Evening Edition is an Open Thread
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1 BP plugs runaway oil well in Gulf of Mexico
by Matt Davis, AFP
Thu Aug 5, 5:53 pm ET
| NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – BP plugged its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico with cement Thursday, one of the final steps in permanently sealing the gusher at the center of the worst US environmental disaster on record.
Some 15 weeks after the well ruptured and 21 days after the flow was fully stemmed with a temporary cap, the massive oil slick that once stretched for hundreds of miles is rapidly disappearing from the Gulf.
But officials cautioned that a great deal of clean-up work remained and that the long-term impact of the disaster could be felt for years, even decades. |
2 Naomi’s diamonds kept by Mandela aide
by Joshua Howat Berger, AFP
Fri Aug 6, 10:37 am ET
| JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – An official at a Nelson Mandela charity said Friday he kept suspected blood diamonds for over a decade, giving them to police only when supermodel Naomi Campbell testified at a war crimes trial.
Campbell’s appearance Thursday at the trial of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor set off speculation about the fate of the “blood diamond gift” Taylor allegedly gave her in 1997 after a celebrity dinner hosted by then South African president Nelson Mandela.
The supermodel told a court in The Hague how she received a pouch of rough diamonds as a late-night gift she assumed came from Taylor, who is charged with murder, rape and enslavement for his alleged role in the 1991-2001 civil war in Sierra Leone that claimed some 120,000 lives. |
3 BlackBerry services back online in Saudi despite ban
AFP
Fri Aug 6, 11:46 am ET
| JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – BlackBerry users in Saudi Arabia say their messaging services went down only briefly on Friday despite a ban, as Arab states battle between security concerns and business interests linked to the smartphone.
Users in the highly security-conscious Gulf state with a rigid Islamic social code said the service was interrupted at around 0930 GMT, but four hours later they were back online.
The kingdom’s telecoms regulators were unable for comment on Friday, the Muslim weekend. |
4 UN talks flounder as climate impacts mount, say delegates
by Marlowe Hood, AFP
32 mins ago
| PARIS (AFP) – UN climate talks tasked with curbing the threat of global warming are backsliding, delegates from both rich and developing nations said Friday at the close of a week-long session in Bonn.
Even as evidence mounts that deadly impacts are upon us, negotiators said, chances for a compromise deal under the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) are slipping away amid furious finger pointing.
“These negotiations have if anything gone backwards,” said the EU’s climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard. |
5 US economy sheds 131,000 jobs
by Andrew Beatty, AFP
Fri Aug 6, 12:49 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US economy shed more jobs than expected in July, the Labor Department said Friday, heightening fears that the world’s largest economy will take years to fully recover from a crippling recession.
Some 131,000 jobs were lost and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.5 percent last month, officials said, as federal and local governments slashed jobs.
The private sector was unable to offset a massive government layoff of 143,000 census-takers, with firms creating only a modest 71,000 jobs. |
6 US insurer AIG reports $2.66 bln quarterly loss
by P. Parameswaran, AFP
Fri Aug 6, 11:54 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – Ailing US insurance giant AIG on Friday said it swung to a 2.66-billion-dollar loss in the second quarter, hurt mostly by the impending sale of a key foreign business unit.
American International Group, which was rescued from collapse by the government during the financial crisis, said the loss was primarily due to a 3.3-billion dollar “non-cash goodwill impairment charge” linked to the sale of Alico, AIG’s second-largest foreign life-insurance business.
AIG had agreed to sell Alico to MetLife, the largest US life insurer, for about 15.5 billion dollars earlier this year as part of a major restructuring exercise aimed at repaying the taxpayer bailout. |
7 In Zimbabwe, a good read is supplanted by need for a feed
by Fanuel Jongwe, AFP
Fri Aug 6, 12:06 pm ET
| HARARE (AFP) – As visitors crowded round Daimon Phiri’s stall at Zimbabwe’s annual book fair, business seemed to be roaring for the fledgling publisher, but few people could afford to buy books.
