The US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics released two new reports Friday detailing increased populations in American jails and prisons. The reports show that the US prison population increased by 1.5 percent from mid-year 2006 to mid-year 2007, compared with 2 percent growth in the previous reporting period. Approximately 2.3 million Americans were incarcerated as of June 30, 2007, with over 700,00 detained in local jails and over 1.5 million being held in federal and state prisons. The reports also noted that African-American males aged 30-34 had the highest incarceration rate of any race, age, or gender group. Human Rights Watch US program director David Fathi reacted to the reports, saying [HRW press release] "Americans should ask why the US locks up so many more people than do Canada, Britain, and other democracies."  The DOJ inmate statistics follow a May HRW report alleging that the US war on drugs disproportionately targets urban minority neighborhoods. That report also alleged that in 34 states, an African-American man is 11.8 times more likely than a white man to be sent to prison on drug charges, and an African-American woman is 4.8 times more likely to be sent to prison on drug charges than a white woman. [MORE]

A Democratic superdelegate from New Jersey said this week he is worried that unifying the party behind Barack Obama may be difficult because the Clinton camp "has engaged in some very divisive tactics and rhetoric it should not have." Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Hillary Clinton throughout the primary season, disclosed that he received a phone call shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary from a top member of Clinton's organization and that the caller explicitly discussed a strategy of winning over Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and African-Americans.  "There have been signals coming out of the Clinton campaign that have racial overtones that indeed disturb me," Andrews said at his campaign headquarters in Cherry Hill Tuesday night after he lost his bid for the U.S. Senate nomination. "Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign . . . that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting. It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing." Andrews said the phone call came after he angered the Clinton camp by making some positive comments about Obama. He would not disclose the caller's name because of the private nature of the conversation.

Click to read more ...

The battle between "The Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder and Black Entertainment Television is about to get a lot more animated. Two second-season episodes of the biting cartoon series that attack the black-themed network but were never aired -- possibly because of corporate pressure -- are slated for DVD release on Tuesday. The shows take aim at BET's top executives and lampoon what McGruder views as the cable network's harmful negative imagery and stereotypes that work as a "destructive" force within African-American culture. The episodes amplify a familiar chord struck by McGruder, who has regularly targeted BET, first in his politically and culturally charged comic strip, published in more than 300 newspapers, and subsequently in the TV adaptation on Cartoon Network's edgy late-night programming block, Adult Swim. The hot-button series is about two young black boys, militant Huey Freeman and his gangsta-wannabe younger brother, Riley, who live in the suburbs with their grandfather. But these particular installments, which like many in the animated series feature violence, foul language and frequent use of the N-word, apparently went too far in mocking BET's top brass. In "The Hunger Strike," a main character refuses to eat until BET is off the air and its executives commit hara-kiri. In "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show," a foul-mouthed black man who hates African-Americans gets a show on BET.

Click to read more ...

Due mainly to a slump in the construction industry, the unemployment rate for Hispanics in the U.S. rose to 6.5% in the first quarter of 2008, well above the 4.7% rate for all non-Hispanics. As recently as the end of 2006, the gap between those two rates had shrunk to an historic low of 0.5 percentage points--4.9% for Latinos compared with 4.4% for non-Latinos, on a seasonally adjusted basis.1  The spike in Hispanic unemployment has hit immigrants especially hard. Their unemployment rate was 7.5% in the first quarter of this year,2 marking the first time since 2003 that a higher percentage of foreign-born Latinos was unemployed than native-born Latinos. Some 52.5% of working age Latinos (ages 16 and older) are immigrants. Latinos make up 14.2% of the U.S. labor force.

Despite the disproportionate impact that the economic slowdown has had on immigrant Latino workers, there are no signs that they are leaving the U.S. labor market. Their labor force participation rate--that is, the percentage of the immigrant working-age Latino population either employed or actively seeking employment--has remained steady. However, they now play a smaller role in the growth of the Hispanic workforce than in recent years.

Click to read more ...

It was called "un mensaje personal a Puerto Rico," a television spot in which Barack Obama spoke to the camera in stilted but effective Spanish. "I was born on an island," he said, "and I understand that food, gas, and everything costs more." Obama got trounced in the Puerto Rico primary this week. But the advertisement, with the candidate's personalized appeal and willingness to try the language, is a sign of the unusual tactics that Obama's campaign is preparing to deploy on the mainland as it tries to win over a Latino electorate that voted overwhelmingly for his party rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Democratic primaries.  Some Democrats have worried that Latinos view Obama warily and will be drawn to Republican nominee John McCain, who has been popular in that community and has campaigned in it aggressively -- already airing Spanish-language radio ads in the heavily Latino battlegrounds of New Mexico and Nevada. But there are signs that Obama begins the general election battle for Latinos with significant advantages. A new Gallup Poll summary of surveys taken in May shows Obama winning 62% of Latino registered voters nationwide, compared with just 29% for McCain.

