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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – According to a report released Wednesday, minority children spend an average of 13 hours a day using mobile devices, computers, TVs and other media. The figures cataloging how long they are plugged in mark about 4½ hours more than white kids.

The findings compiled by Northwestern University researchers and based on an analysis of two separate Kaiser Family Foundation surveys were presented to childhood and telecommunications experts in Washington, D.C.

Researchers analyzed that data to find out how black, Hispanic, Asian American and white youth use media for homework and for fun, and how long they’re plugged in on any given day.

Among 8- to 18-year-olds, Asian Americans logged the most media use with 13 hours, 13 minutes a day. Next came Hispanics with 13 hours, African Americans logged 12 hours, 59 minutes and whites garnered 8 hours, 36 minutes.

It remains unclear exactly why the racial disparity exists, however some experts believe children may turn to media if they feel their neighborhoods lack safe places to play or if their parents have especially demanding jobs that prevent engagement.

Based on the findings compared with white children, minority youth:

• Watch TV and videos one to two hours more a day;
• Listen to music about an hour more a day;
• Use computers about 1½ hours more a day;
• Play video games 30 to 40 minutes longer a day.

Black (84 percent) and Hispanic kids (77 percent) also are more likely to have TVs in their bedrooms and to eat meals in front of the TV, the study reported.

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New Haven, CT, United States (AHN) – The man who admitted to killing a gradaute student in 2009 while working as a Yale University lab technician was set to be sentenced on Friday.

Raymond Clark, 26, was facing 44 years in prison under a plea agreement he accepted last March. He was convicted of murdering Annie Le, a pharmacology doctoral student at the university.

Under the plea deal, Clark also admitted to sexual assault under the Alford Doctrine, which meant he agreed that there was sufficient evidence for him to be convicted of the charge. He admitted guilt as prosecutors released evidence indicating Le may have been sexually assaulted.

Family members of Le, who was a San Jose, CA native of Vietnamese descent, were to speak at the sentencing.

Le was last seen on surveillance video in the morning of Sept. 8, 2009, entering the university’s Animal Research Center in the medical school complex, where Clark took care of animals. Her body was found in a wall in the basement of the laboratory five days later, on the day of her wedding.

Clark, who worked at the lab for five years, was later arrested at a motel in Cromwell, CT and held on $3 million bond.

Le’s death received national attention and left the New Haven university deeply shaken. Yale later updated its workplace violence prevention policy and established a fellowship in Le’s honor.

Investigators said the 24-year-old Le died of strangulation. They found several items in the lab that led them to arrest Clark, who had nothing in his employment history at the campus that “gave an indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible,” Yale University President Richard Levin had said in message to the campus community after the tragedy.

The evidence included blood stains on a white sock found inside a drop ceiling located in a secure area of the lab that contained both Clark and Le’s DNA. The single sock matched a sock found in the crevice where Le’s body’s was stuffed.

In addition, there was a pair of Vikings work boots with blood-like stains and “Ray-C” written on them. Police found a green pen under Le’s body which contained DNA from both Clark and the victim. The pen is believed to be the same one Clark used to sign task sheets, using the initials “RC,” while working.

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Hayward, CA, United States (AHN) – The search for a nursing student who went missing last week in California continued on Tuesday.

Michelle Le, 26, was at Kaiser Medical Center in Hayward on Friday when she went out to the parking garage and did not return. She left the hospital during a break in class, at about 7 p.m.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Le was planning a trip to Reno during the Memorial weekend. Her abandoned car was found a few blocks from the hospital.

Police told KGO television that there are no signs of foul play.

Le is enrolled in her final year at Samuel Merritt University in San Mateo. Her disappearance remains a missing persons case.

The university said it was “deeply concerned” about Le and that it was in regular contact with police and the student’s family. “We continue to hope for the best in this difficult situation,” it added.

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Trenton, NJ, United States (AHN) – Trenton Public Schools officials are working to continue bus service for students after transportation workers started a sick-out late in the week.

As state budget wrangling continues, the district is moving ahead with plans to privatize its school bus service, contending it could save about $2 million.

About half (15) of the district’s 29 transportation workers reportedly called in sick Thursday, though the number was reduced to about a third (9) Friday according to a school official. The 29 are a part of 196 school employees who recently learned they would lose their jobs to reduce the district’s school budget.

A report in the Trentonian stated 300 to 400 students missed school due to the school bus situation.

“So each of the (seven) drivers had to make three different runs, but that only covers 21 schools. There are 36 schools. Some students have to go to special schools as far out as Neptune. It’s a terrible mess. Kids are calling on the phones, left to stay at home, no way to get to school. Their parents have to take a bus to work, so they drop their child off, counting on a school bus to take them to school. Often they’re not picked up,” a source told the paper.

A school official admitted as much in a letter posted on the district’s website and sent home with students.

“We are experiencing a job action among our bus drivers,” interim superintendent Raymond Broach wrote. “This is causing delays in the pickup and delivery of our students and in some cases, (we’re) not picking up at all.”

