From Reuters: The Obama administration dropped the ball on a $1.25 billion deal to settle decades-old discrimination lawsuits with black farmers, an advocate for the group said on Friday after the government failed to meet a key deadline.

From the Washington Post: The federal government promised last month to pay more than $1 billion by the end of March to tens of thousands of black farmers who had filed decades-old discrimination complaints against the U.S. Agriculture Department.

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche was bludgeoned to death by two of his farm workers Saturday in an apparent dispute over wages, police said, amid growing racial tensions in the once white-led country.

From the NY Times: A decade ago, New York City officials were so reluctant to give out food stamps, they made people register one day and return the next just to get an application.

From Reuters: WASHINGTON – Thousands of black farmers who were discriminated against by the U.S. Agriculture Department will be eligible to receive $1.25 billion in a settlement, the government said on Thursday.

From LATimes.com: Reporting from Washington – The controversy over racial bias, testing and firefighters that blew up at both the Supreme Court and the Senate last year returns Monday, this time as the justices decide whether blacks who were not hired in Chicago because of their test scores are due damages for years of lost […]

BEIJING – Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of “land mines.” About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television […]

As Rep. Anthony Weiner’s alleged crotch-shot dominates the news, information on possible motives to deface Weiner’s credibility are surfacing under the radar. And as it appears, Weinergate just might be a smear campaign executed by  conservative activists looking to defend Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. For months, Rep. Weiner has prompted Thomas to disclose the […]

With Black unemployment at 16.2 percent and no solution on the horizon, the Congressional Black Caucus, who have been vocal about the lack of unemployment programs aimed at African Americans, are launching their own cross-country job fair beginning next week. The CBC will hold job fairs, town hall meetings, job readiness programs, and seminars next […]

SEATTLE— A healthy diet is expensive and could make it difficult for Americans to meet new U.S. nutritional guidelines, according to a study published Thursday that says the government should do more to help consumers eat healthier. An update of what used to be known as a food pyramid in 2010 had called on Americans […]

WASHINGTON — Despite acknowledging a legacy of discrimination, the Department of Agriculture is still plagued by civil rights problems that have in the past led to unequal treatment of minorities seeking loans and other help, according to a government-commissioned report Wednesday.