school is located.

A coalition of civil rights groups has scheduled a forum on African Americans in Boston.

"Real Housewives of D.C." star Stacie Turner is going beyond her business and her turn as a TV personality to help girls in the D.C. foster care system.

A memorial is being dedicated on the South Carolina coast at one of the nation's oldest black cemeteries.

Dropping out of college after a year can mean lost time, burdensome debt and an uncertain future for students.

A top White House adviser questioned the need Sunday for a blanket stoppage of all home foreclosures, even as pressure grows on the Obama administration to do something about mounting evidence that banks have used inaccurate documents to evict homeowners.

As if voters don't have enough to be angry about this election year, the government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through another year without an increase in their monthly benefits.

The state has approved a new round of historical highway markers, honoring a Negro League baseball player and 13 Virginia events and places linked to the War of 1812.

Former Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod pleaded with officials to hear her out after she was ousted from the USDA during a racial firestorm in July, internal e-mails show.

Wearing black and holding signs such as, "Goodbye LSU hello Louisiana State Community College," several hundred students, faculty and staff led a funeral march for education.

The state's first accredited school of social work is celebrating 90 years this week.

Young adults with college degrees are now more likely to be married than those who are less educated, a reversal of longtime trends as the struggling economy pushes weddings to all-time lows.

U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop says he wasn't involved in decisions to award scholarships from the nonprofit Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to his stepdaughter and a niece, an issue dogging his re-election campaign.

Bank of America is delaying foreclosures in 23 states as it examines whether it rushed the foreclosure process for thousands of homeowners without reading the documents.

President Barack Obama is promoting his administration's investments in clean energy technologies like wind and solar, arguing they produce jobs and are essential for the country's environment and economic security.

Education in New Jersey's biggest city could be in for a big change — and not just because of the $100 million stock donation Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is expected to announce Friday on Oprah Winfrey's show.

The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from reputed Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale for the killing of two black men in rural Mississippi in 1964.

President Barack Obama is making official what has been clear for days: Rahm Emanuel, the relentless enforcer of his agenda as White House chief of staff, is resigning. The job Emanuel wants now is mayor of Chicago, where his next fierce political fight awaits.

A judge has ruled that a north Louisiana landowner violated the Fair Housing Act by engaging in a discriminatory pattern of excluding blacks from a marina outside Shreveport.

The new FBI headquarters in Mississippi will be named for three civil rights workers killed in the state in 1964 and a veteran FBI agent who led the investigation into their deaths.

Prosecutors say Bishop Eddie Long wanted to drop burglary charges against one of the young men now accusing the megachurch pastor of coercing him into a sexual relationship.

Arguing doggedly against returning Republicans to power, President Barack Obama told Iowa voters Wednesday that the GOP has been dishonest about what needs to be done to revive the economy and restore middle-class dreams.

Federal authorities are suing a Utah construction company for workplace discrimination.

Some residents of a historically black neighborhood in South Carolina are complaining about a new neighbor flying a Confederate flag on the front porch.

A federal appeals court has ruled that California illegally classified interns as "highly qualified" teachers and assigned them to schools in low-income and minority areas.

The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession.

Admonishing his own party, President Barack Obama says it would be "inexcusable" and "irresponsible" for unenthusiastic Democratic voters to sit out the midterm elections, warning that the consequences could be a squandered agenda for years.

A grandson of former President Jimmy Carter says he is out of a Cleveland hospital after being taken there with an upset stomach.

A stopgap spending bill that's needed to avert a government shutdown on Friday advanced in the Senate as lawmakers prepared to head for the exits for the midterm elections.

A stopgap spending bill that's needed to avert a government shutdown on Friday advanced in the Senate as lawmakers prepared to head for the exits for the midterm elections.

A shooting early Tuesday left a toddler and three others dead, and a fifth person was hospitalized and not expected to survive, police said. There have been no arrests, and outraged city officials asked residents for help.

President Barack Obama started the school week Monday with a call for a longer school year, and said the worst-performing teachers have "got to go" if they don't improve quickly.

Many followers of embattled Baptist megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long remained unwavering in their support as their pastor vowed to fight like David versus Goliath against claims he lured four young men into sex.

A black Union soldier who died at a Civil War field hospital in Lynchburg is being remembered by the local Sons of Union Veterans.

A Jackson megachurch is trying to regain the trust of its remaining members after a disastrous spate of what a top church official called financial mismanagement.

Although you rarely hear racial insults on Main Street these days, there's a place where unashamed bigotry is all too easy to find: tossed off in the comments sections of some of the Internet's most popular websites, today's virtual Main Street.

White descendants of the nation's first professionally trained African-American doctor gathered in a cemetery on Sunday to dedicate a tombstone at the unmarked grave where he was buried in 1865.

The Obama administration is pushing to make it easier for the government to tap into internet and e-mail communications. But the plan has already drawn condemnation from privacy groups and communications firms may be wary of its costs and scope.

She was only 16, but her role in the Civil Rights Movement was one of great importance. And now the commonwealth of Virginia is again ready to honor Barbara R. Johns for heroically leading a school strike in 1951 that led to the abolition of segregated schools in the Old Dominion and across the country.

It turns out the recession ended more than a year ago. Feeling better now?

