The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has "temporarily suspended" what it called "Operation Last Call" even though it still believes it was worthwhile, commission spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said on Thursday.

"We understand that everything has room for improvement, this included," she said.

In a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Legislature voted yesterday to divide the 45,000-student Omaha school system into three districts -- one that is mostly black, one predominantly white, and one largely Hispanic.

Supporters, including the bill's sponsor and the state Legislature's lone black senator, said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters.

The most important reason for educational inequality between Blacks and Whites is socioeconomic. Whites tend to have parents with higher levels of education, occupational status, and income than do Blacks. These parental characteristics are associated with White students’ better educational outcomes. Differences in family background consistently account for about one third of the test score gap and for almost all of the inequality in rates of college entry and graduation among Black and White high school graduates.

The past century witnessed improvement in the socioeconomic backgrounds of Blacks as compared with Whites—primarily increases in parents’ years of schooling and decreases in family size. These improvements accounted for much of the convergence in test scores and probably contributed to the achievement of near-parity in high school completion rates as well. And just as Blacks who attended high school in the 1980s and 1990s benefited from their parents’ educational accomplishments, so their children will benefit from the further narrowing of educational inequalities.

What Will Decrease Educational Inequality?

In fact, white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black, says economist Ebonya Washington of Yale University in a forthcoming article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. White independents are similarly inclined to vote for the white Democrat when there's a black Republican running, according to her study of congressional and gubernatorial voting patterns between 1982 and 2000, including five Senate races in which the Republican nominee was black.

[...]

But racially motivated crossover voting is not just a Republican phenomenon. Democrats also desert their party when its candidate is black, Washington found.

In 1970 Reverend Andrew Young of Atlanta, Georgia launched a campaign to become the first Black Southern congressman since Reconstruction. On the day of the general election, 65 percent of White registered voters went to the polls to voice their opinions on this issue. Statewide, White turnout was only 50 percent. Reverend Young was defeated [Delaney 1970].

Twenty-eight years later in the same state, three Black candidates vied for three separate statewide offices. Black turnout soared. Blacks comprised 29 percent of those casting ballots that day, up from 16 percent in the previous interim election. Two of three Black candidates won their contests [Sack 1998].

Actress Charlize Theron has been honoured for increasing "visibility and understanding" in the gay community.

[...]

"I feel so fortunate that I am in a relationship with a wonderful man," she said on Saturday.

"I find it incredibly unfair that because of our sexual preference, we have the rights that we have, and that, because of someone else's sexual preference, they don't have those same rights."

Source: Actress Theron awarded gay prize

A Viacom-owned network, LOGO is operated by MTV, which states that its standards and practices could not accept the UCC’s 30-second commercial “because of the political nature of its content,” according to a sales associate’s e-mail response on March 30.

When asked for an official reason, MTV Networks responded, "Our guidelines state we will not accept religious advertisements that may be deemed as disparaging to another religion.”

"If nobody in this House files an ethics charge, I am,” DeLay said in response to a question about McKinney. “Her behavior is outrageous. And it’s not the only time.”

President Bush's approval ratings hit a series of new lows in an AP-Ipsos poll that also shows Republicans surrendering their advantage on national security _ grim election-year news for a party struggling to stay in power.

[...]

Just 36 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, his lowest-ever rating in AP-Ipsos polling. By contrast, the president's job approval rating was 47 percent among likely voters just before Election Day 2004 and a whopping 64 percent among registered voters in October.

"These numbers are scary. We've lost every advantage we've ever had," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said. "The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan. The bad news is they may not need one."

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) - With public support for the Iraq war ebbing and President George W. Bush's popularity skidding, voters across Wisconsin approved measures calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Progressive Majority candidates celebrated victories across the state in a variety of local elections. From Racine to Eau Claire and school board to mayor, Progressive Majority candidates ran successful campaigns that focused on one-on-one conversations about the real issues affecting Wisconsin communities. [source: Progressive Majority Candidates Win Big at the Ballot Box (press release)].

Doyle found the teenager's profile online and began having sexually explicit conversations with her on the Internet on March 14, the sheriff's office said in a statement.

He sent her pornographic movie clips, as well as non-sexual photos of himself, officials said. One of the photos, released by the sheriff's office, shows Doyle in what appears to be DHS headquarters. He is wearing a Homeland Security pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says "TSA."

A disgusted Taylor Marsh tells the story of Justin Berry, an underage boy who "had given Bush's Justice Department the names of over 1,500 people who he'd had sexual experiences with over the time he ran his web porn site. To this day, the Bush Justice Department has done NOTHING. That's right, nothing."