“This year it’s busy in terms of people visiting,” Phiri, who runs Tepp Publishers in the second city of Bulawayo, told AFP. “But the people don’t have money to buy books.”
He was attending to queries from a group of school pupils asking if he had anything on offer for free. |
8 Wyclef Jean files papers for Haitian presidential run
by Clarens Renois, AFP
Thu Aug 5, 7:53 pm ET
| PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Musician Wyclef Jean jetted into Haiti on a private plane Thursday and officially launched a bid for president, ending weeks of speculation about whether he would run.
“The United States has Obama, here you’re going to have Wyclef,” Jean said in his first public comments since arriving here.
A crowd of young supporters sporting red and white t-shirts gathered in the Demas neighborhood of the capital to escort Jean as he filed his documents at the electoral council office. |
9 Putin sparks food worries with grain export ban
by Stuart Williams, AFP
Fri Aug 6, 11:05 am ET
| MOSCOW (AFP) – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sparked worries Friday over a spike in the cost of basic foodstuffs after his shock ban on Russian grain exports over a record drought sent wheat prices to new highs.
Wheat prices increased by around 10 percent on global commodities markets following the announcement that the world’s third wheat exporter was banning grain exports until December 31 to prevent inflation on the domestic market.
Russia has seen 10 million hectares of arable land destroyed amid the heatwave and the government has warned production this year will be lower than annual domestic demand at 70-75 million tonnes of grain. |
10 State-rescued bank RBS scrapes into profit
by Ben Perry, AFP
Fri Aug 6, 7:16 am ET
| LONDON (AFP) – Royal Bank of Scotland, rescued by the world’s biggest bank bailout during the financial crisis, scraped into a first-half profit, it said on Friday, capping a strong recovery for Britain’s key lenders.
RBS said it made a net profit of nine million pounds (11 million euros, 14 million dollars) in the six months to the end of June compared with a loss after tax of 1.042 billion pounds in the first half of 2009.
It comes at the end of a week during which major British banks HSBC and Barclays announced sharp rises to their earnings. |
11 Gulf oil well seal holding, BP looks to final kill
By Chris Baltimore, Reuters
1 hr 32 mins ago
| HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP said on Friday the cement seal on its crippled Gulf of Mexico oil well was holding and a relief well to permanently plug the ill-fated borehole was on track to reach its target in mid-August.
As the final stages of the long-awaited “kill” operation moved forward, nagging questions remained about the lasting environmental and economic impact to the U.S. Gulf region from the world’s worst offshore oil accident.
More than 100 days after the start of the catastrophic spill that ravaged ecologically sensitive wetlands and lucrative coastal economies, BP said no oil was leaking from the undersea Macondo well and no “recoverable oil” was left on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. |
12 Weak private hiring shows recovery on the ropes
By Lucia Mutikani, Reuters
Fri Aug 6, 1:27 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Private employers added fewer workers to their payrolls in July than expected and hiring in June was much weaker than had been thought, a big blow to an already feeble economic recovery.
The dismal news on jobs poses a challenge to officials at the Federal Reserve who are debating whether more needs to be done to foster growth, as well as to Democrats hoping to retain their congressional majorities in November elections.
The Fed’s policy-setting committee meets on Tuesday. |
13 BlackBerry maker and Saudis working on fix: source
By Souhail Karam, Reuters
2 hrs 31 mins ago
| RIYADH (Reuters) – The makers of the BlackBerry were looking into the possibility of using servers in Saudi Arabia on Friday to avert a threatened ban on its Messenger services by Saudi government, which wants access to its encrypted network, a source said on Friday.
Despite some reports of temporary interruptions, BlackBerry users were able to access the Messenger service on Friday evening, hours after the kingdom had threatened to cut it off over concern it might be used to harm national security.