U.S. government lawyers are trying to stop a federal judge from issuing an injunction that would immediately do what President Obama has yet to accomplish so far in his first term: Halt the military's ban on openly gay troops.

A U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia, acting on orders from the Supreme Court, will again review the death sentence of death-row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal.

She was only 16, but her role in the Civil Rights Movement was one of great importance. And now the commonwealth of Virginia is again ready to honor Barbara R. Johns for heroically leading a school strike in 1951 that led to the abolition of segregated schools in the Old Dominion and across the country.

It turns out the recession ended more than a year ago. Feeling better now?

The pastor of a nationally known Atlanta-area megachurch took other young men on trips as part of a mentoring program but stands by his denial of claims that he had sex with three of them, a lawyer for the religious leader said Thursday.

A white supremacist who goes by the nickname "Hitler" pleaded guilty Wednesday in the unprovoked beating of a black fisherman in a Baltimore park.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation that would have repealed the law banning gays from serving openly in the military.

Michelle Obama is jumping into the midterm political fray in a big way: She'll headline at least nine fundraisers in six states next month for the Democrats.

Aretha Franklin's son was severely beaten at a gas station in Detroit, the singing legend's spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Consumed by concerns at home, President Barack Obama turns back to the world stage this week, hoping to remind anyone listening of his efforts to reshape the image and diplomacy of the United States. Yet even this moment is shadowed by economic woes.

Two men have filed a lawsuit accusing Bishop Eddie Long of exploiting his role as pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch to coerce them into sexual relationships when they were members of his congregation.

President Barack Obama once told Democratic lawmakers they'd be proud to campaign on historic health care legislation. Six months later, the only Democrats running ads about it are the ones who voted "no."

Attorneys representing two men who say a prominent pastor of a 25,000-member megachurch near Atlanta coerced them into a sexual relationship have filed a third lawsuit on behalf of another young male member of his church.

The prominent pastor of a 25,000-member megachurch near Atlanta denies allegations in a lawsuit that he coerced two young men from the congregation into a sexual relationship, his attorney said.

A pair of documentaries about death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal have debuted in Philadelphia.

Authorities in Colorado say Denver Broncos and former South Carolina wide receiver Kenny McKinley has been found dead in his home in an apparent suicide.

A suburban St. Louis school district is naming its new elementary school after President Barack Obama.

A South Florida police chief is beginning his suspension for sending racist e-mails on his work account.

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was white families who moved from urban areas like Birmingham to the suburbs seeking better schools and in some cases hoping to avoid integration.

Two black sheriff's deputies who sued after a supervisor hung a noose in a St. Louis courthouse have won a combined $850,000 in damages.

Civil rights movement veterans are struggling to explain the motives of a revered photographer recently unmasked as an FBI informant who spied on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others even as he captured their most intimate moments. His children don't believe it's true.

President Barack Obama came out swinging against Republicans in a fiery campaign-season speech to black lawmakers Saturday night, making an urgent appeal for the kind of grassroots organizing that propelled the civil rights movement.

A judge says he will decide in less than a week whether to move the murder trial for a slain Oakland journalist out of Alameda County.

Assumption Parish authorities aren't discussing the possible motivations behind a black student's posting of racially oriented threats against other black students on the social networking site Facebook.

When the initial shock faded, police in this suburb of Portland, Ore., began to question some details in Bethany Storro's account of the day her face was irreparably burned by acid.

A South Carolina Senate leader is defending a photo he posed for wearing a Civil War uniform alongside two blacks in servants' costumes reminiscent of slavery.

A prominent Harlem pastor accused of sexually abusing children in the 1980s has resigned.

Three African-American men who were the first to attend the University of North Carolina will be honored in a series of events.

The head of the NAACP urged Mississippi's governor on Tuesday to pardon two black women who are serving life in prison for their role in an $11 armed robbery.

Dr. Ronald Walters, author, columnist, political analyst and Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland College Park succumbed to cancer Friday in a Maryland hospital, sources told the Defender.

Congressional Democrats are confronting deep divisions in their nervous ranks over whether to support President Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans — or just punt the entire matter until after voters go to the polls Nov. 2.

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel prevailed in a crowded Democratic primary Tuesday, with voters in his New York City district signaling they are willing to stand by the 40-year House veteran despite more than a dozen ethics charges pending against him.

Coming two weeks after Election Day, a book from President Barack Obama for some of the nation's nonvoters: inspirational stories for children about American pioneers.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. gave his ex-girlfriend $200 to put under their daughter's pillow for a lost tooth before threatening, hitting and taking a cell phone from the woman in an argument that led to a felony charge last week, according to a police arrest report made public on Monday.

A Georgia congressman awarded his stepdaughter, a niece and an aide's future wife college scholarships through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, making him the second House Democrat known to use the group to steer money to relatives and associates.

A memorial service is planned for later this month for Ronald W. Walters, a Wichita civil rights pioneer and professor at Howard University and the University of Maryland.

Before Barack Obama there was Adrian Fenty: a young, energetic, biracial lawyer and Democrat looking to fill a top political post in Washington.

Alumni groups at some of Mississippi's public universities are ramping up their private fundraising in hopes of decreasing the impact of state budget cuts.