Click to read more ...

The Department of Justice says SWAT team officers didn't use excessive force when they shot the suspected killer of a sheriff's deputy 68 times during a manhunt near Lakeland in 2006. Angilo Freeland was the man believed to have fatally shot a Polk County deputy and his police dog. Nine officers fired on the 27-year-old after finding him hiding in the woods the next morning. They say a sudden movement by the suspect caused them to fire. The Justice Department sent a letter to Sheriff Grady Judd this week saying an investigation had concluded that Freeland's civil rights had not been violated. Don Brown, president of the local NAACP chapter, says he still believes the number of shots fired at Freeland was excessive. He called it "profoundly disturbing."

Click to read more ...

Clyburn says Clinton should have given Obama Props
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn doesn't plan to get involved in the discussions over which Democrat Sen. Barack
Obama should choose as a running mate, even though he has been asked to.  Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television and a prominent backer of Sen. Hillary Clinton, wrote to Clyburn on Wednesday and urged him to ask the Congressional Black Caucus to rally behind an Obama-Clinton ticket. Clyburn, South Carolina's 6th District representative, said the caucus will remain neutral. "I'm not insulted by that idea (of an Obama-Clinton ticket), but I don't see my role as being anyone to be out promoting that idea," he said. Clyburn, who publicly endorsed Obama on Tuesday, said the Black Caucus decided at a meeting Wednesday not to get involved in the vice presidential stakes. "Individual members of that caucus can probably do so, but I don't think the caucus as a body is going to do that." Meanwhile, Clyburn said he was disappointed in Clinton's speech Tuesday, specifically in her failure to acknowledge that Obama had won enough delegates to capture the nomination. "I have gotten nothing but vitriol about her speech last night. People are tremendously upset that she never congratulated him on his victory, only on the way he conducted his campaign," he said. "There's a big difference between conducting a campaign and winning a campaign, and people are very upset about that."

Click to read more ...

Adding Hillary to the ticket would not bring Obama a single vote (except possibly for Bill’s). Her supporters are divided into two distinct categories. The original Clintonistas were strong Democrats, party faithful, pro-choice, middle-aged and up, largely female and all white. But Hillary’s recent backers have been downscale whites of both genders who were turned off by Obama’s pastor, wife and other associates and were afraid he might be a Muslim in disguise. Unhappy about voting for a woman, they never really liked Hillary but turned to her when the alternative was Obama. If Hillary had won the Democratic nomination, these latent backers of Hillary in the primaries might still have voted for McCain in the general. Their support of Hillary is purely linked to her opposition to Obama. Were she to join the ticket, they would vote for McCain anyway. After all, Obama will still be black and the Rev. Wright will still be nuts.

Click to read more ...

A day after Barack Obama sealed the Democratic presidential nomination, obviously pleased members of the National Conference of Black Mayors assembled Wednesday in New Orleans for their annual meeting, calling Obama's win "a historic moment."  But the group won't be issuing an endorsement in the presidential race because of its nonprofit tax status. However, the organization's president Mayor George Grace of St. Gabriel, La. said during an opening news conference that "it would be very easy for you to guess" who the individual mayors will be backing. Although the group can't issue a unified endorsement, Grace said the conference would push to influence both the Democratic and Republican candidates on such issues as the economy, high gasoline prices, health care and the environment. Problems that affect the nation are "multiplied by 10" in the areas represented by the black mayors, Grace said. About 2,000 delegates are expected at the four-day meeting, which was moved on the fly to New Orleans after being originally scheduled for Detroit. The group switched cities in March after Detroit was hit by a scandal surrounding its mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. He faces charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct related to explicit text messages sent to a former aide.

Click to read more ...

