Scholarships Grants

New York, NY, United States (AHN Sports) – NBA players filed an unfair labor practices charge against the league Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board.

In the complaint the players accuse the league of “harsh, inflexible and grossly regressive ‘takeaway’ demands.”

The National Basketball Players Association is seeking an immediate investigation by the NLRB, plus an injunction to stop the league’s threatened lockout of players when the current collective-bargaining agreement expires June 30.

The league responded by saying it is working toward putting a new deal in place.

“There is no merit to the charge filed by the players association as we have complied, and will continue to comply, with all of our obligations under the federal labor laws,” The NBA said in a statement. “It will not distract us from our efforts to negotiate in good faith a new collective bargaining agreement with the players association.”

Players association head Billy Hunter sent out a memo to players earlier this month that stated that the league is seeking a hard salary cap that would be a 22% reduction from the current $58-million soft-cap figure.

The union argued in its NLRB claim that the NBA has engaged in “classic ‘take it or leave it’ bargaining that is “intended to delay action on a renewal [collective bargaining agreement] until the NBA locks out the employees in order to coerce them into accepting the NBA’s harsh and regressive demands.”

The league and players have a bargaining session scheduled during the NBA Finals in Dallas or Oklahoma City.

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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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Indianapolis, IN, United States (AHN Sports) – According to numerous reports, the NFL is canceling next month’s rookie symposium in Canton, Ohio.

League officials are scheduled to officially inform teams of the cancellation during today’s NFL Spring Meeting in Indianapolis.

The symposium is designed to teach rookies life lessons on dealing with football, finances and their new lifestyle. Those lessons will have to wait.

Scheduled for June 26, the symposium was to been held in Canton, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for the first time.

The league and the NFLPA are both waiting for a June 3 court hearing before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the legality of the ongoing lockout — the event is not going forward.

Teams have laid off or furloughed employees and had staff take pay cuts but the symposium is the first event to be called off due to the current labor unrest.

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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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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims declined by 29,000 to 409,000 for the week ending May 14 compared to the previous week’s tally of 438,000 claims.

That is still above the 400,000 mark. Analysts say first time unemployment compensation insurcance claims must drop below 400,000 and stay below that mark to signal the economy has turned around.

However, the less volatile four-week moving average was up by 1,250 from the previous figure, increasing to 439,000 claims.

The number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 30, the most recent week such data is available fell below the 8 million mark to 7,936,548, a decrease of 47,124 from the previous week.

Here is a look at which states had the largest increase in new claims for the week ending May 7.

• Alabama (+5,767)
• California (+4,015)
• Michigan (+3,122)
• Mississippi (+1,666)

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new york, ny, United States (AHN Sports) – Count New York Giants defensive tackle Chris Canty among those who feel that there will be NFL football this fall.

Canty for one feels that the labor impasse will be over soon enough and the season will get started when it is supposed to on Sept. 8.

“[The labor dispute] will definitely be settled. There will be a football season,” Canty told the New York Post Tuesday at the 18th annual Gridiron Gala at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, where he and Jets fullback Tony Richardson received awards for their commitment to community service.

“The fans don’t have to worry about that,” Canty added. “We’re going to have football this fall, and we’re going to try and put the quality product on the field that they are used to seeing come September.”

Canty is disappointed in Monday’s court ruling that froze a lower court’s injunction and allows the owners to continue the lockout at least until the players’ appeal begins June 3.

“It’s tough because you’d like to have the opportunity to prepare for the season in the offseason,” Canty said. “You’d like to be able to get with your teammates in the confines of the facilities and work with the coaches, to try and improve your football team and try to get ready to play your best football in the fall.”

Richardson feel the lockout has not affected him as much as a 16-year veteran of the league as it will younger players.

“I’m more concerned for guys who were just drafted,” he said. “They need to be in there working. They need to learn the lingo.”