He was a political analyst, a professor, a lecturer, a strategist, a mentor, a commentator, a thought leader, a Black Press columnist, a husband and a friend. And he did it all while remaining true to his life’s passion as an advocate for the progress and advancement of Black people. Dr. Ron Walters died of lung cancer Sept. 10, shocking many in the civil rights community who were unaware of the extent of his illness.

Amid an atmosphere of unease, President Barack Obama wants Americans to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by recapturing the sense of common purpose felt on that dreadful day.

President Barack Obama insisted Friday that the U.S. economy is showing improvement from the deepest recession in decades but conceded the "progress has been painfully slow." He said he understands that many voters in November's elections may blame the weak recovery on him.

The Congressional Black Caucus this year is tackling the current debilitating joblessness in the Black community head on with several sessions on the connection between education and employment at its 40th Annual Legislative Conference (ALC). The conference will be September 15-18 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been arrested in Las Vegas on a felony theft charge stemming from a domestic violence complaint by his ex-girlfriend.

It sounds like a political grudge match for the ages: Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, battered by ethics charges and stripped of his chairmanship of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, defending his seat against Adam Clayton Powell IV, son of the legendary Harlem lawmaker Rangel ousted 40 years ago.

As exhausted Detroit firefighters battled wind-fed blazes burning wild in some neighborhoods and threatening to char much of the city, a half-dozen departments from surrounding communities brought in sorely needed — and gladly accepted — help.

Oil giant BP PLC laid much of the blame for the rig explosion and the massive Gulf of Mexico spill on itself, other companies' workers and a complex series of failures in an internal report released Wednesday before a key piece of evidence has been fully analyzed.

Seeking to give anxious Democrats a boost ahead of the November elections, President Barack Obama is pitching a trio of economic initiatives Wednesday and voicing unwavering opposition to Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy.

The Obama administration is trying to jump-start its sputtering attempts to tackle the foreclosure crisis with an effort to assist homeowners who owe more on their properties than their homes are worth.

President Barack Obama's proposed tax breaks for business sound like ideas that have enjoyed broad Republican backing in the past. But in today's toxic political atmosphere, he's unlikely to get much — if any — GOP help.

Little Rock Nine member Jefferson Thomas has died at age 68 in Columbus, Ohio.

An African-American family has reached a second settlement with a New Jersey shore town for more than $100,000 in a racial discrimination lawsuit.

A healthy economy needs bustling Main Streets and a thriving middle class even more than a healthy stock market, President Barack Obama said as he reaffirmed his commitment to work hard for America's hardworking men and women.

A longtime basketball coach at Lexington Dunbar who was at the forefront of integrating the high school game in the 1950s died on Thursday. S.T. Roach was 94.

The U.S. marks on Wednesday the transition to the final phase of the Iraq war, shifting the focus of the remaining 50,000 American troops from combat operations to preparing Iraqi security forces to protect the country on their own.

President Barack Obama is opening a new round of Mideast peacemaking, bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders together Wednesday for talks aimed at forging agreement within one year on a two-state solution: a sovereign Palestine and a secure Israel.

Declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed, President Barack Obama on Tuesday ended the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, telling millions who were divided over the war in his country and around the world: "It is time to turn the page."

A black teen who attended the city's performing arts high school claims three white Pittsburgh police officers wrongfully assumed he was involved with drugs when they beat him, then allegedly conspired to file false charges against him and concoct a cover story for their actions, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday.

An internal audit of the scholarship program of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation was under way Tuesday, sparked by the admission by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson that she had steered scholarships to her relatives and the children of a staff member.

Federal officials say evacuations may be required in the U.S. if Hurricane Earl tracks too close to the East Coast.

A Texas congresswoman admitted that she wrongly steered thousands of dollars in college scholarships from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to her own relatives and the children of a staff member but said she did so unintentionally.

As President Barack Obama prepares to officially end the lengthy and divisive U.S. combat operation in Iraq, he'll personally thank some of the soldiers who fought there for their service to a mission he forcefully opposed from the start.

The Portland police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man in the back during a standoff last January has been placed on administrative leave pending a decision on review panel recommendations.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders are planning to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington.

The Rev. Al Sharpton says Glenn Beck and others have a right to rally in Washington, but they don't have a right to distort Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision.

Broadcaster Glenn Beck is calling on thousands to rally Saturday in the nation's capital on the anniversary and at the same site of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Civil rights leaders are protesting the event.

Bill Cosby and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are showing their support for the Detroit Public Schools.

With his Oval Office speech Tuesday night, President Barack Obama will signal a shift in America's focus from the Iraq War to the war in Afghanistan, his spokesman said Thursday.

Services are scheduled in Dinwiddie for William C. Morgan Jr., a pioneering member of the National Black Farmers Association.

A jury began deliberating in the case against a reputed member of a racist street gang charged with murdering a 14-year-old black girl and a potential witness.

The cleanup of history's worst peacetime oil spill is generating thousands of tons of oil-soaked debris that is ending up in local landfills, some of which were already dealing with environmental concerns.

A man suspected in 18 attacks in three states, including five fatal stabbings, was being extradited to Michigan on Thursday to face charges in at least one of the assaults.