A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations said talks between maker Research In Motion and the Saudi telecom regulator had made progress. |
14 Gay marriage appeal notice filed, long battle ahead
By Dan Levine, Reuters
2 hrs 31 mins ago
| SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – One day after a federal judge struck down California’s ban on gay marriage, supporters of the voter-approved law on Thursday notified the court they would appeal, firing a new salvo in what experts say will be a long legal battle.
The one-paragraph document, which informs U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker that the defendants intend to appeal his decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
That appeal had been expected in a politically charged case that most believe will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and could inject a divisive social issue into U.S. congressional and state elections this fall, including California’s race for governor. |
15 Planes diverted and offices close as smoke chokes Moscow
By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Conor Humphries
2 hrs 32 mins ago
| MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dense clouds of acrid smoke from peat and forest fires choked Russia’s capital on Friday, seeping into homes and offices, diverting planes and prompting exhausted Muscovites to wear surgical masks to filter the foul air.
Air pollution surged to five times normal levels in the city of 10.5 million, the highest sustained contamination since Russia’s worst heatwave in over a century began a month ago.
“It feels like I’m in a burning house and I can’t escape,” said Yelena Petrenko, 32, who used a handkerchief to cover her mouth because drugstores she visited had run out of facemasks. |
16 Wyclef Jean registers as Haiti presidential contender
By Joseph Guyler Delva, Reuters
Fri Aug 6, 4:21 am ET
| PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haitian hip-hop star Wyclef Jean registered as a presidential contender on Thursday, in a move into politics that generated an outburst of popular enthusiasm in his poor, earthquake-ravaged homeland.
“I would like to tell (U.S.) President Barack Obama that the United States has Obama and Haiti has Wyclef Jean,” the three-time Grammy award-winner told cheering supporters in a downtown area of Port-au-Prince.
“This is the only president who will dance when Creole hip-hop is being played,” Jean, 40, said in a speech after formally declaring his candidacy for the November 28 presidential election. |
17 Pentagon tells WikiLeaks: "Do right thing"
By Sue Pleming, Reuters
Thu Aug 5, 5:55 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon demanded on Thursday that whistle-blower web site WikiLeaks immediately hand over about 15,000 secret Afghan war records it had not yet published and erase material it had already put online.
“We are asking them to do the right thing,” said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell in asking WikiLeaks to hand over the U.S. documents and delete material it had put on the Internet.
“We hope they will honor our demands,” he told reporters, adding that the only rightful owner of all the classified material in WikiLeaks’ possession was the U.S. government. |
18 GM at work on IPO filing but not ready yet: CEO
By David Bailey and Bernie Woodall, Reuters
Thu Aug 5, 6:56 pm ET
| TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (Reuters) – General Motors Co has begun work on an initial public offering of stock that could be the largest ever for the U.S. market, the automaker’s Chief Executive Ed Whitacre said on Thursday.
It was the first time the top U.S. automaker has confirmed it was readying an IPO, an event that would mark its return as a public company and reduce the U.S. government’s majority ownership just over a year after GM’s bankruptcy and a controversial $50 billion bailout.
Whitacre, who was attending an auto industry event in northern Michigan, also said GM would detail second-quarter results next week showing that the restructured company is making money despite an anemic rebound in the U.S. economy. |
19 Republicans attack Democrats on jobs
By Steve Holland, Reuters
1 hr 10 mins ago
| KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – Republicans emboldened by a weak U.S. jobs report pressed their attack against the ruling Democrats on Friday, hoping to translate Americans’ unhappiness with the economy into votes on November 2.
Leading the charge was Michael Steele, the controversial chairman of the Republican National Committee, who appears to have weathered the storm over a series of gaffes and distractions that raised doubts about his tenure.
In a speech on the final day of the party’s summer meeting, Steele accused President Barack Obama’s Democrats of “pushing through a big government, tax and spending binge agenda that has not healed our ailing economy.” |
20 Spill investigators want to find undersea evidence
By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 10 mins ago
| NEW ORLEANS – Now that BP appears to have vanquished its ruptured well, authorities are turning their attention to gathering evidence from what could amount to a crime scene at the bottom of the sea.