A brother, sister and niece of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson were charged Wednesday with pocketing more than $600,000 in state and federal grant money intended for charitable and educational projects.  A federal grand jury indicted New Orleans tax assessor Betty Jefferson, her brother, Mose Jefferson, and her daughter, Angela Coleman, on charges that include federal program fraud, identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the family members used several nonprofit and for-profit companies to obtain grants designed to help pregnant teens, at-risk youths and others in need of assistance. They allegedly deposited some of the grant money into personal checking accounts and used it for personal expenses. "It's fair to say that the allegations in the indictment are very instructive on how such nonprofits can be exploited," Letten said. With Wednesday's 31-count indictment, four members of the politically prominent Jefferson family now face federal criminal charges. Rep. Jefferson, 61, a nine-term Louisiana Democrat, was indicted last year on bribery charges. He is awaiting a trial in Virginia and has denied wrongdoing. The congressman wasn't named in Wednesday's indictment, and faces a re-election campaign this fall.

Click to read more ...

The Long Beach Press-Telegram (6/5, Canalis) reports Cypress College professor Peter Mathews (D) said Wednesday that he "was not ready to rule out running a write-in campaign" against Rep. Laura Richardson (D). The paper adds, "Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, one of Richardson's top aides did not comment on the possibility of a rematch with Mathews, but on Saturday the congresswoman issued a statement chiding her challenger's multiple, unsuccessful runs for Congress. Many votes were likely cast via absentee ballots before Richardson's problems surfaced, but her Tuesday showing was so commanding it is unlikely that her housing woes would have affected the race's outcome if voters learned of it sooner."  Mathews said  "you could say I am thinking about weighing it. There's no other candidate. There's no other choice on the ballot." Mathews, who is also a Democrat, said he was going to talk with his campaign team and other supporters but was noncommittal beyond that. Previously, Richardson trounced Mathews and community newspaper publisher Lee Davis. Richardson received 74.87 percent of the vote. Mathews picked up 16.67 percent, and Davis took 8.46percent. The Republicans did not field a candidate in the primary.

• Transcript of Obama's Speech [MORE] 

Barack Obama has made history by beating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and becoming the first African-American with a viable chance of winning the White House. Obama's victory effectively brought to an end Clinton's bid to become the first US female president. It also confirms Obama's reputation as a political giant-slayer, who after less than four years in the US Senate brought down the couple credited with creating the Democrats' most powerful political machine. Obama will now face the Republican John McCain for the prize of the presidency in the November 4 general election. After a 54-contest, five-month-long fight, Obama started the day 45 delegates short of the 2,118 he needed to cross the finishing line. A steady shift of support towards Obama throughout the day turned into a flood. Among those announcing their endorsements was the former president Jimmy Carter. A number of Clinton supporters also defected to Obama. He was four short as polls closed in the South Dakota and Montana primaries, the last two contests. But South Dakota pushed him over the line in terms of delegates - even though he lost the state to Clinton.

Click to read more ...

NEW YORK "What does Hillary want?" Hillary Clinton put the question to her supporters here Tuesday night, moments after her opponent, Barack Obama, clinched the Democratic presidential nomination. What Hillary did not want to do was to concede defeat. "I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard," she told her fans, who answered with cheers of "Denver! Denver!" and "Yes she will!" The campaign was over, and Obama had locked up the nomination after a flood of more than 40 superdelegates announced their support for him throughout the day. But in the Baruch College gymnasium here (the "Bearcat Den"), Clinton spoke as if she were the victor. She and her husband and daughter took the stage, smiling, clapping and bopping to the beat. She said nothing about losing the nomination, instead thanking South Dakota for giving her a victory in Tuesday's balloting: "You had the last word in this primary season!" This, she said, confirmed that she had won "more votes than any primary candidate in history." Clinton congratulated Obama -- not for winning the nomination, but for running an "extraordinary race." She recognized Obama and his supporters "for all they accomplished." It was an extraordinary performance by a woman who had been counted out of the race even when she still had a legitimate chance. Now she had been mathematically eliminated -- and she spoke as if she had won.

Click to read more ...

Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday after a grueling marathon, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House. Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party. The tally was based on public declarations from delegates as well as from another 15 who have confirmed their intentions to the AP. It also included 11 delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination. The 46-year-old first-term senator will face John McCain in the fall campaign to become the 44th president. The Arizona senator campaigned in Memphis during the day, and had no immediate reaction to Obama's victory.Clinton stood ready to concede that her rival had amassed the delegates needed to triumph, according to officials in her campaign. They stressed that the New York senator did not intend to suspend or end her candidacy in a speech Tuesday night in New York. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to divulge her plans.

Click to read more ...