Glenn Beck's rally on the anniversary and at the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech is drawing criticism, protests and questions about his intentions.

Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons is demonstrating his support for a proposed mosque near ground zero with some huge window displays.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Georgia death row inmate whose case attracted international support failed to prove his innocence after the U.S. Supreme Court gave him a rare chance to clear his name.

Federal agents are seeking to hire Ebonics translators to help interpret wiretapped conversations involving targets of undercover drug investigations.

A list detailing attacks linked to a string of five serial killings reveals the suspect has been most active during pre-dawn hours and on Mondays.

The number of U.S. troops in Iraq has fallen below 50,000 for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and ahead of the end-of-the-month deadline mandated by President Barack Obama, the American military said in a statement Tuesday.

The Agriculture Department official ousted during a racial firestorm last month has declined to accept an invitation to return to fulltime work at the agency.

Georgia State University is expected to break its highest ever student enrollment this year.

A long-running western Tennessee school desegregation case is set to go before a judge, who will decide whether to end the legal wrangling.

As a child, Wanda Butts learned to stay away from the water. Her father had witnessed a drowning when he was young and passed down a fear of swimming.

A new report says the graduation gap between white and black students at Wayne State University is the worst in the nation among public universities.

An assistant Polk County attorney has been chosen as Iowa's first African-American female judge.

Anger over a video showing Denver police slamming a Hispanic man to the ground intensified Thursday as Latino and African-American leaders called for the resignation of the city official who decided against firing the officers involved.

President Barack Obama had a simple task for his first morning on vacation: shoot over to a Martha's Vineyard bookstore to fill out his daughters' summer reading list and grab himself a novel.

Emmy-winning CBS News correspondent Harold Dow, who helped shape the documentary program "48 Hours" and covered the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and the Sept. 11 attacks, has died. He was 62.

Royal Oak officials have voted to allow licensed handgun owners to openly carry their weapons at a popular Detroit-area summer arts festival.

As the Black unemployment rate rose slightly last month, President Obama has signed the long-awaited jobs bill with hopes of turning around employment rates, which for African-Americans still nearly doubles the national average of 9.5 percent.

Haitian-Americans have the best opportunity yet to represent themselves in Congress, with an open House seat in a South Florida district that includes more Haitians than any other in the country.

A South Carolina mother who claimed her children drowned when their car careened into a river was charged with murder Tuesday after authorities said she confessed to suffocating the two toddlers to be free of them and then faking the accident.

A jury in Crown Point has determined a 20-year-old Indiana woman convicted of murdering her 2-year-old cousin will go to prison for life without parole.

A Hawaii state lawmaker intends to introduce a symbolic resolution banning the N-word after he heard talk radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger say it on air.

The New Orleans Saints have come marching in to the White House.

A combative Rep. Charles Rangel told the House on Tuesday he's not resigning despite 13 charges of wrongdoing and demanded the ethics committee not leave him "swinging in the wind."

The House ethics committee on Monday announced three counts of alleged ethics violations against California Democrat Maxine Waters, including a charge that she requested federal help for a bank where her husband owned stock and had served on its board.

A defense attorney says his client didn't intend to kill a toddler whose body was found encased in concrete in a swampy area of northwestern Indiana.

The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan Thursday as the Supreme Court's 112th justice and the fourth woman in its history, granting a lifetime term to a lawyer and academic with a reputation for brilliance, a dry sense of humor and a liberal bent.

Two buses carrying high school band students to an amusement park were involved in a freeway wreck involving a tractor-trailer Thursday that left two people dead and dozens injured, officials said.

Omar Thornton sat calmly in a meeting with union representative and his supervisors as they showed a video of him stealing beer from the distributor where he worked.

As a racial firestorm erupted last month, the White House buzzed with questions and concerns about the forced ouster of a black Agriculture Department employee. But no one stepped in to stop Secretary Tom Vilsack from pressuring Shirley Sherrod to resign, a decision administration officials from President Barack Obama on down now say was a mistake.

Incumbents beware. Another lawmaker just bit the dust.

The all-volunteer rifle squad that George J. Weiss Jr. started three decades ago has delivered the final salute at more than 56,400 military burials.

As U. S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) prepares to fight 13 ethics charges, U. S. Rep. Maxine Waters, another leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus, has also come under scrutiny.

Experts say a lack of black and Hispanic teachers could hinder the achievement of minorities as their enrollment rises in Texas.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a bill reducing the disparity between federal mandatory sentences for convictions for crack cocaine and the powder form of the drug.

The Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the town of Hartford over what it says is the town's refusal to release records relating to an incident in which police dragged an African-American man from his home in handcuffs.

Five death row inmates are testing a new North Carolina law that would allow them to argue racial bias played a role in their sentences, and they may soon be joined by dozens of others.

Four African American employees of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families are suing the state agency, saying it discriminates against minority workers.

Six teenagers wading in the shallows of a Louisiana river drowned in front of their horrified families after falling into deep water. None of the teens or nearby adults could swim.

President Barack Obama is ready to spell out in greater detail America's changing mission in Iraq with the approach of an end to combat operations there.