The wreckage – including the failed blowout preventer and the blackened, twisted remnants of the drilling platform that exploded, burned and sank in mile-deep water in the Gulf in April – may be Exhibit A in the effort to establish who is responsible for the biggest peacetime oil spill in history.
Hundreds of investigators can’t wait to get their hands on evidence. The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation, the Coast Guard is seeking the cause of the blast, and lawyers are pursuing millions of dollars in damages for the families of the 11 workers killed, the dozens injured and the thousands whose livelihoods have been damaged. |
21 AP Exclusive: CIA flight carried secret from Gitmo
By MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 39 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – A white, unmarked Boeing 737 landed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before dawn on a CIA mission so secretive, many in the nation’s war on terrorism were kept in the dark.
Four of the nation’s most highly valued terrorist prisoners were aboard.
They arrived at Guantanamo on Sept. 24, 2003, years earlier than the U.S. has ever disclosed. Then, months later, they were just as quietly whisked away before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers. |
22 3rd month of weak hiring signals long slog ahead
By JEANNINE AVERSA and CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writers
4 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The nation isn’t creating nearly enough jobs to reduce persistently high unemployment.
For the third straight month, the private sector hired cautiously in July. And those meager gains in the job market were nearly wiped out by tens of thousands of cuts at all levels of government.
Making matters worse: Many of the new jobs that are being created do not pay well enough to significantly jump-start spending by shoppers and stimulate the broader economy. |
23 States respond in health care overhaul lawsuit
By JENNIFER KAY, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 47 mins ago
| PENSACOLA, Fla. – Twenty states and the nation’s most influential small business lobby demanded Friday that a federal court in Florida hear their challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul because they face imminent harm from its mandates.
The Justice Department in June asked a federal judge to dismiss their lawsuit, saying the U.S. District Court in Pensacola lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over some of the lawsuit’s claims. They also said other parts of the lawsuit failed to state claims upon which relief can be granted.
The states, the National Federation of Independent Business and several individual taxpayers filed their response Friday in Pensacola federal court. |
24 Judge’s personal life debated after gay ruling
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 31 mins ago
| SAN FRANCISCO – Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker has always been characterized as a conservative with libertarian leanings. But after he struck down California’s voter-approved gay marriage ban this week, he was accused by some of being something else entirely: a gay activist.
Rumors have circulated for months that Walker is gay, fueled by the blogosphere and a San Francisco Chronicle column that stated his sexual orientation was an “open secret” in legal and gay activism circles.
Walker himself hasn’t addressed the speculation, and he did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press on Thursday. Lawyers in the case, including those defending the ban, say the judge’s sexuality – gay or straight – was not an issue at trial and will not be a factor on appeal. |
25 10 years on, mystery of Confederate sub remains
By BRUCE SMITH, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 47 mins ago
| NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – A decade after the raising of the Confederate submarine Hunley off the South Carolina coast, the cause of the sinking of the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship remains a mystery. But scientists are edging closer.
On Friday, scientists announced one of the final steps that should help explain what happened after the hand-cranked sub and its eight-man crew rammed a spar with a powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston in February, 1864.
Early next year the 23-ton sub will be delicately rotated to an upright position, exposing sections of hull not examined in almost 150 years. |
26 AP Interview: Wyclef Jean’s vision for Haiti
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 6, 11:23 am ET
| PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – After the hip-hop party was over, the cheering supporters back in their tents and the speaker trucks parked for the night, newly minted presidential candidate Wyclef Jean sat down to talk business – promoting Haiti’s and defending his own.
The potential front-runner in Haiti’s Nov. 28 election told The Associated Press that he supports the U.S. and U.N. vision for rebuilding Haiti’s economy after its magnitude-7 earthquake – a plan that encourages private investment in factories, agriculture and other areas.
