- Building Cities With Sustainability in Mind to Cut Costs | Miller-McCune
- Aside from some notable improvements in sanitation, and perhaps civility, our infrastructure still follows the Roman model
- Black in Latin America: Peru, Mexico, Haiti and Santo Domingo | The Root
- More blacks were transported as slaves to Mexico and Peru than to the United States. Afro-Peruvians have staged a cultural revival, but Afro-Mexicans are much more reticent about their origins. Haitians are proudly black, but brown-skinned Dominicans prefer the term "Indio." These are just a few of the findings in Black in Latin America, the new four-part PBS documentary series by The Root's editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr. We have video clips to give you the sabor — the flavor of the series.
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- A Year After BP, Gulf Is Not Back | The Root – Brentin Mock
- The hundreds of reporters who descended on the Gulf last summer to tell the story of the disaster have cleared out. But there's a new, darker meaning to the phrase "the coast is clear." Coastal land loss has plagued the Gulf for decades… This also exposes Gulf Coast families to higher poverty and despair.
Much as the Katrina floods compelled America to pay attention to the decades of neglect and economic inequality in New Orleans, the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout brought into focus the legacy of degradation and pollution …
America can't afford to keep the Gulf on injured reserve for too long, though. The Gulf Coast supports a $34 billion tourism industry and supplies the nation with 40 percent of its seafood. …
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- Oregon Jury Awards Woman $82K After Wrongful Arrest | The Root
- …[She was] arrested for simply asking a police officer for a business card. A jury found 10-2 that police committed battery against Shei'Meka Newmann and that she was falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted.
When Newmann witnessed officer Aaron Dauchy handcuff a 29-year-old black man outside a commuter train, she asked what the officer was arresting him for. Dauchy informed Newmann that he didn’t have to tell her anything unless she was his lawyer. Newmann then asked Dauchy's partner, Jim Sandvik, for his business card. When the officer refused, Newmann approached Sandvik to read the name on his uniform, and Sandvik then struck her in the chest and twisted her arm back before arresting her.
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- HBCU: Morgan State University Receives $28.5 Million NASA Grant | The Root
- Blackvoicenews.com is reporting that Morgan State University will receive a landmark $28.5 million portion of a massive $95.8 million, five-year grant from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The grant will allow the Baltimore HBCU to conduct research supporting NASA's earth- and space-science projects. It is the largest in Morgan's 144-year history and will help the HBCU play an integral part in the Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research Studies and Investigations research team.
- Brewer Vetoes Birther Bill In Arizona | TPMDC
- "It should be noted, however, that the bill had previously passed the legislature with margins that would potentially be veto-proof: 20-9 in the Senate, and 40-16 in the House. "
- Poll: Obama’s Approval Rating Dives As Economic Pessimism Hits Two Year High | TPMDC
- …a majority of Americans now disapprove of his job performance. But despite Obama's shaky standing, the president still led every potential Republican rival paired against him in potential head-to-head 2012 matchups, a sign that while he is weak, the GOP field right now is weaker.
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- Undocumented Immigrants Pay Taxes Too, Group Says – The Bay Citizen
- California's undocumented immigrants will pay more than $2.7 billion in state and local taxes this year, according a new report released Monday by the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center.
The group estimates the 2.5 million immigrants who live in the Golden State illegally pay $176 million income taxes in California, $735 million in property tax, and $1.8 billion in sales tax.
- State Budget Cuts Threaten California’s Master Plan – The Bay Citizen
- The University of California may not be able to admit every qualified California student if the state imposes deeper budget cuts, university officials say. Such students have been [previously] guaranteed admission under the state’s Master Plan for Education.
- The Orange on the Seder Plate – TIME
- Reflecting on when she added the orange to her seder plate in the 1980s, she says it was to be eaten "as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community," including widows. The seeds, symbolizing homophobia, were to be spat out.
- Victory in Peeps in Law Contest Goes to ‘Don’t Touch My Peeps, Man!’ – News – ABA Journal
- With more than 62,000 votes, the 3rd Annual Peeps in Law Contest has a winner, with 43 percent of the vote: "Don't Touch My Peeps, Man!" by Nicholas Meeker, Lisa Liegeot and Rebecca Sherry. The winning trio will be awarded with $150 of Peeps memorabilia from Just Born, the manufacturer of Peeps, and bragging rights for a full year. …
- ANALYSIS: Taxed Enough Already? Tea Party Rallies Significantly Smaller This Year Than Last | Think Progress • by Alex Seitz-Wald
- ThinkProgress could find only a few places in which tea party rallies were larger this year than last, including one in Boca Raton, FL, which saw a large rally this year headlined by potential presidential contender Donald Trump, but witnessed no notable rally last year. But even in places with big headliners, like Madison, WI and Columbia, SC, which featured tea party favorites Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), respectively, turnout was lower than expected.
Meanwhile, in stark contrast to previous years’ rallies, Tea Party activists were met in numerous cities by counter-protesters …
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- Ku Klux Klan Says It Doesn’t Condone Tea Party or Koran Burning | GOOD • by Cord Jefferson
- A clear sign that perhaps you've gone off the deep end? When even the Ku Klux Klan tries to distance itself from your actions. …
In one statement from August 2010, the Klan had this (shockingly reasonable thing) to say about Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose Koran burning set off a massacre at a U.N. building in Afghanistan in early April this year:…
racism islamophobia my_schadenfreude_let_me_show_u_it tea_party
- Debt Ceiling: The Musical | Hullabaloo – digby
- …according to Contessa Brewer and Melissa Francis on MSNBC, S
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[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Tue, Apr 19th, 12pm) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.