In a bid to ensure Net Neutrality, the Free Press has commissioned the Harmony Institute to develop a strategy that will target poor, rural African- Americans in the South and women to increase support for a Net Neutrality (NN) strategy. Net Neutrality is basically the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. In other words, everyone has access, and all platforms, content, and sites are treated equally.

A House panel announced Monday that it had charged Rep. Maxine Waters with violating ethics rules, setting the stage for a second election-season trial for a longtime Democratic lawmaker and adding to the party's political woes.

The National Urban League, known for its hundreds of affiliates tucked in mostly inner city neighborhoods across the nation is confronting the human faces of unemployment, home loss and economic blight every day.

Rep. Charles Rangel, who has spent half of his 80 years as a member of Congress, says he looks forward to fighting ethics charges. Other Democrats won't be so pleased.

A College of William and Mary professor thinks he may have found the nation's oldest surviving schoolhouse for African American children.

After a take-it-or-leave-it vote by the Senate, House Democrats face little choice but to drop billions in aid for schools, college students and others that they had hoped could ride on legislation paying for President Barack Obama's troop surge in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama has conveyed "his regret" to former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod over her ouster in the midst of a racially-tinged firestorm, the White House said Thursday.

On the heels of a major win after the NAACP’s call for an end to the racist wing of the political Tea Party movement, the organization pushed forward this week with plans for a national march and rally in D.C. on October 2.

Chattanooga police officers will not be charged for firing 59 gunshots at an armed man on his front porch after he walked around his neighborhood with a rifle ranting about suicide, a prosecutor said Thursday.

The NAACP is asking the Kentucky attorney general to investigate the arrest of a black college student from Florida who was selling textbooks door-to-door.

Ousted Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans lashed out at critics on his Facebook page on Thursday as the city's mayor said he fired the chief a day earlier because of his role in a reality TV show and relationship with a fellow officer.

Is black racism a real problem? Or is it pure politics?

Protesters and police scuffled Tuesday at a school board meeting in North Carolina over claims that a new busing system would resegregate schools, roiling racial tensions reminiscent of the 1960s.

The woman at the center of a racially tinged firestorm involving the Obama administration and the NAACP said Wednesday she doesn't know if she'd return to her job at the Agriculture Department, even if asked.

Reveling over a new milestone in his presidency, a triumphant Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules since the Great Depression, adding safeguards for millions of consumers and aiming to restrain Wall Street excesses that could set off a new recession.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said Sunday he's outraged at shootings that wounded 10 young people during the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration.

President Barack Obama took aim at Republican lawmakers Monday, accusing them of holding the public hostage to Washington politics by blocking extended unemployment benefits for millions of out of work Americans.

To show how well he understands life's daily struggles, President Barack Obama likes to tell the tale of a regular guy who has been out of work, coped with college loans, endured a fatherless childhood and longs at times to just escape.

In the annals of desegregation, Raleigh is barely a footnote.

BP and the Obama administration offered significantly differing views Sunday on whether the capped Gulf of Mexico oil well will have to be reopened, a contradiction that may be an effort by the oil giant to avoid blame if crude starts spewing again.

BP said its capped-off well appeared to be holding steady Friday morning, almost midway into a white-knuckle waiting period in which engineers watched the pressure gauges for signs of a leak.

Those who struggled and many who died in battles for freedom, justice, and racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement left a legacy that must yet be fulfilled - even in caring for the health of Black children, First Lady Michelle Obama reminded thousands at the NAACP Annual Convention in Kansas City, Mo., this week.

Vernon Baker, a black U.S. soldier who belatedly received the Medal of Honor for his World War II battlefield valor after historians concluded he'd been wrongly denied the military's top award because of his race, died at his home near St. Maries, Idaho. He was 90.

Congress on Thursday passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer protections to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees.

After fixing a leak on a cap designed to plug up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP engineers readied Thursday to see if the new top is enough to contain the gusher.

Four New Orleans police officers could face the death penalty after being accused of gunning down two unarmed people in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the latest twist for a corruption-plagued department that already faces several federal investigations.

BP's work to cap its Gulf of Mexico gusher was in limbo Wednesday after the federal government raised concerns the operation could put damaging pressure on the busted well and make the leak worse.

The head of the nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization, fearing a loss of momentum since the 2008 election, plans to use the group's annual convention to get people "off the couch" and re-energized to fight back against a tea party movement that opposes much of President Barack Obama's agenda.

President Barack Obama's party could lose its House majority in this fall's elections, his spokesman said Sunday, perhaps trying to jolt Democratic voters with the specter of GOP lawmakers rolling back White House policies.

The NAACP has sent a letter to BP expressing concerns that minorities helping to clean up after the massive oil spill tend to be assigned tougher, lower paying jobs than whites.

With the military fighting two wars, President Barack Obama said Saturday the country has a "solemn responsibility" to ensure that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder get the help they need.

Violent protests erupted in Oakland with stores damaged and dozens arrested after a Los Angeles jury convicted a white former transit officer of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man.

A string of murders of young black women had south Los Angeles on edge in the mid-1980s, then the killings suddenly stopped, only to resume again 14 years later.

Black political leaders say they want to recapture the energy of the 2008 presidential election and respond to the tea party movement.

Minority children have fewer opportunities than their white peers to gain access to high-quality health care, education, safe neighborhoods and adequate support from the communities where they live, according to a nationwide survey of professionals who work with young people.