He also hit back at critics of his own personal finances, including allegations over his use of post-quake charity funds and the revelation he personally owes $2.1 million in back taxes to the United States. |
27 Afghan police: 10 bodies found in N Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 37 mins ago
| KABUL, Afghanistan – The bodies of 10 people, including eight foreigners, were recovered Friday in a remote area of Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan, police said.
Provincial police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz said the victims, who had been shot, were found next to three bullet-riddled four-wheeled drive vehicles in Kuran Wa Munjan district. He said two Afghan men were found dead along with eight others – three women and five men – whose nationalities were not known.
It was unclear what the group was doing in the forested area away from main routes through the province. |
28 Swedish Web hosting firm confirms WikiLeaks link
By KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 6, 11:54 am ET
| SOLNA, Sweden – A Swedish Internet company linked to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay says it’s helping online whistle-blower WikiLeaks release classified documents from servers located in a Stockholm suburb.
Mikael Viborg, the owner of the Web hosting company PRQ, on Friday showed The Associated Press the site – the basement of a drab office building – in Solna on the condition that the exact location was not revealed.
“This is the office. The server room is further inside,” the 28-year-old Viborg said, with the door to the office cracked open. Desks with computers, documents, and empty pastry boxes and soda cans could be seen inside before he closed the door. |
29 GOP cautiously confident of big gains this fall
By LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer
1 hr 30 mins ago
| KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The head of the Republican Party on Friday urged members to step up their efforts for the fall elections amid cautious confidence about the GOP winning several governorships and perhaps seizing control of Congress from President Barack Obama’s party.
“We can’t rest now,” GOP chairman Michael Steele told the Republican National Committee. “Everything we’ve been doing, and all that we must do, needs to be ramped up and maxed out in the next three months.”
“Sleep? What’s that? We can’t sleep until November 3rd,” he added. |
30 US joins Hiroshima A-bomb memorial for 1st time
By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 6, 7:46 am ET
| HIROSHIMA, Japan – A U.S. representative participated for the first time Friday in Japan’s annual commemoration of the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima, in a 65th anniversary event that organizers hope will bolster global efforts toward nuclear disarmament.
The site of the world’s first A-bomb attack echoed with the choirs of schoolchildren and the solemn ringing of bells Friday as Hiroshima marked its biggest memorial yet. At 8:15 a.m. – the time the bomb dropped, incinerating most of the city – a moment of silence was observed.
Hiroshima’s mayor welcomed Washington’s decision to send U.S. Ambassador John Roos to Friday’s commemoration, which began with an offering of water to the 140,000 who died in the first of two nuclear bombings that prompted Japan’s surrender in World War II. |
31 Karzai suggests oversight of anti-corruption work
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 48 mins ago
| KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. officials see the recent arrest of a top adviser to President Hamid Karzai as a test case of his willingness to fight graft and bribery and are waiting to see if he will impose restraints on corruption probes of high-ranking officials.
The possibility that Karzai will place restrictions on the operations of two anti-corruption units set up with help from U.S. law enforcement officials heightens already growing tension between the United States and the Afghan government, which is seeking more control over the billions of foreign dollars being poured in to foster reconstruction.
The concern comes as a new report issued in Washington questioned the Afghan administration’s ability to fight graft and bribery, which are undermining the war against the Taliban, and whether the U.S. has directed enough aid to Afghanistan’s new anti-corruption units. |
32 Teachers hope $26M jobs bill keeps them employed
By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 31 mins ago
| MIAMI – Gretchen Marfisi was enjoying her summer, reading a book when the call came: The high school where she taught art would not be hiring her back in the fall.
Shocked, the art teacher with 27 years experience spent anxious weeks job searching, only to be rehired by the Broward County School District.
That was last year. This year, Marfisi went through the same routine – she was laid off earlier this summer, then called back Thursday. |
33 Senate confirms Kagan as 112th justice
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 6, 1:49 am ET
| WASHINGTON – 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.
