Federal judge blocks Ohio law discarding provisional ballots cast in wrong precinct

Jurist

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio [official website] on Monday blocked a state election law adopted in 2006 that discards provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct. Pursuant to the law, the provisional ballots were rejected even if the error was caused by a poll worker. Approximately 14,000 provisional ballots were discarded [LAT report] in Ohio in the 2008 elections as a result of this law. 

South African Labor Union Seeks Wage Raise for Gold Miners After Platinum Unrest

Bloomberg

The National Union of Mineworkers, South Africa’s biggest labor union, wants more pay for gold miners after wage discontent in the platinum industry spurred violence in which 44 people died at a mine earlier this month.

The union wants an increase of as much as 2,000 rand ($238) a month for workers including rock drillers, winch and locomotive drivers, General Secretary Frans Baleni said. Talks are taking place with Africa’s gold producers including Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI), AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG) and Harmony Gold Mining Co Ltd. (HAR), he said.

Obama provides birth certificate — on a Campaign button

Washington Post 

The Obama staff is turning lemons into lemonade. Or, more specifically, Birthers into Abe Lincolns.

For $5, you can now buy a button that features a smiling portrait of Obama above the words “Made in the USA” and a picture of his birth certificate.

Due to Prosecutorial Misconduct California Supreme Court overturns Santa Clara County death sentence of Latino Man

MercuryNews

The California Supreme Court on Monday reversed a Santa Clara County double murderer's death sentence, finding that the prosecution's failure to turn over key evidence tainted his 1987 trial.

In a unanimous ruling, the seven-member court, which seldom overturns California death sentences, ordered a new penalty phase trial for Miguel Bacigalupo, who was sent to death row for the 1983 slayings of two brothers in their San Jose jewelry store. The Supreme Court left Bacigalupo's murder convictions intact, but concluded that prosecutorial misconduct could have altered the jury's death sentence recommendation.

Unheard Dr. King Audio Found In Attic

News One

Stephon Tull was looking through dusty old boxes in his father’s attic in Chattanooga a few months ago, when he stumbled on to something startling: an audio reel labeled, “Dr. King interview, Dec. 21, 1960.”

Florida Cop Fired for Slamming White Woman on Video

From [HERE] 

A veteran cop was fired and charged with criminal battery after officers reviewed a video of him slamming a woman into her car in Pensacola, Fla. "We have certain expectations of our police officers, and when I looked at the video, I was disappointed because I felt like that didn't stand up to those expectations," Pensacola Police Chief Chip Simmons told ABCNews.com. "We determined that what we saw on the video was inconsistent with what our policies allow and what state statute allows."

US military deaths in Afghanistan at 1,968

MercuryNews

As of Tuesday, August 21, 2012, at least 1,968 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count. The AP count is four less than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT. At least 1,638 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

One in Four Mississippi Residents Struggle to Afford Food

Gallup 

One in four Mississippi residents report lacking enough money to buy the food they or their families needed at times in the last 12 months -- more than any other state in 2012. North Dakotans were the least likely to struggle to afford food, at 9.6%.

Mittens' False Welfare Attacks Ignore His Own Plans To Gut Programs For The Poor

ThinkProgress

To distract the public from their plans to funnel additional tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan — the GOP’s presidential ticket — are engaging in one of the oldest and most cynical forms of class warfare: using a manufactured welfare fight as an wedge issue to foster resentment among voters. The Romney campaign has spent the past several weeks hammering the airwaves with an ad that claims that “President Obama Ended Work Requirements For Welfare” telling voters that he just wants to “hand them a check.” The implication? That while you’re working hard to make ends meet, Obama wants to enable freeloading and give lazy people your tax dollars. We’d be naïve to ignore the racial implications of such an argument.

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As Demographics Change, An End to The Solid White South

Huffington Post

New citizens, birth rates, and migration patterns of native-born Americans make high-growth areas less white, less conservative or both. There is increasing urban concentration in many areas. African-American families are moving back to the South after generations in Chicago, New York or other northern cities.