Howard University, Morehouse College, and Meharry Medical School topped a recent national study for having a strong social mission as part of its medical teachings.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has cleared the way for a trial on an African-American pastor's claim of racial discrimination by two police departments.

Bypassing Republicans eager to grill an administration official over the new health care law, President Barack Obama is planning to appoint the head of Medicare and Medicaid without Senate hearings.

President Barack Obama is naming 18 corporate chiefs to an advisory council charged with helping the administration fulfill his promise to double U.S. exports and create millions of new jobs over the next five years.

Battered by massive losses, the Postal Service wants to raise rates to bring in more money.

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to soothe rocky relations on Tuesday, declaring that any talk of a rift is unfounded. Obama said the U.S.-Israeli bond is "unbreakable."

Bill Cosby used his trademark humor and storytelling style to chide hundreds gathered Saturday at the Essence Music Festival's empowerment seminars into talking to their children about real life and, in the process, keeping it simple.

More than two months after oil from BP's blown-out seafloor well first reached Louisiana, a bucket's worth of tar balls that washed onto a Texas beach means the crude has arrived in every Gulf state.

The night Demarco Harris shot and killed a woman during a robbery on a Detroit street, his parents told police knocking on their door at 2 a.m. they didn't know where their 12-year-old was.

Combative youth, how guards restrain them and the guards' failure to coordinate their responses to violent run-ins are all to blame for injuries to juveniles at an Ohio youth prison with the highest rate of such incidents, a study found.

Just about everyone likes Charlie Rangel.

The first stage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is expected to provide coverage to about 1 million uninsured Americans by next year, according to government estimates.

Leading Republican lawmakers and the Afghan ambassador to the United States are voicing opposition to President Barack Obama's plan to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan starting next year.

It's not something people like to talk about, but Louisiana has one of the highest HIV-AIDS rates in the country, and the problem particularly plagues the black community.

Former Detroit School Board President Otis Mathis has turned himself in on charges of misconduct in office related to a complaint that he fondled himself in front of an employee.

Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill that bans texting while driving and requires older drivers to get vision tests every five years when they renew their licenses.

President Barack Obama says the economy is headed in the right direction, but not fast enough to satisfy him or many Americans.

BP and the Obama administration face mounting complaints that they are ignoring foreign offers of equipment and making little use of the fishing boats and volunteers available to help clean up what may now be the biggest spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

Grambling State University's new president has hired the former president of Virginia's largest historically black university to review "every dime" of GSU's budget.

BP's massive oil spill will become the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico by Thursday based on the highest of the federal government's estimates, an ominous record that underscores the oil giant's dire need to halt the gusher.

A push is on to take violent criminals off the streets of Detroit.

A Michigan State University study will look at how long it might take to clear a huge backlog of rape evidence kits that were never analyzed by the former Detroit Police crime laboratory.

Legislation that requires people convicted of armed robbery to serve most of their sentences in prison is among a number of measures that will become law July 1.

The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned a multimillion-dollar verdict and criticized a Detroit-area judge for keeping a woman on a jury because she's black.

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan has written Jewish organizations nationwide accusing Jews of hurting blacks and asking for what he calls "repair of my people from the damage."

A woman who resigned from the Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs has admitted she inappropriately used an Army e-mail account for board business, including to plot the firing of the secretary last year.

Officials at a historically black university in North Carolina have denied more applications this year than any time in its 143-year history because of higher admission standards.

Nearly 1 in 5 American women beyond childbearing years never gave birth as fewer couples, particularly higher-educated whites, view having children as necessary to a good marriage.

Challenged bluntly by Republicans, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan said Tuesday the Pentagon's recruiters had access to Harvard Law School students "every single day I was dean" and rejected claims she maneuvered to thwart them.

The California chapter of the NAACP is announcing its support for a marijuana legalization ballot measure, saying current laws unfairly target people of color.

More than 300 communities around the U.S. have submitted applications to the Department of Education to receive grants under a federal program designed to revitalize troubled neighborhoods.

The Rapides Area Planning Commission won't issue permits for house trailers once used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency until legal issues are worked out.

BP has met its July 1 deadline to pay the federal government for the initial costs of responding to the Gulf oil spill.

A federal appeals court has ruled that a lower court should not have dismissed a charge that an avowed Virginia white supremacist used his website to urge others to harm a juror.

Michael Vick was interviewed by a detective Monday about a shooting that took place outside a nightclub where he had celebrated his birthday, a Virginia Beach Police spokesman said.

A special visitor to the Oval Office soon will be moving on.

A second Tampa police officer has died following a shooting during a traffic stop. Officials say 31-year-old officer David Curtis died at Tampa General Hospital. Officer Jeffrey Kocab, also 31, died earlier following the shooting early Tuesday.

Her confirmation all but assured, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan neared the end of a final grueling day of Senate questioning Wednesday, fielding GOP challenges on abortion, gays in the military and other divisive issues while sidestepping Democrats' invitations to blast conservative decisions by the court she's hoping to join.

Unable to deliver more stimulus spending for President Barack Obama, Democrats in Congress are trying at least to restore jobless benefits for 1.3 million laid-off workers.