With the drivers losing their jobs anyway, they will likely not be punished for their actions and the district will call upon drivers from other companies it has deals with — Rick Bus Co. and Delaware Valley Bus Line — to cover the gap in service, according to a report on nj.com.

Trenton Public Schools may get $12 million in additional school funding due to a recent action by the state legislature, but will still seek an outside vendor for its school bus service.

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MN, United States (AHN) – Students who struggle with mathematics may be suffering from a neurocognitive disorder similar to people struggling with dyslexia.

University of Minnesota researchers say the condition is called dyscalculia. The disorder, they say, inhibits the acquisition of basic numerical and arithmetic concepts.

Dyscalculia affects about the same amount of people as dyslexia, but hasn’t received the same amount of attention or research funding, according to the researchers.

The researchers detail in their paper, “Dyscalculia, From Brain to Education,” how scientists worldwide have used magnetic resonance imaging to map the neural network that supports arithmetic. In people with dyscalculia, they have found abnormalities in the network.

The researchers are working on evidence-based interventions for the disorder.

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Andover, MN, United States (AHN) – Two national civil rights groups are planning on suing the Anoka-Hennepin school district if school officials don’t properly address anti-gay harassment. The Southern Poverty Law Center and National Center for Lesbian Rights say they have proof that students in the district have faced harassment for being gay or perceived as gay and that harassment violates federal law.

Lawyers for the two civil rights groups which sued the district earlier this year in a separate case sent a letter Tuesday to Anoka-Hennepin superintendent Dennis Carlson warning of possible legal action.

According to the letter the two groups have had the district, the largest in the state under investigation for some time and found that students who are or perceived to be gay or lesbian are in jeopardy and in a hostile environment when they’re at school. They were originally contacted by students and alumni who sought help.

Sam Wolfe an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group said Anoka-Hennepin is breaking federal law by allowing such a culture to exist.

“On a daily basis they’re going into the schools and into the hallways — other kids are calling them names, such as ‘faggot’ and other names about either their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity,” Wolfe said in an MPR report. “And it’s a continual thing.”

The letter goes on to list examples of harassment of at least three unnamed current or former students. It remains unknown how many other clients could be represented by the groups if a settlement can’t be reached.

Wolfe said his group will sue Anoka-Hennepin unless district officials compensate his clients and repeals a district policy that requires staff to be neutral in dealing with sexual orientation. The so called “neutrality policy” allows sexual orientation to be discussed but stipulates teachers to remain neutral.

“The policy ties the hands of these teachers,” Wolfe said. “Some of these kids are being relentlessly harassed.”

District spokeswoman Mary Olson said school district leaders believe their policy is legal.

In a Star Tribune report she said people have different view points on whether “homosexuality is appropriate.” She added, “I don’t think by eliminating the neutrality policy we’re going to eliminate bullying.

The board stance is they don’t see a connection between the two. However civil rights proponents hope with the threat of a lawsuit they will reevaluate their position and repeal the policy.

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Honolulu, HI, United States (AHN) – A shooting at a Hawaii middle school on Monday ended with one student injured.

According to KITV, a 14-year-old was showing a gun to his friends at Highlands Intermediate School when one student brushed the weapon away with his hand, causing the gun to go off.

The bullet went through a student’s jacket, ricocheted off a wall and grazed another student’s hand and leg. Only one student was injured, and the teen who brought the weapon was taken into police custody.

The gun, a .45 caliber Glock semi-automatic pistol, was registered to a man who had lost it in December but did not report it stolen or missing until Monday, KHON reported.

Classes at Highlands Intermediate School, located in Pearl City, continued as normal after the accident, prompting concerns from some parents about how school officials handled the emergency.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce as soon as next week whether it will hear an appeal involving California’s controversial law that grants illegal immigrants in-state tuition at public universities.

The immigrants say they could not afford college if they paid the higher out-of-state tuition rates.

Opponents of the law say taxpayers should not have to subsidize lawbreakers like illegal immigrants.

The controversy extends beyond California to 10 other states that grant reduced tuition to illegal immigrants. Out-of-state tuition can be triple in-state rates.

Courts took up the case of Martinez vs. Regents of the University of California in 2005 when students who paid out-of-state tuition sued the Board of Regents.

They accused the university of violating a 1996 federal law that prohibits public institutions from giving benefits to illegal immigrants.

The University of California’s attorneys argued the state law, AB540, was narrowly written to avoid conflicts with the federal law.

Illegal immigrants can get in-state tuition only if they attend a California high school for three years and graduate.

The same benefit is granted to any graduates of the state’s high schools, thereby eliminating legal U.S. residency as the issue in getting in-state college tuition, attorneys for the University of California argued.

The trial court agreed with the university and dismissed the lawsuit.

However, the California Court of Appeal for the Third District reversed the trial court, saying the state law is preempted by federal law. In other words, illegal immigrants cannot receive in-state tuition.

On appeal in November, the California Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal.

