THE NATION

Report: Black Harvard Professor Donated Handcuffs

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. says he’s donated the handcuffs used on him during his arrest last year outside his home to the Smithsonian Institution’s black history museum.

Gates told The New York Times Magazine that he donated the handcuffs to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Gates’ arrest last July by police investigating a report of a possible break-in at his home near Harvard University sparked a national debate over racial profiling.

The charge against Gates was dropped, and the Harvard scholar later reconciled with the police sergeant who arrested him outside his Cambridge home.

Gates says he met with Sgt. James Crowley several months ago at a cafe, where the officer gave him the handcuffs.

Black Farmers Rally in SC for $1.15B Settlement

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Black farmers gathered in South Carolina to ask Congress to make sure a $1.15 billion discrimination settlement stays in the federal budget.

The Feb. 12 morning rally in Columbia was one of seven being held across the South before the group gathered for a national protest Feb. 15 in Washington, D.C.

The settlement is for claims from farmers who say they were denied loans or crop subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of their race.

The case was settled in 1999, but members of the National Black Farmers Association say the USDA intentionally kept word of the deal from many who would have benefited from the agreement.

THE SOUTHLAND

Superintendent Proposes Shortening School Year

(AP)—The head of the Los Angeles Unified School District proposed shortening the school year by six days in an effort to minimize layoffs as part of a looming budget deficit.

The move would save the nation’s second-largest school system a projected $90 million and an estimated 5,000 jobs, Superintendent Ramon Cortines said Feb. 12 in a news release.

The state budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year allowed districts to reduce the school year by five days. The proposed sixth day would be a student-free workday.

Cortines conceded the move would be drastic but said the alternative could be bankruptcy for the district.

“Do I think (this) is good education policy? No,” he said. “But we are in a real crisis.”

The district is facing a projected $640 million deficit for the 2010-11 school year.

Mayor: More Job Cuts Needed to Balance L.A.’s Budget

(AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he’s planning a second round of cuts that will eliminate 1,200 to 2,000 city jobs to balance the city’s budget.

Villaraigosa told a Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the reductions will need to be in place by the next fiscal year to replenish the reserve fund and maintain a good credit rating.

The proposed cuts come on top of the 1,000 jobs he targeted for elimination about two weeks ago.

Councilman Richard Alarcon said the cuts would lead to a “dramatic” loss of city services and will require city officials to consider stopping hiring new police officers.

Villaraigosa said the city needs to eliminate a $212 million shortfall before July 1 and close a $484 million gap in next year’s budget.

Teen Charged as Adult in L.A. Activist’s Murder

(AP) — A 16-year-old boy has been charged as an adult in the shooting death of an anti-gang activist who confronted the boy as he marked a wall with graffiti.

Prosecutors say Mark Anthony Villasenor was charged Feb. 12 in the Feb. 7 shooting death of 40-year-old Ronald Barron.

Police say Barron, who was well-known for his anti-gang and counseling work, was leaving a bar with his girlfriend when he confronted the tagger.

Villasenor is accused of pulling out a gun and shooting him several times at point-blank range.

Police say the killing was not gang-related or racially motivated and the teenager acted alone.

Investigators found surveillance video of the suspect tagging and arrested Villasenor within a day and a half of the shooting.

THE STATE

Amid Toyota Recalls, Workers Rally to Save CA Jobs

SAN JOSE (AP) — Dozens of workers rallied Feb. 12 to save a Northern California auto plant where more than 4,600 people could lose their jobs if Toyota stops production at the end of March.

Labor leaders said closing the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant — the sole remaining automobile assembly plant in California — would be the worst thing Toyota could do while it struggles to regain consumer confidence after making recalls.

In recent weeks, Toyota’s reputation has been hurt by the global recall of 8.5 million vehicles and questions about how quickly the giant automaker responded to safety problems.

The demonstration kicked off a nationwide campaign urging the Japanese carmaker to save the plant, said Bob King, vice president of the United Auto Workers. The rally was held inside a nearby union hall.

State officials warn that thousands of other Californians who work at regional parts suppliers also could lose their jobs if the plant closes. California Treasurer Bill Lockyer said the number of lost jobs could reach 50,000.

BART Shooting Victim’s Lawyer May Back Out of Deal

OAKLAND (AP) — The family attorney of a man fatally shot by a Northern California transit officer has threatened to pull out of a recent wrongful death settlement and alleged the transit agency had breached confidentiality.

Oscar Grant’s attorney, John Burris, accused the Bay Area Rapid Transit of leaking details about the settlement talks to a San Francisco Bay area television station.

Sophina Mesa, the mother of Grant’s 5-year-old daughter, recently settled for $1.5 million with BART as part of a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the agency and several employees.

Grant, 22, was shot on a BART train platform in Oakland on New Year’s Day 2009. Johannes Mehserle, 28, a former BART police officer, has pleaded not guilty to murder.

A Bay Area television station report detailed settlement negotiations between Burris and BART.

“For the information to come out in this case, it seems to me that it’s unethical and a violation of the rules of conduct and there must be an ulterior motive for it,” Burris said.

Dale Allen, an attorney representing BART, said that he did not know who provided KTVU with the information and declined to comment about the report.

Allen said Burris has signed a stipulation of dismissal accepting the settlement on behalf of Grant’s daughter “and we fully intend to enforce the terms of the settlement if he attempts to withdraw.”

THE DIASPORA

Tonga Hit by Cyclone

NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga (AP) — Northern and central Tonga were being slammed by Cyclone Rene on Feb. 15, with powerful winds ripping off roofs, tearing down trees and power lines and cutting communications with the capital in the south of the country, officials said.

“We don’t know the extent of the damage right now, though there are no reports of serious damage or injuries,” the South Pacific nation’s National Disaster Office deputy director, Mali’u Takai, recently said.

Contact with the northern Vavau island group was lost shortly after midnight as Cyclone Rene buffeted the low-lying atolls, tearing down trees, cutting roads and sparking coastal flooding as roiling seas surged ashore.

Initial reports were that the storm’s winds had reached 72 mph (115 kph) near the main northern town of Neiafu, then dropped to just 8 mph (13 kph) as the cyclone’s eye passed over the area. Damage was not as widespread as feared, he said.

Kenyan Prime Minister Suspends 2 Ministers

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s prime minister says he has suspended two ministers to allow for investigations into corruption scandals that have plagued their ministries.

In a rare move by a Kenyan leader, Raila Odinga said Feb. 14 that he decided to suspend the ministers of agriculture and education for three months following audit reports.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers forensic audit report recently made public showed Kenya wasted 2 billion shillings ($26.1 million) through corrupt deals made in a government program meant to provide subsidized maize for Kenya’s poor.

Fraud uncovered by government auditors in the government’s program to offer free primary education has seen Britain and suspend yet to be disbursed aid.