Study: Charter Schools Increasing Racial Segregation in Classrooms
A new study suggests charter school growth is increasing classroom segregation. According to UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, seven out of ten black charter school students attend schools with extremely low numbers of white students. Black students account for 32 percent of charter school enrollment nationwide, twice the percentage enrolled in public schools.


Justice Dept. Probes Imam Killing

Luqman Ameen

The Justice Department has launched a probe into the FBI’s killing of a Detroit-area Muslim imam last year. The imam, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, headed a Sunni Muslim group called the Ummah. He was shot dead during an FBI raid shortly after being indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit federal crimes. An autopsy report released this week shows Abdullah died from twenty-one gunshot wounds and was found with his wrists handcuffed. At least one of the gunshot wounds entered through Abdullah’s back.


Mitch Landrieu Wins New Orleans Mayoral Election
Louisiana’s Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu won Saturday’s mayoral election in New Orleans. Facing ten opponents, Landrieu won 66 percent of the vote. He becomes the city’s first white mayor in over three decades. He’s the son of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu and the brother of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu.


20,000 jobs eliminated in January; unemployment rate decreases
In economic news, the latest employment figures show another 20,000 jobs were eliminated in January. Despite this, the nation’s official unemployment rate fell last month from ten percent to 9.7 percent. Labor economists have put the real unemployment rate at 16.7 percent when factoring in the underemployed and those who have stopped trying to find work. President Obama said the latest job report is encouraging.

President Obama: “Now, these numbers, while positive, are a cause for hope, but not celebration, because far too many of our neighbors and friends and family are still out of work. We can’t be satisfied when another 20,000 have joined the ranks and millions more Americans are underemployed, picking up what work they can.”


Goldman Sachs CEO Receives $9 Million Bonus
Goldman Sachs has announced its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, received a stock-based bonus of $9 million for 2009. The value of the bonus could soar if the stock value of Goldman Sachs continues to rise. The company posted a record $13.4 billion profit in 2009. Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase, has received a $17 million bonus. And Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman has received an $11 million bonus.


Regulators Probe Goldman Sachs Role in Collapse of AIG
The New York Times is reporting US regulators are investigating whether the mortgage insurance market was improperly distressed in 2008 because of payment demands that Goldman Sachs and other banks made on AIG prior to the company’s collapse. The Times also reveals Goldman Sachs made more money off the taxpayer bailout of AIG than has been previously acknowledged. In addition to the nearly $13 billion of the AIG bailout that was directly funneled to Goldman, Goldman received a portion of the $11 billion that went to the French bank SocGen.


Bank of America, Ex-Execs Indicted on Civil Fraud Charges
Bank of America and two of its former executives have been indicted over allegations of lying to investors about bonus payouts and the 2008 acquisition of investment bank Merrill Lynch. On Thursday, federal and state regulators filed civil fraud charges against Bank of America, as well as former chief executive officer Ken Lewis and chief financial officer Joseph Price. The bank is also accused of misleading government officials by threatening to abandon the Merrill Lynch deal without billions of additional bailout money. The move marked the broadest legal action to date against a leading bank involved in the nation’s financial crisis. Bank of America has already settled some of the charges with a $150 million fine.


Intelligence Chief Confirms US Can Assassinate Americans Abroad
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair has confirmed US forces are authorized to kill US citizens abroad. Speaking before the House Intelligence Committee, Blair acknowledged President Obama is continuing a Bush-era policy authorizing the killing of US citizens if they’re considered a terrorist threat to the United States. In response, Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald wrote the assassination policy gives President Obama “the power to impose death sentences on his own citizens without any charges or trial.”


Google-NSA Partnership Draws Ire of Privacy Groups
The internet giant Google is teaming up with the National Security Agency in an unspecified partnership in the name of cybersecurity. Google says the NSA will help it analyze an attack on its computer networks it says originated in China last month. Privacy advocates have raised skepticism about the agreement, whose details haven’t been revealed. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for communications between Google and the NSA on cybersecurity and email encryption.