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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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Sacramento, CA, United States (AHN) – California Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday was set to unveil an updated budget plan to close a record $26.6 billion deficit while taking into account better-than-expected April tax receipts and Republican opposition to a June ballot on tax extensions.

The announcement will come as the end of the fiscal year looms, and teachers and students in the state, which has the nation’s largest university system and the world’s eighth-largest economy, protest further cuts.

Brown early this year proposed a plan reducing spending by $12.5 billion, including $1.4 billion in cuts to higher education, and generating $12 billion from an extension of taxes that are due to expire this summer.

The tax extensions require a June ballot that in turn, must first be approved by two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the state Senate. The deadline for including the extensions in the ballot has passed, and unions have asked lawmakers to instead pass a bill allowing the ballot.

The governor’s revised budget plan is expected to seek at least some of his revenue-generating tax hikes even as Republicans point out the state’s more than $2 billion in unanticipated April tax revenue.

Last week, Brown announced drastic measures such as eliminating the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and shuttering 70 of 278 state parks, including the governor’s mansion.

Eliminating the appeals board, which is composed of appointees who preside over appeals on disputes about jobless and disability claims, would save the state $1.2 million.

The closure of parks would reduced spending by $11 million in the fiscal year starting in July, and another $22 million the following year. Parks with the least attendance and cultural and environmental significance were chosen for the closure, which will not affect 92 percent of public attendance in parks.

Brown, who served as governor for two terms nearly three decades ago, also plans to merge the state’s two personnel agencies into a single human resources department to save at least $5.8 million.

Previously, he ordered a hiring freeze and slashed the number of state cars and cell phones by 50 percent.

Republicans, who released an alternative budget plan last week, have railed against the latest proposals as “posturing” and ” misguided threats.”

State GOP spokesman Mark Standriff called the planned closure of parks “a ‘Washington Monument Strategy’ that is both cynical and manipulative, and shows little respect for the taxpayers.”

The Republican plan relies on the higher April revenue to prevent cuts to education and law enforcement. It does not raise taxes and calls on state workers to “do their part” with a 10 percent reduction in pay, benefits and other employee costs, which the GOP says would provide the government with $1.1 billion in savings.

The California Teachers Association, which held statewide protests last week, said the GOP’s alternative proposal would leave a $14.7 billion budget gap and fails to provide “real solutions.”

The San Francisco Chronicle said in its editorial on Monday that the GOP plan “should be dismissed as a nonstarter,” because it “included a heavy dose of borrowing and reliance on ‘savings.’ ” The newspaper also blasted Republicans for pushing “a ridiculously long wish list that strayed far from the subject of the budget.”

In March, Brown ended negotiations with Republicans after what he said was “an ever changing list of collateral demands” in return for support for a special election, such as giving a $1 billion tax break to out-of-state corporations so the companies would bring jobs to California.

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Shelton, CT, United States (AHN) – A Connecticut honors student who was banned from his high school prom after a creative proposal backfired has had the ban reversed.

The incident sparked hundreds of thousands of people to post support notes on Facebook and the matter garnered more than 10,000 tweets on Twitter. The incident also sparked a national debate as it made headlines around the world.

As of this morning, the Facebook page for “Let James Tate Go To Prom” was “liked” by more than 195,000 people, and another page selling Tate-for-prom-king-type T-shirts is growing.

Finally, officials at Shelton High backed down from their hard-line stance against James Tate.

After nearly a week of international pressure, on Saturday Beth Smith, the headmaster of the public high school, gave in to what she called “international notoriety” and reversed the school’s decision, allowing Tate to take his date, Sonali Rodrigues, to the prom.

Tate a senior, was banned from the prom by school administrators after he posted cardboard letters on the side of the school that read, “Sonali Rodrigues Will You Go To Prom With Me? HMU [Hit Me Up] – Tate.”

His school considered the move a safety risk and trespassing. The school has a policy that anyone suspended after April 1 isn’t allowed to attend special events.

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