Young religious voters are less likely than their parents to align with Republicans on abortion and same-sex unions. Younger voters generally are up for grabs on fundamental questions like the role of the federal government in the marketplace.

White man charged with vandalizing mosque sign in Rhode Island

Boston.com

A man has been charged with vandalizing a sign outside a mosque this month, an incident that prompted Muslim leaders in the state to ask for additional police protection at houses of worship because they were concerned it might be a hate crime. The imam of the Masjid Al-Islam mosque, Mufti Ikram ul Haq, told The Associated Press on Monday that police informed staff at the North Smithfield mosque that they had arrested a 20-year-old man and didn't believe he had committed a hate crime.

Racist Whites Put Raw Bacon at Site of NYC Muslim Ramadan Event

NY1

Police were investigating Monday an incident that could be a hate crime targeting Staten Island Muslims. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said three packages of raw bacon was found on a football field in New Dorp Beach park on Sunday morning, just before a ceremony marking Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, was set to take place there.

The Koran prohibits observant Muslims from eating or pork products. Kelly also said two derogatory comments were found on a website associated with the event.

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Hearing Over Arizona’s Racist ‘Show Your Papers’ Law Set For Tuesday

Wall Street Journal 

The debate over Arizona’s controversial immigration law is set to heat up again tomorrow, when a U.S. District Court judge holds a hearing over a request by civil rights groups to block the “show your papers” provision, which was left intact by a Supreme Court decision in June.

A coalition of civil rights organizations will argue that Arizona’s law is unconstitutional, encourages racial profiling, endangers public safety and “betrays American values,” according to a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Bank of Canada apologizes for banknote after racism accusations - Asian Woman was on largest denomination but Whites didn't like that

Wall Street Journal

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney took the unusual step Monday of apologizing for any offense that may have resulted from the central bank’s decision to change the design of its new $100 bank note to make the woman featured on the bill less Asian-looking.

Last week, the Bank of Canada found itself in an embarrassing public relations blunder after internal documents revealed it had redrawn the image of the female researcher pictured on the note after questions were raised about the woman’s ethnicity. The image depicts a female scientist peering into a microscope, as part of the note’s theme that pays tribute to Canada’s history of medical innovation.

But eight focus groups consulted about the proposed images for the new $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 banknote series were especially critical of the choice of an Asian for the largest denomination.

“Some have concerns that the researcher appears to be Asian,” says a 2009 report commissioned by the bank from The Strategic Counsel, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

“Some believe that it presents a stereotype of Asians excelling in technology and/or the sciences. Others feel that an Asian should not be the only ethnicity represented on the banknotes. Other ethnicities should also be shown.”

A few even said the yellow-brown colour of the $100 banknote reinforced the perception the woman was Asian, and “racialized” the note.

The bank immediately ordered the image redrawn, imposing what a spokesman called a “neutral ethnicity” for the woman scientist who, now stripped of her “Asian” features, appears on the circulating note. Her light features appear to be Caucasian.

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Australia offers apology to shunned white athlete over black-power protest

USA Today

An American athlete who took part in a controversial black-power salute at the 1968 Olympics says an Australian parliamentary apology to silver medalist Peter Norman might have come too late. On Monday night, federal lawmakers in Canberra praised the "heroism and humility" of the late Australian sprinter for standing in solidarity with gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos on the podium following the 200-meter race at Mexico City. Norman was later chastised at home for his stand, and reports suggested that he was shunned from future Olympic selection.

Pew report: Record numbers of Latinos in U.S. colleges, public schools

CNN (check out all the racist comments from white people on this page)

Latino student populations have been on an upward trajectory in the U.S. for decades, and a report released Monday says the group’s growth reached record levels last year, both in public schools and colleges.

The number of 18- to 24-year-old Latinos in college topped 2 million in 2011, accounting for 16.5% of all enrollments, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center. The number means Latino representation in U.S. colleges and universities is on par with the percentage of Latinos among the U.S. population, also 16.5%.