Seizing on a political opportunity, President Barack Obama on Wednesday lashed out at Republicans as out of touch with the daily problems of Americans, hoping to sharpen the contrast with the opposition party as midterm elections loom and economic anxiety still runs high.

First lady Michelle Obama will be the headliner at the NAACP convention in Kansas City in July.

Robert C. Byrd, who rose from the poverty of West Virginia coal country to become the sage and conscience of the U.S. Senate in a political career stretching more than half a century, died Monday. He was 92.

PHILADELPHIA - A Boy Scouts chapter in Philadelphia may have ousted just one gay scout in the decade since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the organization’s right to ban gays, but that doesn’t mean untold others haven’t been shut out, a city lawyer told jurors Tuesday.

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge struck down the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, saying the government rashly concluded that because one rig failed, the others are in immediate danger, too.

Pictured is a small gunshot sensor, with an antenna, top right, can be seen mounted on a pole just above a camera in East Orange, N.J. The gunshot sensor triggers the camera via the control box at left. AP/Mel Evans, File

Paul Quinn College President Michael Sorrell has to walk a fine line between drawing attention to his school’s challenges and pleading for sympathy. The historically Black college, located in a distressed section of Oak Cliff, is fighting to keep its doors open in the wake of last year’s decision by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to revoke the school’s accreditation because of academic and financial woes.

LONDON — Britain has doubled rig inspections. Bulgaria scrapped plans for a new oil pipeline. Chinese and French oil giants are upgrading equipment and procedures designed to prevent spills. As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, nations around the globe are taking a cue from this cautionary tale and ratcheting up their oversight of the petroleum industry.

NEW ORLEANS — Newly released internal documents show BP PLC estimated 4.2 million gallons of oil a day could gush from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico if all equipment restricting the flow was removed and company models were wrong.

“We want fair share to go to NNPA,” said Jackson, who has fought alongside NNPA Chairman Danny Bakewell for inclusion in advertising dollars for NNPA newspapers and economic parity for small and Black-owned businesses in general.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — First lady Michelle Obama is launching a national challenge for every American to find ways to make life easier for the families of U.S. troops.

NEW ORLEANS — BP mounted a more aggressive response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as it deployed undersea sensors to better measure the ferocious flow of crude while drawing up new plans to meet a government demand that it speed up the containment effort ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to the coast.

Some experts and policymakers believe our country could do more to prevent problems before they occur.

MIAMI — With their homeland ravaged by an earthquake, more than 50,000 Haitians have applied to legally stay and work in the U.S. and immigration advocates are urging others not to miss their chance.

NEW YORK — A jailed financial adviser to the stars has pleaded not guilty to alleged securities fraud worth $59 million.

BOSTON — One of the three white men who allegedly torched a predominantly black church in western Massachusetts because they were angry with President Barack Obama's election has agreed to plead guilty, a person familiar with the investigation says.

LAS VEGAS — One of O.J. Simpson's lawyers says the former football star is "upbeat" and hopeful the Nevada Supreme Court will overturn his conviction and grant a new trial in a September 2007 hotel room heist.

Pictures is a EarthCam view of the MLK Memorial construction site in Washington, D.C. The virtual camera is available online.

NEW ORLEANS - The cap over a broken wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is collecting more gushing crude day by day, but that’s about the extent of the details known as authorities try to pinpoint how much oil is escaping, where it's going and what harm it will cause.

LAS VEGAS – Researchers have found that wives who stay behind and maintain the home front when husbands go off to war often experience a roller coaster of emotions that makes communication difficult before, during and after deployments.

A section of Interstate 40 in Tennessee is a step closer to being named after legendary soul musician Isaac Hayes, according to Eurweb.

MILLBURY, Ohio — A community whose high school was destroyed the day before graduation by a tornado that killed seven people, including the valedictorian's father, rescheduled the ceremony as residents sifted through houses in many cases reduced to rubble.

WASHINGTON — The 2010 elections have changed the direction of government only half way through the primary season, with voter anger and economic jitters causing lawmakers to balk at their most basic duties as well as key elements of President Barack Obama's agenda

WASHINGTON — The man who's overseeing the government's response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill says the cap on the damaged oil well is now keeping up to 462,000 gallons of oil a day from leaking into the Gulf.

Shrek glasses, from left to right, Puss In Boots, Shrek, Donkey and Fiona, are displayed June 4, 2010. Cadmium has been discovered in the painted design on "Shrek"-themed drinking glasses being sold nationwide at McDonald's, forcing the burger giant to recall 12 million of the cheap U.S.-made collectibles while dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal beyond imported children's jewelry.(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

NEW YORK — Stocks have tumbled after the government said hiring remains weak and Hungary became the latest European country to report its economy is in crisis.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's political operation is going door-to-door this weekend in more than a thousand cities to try to persuade the voters who helped elect him to turn out for Democrats in the midterm elections.

KENNER, La. — President Barack Obama says progress apparently is being made in fighting the enormous Gulf oil spill.

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. — Waves of gooey tar balls crashed into the white sands of the Florida Panhandle on Friday as BP engineers adjusted a sophisticated cap over the Gulf oil gusher, trying to collect the crude now fouling four states.

