Alberto Gonzales Resigns from Bush Administration

In a second blow to the Bush administration, officials have confirmed that Alberto Gonzales has resigned as attorney general. Gonzales delivered a formal resignation letter on Friday. His resignation will be effective Sept. 17. Administration sources said the embattled attorney general came to the decision to leave on his own after having some time to reflect during a recent vacation. A senior official said Gonzales felt the controversy surrounded by the firings of several U.S. attorneys was becoming "too much of a distraction" for the Justice Department to carry on its mission effectively. Gonzales and Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff, are the most recent advisers to call it quits. Read more.

Obama Skips Out on AARP Forum

Several 2008 presidential hopefuls have gone out of their way to rearrange campaign schedules to focus their attention on Iowa, which will hold the first caucus. However, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has opted out of a slew of presidential forums, including a televised AARP forum scheduled for Sept. 20, which will address about 2,400 Iowa seniors aged 50 and older. David Plouffe, Obama's national campaign manager, said they don't want to get in the way of the senator's game plan. "Otherwise, our schedule would be dictated by dozens and dozens of forums and debates, and we think the most important part of this process is individual interaction with voters," said Plouffe. "We benefit greatly when we're out there meeting with voters at our own events." Read more.

Democrats across the board are reaching out to Latinos, a group that could play a key role in Iowa's caucuses. However, some Latino voters and activists say Democrats need to try harder. Some say they didn't realize Latinos are being courted. With immigration reform emerging as one of the top issues of the 2008 campaign, Democrats say Iowa's small but growing Latinos community could turn out for Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses reports CNN.com.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial: Chinese Sculptor Vs. Black Sculptor

Should only black artists be allowed to immortalize Martin Luther King Jr.? The recent selection of a Chinese sculptor out of 10 black sculptors to carve a three-story monument in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. is raising questions about what part of his legacy should be celebrated in the memorial. Gilbert Young, a black painter from Atlanta who has started a web site and a petition drive to try to change the project, says black artists should be given first consideration because of their heritage. "I believe that black artists have the right to interpret ourselves first," Young says. "If nobody steps up to the plate to do that, then certainly pass it along to someone else." The foundation pointed out that King's message that humans must "transcend race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective" will be incorporated into the monument regardless of who creates the sculpture. Read more.

S.F. Court Tackles First Affirmative-Action Case in 7 Years

Last Wednesday marked the first affirmative-action case taken up by the California Supreme Court in nearly seven years. Members of the high court have agreed to begin deliberations on the legality of a San Francisco program that grants preference for people of color and female contractors as a result of an appeal by two companies that say current city ordinance violates Proposition 209, the 1996 initiative that outlawed race and sex preferences in public contracting, employment and education. Court members say it's possible Prop. 209 could be overridden by the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws as long as the San Francisco program can counteract a history of discrimination. Read more.

(See also: The End of Affirmative Action? Who Can Stop Ward Connerly?)

O.J. Simpson's Book a Bestseller

Despite Barnes & Noble's attempt to keep O.J. Simpson's If I Did It off their shelves, the book, which captures Simpson's hypothetical homicide of former ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, jumped into the top 50 on the superstore's online site. As of Sunday night, it was ranked No. 48. But book sales have not changed Barnes & Noble's mind about selling Simpson's book in the bookstores, according to spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating states AccessAtlanta.com.

Skilled Immigrants Struggle to Obtain Work Visas

Immigrants, it turns out, play a significant role in American science and technology, according to researchers. A report issued last week by the Kauffman Foundation says while Congress has been fighting over undocumented workers and a guest-worker program for low-skill workers, a more dire crisis is developing among those waiting in line to become legal. More than 1 million skilled workers and their families who are already in the United States are competing for about 120,000 permanent-resident visas each year. The system is so backed up it's setting up what researchers are calling a "reverse brain-drain," forcing some of the nation's best inventors and entrepreneurs, who are foreign workers, to leave the country. Read more.

Va. Muslims Prove Voting Prowess

There are approximately 64,000 Muslims registered to vote in the state of Virginia. According to Brian Roherty, campaign manager for Michael Firetti, who is running for chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, these figures have not gone unnoticed among political activists. Although Muslims represent a tiny part of the electorate, candidates are beginning to see the value of courting Islamic voters because small but motivated groups can have a big impact at the polls, says Mukit Hossain, president of the Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee, which tracks trends and endorses candidates in many local elections. This is especially true for off-year elections, which tend to have lower voter turnout. Last fall, more than 86 percent of registered Muslim voters turned out to vote, compared with about 53 percent of the general population. Read more.

Foreign-Student Enrollment Rebounds

Admission offices across the U.S. could see a surge in the number of foreign students enrolled in colleges and universities now that the government has refined the visa-application process and schools attempt to get ahead in the global competition for foreign talent. During the 2005-2006 school year, approximately 564,766 international students attended accredited U.S. higher-education institutions, according to the most recent report by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit funded by the federal government to track student mobility in and out of U.S. borders. The number was considered flat compared to the year before, but it marked the end of a two-year decline first seen in 2003, alarming academic circles and education officials. Read more.

Religion Increases America's Youth

Can religion increase happiness? An extensive Associated Press/MTV poll found that young people aged 13 to 24 who describe themselves as very spiritual or religious tend to be happier than those who don't. When it comes to others' spirituality, American young people also are remarkably tolerant. Nearly 7 in 10 say that while they follow their own religious or spiritual beliefs, others might be true as well. Overall, the poll found that religion is a vital part of the lives of many American young people, although with significant pockets that attach little or no importance to faith. Read more.

Wallace Gunman to Be Released

Arthur Bremer, the pro-segregationist who shot former Alabama Gov. George Wallace during a 1972 presidential-campaign stop, leaving the governor paralyzed, will be released from prison this year. Bremer, 57, is scheduled for release Dec. 16 but will likely be out earlier for his good behavior and for working as a prison clerk, says Rae Sheeley, a case-management specialist at the Maryland Correctional Institute-Hagerstown. Bremer was originally sentenced to 53 years in prison for shooting Wallace and three bystanders at the campaign stop in Laurel, Md., on May 15, 1972. He has served 35 years of that sentence. Read more.

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