The vote was 63-37 for President Barack Obama’s nominee to succeed retired Justice John Paul Stevens.
Five Republicans joined all but one Democrat and the Senate’s two independents to support Kagan. In a rarely practiced ritual reserved for the most historic votes, senators sat at their desks and stood to cast their votes with “ayes” and “nays.” |
34 Cops mum on probe of Conn. shooter’s racism claim
By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press Writer
10 mins ago
| HARTFORD, Conn. – The man who fatally shot eight co-workers at a Connecticut beer distributor told a 911 operator before he killed himself that he was avenging racism.
Omar Thornton’s employer, his union and the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities all say there has never been a formal racism complaint against the Manchester company – from Thornton or anyone else.
State and Manchester police will not say whether Thornton’s racism claims are figuring into their investigation of the shootings, which occurred early Tuesday when Thornton was confronted with video evidence he had stolen beer and was forced to resign. |
35 Wildlife advocates hail Rocky Mountain wolf ruling
By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 6, 10:33 am ET
| HELENA, Mont. – Wildlife advocates say a ruling to restore Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves throughout the Northern Rocky Mountains buys time to create a better plan than the one the judge rejected, one that ensures their numbers don’t dwindle again.
Meanwhile, state wildlife officials in Montana and Idaho were reviewing Thursday’s ruling that blocked them from carrying out their wolf management plans and their preparations for wolf hunts this fall. State officials said they were considering their options, including an appeal.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s ruling knocked down a U.S. Fish and Wildlife decision last year that kept federal protections in place in Wyoming, where state law is considered hostile to the animals’ survival, but turned over to Montana and Idaho wolf management responsibilities within their borders. |
36 Gay marriage before nation’s largest appeals court
By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 6, 1:53 am ET
| SAN FRANCISCO – The judge who overturned California’s gay marriage ban was unrelenting in his repudiation of the measure, saying such laws are mean-spirited and unconstitutional to the core.
It was a harsh yet carefully worded ruling that some experts said would be tough to overturn as the landmark legal debate goes to the appeals court and then possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Others say the power of conservative judges on those courts could be enough to thwart gay marriage and stop the movement in its tracks.
Sure to be at the center of the debate is whether California’s Proposition 8 violates the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protections for all and declares that government won’t take away “life, liberty or property” without due process. |
37 Obama bets prestige on Senate seat he once held
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 5, 7:55 pm ET
| CHICAGO – Risking personal prestige and political capital, President Barack Obama took a high-profile plunge Thursday into the race for his former Senate seat, on behalf of a candidate who could embarrass Democrats – and the president himself – if he loses.
Illinois state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias trails Republican Rep. Mark Kirk in the race for campaign cash. He’s also found himself embroiled in a controversy surrounding the failure of his family’s Chicago bank.
With a thin grip on the Senate, Democrats can’t afford to lose the seat. Neither can Obama afford the blow of seeing the seat from which he catapulted to the White House turn to Republican hands on his watch as effective chief of the Democratic Party. |
38 NYC lawsuit: Census Bureau discriminated in hiring
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 5, 6:52 pm ET
| NEW YORK – Civil rights groups on Thursday accused the U.S. Census Bureau of discrimination in its hiring of more than a million temporary workers to conduct the 2010 census, saying it ignored a warning from a federal agency that its hiring practices might violate the Civil Rights Act.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Public Citizen Litigation Group were among groups that sued the secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce in April to end the hiring practices and obtain back pay for plaintiffs. They beefed up the lawsuit Thursday with new claims and plaintiffs.
The lawsuit, which seeks class action status in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges the Census Bureau in hiring temporary workers over the past two years illegally screened out applicants with often decades-old arrest records for minor offenses or those who were arrested but never convicted. It accuses the bureau, a division of the Department of Commerce, of discriminating against more than 100,000 blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, who are more likely to have arrest records than whites. |
On this day there have been many significant events. Certainly, one of the most memorable is that this is the anniversary of
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