Salt Lake City
List leakers fired: Two Utah state employees were fired this week after allegedly sending law enforcement agencies and media outlets a list of 1,300 immigrants they said were in the U.S. illegally. The unnamed employees of the Department of Workforce Services reportedly compiled the 29-page list, which contained the names, addresses, and phone numbers of 1,300 people said to be in the U.S. illegally, along with highly personal information, including the due dates of six expectant mothers. Utah legislators are currently considering a tough new immigration bill similar to Arizona’s. “The immigration debate is at a new level,” said Tony Yapias, founder of Utah Latinos, an advocacy group. “Now it’s: ‘We’re going to hunt you, we know where you live.’”
Fulton, Miss.
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Lesbian student wins settlement: A rural school district that canceled its senior prom rather than allow a lesbian student to bring another girl as her date has paid the student $35,000 to settle her discrimination case. Constance McMillen, 18, had challenged the Itawamba County School District’s policy of barring same-sex couples from the prom. The district responded by canceling the event, spurring McMillen’s lawsuit. Under the settlement announced this week, the district agreed to pay her $35,000 and follow a nondiscrimination policy in the future. McMillen said she had been ostracized in her hometown for pressing her complaint. “I knew it was a good cause,” she said, “but sometimes it really got to me.”
Washington, D.C.
Unemployment aid extended: Congress this week passed a long-delayed extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, after Senate Democrats mustered the 60 votes needed to block a Republican filibuster. The bill extends unemployment benefits until November for people out of work 26 weeks or more, although their benefits still run out after 99 weeks of unemployment. The measure had been entangled in the debate over deficit spending, with Republican senators threatening to block it unless Democrats cut other programs to offset its $34 billion cost. Democrats countered that Republicans were being heartless. Two Republicans, Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, voted with the Democrats to break the impasse.
Broxton, Ga.
Flap over video: The federal government offered this week to rehire a black U.S. Department of Agriculture official whom it fired after a heavily edited videotape appeared to show her admitting she once discriminated against a white farmer. In a speech to the NAACP last March, the official, Shirley Sherrod, told of initially denying full financial aid to Roger and Eloise Spooner, who had asked for help saving their farm from foreclosure, because, she said, they were white and acted “superior’’ to her. That portion of the speech was disseminated by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart and aired on Fox News. Later in the speech, however, Sherrod spoke of how she overcame her prejudice after concluding that “there is no difference between us,” and became friends with the Spooners, who now credit her for saving their farm. After the Obama administration apologized for firing her, Sherrod said she wasn’t sure she wanted her job back.
New York City
Shipwrecked in Manhattan: Workers excavating the World Trade Center construction site have unearthed a centuries-old sailing ship, and archaeologists are now swarming over the find. The 30-foot ship was discovered by workers digging an underground garage about 30 feet below street level. Archaeologists theorize that the ship was placed there as landfill during the late 18th century, when the New York waterfront was undergoing extensive development. Researchers are working quickly to examine the find, which is deteriorating rapidly now that it has been exposed to air and sunlight.
Washington, D.C.
Intelligence agencies sprawl: The U.S. intelligence system has expanded so rapidly since the 9/11 terror attacks that no one knows exactly how much it costs, how many people it employs, or whether its efforts to combat terrorism are succeeding, The Washington Post reported this week. The paper’s extensive investigation found that more than 1,200 government agencies and 1,900 private companies are involved in counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence-gathering programs, but their efforts are uncoordinated and riddled with bureaucratic infighting. An estimated 854,000 people are said to hold top-secret security clearances. “After 9/11 when we decided to attack violent extremism, we did as we so often do in this country,” said former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair. “The attitude was, if it’s worth doing, it’s probably worth overdoing.”