Border Patrol agents are becoming increasingly involved in emergency evacuations. They will be present during evacuations as backup law enforcement officers to assist local and state officials. Agents interviewed evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and also during last year's California wildfires, leading to some deportation hearings, a practice not seen in decades, said Cecilia Muñoz, of the National Council of La Raza a Washington-based Hispanic advocacy group. Checking the legal status of evacuees dissuades residents from leaving dangerous areas, Muñoz said. Border Patrol officials said this year they would detain and deport hurricane evacuees who have entered this country illegally but later recanted and said they would be flexible during emergencies. Safety is paramount in emergency situations, said Lloyd Easterling, an assistant chief with the U.S. Border Patrol. "We are not going to stand in the way of people getting to safety," he said. "We'll worry about the legal aspects later."

Click to read more ...

TROY, Mich., June 2 -- On the eve of the final two primaries of a five-month marathon, Sen. Barack Obama stood poised to wrap up the Democratic presidential nomination, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed whether to stay in the race in hopes of delaying what appears to be an inevitable outcome. Obama is optimistic that he will be able to claim victory Tuesday evening at a gathering in St. Paul, Minn., with superdelegates preparing to rally to his candidacy on the eve of the day's contests in South Dakota and Montana and push him past the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Clinton sent mixed signals about her plans throughout the day Monday. As her campaign recalled field staffers to New York, one adviser indicated that she would suspend, but not end, her campaign within days

Click to read more ...

Federal law enforcement agencies have increased criminal prosecutions of immigration violators to record levels, in part by filing minor charges against virtually every person caught illegally crossing some stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border, according to new U.S. data. Officials say the threat of prison and a criminal record is a powerful deterrent, one that is helping drive down illegal immigration along the nearly 2,000-mile frontier between the United States and Mexico. Skeptics say that the government lacks the resources to sustain the strategy on the border and that the effort is diverting resources from more serious crimes such as drug and human smuggling. Before Operation Streamline, as the program is known, most Mexican nationals caught at the border were fingerprinted and returned to Mexico without criminal charges. Since 2005, people other than Mexicans are generally held until removed.

Click to read more ...

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Monday he is endorsing Barack Obama for president and trying to get other South Carolina superdelegates to back the Illinois senator. Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress, told The Associated Press he wanted the party to get behind one candidate. When asked whether he was urging superdelegates to back Obama, Clyburn said, "Oh yeah. Sure I'm asking 'em."  "I don't know who all will do it, but I've asked them," he said. Clyburn said he planned to make a formal announcement Tuesday. Obama's campaign did not immediately respond to questions about Clyburn's endorsement, which comes more than four months after Obama won the Democratic primary in South Carolina and after a year of Clyburn deflecting questions about who'd get his backing. Clyburn said Monday that he's called U.S. Rep. John Spratt, who is uncommitted; and Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman backing Hillary Rodham Clinton. He also called Tim Moore, the lone remaining John Edwards delegate who isn't already endorsing Obama. Obama needs about 42.5 delegates to get the 2,118 needed to secure the presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton would need about 200.

Click to read more ...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. William Jefferson's attorneys are accusing the Justice Department of threatening potential witnesses in his corruption case with prosecution "should they testify in a way that does not match the government's story."  At issue is whether the U.S. District Court should compel the Justice Department to use international legal treaties to secure pre-trial depositions from former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Nigerian businessman Suleiman Yahyah, both who deny engaging in a bribery scheme with Jefferson. Jefferson, D-New Orleans, also wants permission to question Abubakar's wife, Jennifer, a U.S. citizen, who, according to the congressman's legal team, has also denied discussing bribe schemes with him and is willing to answer questions in Europe. Justice Department lawyers objected to questioning the three proposed witnesses outside the United States, saying it believes the three weren't telling the truth in statements denying knowledge of, participation in, or discussion of bribery schemes with Jefferson. Testimony in a foreign country would not be subject to U.S. perjury laws, they said.

Click to read more ...

A new statewide poll has found 47 percent of respondents say Gov. Jennifer Granholm should remove Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office for misconduct related to a text-messaging sex scandal.  The poll also found 84 percent of respondents said Kilpatrick should resign. Granholm is reviewing a request from Detroit City Council asking her to remove Kilpatrick, a fellow Democrat, from office. The mayor has said he won't resign as he fights criminal charges stemming from the scandal. Kilpatrick spokesman James Canning said the polling doesn't matter. "The only poll that matters is the one Detroiters take when they step into the voting booth on Election Day," Canning said in a statement. "All other polls taken prior to Election Day only serve as fodder for so-called pundits."

The poll for The Detroit News and TV stations WXYZ, WILX, WOOD and WJRT was released Wednesday. It found 40 percent said Granholm should leave Kilpatrick in office and let the legal system run its course, and 13 percent were undecided.

Click to read more ...