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The N-Word 'Slipped Out,' Says University Board Chair

The N-word may have been buried earlier this month, but occasionally it still "slips out." At least that's the case for longtime Roger Williams University board chair Ralph Papitto, who admits he used the N-word during a board meeting in May. It "kind of slipped out," Papitto, who stepped down this month after 40 years on the board, told WPRO-AM. "I apologized for that. What else can I do? Kill myself?"

Is Papitto racist or was it just an accident? According to former board member Barbara Roberts, Papitto became irate when talking about pressures to recruit more board members of color and used the N-word in reference to black candidates. What did school officials do in response to the slur? Read more.

(See also: Will the N-Word Ever Die?)

Fewer Colleges Require SATs

Colleges and universities have long weighed SAT and ACT scores heavily when reviewing students applications, but this trend may be shifting. About 739 accredited bachelor-degree-granting colleges are now using "test-optional" policies, including George Mason University. FairTest Director Bob Schaeffer says omitting the scores in application reviews is a "rapidly growing" trend. Why the change? Schaeffer says that many college officials feel there's "a real deficit in attracting talented kids whose talents don't show up" on standardized tests. "Test scores are not a good measure of capacity to do college-level work," says Schaeffer. Studies have proven SATs to be biased against students of color and low-income students, but will new pressure to revise the system result in real change? Read more.

(See also: Why SATs Are Failing America)

Judge Sends Back Mostly White Jury

Defense lawyers in Washington, D.C., are getting frustrated by the disproportionate representation of whites on juries in cases with black defendants. D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz decided to take a stand in the case of black defendant Donne Ray Horne, whose prospective jury for a sexual-assault trial was nearly 90 percent white even though D.C.'s population of color is higher than most states'. "I have never had a panel in a criminal case that looked like this," said Kravitz, who has been a judge since 1998. Utilizing his judicial authority, Kravitz sent back all 70 jurors back--61 white, eight black and one Asian--and called for a new group. But does the jury pool need to reflect the population of the district? Legally, the answer is no. What does this mean for districts across the country where jury pools don't match demographics? Are all-white juries biased? Read more.

Do Multi-Factor School Plans Promote Integration?

Public schools in Berkeley and San Francisco, Calif., are using "multi-factor" school assignments to promote greater integration and diversity of school populations. The student-assignment plans consider family-income levels, students' test scores and the language they speak at home when making assignments. The "multi-factor" plans may be viable means to promote school integration, according to a report by Ohio State's Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity. How would this plan fare in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to strike down voluntary-integration plans in public-school districts in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Wash.? "There have not been many districts doing it, so there's no real track record," says Anurima Bhargava, an education attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Reported by Courier-Journal.com.

(See also: The End of an Era? Supreme Court Deals Blow to School Integration and School Integration: What Our Readers Said)

Are Marketers Ignoring 'Pink Indonesia?'

Nearly 6 million gay and lesbian Indonesians comprise "Pink Indonesia," a larger population than that of some neighboring countries and a largely untapped market, according to Roy Morgan Single Source, one of Indonesia's largest syndicated surveys. More than 4 percent of Indonesia's population older than age 14 is LGBT--double the 2 percent estimate for LGBT populations in most countries--and 69 percent of this community resides in rural areas. How are marketing professionals attracting the community? In Singapore and New Zealand, for example, marketing professionals are building local brands that appeal to the LGBT consumer base, but for the most part, marketers have yet to pay attention to this community. Read more.

Woman Sues IRS for Sex-Change Deduction

Rhiannon O'Donnabhain, a woman who underwent a sex-change operation and then wrote off the $25,000 surgery in medical expenses on her taxes, is suing the IRS for refusing to allow the deduction. The IRS ruled that the procedure was not a medical necessity and that it was cosmetic. "This goes way beyond money," O'Donnabhain, a 57-year-old suburban Boston citizen, told The Associated Press. The IRS based its judgment on a section of the tax code that says cosmetic surgery or procedures like it are only deductible when they are needed to address a condition resulting from an accident or trauma, a disfiguring disease or a congenital abnormality. How many Americans undergo sex-change surgeries each year, and is anyone allowed to write it off? Read more.

VA Improves Mental-Health Services for Soldiers

One hundred Veterans Affairs medical centers will beef up their mental-health services for soldiers this year, according to Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, to help fight the stigma associated with service members who seek help for depression and other mental-health illnesses. The VA is battling a growing number of cases of mental-health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This year, the VA will spend $37.7 million of its nearly $3-billion budget for mental health on staffing primary-care clinics with psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. Will it help? Read more.

Why Don't Whites Root for Barry Bonds?

Only one-third of whites are rooting for Barry Bonds to become the home-run champion, according to an AP-Ipsos poll released Monday. The poll shows that 55 percent of baseball fans of color want Bonds to pass Hank Aaron's record, compared with 34 percent of white baseball fans and 40 percent of all fans in the sample. Is race a factor when rooting for who becomes the home-run champion? Read more.  

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