WASHINGTON – Crime in the United States dropped dramatically in 2009, bucking a historical trend that links rising crime rates to economic woes. Property crimes and violent offenses each declined about 5 percent, the FBI said Monday, citing reports from law enforcement coast to coast.

The feud between two factions of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has come to a head over an alleged break-in at the group's Atlanta headquarters. A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday to settle the matter.

Brown President Ruth Simmons told the AP the allegations are "utter poppycock" but wouldn't comment further.

PROVO, Utah — Gary Coleman, the adorable, pint-sized child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes" who spent the rest of his life struggling on Hollywood's D-list, died Friday after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.

WASHINGTON — Congress has taken two big steps toward ending the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.

COVINGTON, La. — BP kept pumping heavy mud into its blown-out well beneath the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, but the company's chief executive cautioned it will be two more days before anyone knows if the latest fix attempt will end the uncontrolled flow of crude that has already become the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

BARATARIA BAY, La. — The BP executive in charge of fighting the Gulf of Mexico oil spill acknowledged Monday that everyone is frustrated at his company's failure to plug the gushing well more than a month into the disaster that is now spreading damage through Louisiana's wetlands.

Kwame Kilpatrick was referred to as the young, “hip-hop” mayor of Detroit and the youngest in the history of that city to be elected to office. At the age of 31, he was full of enthusiasm, energy and had plans to help Detroit become a great city.

Rainy conditions didn’t stop crowds of people from attending the ceremony to rename a street in Queens, N.Y. after the late Sean Bell. Liverpool Street, between 94th Avenue and 101st Street, will now bear the name of “Sean Bell Way.” The street is significant in that it is the location where Bell was shot and killed in November 2006 in a hail of over 50 bullets at the hands of the NYPD before his wedding day.

GALLIANO, La. - U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano says federal officials are working to hold BP PLC responsible for cleaning up the growing Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

GALLIANO, La. — U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano says federal officials are working to hold BP PLC responsible for cleaning up the growing Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

WINFIELD, Mo. — Mexican drug smugglers are increasingly peddling a form of ultra-potent heroin that sells for as little as $10 a bag and is so pure it can kill unsuspecting users instantly, sometimes before they even remove the syringe from their veins.

WASHINGTON — Anxious and angry, Americans are not in a congratulatory mood. That's bad news for President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies.

DETROIT — A prosecutor is seeking a prison term of two years to five years for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who violated his probation in a criminal case.

CLEVELAND – A U.S. immigration court has granted asylum to President Barack Obama’s African aunt, allowing her to stay in the country, her attorneys announced Monday.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has ruled that teenagers may not be locked up for life without chance of parole if they haven’t killed anyone.

DETROIT – An attorney for the family of a 7-year-old girl slain during a weekend raid at their Detroit home says video footage contradicts the police department's version of events.

WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans are still likely to lose their homes in the coming years, but the foreclosure crisis is finally showing signs of subsiding.

DETROIT – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is spoke Monday at the groundbreaking for a center for civil rights studies at Wayne State University.

NEW YORK — The New York attorney general has launched an investigation into eight banks to determine whether they misled ratings agencies about mortgage securities, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

FATIMA, Portugal — Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for an outdoor Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday at Fatima, the Catholic shrine that pilgrims visit in search of cures for their ailments.

BOSTON — The FBI says agents have executed search warrants at several locations in the Northeast in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb.

WASHINGTON — New claims for unemployment benefits dipped for the fourth straight week, a sign the job market is improving at a slow but steady pace

WASHINGTON – FEMA's botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 reduced the Federal Emergency Management Agency to a different four-letter word in the eyes of many, especially African-American New Orleans residents, who were disparately victimized and displaced by the storm and the floods that killed more than 1,800 people.

PEARL, Miss.- Although the death toll remains at six, new reports show that the number of destroyed and damaged homes continue to rise due to the devastating May 1 storm systems that caused major flooding and produced two tornadoes in North Mississippi.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.- A program for African American elementary students in Michigan has been disbanded after a field trip to meet a Black rocket scientist that excluded children of other races.

WASHINGTON — Democrats say homeowners could foster jobs, clean up the earth and save themselves some serious money — just by making their homes more energy efficient under a bill expected to pass the House Thursday.

WASHINGTON — U.S. companies are running out of ways to increase productivity from leaner workforces, a sign that they may need to step up hiring in the months ahead.

WASHINGTON — Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday the U.S. government-brokered rescue sale of Wall Street firm Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March 2008 held off the financial crisis for much of that tumultuous year.

NEW YORK — A day before driving an SUV with a rigged homemade bomb into Times Square, a Pakistani-American made a test drive into the heart of the city, dropped off a getaway car blocks from his target and took a train home to Connecticut, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON – President Obama has signed into law a bill calling for the United States to take the lead in forgiving debt owed to international lenders by earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Willard Tillman and others converged on Capitol Hill recently to find when Congress would disperse funds from the historic $1.25 billion settlement in the Pigford II case against the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture where Black farmers claimed discrimination.

Katie Washington, a biological sciences major from Gary, Ind., has been named valedictorian of the 2010 University of Notre Dame graduating class and will present the valedictory address during Commencement exercises May 16, in Notre Dame stadium.