Unhappy with the Obama administration's decision not to attend an April meeting of the Durban Review Conference, which is connected to an international race gathering, activists plan to hold a Harlem rally to protest the action and urge the U.S. to participate in the important meeting. "We want to get the message to President Barack Obama and his administration that we are demanding U.S. participation in Durban II" . . .

DALLAS (NNPA) - District Attorney Craig Watkins stood with the victims of sexual abuse recently shaking hands and meeting the people that will be affected a new bill that will allow for criminal records to indicate past offenses through DNA testing, even after the statute of limitations has expired. . . .

"One in every 37 adults in this country is either behind bars or under the direct control of the corrections system — on parole or on probation. Here in Minnesota, it's one out of every 26 adults. In terms of the entire country, that means 7.3 million people are under the control of the correction system," Davis said.

'Black Press giant' Wilbert "Bill" Tatum, publisher emeritus, CEO and chairman of the board, 76, died in a hospital in Croatia on the evening of Feb. 25, after a brief illness. His daughter, Elinor Tatum, publisher and editor-in-Chief of the nationally known and respected weekly newspaper, has expressed her gratitude for the outpouring of support and condolences from leaders in the Black Press, political, public service and Black leadership communities across the nation. . . .

WASHINGTON (AP) -- He's not being timid, that's for sure.
President Barack Obama's first federal budget lays out the most far-reaching agenda for American life since Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society.'' But paying for it by having upper-income earners shoulder much of the cost is already provoking cries of "class warfare'' in Congress.
The Obama priorities reflected in the $3.6 trillion budget guarantees a fierce political battle ahead over taxes. And it assumes a fairly quick economic recovery from the worst recession in decades. ...

'Black Press giant' Wilbert "Bill" Tatum, publisher emeritus, CEO and chairman of the board, 76, died in a hospital in Croatia on the evening of Feb. 25, after a brief illness. His wife, Susan, and family were working to bring Tatum's body back to the U. S. from Croatia, a country in Central Europe. His daughter has expressed her gratitude for the outpouring of support and condolences from leaders in the Black Press, political, public service and Black leadership communities across the nation. . . .

 A historian has netted $60,000 from the auction of vintage films depicting the life of blacks in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Currie Ballard, the assistant secretary to the state Senate, first sold a copy of the films to the Oklahoma Historical Society, then had his collection of 29 film reels auctioned at the Swann Auction Galleries in New York.
Ballard said the buyer wanted to remain anonymous but that the films were purchased by an Ivy League university. . . .

The Ku Klux Klan was rising again. Segregation was the law and Martin Luther King Jr. was not even born yet. Amid the terror and oppression, civil rights pioneer W.E.B. DuBois published a groundbreaking book in 1924 that challenged the pervasive stereotypes of Black Americans and documented their rarely recognized achievements. His book, "The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America," detailed the role of Black Americans with the earliest explorers to inventions ranging from ice cream to player pianos. He argued that Blacks were crucial to conquering the wilderness, winning wars, expanding democracy and creating a prosperous economy by producing tobacco, sugar, cotton and rice and helping to build the Panama Canal. . . .

The life-saving gifts of blood and organs for transplant needed by African Americans are not always available. 
Because blood and organ recipients are most likely to find compatible matches from donors of the same ethnic background, low donation rates among the African American community can result in shortages of blood supply and organs for transplant.
The sixth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blood and Donor Registry Drive ...

(GIN) -  After the initial moment of euphoria for the landslide victory of Barack Obama, some Africans are now expressing a more cautious note of hope for the new leader.
''Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East conflict, Pakistan and India is where the focus of U.S. policy is going to be,'' said Francis Kornegay of Johannesburg's Institute for Policy Studies. ''So there is no realistic prospect that Africa will overtake any of those concerns. On the other hand there are some pressing security concerns on the continent.'' ...