House Bill Would Repeal Health Industry Antitrust Exemptions
Democratic Congress members Tom Perriello and Betsy Markey have announced plans to introduce a measure this week to repeal the insurance industry’s exemption from federal antitrust laws. Critics say the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 has granted the insurance industry a captive market with no curbs on price fixing and other anti-competitive practices. A similar measure passed in a House committee vote last year but has stalled with the breakdown of talks on healthcare reform.


Right-Wing Activists Attend Inaugural Tea Party Convention
Right-wing activists are meeting in Nashville, Tennessee for the inaugural National Tea Party Convention. The gathering has faced controversy over allegations of profiteering by convention organizers. Attendees have paid over $500 a ticket in addition to transportation and lodging costs for the three-day event. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will receive $100,000 to deliver the convention’s keynote address.


Vancouver Activists Prepare Anti-Olympic Protests
And in Canada, activists in the city of Vancouver are gearing up for protests against this month’s Olympic Games. The Olympics Resistance Network has organized a people’s summit to coincide with the Games’ opening ceremonies next week. Harsha Walia of the Olympics Resistance Network said the games are undermining indigenous rights and social services.

Harsha Walia: “We see that the Games have been overrun with a budget of over $7 billion. Indigenous lands continue to be exploited and stolen with ski resort development all across British Columbia. Increasing poverty and criminalization of the poor in the Downtown Eastside. A massive cutback in public spending and an increasing budget for policing and militarization here in Vancouver. We have $1 billion that are being sunk into a military-police state in the lead-up to the Olympics.”


EPA Guidelines Could Boost Ethanol Production
And the Obama administration has issued new guidelines that could pave the way for a major increase in production of biofuels including corn-based ethanol. On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency said ethanol could help curb emissions by replacing conventional fuels. The finding reverses an earlier EPA stance that called for limiting ethanol use, because its direct and indirect greenhouse emissions exceed renewable energy standards. Ethanol has also been criticized for diverting food crops to produce fuel. In a statement, Friends of the Earth said, “The EPA [has] acknowledged…corn ethanol production is driving the destruction of natural areas around the world, which in turn leads to biodiversity loss and immense carbon emissions. The EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions model should be greeted with skepticism.”


Laura Chinchilla Elected President of Costa Rica
In news from Latin America, Laura Chinchilla is set to become Costa Rica’s first female president. She won Sunday’s election in a landslide.
Laura Chinchilla: “Costa Rica is my beloved fatherland. I defend her, I love her, I adore her, and I give my life to her.”

Laura Chinchilla is seen as a protégé of Costa Rica’s outgoing president Oscar Arias, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Chinchilla promised to pursue the same economic policies of Arias that recently brought the country into a trade pact with the US and opened commerce with China.


Hundreds Protest Siddiqui Conviction in Pakistan Rally
In Pakistan, hundreds of people rallied in Karachi Thursday to protest the conviction of US-educated Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui. This week, a New York jury convicted Siddiqui of attempted murder for shooting at US forces while jailed in Afghanistan in 2008. None of the Americans were injured, but Siddiqui was shot and wounded while in US custody. There has been speculation Siddiqui was interrogated and tortured in Pakistani and US custody. Protest organizer Dr. Meraj ul Huda Siddiqui, condemned the conviction.

Dr. Meraj ul Huda Siddiqui: “Down with US imperialism! Down with all these efforts of United States of America to curb Muslims, to downsize the Muslim unity! And all of the Muslims, they have decided that they will unite to get Aafia free from the American hostage.”



Israel Blocks Palestinian Geographer from Traveling Abroad
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports the Israeli government has barred the Palestinian geographer Khalil Tafakji from traveling abroad for six months. For years, Tafakji has been researching Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank and the ways by which Palestinian land is taken over. He heads the cartography department of the Arab Studies Society.

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