National News - Page 33

Longest-serving Black congressional staffer, Bertie Bowman, dies at 92

By Emi Tuyetnhi Tran Congress’ longest-serving Black staffer, Herbert “Bertie” Bowman, who worked his way up  from sweeping the steps of the Capitol as a teenager to coordinating one of the Senate’s most important committees, died this week. He was 92. Bowman died on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at a rehabilitation facility in North Bethesda, Maryland, of  complications related to recent heart surgeries, Bowman’s stepdaughter LaUanah King-Cassell told The Washington Post. Born the fifth of 14 children to sharecroppers in South Carolina, Bowman wrote in his 2008 autobiography “Step by Step” that his life changed in 1944 when, during a visit to his 

Rash of violence has not deterred Black parents from keeping their kids at HBCUs

By Curtis Bunn Kim and Tommy Sturdivant said they didn’t consider pulling their two children — son Seth at Morgan State University and daughter Mia at Howard University — out of school after the rash of gun violence that struck historically Black colleges and universities across the country earlier this month. The Sturdivants were troubled, for sure, but they were mostly concerned about the overall security level at HBCUs and wanted to know what could be done to prevent or minimize gun violence in the future. “That’s the primary thing moving forward,” Kim Sturdivant said. “Do I feel the schools could

Do ‘Women in STEM’ Programs Violate Title IX?

By Liam Knox The Rochester Institute of Technology has a persistent and yawning gender gap—what some have called its “infamous gender ratio.” It is nearly two-thirds male, a number that has remained relatively stable for years, sometimes raising eyebrows among prospective female applicants. RIT is not an anomaly. While the gender gap in higher education has narrowed to the point of reversal, with more women than men enrolling in college, STEM fields have remained stubbornly male-dominated: only 21 percent of engineering majors and 19 percent of computing majors are women, according to data from the National Science Foundation. Institutions that focus on STEM education often have similarly low numbers

Scholastic Book Fairs face criticism for isolating titles on race and gender

By Laura Strickler The battle over books has taken a new front. The season for Scholastic Book Fairs has kicked off, a time when students shop for books at annual pop-up fairs in their own hallways. But this year, the massive publisher of children’s books, which manages sales at 120,000 book fairs nationwide, announced it has made a new collection titled “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” that schools can opt in or out of, including at fairs. The decision has triggered criticism for giving schools the choice to remove books about civil rights icons like Ruby Bridges and public figures

Court Ruling Shows Need For Atlantans To Support Area’s HBCUs

Written By President David A. Thomas, Ph.D. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions is a moment for Atlanta to continue to lead our nation by investing in its historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) — the very institutions that overwhelmingly launch Black students into graduate schools, professional careers of influence, and leadership roles. The impact of the court’s landmark decision will be felt deeply by the most selective colleges and universities, in both graduate and undergraduate schools. Several studies suggest that selective, predominantly white higher education institutions such as Harvard and Emory are likely to

Biden Administration Prepares for Student Debt Relief Negotiations

By Katherine Knott The U.S. Education Department is gearing up to hold meetings in two weeks on how to provide debt relief to federal student loan borrowers, especially now that a potential government shutdown has been at least temporarily averted. The Biden administration announced Friday who will serve on the advisory negotiated rule-making committee that will discuss how to change federal regulations to offer debt relief and offered a glimpse at what those discussions might look like. The announcement came a day before the potential shutdown, which Congress averted with a last-minute measure to keep the government open for 45 days. Student loan payments

What closes and what keeps running in a federal government shutdown

By Ximena Bustillo, Tom Bowman, Selena Simmons-Duffin Lawmakers are inching closer to a government shutdown when government funding runs out at the end of the day on Sept. 30. With a deal nowhere in sight, federal agencies are bracing to place hundreds of thousands of workers on unpaid furlough until funding is restored. The federal government hasn’t faced this dilemma since 2018 when the federal government shut down for 35 days, stretching into the new year in 2019. As in shutdowns past, people across the country will see a pause in federal services, programming and pay. Washington, D.C., residents and visitors

U.S. soldier Travis King is back in American custody after North Korea expels him

By Stella Kim, Patrick Smith, Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains SEOUL, South Korea — Travis King, the U.S. Army private who intentionally ran across the border into North Korea this summer, is in U.S. custody in China, U.S. officials said Wednesday, shortly after the isolated East Asian country said it would expel him. “U.S. officials have secured the return of Private Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the Defense Department press secretary, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said in a statement. He went on to thank the U.S. military personnel who worked to “bring Private King home,” as well as the governments of Sweden and China. Later, two

Judge refuses to immediately block grant program for Black women entrepreneurs

A federal judge in Atlanta ruled Tuesday that a venture capital firm can continue offering a grant program only to Black women entrepreneurs, saying a lawsuit arguing it illegally excluded other races was not likely to succeed. Senior U.S. Judge Thomas Thrash denied a preliminary injunction that would have blocked the grants by the Atlanta-based Fearless Fund. The judge issued the decision in court after hearing arguments from attorneys and said he planned to issue a written order by the end of the week. The Fearless Fund is a tiny player in the approximately $200 billion global venture capital market, but

Black UAW workers say they’re striking to keep the promise of a middle-class life

By Curtis Bunn When Tiffanie Simmons joined her father for Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, she left knowing that one day she’d return to the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant as an employee. She was 12. Sure, the self-proclaimed “Daddy’s girl” wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps, but more crucially, she understood that her family lived a comfortable middle-class life as a Black family in Detroit. “My father supported an entire household with one paycheck,” she said. In 2012, after toiling part time for five years, Simmons, now 38, joined the same Ford Michigan Assembly Plant as her dad, fulfilling

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