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Harvard Could Appoint First Female President

Harvard University may be about to name its first female president, as the governing board charged with vetting candidates has narrowed its search to a single one, historian Drew Gilpin Faust, according to published reports. The Harvard Corporation was expected to recommend Faust to the school's Board of Overseers, an alumni group that has final say, at a meeting on Sunday, multiple sources told The Boston Globe and The Harvard Crimson in Friday's editions. Faust would succeed Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, who resigned in June after a five-year tenure marked by conflicts with faculty. Summers' comments two years ago that genetic differences between the genders may explain the dearth of women in top science jobs drew sharp criticism and sparked calls from some alumni for the school to name a female president.

Faust, an expert on the Civil War and the American South, has been dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study since 2001 and also teaches in the history department. She has never run a major institution and did not attend Harvard, which the university usually prefers. Read more.

Blacks Following Oprah's Lead in Checking Out Roots

Increasingly, blacks are turning to science and not assumptions to put "Africa" back in "African American." The eagerness to reconnect is understandable. People robbed of their history innately want to know their roots. Veteran genealogists say the PBS special, "African American Lives," in which Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed the family histories and African lineages of such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey and comedian Chris Tucker, created a spike in interest in genealogy and DNA testing. Genealogical research has become more accessible because of web sites such as Ancestry.com, which has made detailed pre-1930s U.S. Census Bureau records and vital documents available online. Read more.

Tavis Smiley to Host Presidential Forums

Tavis Smiley will moderate two live presidential forums later this year, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) announced. PBS said the TV and radio host will moderate a Democratic forum on June 28 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and a Republican forum on Sept. 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore. Also, Smiley announced a partnership with AEG, the sports and entertainment conglomerate, to produce a museum exhibit, a day of national discourse and an awards show honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., reports Yahoonews.com

Latinos Angry at Schwarzenegger for Using Stereotypes

Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's off-the-cuff comments in recently released audio recordings about undocumented immigration and the unwillingness of Mexicans to assimilate into American society have drawn angry responses this week from Latino community and political leaders. "I made an effort," the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger told aides last April in conversations that touched on assimilation. "But the Mexicans don't make that effort." The governor also used an expletive to disparage the 1986 federal law that granted asylum to more than 2 million illegal immigrants. "His comments were highly offensive and outrageous," said Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles. "It's just mind-blowing that he continues to put his foot in his mouth." If Spanish-language newspapers and radio are any guide, others were angered as well, according to The LATimes.com.

Obama Wants to Take, Then Give Back Campaign Funds

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is asking whether he can take money from donors who want him to be president and then give it back later. The Federal Election Commission said Wednesday that it will look into the novel question. Obama is indicating that he wants to at least keep the option of using the public financing system for his presidential campaign if he becomes the Democratic nominee. To do so, the Illinois senator could not spend any money from contributors for political purposes, but instead could use federal funding that is expected to total about $85 million for next year's general election. Strategists from both parties estimate that the 2008 race could cost each nominee $500 million--far more than the Presidential Election Campaign Fund can afford. It is financed through the $3 checkoff on federal income-tax returns, reports The Associated Press.

When responding to people who say he does not have the experience needed to be president, Obama is now touting his non-political résumé. His work as a community organizer, civil-rights attorney, constitutional law professor and state legislator "provides me with insights into solving problems at the federal level and at the local level and at the neighborhood level," Obama said in an interview with USA Today. That experience "is what's needed right now," he said. Read more.

Mich. Ruling Alarms Gay-Rights Advocates

A Michigan appeals-court ruling that bans public universities and state and local governments from providing health insurance to partners of gay employees has alarmed gay-rights advocates nationwide. They fear the decision could encourage similar rulings in 17 other states whose bans on gay marriage could be interpreted to prohibit domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples. Michigan last week became the first state to rule that public employers cannot offer health benefits if the benefits are based on treating same-sex relationships similar to marriage. Read more.

Muslim Distrust Hinders FBI Outreach

The FBI's worst fears that hidden homegrown terrorist groups could take root in this country were fanned here in the summer of 2005, when four young Muslim men were charged with conspiring "to levy war against the United States" via deadly attacks on military installations and synagogues in Southern California. The men belonged to what Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales called a "radical Islamic organization" named Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS), or Assembly of True Islam. They were discovered before they could carry out their alleged plans. But, "they're not Muslims," declared Shakeel Syed, head of the 75-mosque Islamic Shura Council of Southern California and a government-approved chaplain who has visited the four men in jail, where they await trial this year. "They don't know anything about Islam." The Americans are "gangbangers, basically," Syed said dismissively, "petty criminals" incapable of responding even to his standard Islamic greetings. The JIS affair is one of many incidents that have regularly challenged the fragile cooperation that law enforcement and Muslims nationwide are struggling to create after years of mutual suspicion. Without that cooperation, the FBI, sheriffs and police chiefs believe they will never penetrate the world of homegrown Islamic extremists and potential terrorists the officials are convinced is out there. Read more.

Equal Workplace Benefits for All Attracts Gay and Straight Customers

A recent national survey conducted online found that 70 percent of heterosexuals and 88 percent of gay and lesbian adults polled are likely to consider a brand that is known to provide equal workplace benefits for all of their employees, including gays and lesbians. Additionally, 77 percent of gay and lesbian adults say they are likely to consider brands that support nonprofits and/or causes that are important to them as a GLBT person. Regarding purchasing habits, the study found that 58 percent of gays and lesbians say they are "more likely," 41 percent say they are "no more or less likely," and only 1 percent say they are "less likely" to purchase everyday household products and services from companies that market directly to them compared to other competing companies. Read more.

Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Fuel KKK Resurgence

The Ku Klux Klan appears to be on the rise again after years of irrelevance and splintered obscurity. "Due to the successful exploitation of hot-button issues," the Klan has seen "a surprising and troubling resurgence," states a new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Gay marriage and urban crime are part of the picture. But, in particular, it is the debate over what to do about the nation's nearly 35 million immigrants, of whom about 11 million are in the U.S. illegally, that has become the Klan's main recruiting tool. Read more.

Museum for African Art Finds Its Place

New York City's Museum for African Art, which has had a nomadic existence since it opened in 1984, will finally gain a permanent home in a soaring new building designed by Robert A.M. Stern, on Fifth Avenue between 109th and 110th streets, officials announced yesterday. Models and renderings of the new structure, which will face the northeast corner of Central Park, were unveiled at a news conference at the Guggenheim Museum. Presiding over the event, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hailed the project as "the first new construction of a museum on Museum Mile since the great Guggenheim opened in 1959." With 90,000 square feet, including 16,000 square feet of exhibition space, the building will give the Museum for African Art a long-coveted base, said Elsie McCabe, the institution's president. Read more.

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