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Imus Return Nearly Doubles WABC's Ratings, But Will It Last?

Don Imus' return to the radio has increased WABC-AM's ratings, nearly doubling the number of Arbitron Portable People Meters (PPMs) that reported exposure to WABC-AM in the morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., according to a special tabulation of data in New York, reports Arbitron. The number of PPMs reporting "exposure" to WABC-AM during Imus' show on Monday, Dec. 3, increased 87 percent over the average tracked during the previous 10 Mondays. Time will tell if the increased ratings sustain or if Imus is just a momentary novelty.

(See also: Is Imus for Real?)

Huckabee: Quarantine AIDS Patients, Keep Women at Home

GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said in 1992 that AIDS patients should be isolated. Asked recently if he thought, given what is known today about contraction of HIV/AIDS, that the statement was wrong, Huckabee says, "we didn't know as much as we do now about AIDS, we were acting more out of political correctness than ... normal health protocols," reports The Raw Story. But seven years before Huckabee's original statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact, making Huckabee's statement sound ill-informed and prejudicial toward HIV/AIDS patients.

Huckabee also had a few things to say about women's role in marriage. In 1998, he was one of 131 signatories to a full-page USA Today advertisement that supported the Southern Baptist Convention's instruction to wives, reports the blog Daily Kos. The instruction said, "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ."

Is Demography Dead?

"We are nearing the end of making pronouncements based on demography," writes Marci Alboher in The New York Times. Alboher says that the advertising agency JWT recently predicted that demography is dead as a trend for 2008. "Over the coming decade, the possible permutations of age, gender, marital status, family composition, work status and health status will become too complex for easy demographic pigeonholing to be useful or meaningful. Watch for marketers and others to focus on behavioral targeting," Alboher said JWT reported.

Romney Calls Out Huckabee on Immigration Flip-Flop

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is attacking Mike Huckabee on his immigration stance, saying the former governor of Arkansas supported in-state tuition benefits and taxpayer-financed scholarships for undocumented workers, reports The New York Times. Recently Huckabee has taken a tougher tone in discussing undocumented immigration. He has called for stricter border enforcement and for forcing those undocumented workers who want to become citizens to return first to their native countries.

(See also: Immigration Hot Debate Topic: Did GOP Candidates Make Gains With Latinos? and How Would Your Presidential Candidate Vote on Immigration?)

Supreme Court Revamps Crack-Cocaine Sentences

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) applauded the Supreme Court decision to change mandatory crack-sentencing guidelines. "The NAACP has long supported a reduction in crack cocaine penalties and a repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for such offenses," said NAACP Interim President & CEO Dennis Courtland Hayes. "On average, this change will reduce the penalty on defendants' sentences by 15 months. While this change is not all that we have been advocating for, it is an important first step." The Supreme Court on Monday enhanced judicial discretion when sentencing for possession of crack cocaine, allowing for shorter sentences. Crack sentencing has long been an issue drawn along racial lines. Most dealers of crack cocaine are black and 50 grams of the drug drew a 10-year-minimum prison sentence, while powder-cocaine dealers, who are mostly white, have to be caught with 5 kilos to be sentenced to a 10-year prison term, a 100-to-1 difference, reports CBS News.

Diversity Leads to Soccer as Most Popular L.A. School Sport

Latinos and Asian-American students are expected to make up 80 percent of the population in Los Angeles County by 2050, according to state-population projections issued in July, with Latinos growing to 8.4 million, or 65 percent of the total population. The black population is expected to decline from 910,000, or 9 percent of the population, in 2000 to 583,000, or 4 percent of the population, in 2050, reports Los Angeles Times. As a result of the increase in Latino and Asian-American students, soccer is becoming the most popular sport at Los Angeles Unified schools. While girls' soccer has long been popular among girls of all ethnicities, boys' soccer is seeing a surge of interest. Boys' soccer has gained more than 5,000 players since 2005, a 13 percent increase--the greatest among all sports in the state--that has increased the number of players to 44,730, reports the Los Angeles Times.

(See also: Sports Program Offering Hope to Vets With Disabilities)

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