New Mexico State Motor Transportation Division officers are being accused of targeting African-Americans for inspections, searches and detention at the Lordsburg port of entry.
The lawsuit filed April 20 in federal court in Las Cruces by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico stems from an Aug. 15, 2008 incident involving an Altadena, Calif., truck driver.
The lawsuit alleges MTD officer Ben Strain cited Curtis Blackwell for carrying alcohol in a commercial vehicle, even though the containers were unopened. . . .

MUSINA, South Africa (AP) -- It's easy to miss the two girls. They are so small they seem to disappear amid the dozen Zimbabwean boys crowded around them along the trash-choked drain. Sofia Chimhangwa, a 14-year-old in a denim skirt, lies on the concrete under a filthy blanket. Her 15-year-old friend sits next to her, braiding a legless Barbie's hair. Sofia says she survives because the other girl's 19-year-old boyfriend helps feed them both when the coins they beg don't stretch far enough. . . .

President Barack Obama spoke at the United States' foremost Roman Catholic University on Sunday, where deep divisions over abortion and stem-cell research have rammed to the forefront in a country fighting two wars and battling a withering economic recession.
A storm broke out immediately after Notre Dame invited Obama to address commencement exercises and he accepted. It still rages, as anti-abortion activists partially disrupted the new president's appearance at the ceremony . . .

Virginia Fields, president of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, was giving a speech in Rocky Mount, N.C. last week before a group of social service providers when she made a surprising revelation about the AIDS epidemic.
"One of the things I talked about were the numbers for heterosexual Black women," Fields recounted. "When people heard that, they were very surprised. It's something that they did not know, it's something they had not focused on.". . .

This is the text of President Barack Obama's controversial commencement address Sunday as delivered, as transcribed by the White House. ...The president called for a return to civility in the abortion debate. Meanwhile, hecklers . . . .

In his Friday address to the City Club of Portland, Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced an emergency jobs program to help put at least 12,000 unemployed Oregonians back to work this summer.... "President Roosevelt gave hope to millions of unemployed Americans when he created the Civilian Conservation Corps and other jobs programs. We need to take the same kind of immediate action in Oregon," Kulongoski said. . . .

The Community Coalition for Contracts and Jobs will meet tonight, Tuesday, May 19, at 6 p.m. at the Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP). . . . CCCJ advocates specifically on behalf of local African American workers and businesses and small businesses in general in pursuit of equity in employment and contracting opportunities created by our tax and consumer dollars. . . .

The White House reaffirmed its commitment to historically Black colleges and universities last week in response to criticisms that arose when the proposed education budget revealed the loss of an $85 million allotment to Black institutions. "The Administration strongly supports the critical work being done by the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities and understands that the system offers students from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to continue their education," . . .

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Up-and-coming rapper Dolla was killed in a shooting at an upscale shopping mall, and a man was arrested for investigation of murder, police said Tuesday. Los Angeles County Coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said the man killed Monday afternoon at the Beverly Center was 21-year-old Roderick Anthony Burton II, the birth name of rapper Dolla.

OAKLAND, California (AP) -- A former San Francisco Bay Area transit officer charged with killing an unarmed Black man is back in court for a hearing expected to shed more light on the shooting.