Now, it’s the U.S. Supreme Court’s turn to decide the dispute, this time with a likelihood of influencing debate in Congress over how to reform immigration laws.

The Supreme Court justices this week discussed whether to grant the case a hearing or let the California Supreme Court decision stand.

Just before the California Supreme Court accepted the case, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote a letter to the state’s highest court saying the dispute reaches “into the heart of the national debate about illegal immigration.”

Utah, along with New York and Texas, is among the states that allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition.

Other states, such as Arizona, are strongly opposed to granting any benefits to illegal immigrants.

They have been joined by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law group, which filed an amicus brief that supports cutting off in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

If the state law granting in-state tuition is upheld, “overburdened state taxpayers, who are suffering under California’s devastated economy, will be forced to continue subsidizing the college education of adult illegal immigrants,” the Pacific Legal Foundation said in a statement.

The foundation says in-state tuition gives the equivalent of a taxpayer-subsidized scholarship worth between $43,884 to $80,872 at a four year college.

However, LatinoJustice, a civil rights organization that filed an amicus brief in the case, said in a statement that the lawsuit against AB540 “threatens to erect an insurmountable barrier for high-achieving high school graduates from pursuing higher education in hopes of bettering themselves and benefiting their communities as a whole.”

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Riverside, CA, United States (AHN) – A 10-year-old boy arrested for the murder of his father, a neo-Nazi leader, says he was abused.

According to court documents, Jeff Hall, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head, was abusing his family and his son feared his parents would divorce and he would have to choose which parent to live with.

Paramedics were unable to revive the man and the boy and his siblings were taken into protective custody after being questioned by police.

The fourth-grader, like his 9-year-old sister, knew where his parents stored the guns. The boy took a Rossi .357 revolver from the closet and fired as his father slept on the couch in the downstairs living room on May 1, according to police.

The boy told police he was tired of his dad hitting him and his stepmom. He also revealed he thought his dad was cheating on his stepmom and thought he might have to choose which person he would live with.

The boy’s stepmother, Krista McCary, is being charged with child endangerment and failure to properly store a firearm.

Investigators confirmed that not only did Hall and McCary keep numerous weapons in the home but that “three out of the four children” knew the easy-to-reach location of the .357 revolver.

Juvenile court Judge Charles Koosed agreed on Wednesday to delay taking the plea from the 10-year-old boy.

Koosed and the boy’s defense attorney believe the youngster should first have a psychological evaluation. Among his possible pleas are not guilty by reason of insanity. The next hearing date is scheduled on July 22.

If found guilty of the charges, the boy could remain in juvenile hall until he is 18 or be placed in another youth detention facility until he is 25.

Hall gained media attention in 2010 during his campaign for a seat on the Western Municipal Water District in Riverside. During his run for the seat, Hall was open about his white supremacist beliefs when asked.

During his tenure at the National Socialist Movement, Hall led demonstrations in Riverside and Los Angeles where supporters yelled “white power” and waved swastika flags while giving Nazi salutes.

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New Haven, CT, United States (AHN) – Amid a federal probe on sexual misconduct charges, Yale University has decided to sanction the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter on its campus for pro-rape chants that were videotaped and widely distributed online last year.

In an email to faculty and students, Yale College Dean Mary Miller announced that DKE would be banned from recruiting or undertaking any activities on campus for five years.

The suspension includes restrictions on using university bulletin boards or the Yale email to communicate with students, and using the name of the university in connection with the fraternity as an organization.

Delta Kappa Epsilon was founded in 1844 at the university. It counts among its alumni five former presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, Gerald Ford and George W. Bush.

The fraternity came under fire last October when it conducted a pledge ritual that involved shouting, “No means yes, yes means anal,” and,” “My name is Jack, I’m a necrophiliac, I f— dead women.” Footage of the chants was posted online, sparking outcry beyond the New Haven campus.

In the wake of the controversy, DKE met with university officials and apologized to the Yale Women’s Center.

The sanctions were meted following a probe by the university executive committee on a complaint from the dean of student affairs, Marichal Gentry, of “sexual harassment” and “imperiling the integrity and values of the University community.”

The panel’s investigation included interviews of fraternity members involved in the incident.

The committee found that the chapter had threatened and intimidated others, in violation of undergraduate rules on “harassment, coercion or intimidation” and “imperiling the integrity and values of the University community.”

Several fraternity members were also found to have violated the same rules. Their names were not released due to federal privacy laws.

“Every member of our community has a legal and moral right to an educational environment free from harassment and intimidation,” Miller said.

Although the national organization has yet to receive a formal request for suspension from the university, the executive director of Delta Kappa Epsilon International, Douglas Lanpher, told the Yale Daily News that the sanctions were “excessive”and that the organization would appeal.

Yale is currently being investigated by the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Education Department about violations of Title IX.

A group of 16 former and current students is accusing the university of failing to address allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

The law, one of several educational reforms passed in 1972, amends the Civil Rights Act to prohibit the exclusion of anyone on the basis of sex from educational programs directly funded by the federal government.

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