In the beige linoleum hallway, a fluorescent light flickers on and off as a woman saunters over to visit her neighbor. The elevator creaks and whines, then frees a gaggle of giggling girls.
Complete Story...

(worlddaily) American truckers plan to circle the White House and state capitals in a "rolling blockade" to protest a federal government plan to allow Mexican long-haul rigs to operate throughout the U. S. Drivers who participate in "Truck-Out" also are being asked to run their rigs at the minimum speed permitted by law. The protest is scheduled for April 23-25 to coordinate with the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" rally and radio talk show marathon in Washington planned by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "American truckers are going to have their jobs undercut or vanish into the hands of Mexican truck drivers as this Department of Transportation pilot project gains permanency," said Frosty Wooldridge, a writer and talk-show host who drove 18-wheelers for two decades.  More...

(msn/reuters) The gap between rich and poor in many U. S. states has broadened at a quickening pace since the last recession, which could make it difficult for low-income families to weather the current economic downturn, according to a report issued today. Since the late 1990s, average incomes have declined 2. 5% for families on the bottom fifth of the country's economic ladder, while incomes have increased 9.  More...

(nydn) Members of the city's Planning Commission were loudly denounced for approving a controversial proposal Monday to rezone Harlem's legendary 125th St. The vote was also coolly received by residents and small business owners along the famed corridor, where high-rise office towers and condominiums could soon pop up. "Uncle Tom sellout!" screamed Harlem architect and historian Michael Henry Adams as commission members voted 14-2 in favor of the plan, which still needs final approval by the City Council. Adams said the white members were "destroying" Harlem by approving the plan, which he fears will bring housing built exclusively for "well-to-do whites. " He singled out Amanda Burden, calling her a "rich, rich useless socialite.  More...

(msn) More than 1% of all households slipped into foreclosure in 2007, as more borrowers failed to keep up on their mortgages. Nevada led the nation with the highest foreclosure rate, while California had the highest total number of foreclosures. U. S. foreclosures jumped 75% in 2007 to more than 2.  More...

(msn) When both parents work, families need someone to mind the kids. But with costs as high as $14,650 a year, day care can swallow most of one parent's wages. (BBN. . This is a good piece for families struggling with child care costs).  More...

(Times-Picayune) The most expensive Katrina claims filed so far against the Army Corps of Engineers -- those specifying damages of at least billion each -- total quadrillion, according to a thumbnail set of figures released Monday by the agency. That's $3,013,283,057,589,910, to be exact. And no cents. One claim alone accounts for all but . 3 trillion of the total, and that one came from Baker -- 93 miles northwest of New Orleans and far outside the Katrina flood zone.  More...

(nyt) The Pew Research Center published the astonishing finding that 37 percent of African-Americans polled felt that “blacks today can no longer be thought of as a single race” because of a widening class divide. From Frederick Douglass to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , perhaps the most fundamental assumption in the history of the black community has been that Americans of African descent, the descendants of the slaves, either because of shared culture or shared oppression, constitute “a mighty race,” as Marcus Garvey often put it.  More...

(sfchron) As the late Yusuf Bey built Your Black Muslim Bakery into an empire of wealth and influence, he also orchestrated a systematic welfare fraud scheme at his Oakland compound, three of his former wives have testified. By the wives' sworn account, Bey directed many of the 100 women whom he considered his wives to make fraudulent applications for government aid programs intended to assist poor families, then diverted the benefits to himself. Bey's alleged fraud scheme began in the 1970s and continued in some form until his death in 2003, according to the women, who gave depositions in a negligence lawsuit against Alameda County that was settled out of court earlier this year. The alleged fraud scheme was aided by two employees of the Alameda County Social Services Agency who were also Bey's sisters-in-law, the former wives testified. A welfare worker who was Bey's sister-in-law once tipped off the bakery that it might become the target of a fraud investigation, according to the testimony.  More...

(MSNBC) Higher income does not protect blacks and Hispanics from receiving mortgage loans with above-market rates, a new study by a group pushing for reforms to lending laws says. The report, released Tuesday by the Washington-based National Community Reinvestment Coalition, concludes that in 2005 blacks in 171 metropolitan areas were at least twice as likely as whites to receive expensive loans. . . .  More...

(NPR) If you thought Microsoft founder Bill Gates was raking it in, look up Carlos Slim Helu. The Mexican telecommunications magnate has reportedly become the world's richest man. A Mexican journalist says Helu, who heads the phone company Tel Mex, is worth nearly $68 billion. In its most recent report, Forbes magazine says he's not worth quite that much. They still rank him behind Gates -- $56 billion to $49 billion respectively.  More...

Hopefully this different digital distribution vehicle will make dollars sense for Chuck D and other artists who deserve to keep a whole lot more of the profit their hard work earns. . . . .  More...

(WAPO). . . Amid the blizzard of data concerning immigrants' effects on wages, welfare and municipal budgets, the essential point is this: The latest wave of immigrants -- legal and illegal, skilled and unskilled -- has stimulated enormous economic activity and wealth generation in this country, and it is implausible that the American economy would fare as well without them. A recent study using data collected through 2004 found that Hispanics in North Carolina (many of them immigrants, both legal and illegal) contributed $756 million in state taxes while costing about $817 million in public education, corrections and health care.  More...

(NYT). . . It seems that anyone you talk to in the streets around Progress Plaza, a tattered shopping center in a mainly black, poor part of North Philadelphia, is excited. There has not been a supermarket nearby since the last one in the plaza suddenly shut down in 1999, part of a nationwide flight from blighted urban areas by many large chains.  More...

(NYT). . . Hip-hop was born in the west Bronx. Not the South Bronx, not Harlem and most definitely not Queens.  More...

The stories of people losing their homes gets grimmer by the day. This Washington Post article highlights another group of victims - immigrants - who bought into the American dream by way of Subprime and Teaser mortgage loans. . . .  More...

I recently heard this young man speak and was surprised I had never heard of him before. I just wanted to share with everyone his great accomplishments. . . .  More...

(AP). . . PHILADELPHIA - An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust," and are fetching around $50 apiece online. The properly struck dollar coins, bearing the likeness of the nation's first president, are inscribed along the edge with "In God We Trust," "E Pluribus Unum" and the year and mint mark.  More...

The House of Delegates unanimously approved a resolution Friday expressing "profound regret" for Virginia's role in the slave trade, a significant act of contrition by a body that used to start the day with a salute that symbolized the state's Confederate heritage. The resolution, one of several that lawmakers are considering as part of the 400th anniversary celebration of the founding of Jamestown, is one of the biggest steps any state has taken in offering remorse for the enslavement of millions of Africans and Caribbean islanders during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The statement also condemns the "egregious wrongs" that European settlers inflicted on Native Americans. Del. A.  More...

Throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, women of all economic levels — poor, middle class and rich — were steadily gaining ground on their male counterparts in the work force. By the mid-’90s, women earned more than 75 cents for every dollar in hourly pay that men did, up from 65 cents just 15 years earlier. Largely without notice, however, one big group of women has stopped making progress: those with a four-year college degree. The gap between their pay and the pay of male college graduates has actually widened slightly since the mid-’90s. For women without a college education, the pay gap with men has narrowed only slightly over the same span.  More...