Record numbers of Latinos are also finishing college, with 112,000 earning associate degrees and 140,000 earning bachelor’s degrees. Pew states both statistics are new highs, yet Latinos still lag behind whites (1.2 million bachelor’s degrees and 553,000 associates) and blacks (165,000 bachelor’s and 114,000 associates) in degree attainment.

Racism is a Strategy: The Romney Campaign's Strategic Race-Baiting

Huffington Post

Romney has made a few moves that seem designed to appeal to voters with an antipathy to minorities. It is hard to remember a candidate ever using a chorus of boos at the NAACP as a plank prominently displayed in his campaign platform. Many people might be at least personally embarrassed by such a reception. Not Romney, who afterwards declared that he knew he would be booed at the NAACP but went anyway.

That is a remarkable statement. In the careful planning of a political campaign, these boos were anticipated and embraced precisely because they send a message that, in my opinion, the GOP wants the electorate to hear: Romney is the candidate that the NAACP does not want in the White House. As we near November, that message has become louder and more explicit. Romney has said that Obama needs to take his "campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago." And appearing on CBS, he described the Obama campaign as "designed to bring a sense of enmity and jealousy and anger."

White Supremacy/Racism Affects the Sleeping Patterns of Blacks

From [HERE] Moleendo Stewart can’t say for sure what’s caused his lifelong sleeping problems. But he has his suspicions. There’s the childhood spent in loud, restless neighborhoods in Miami. “You hear people shooting guns all night, dealing drugs,” said Mr. Stewart, 41, who lives in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. He also cites his weight, 260 pounds, down from a peak of 310. Sleep experts would point to another factor working against Mr. Stewart: He is a black man.

The idea that race or ethnicity might help determine how well people sleep is relatively new among sleep researchers. But in the few short years that epidemiologists, demographers and psychologists have been studying the link, they have repeatedly come to the same conclusion: In the United States, at least, sleep is not colorblind. Non-Hispanic whites get more and better-quality sleep than people of other races, studies repeatedly show. Blacks are the most likely to get shorter, more restless sleep.

What researchers don’t yet know is why. (see the definition of white supremacy/racism)

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White Sports Writers Angry Espn Analyst said it is (white people's) human nature for whites to root for white quarterbacks

Washington Post  -(a white publication, owned by whites with an overwhelming number if white writers). 

“Some foolish Redskins fans – fans, foolish, doesn’t that go together, right? – they’re gonna sit back and say, ‘God, RGIII was struggling. He fumbled, he threw a couple of bad passes. Maybe Kirk Cousins is better right now. Maybe we should go with Kirk.’ NO! I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to set up that dynamic.

“I’m going to throw it out there,” Bayless continued. “You also have the black/white dynamic and the majority of Redskins fans are white and it’s just human nature if you’re white to root for the white guy. It just happens in sports. Just like the black community will root for the black quarterback. “I’m for the black guy. I’m just saying I don’t like the dynamic for RGIII. It could stunt his growth in the NFL.” 

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Dunkin Donuts sued for racial bias - Steering Blacks to Poor Areas

Boston.com

Dunkin’ Donuts is in hot water with a group of former franchisees who are claiming that the coffee and doughnut chain discriminates against minority owners, especially African-Americans, by encouraging them to open stores in poor, less lucrative neighborhoods.

Filed over the weekend in New Jersey state court, the lawsuit alleges that Dunkin’ Brands (Nasdaq: DNKN) doles out prime store locations to white franchisees, while minorities are pushed to open franchises in “economically disadvantaged or marginal areas

Former franchise owners Reggie and Amy Pretto filed the suit in Superior Court in Middlesex County, alleging Dunkin’ Brands “steered” them to open stores in poor neighborhoods by falsely claiming that no opportunities were available elsewhere. The Prettos, an African-American couple from Montclair, NJ, also said Dunkin’ lied to them about how much money their stores would make, when in fact their stores in Maryland struggled, leading Reggie Pretty to file for bankruptcy in 2007.

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