From traffic to classroom—Racial profiling is reaching into classrooms and schoolyards. In Miami, Dade County, “Black elementary students were five times most likely to be suspended than their white school mates,” the Miami Herald reported. NAACP officials say the numbers show a school system “stained by racism.”

A Third World area?—“FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Soaring energy costs in rural villages will be the focus of the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention this week. More than 13 of Alaska’s 113 villages have already shut down their municipal governments and 39 have cut services such as police and road maintenance to pay fuel bills. The six-day meeting is expected to attract almost 3,000 people.”—USA Today, October 18.

Natural as capitalism—“Heating bills may rise up to 60%—Hurricanes hit natural gas production hard”—News headline.

Sample: How Labour gov’t invites low hits—“Private patients treated without a wait” and “Life-saving cancer drugs kept from NHS [National Health Service] by red tape”—Two recent headlines from the Times, London.

See, some do learn—Washington DC—“American University’s board of trustees meets to consider whether president Benjamin Ladner should remain at the school.

“Ladner is on administrative leave while auditors examine more than $500,000 he and his wife have spent over the past three years.”—News item.

Union time for sure—“Utah has one of the largest wage gaps between women and men in the nation, according to a new federal report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Utah ranks next to last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Wyoming is in last place.

“The report showed that on average Utah women working full time were paid 69% of what male workers made. Based on median wages, that’s about $219 less per week.”—News item.  
 
 
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