FCC Makes Available Hundreds of Low Power, FM Radio Stations for Community Organizations: Apply Now

As part of the Local Community Radio Acts, Congress recently acted to support a movement that will make thousands of low-power, FM radio stations available for local, community organizations and groups. There is only a short window period to sign up (October 15-29 2013). The FCC encourages you to start your application early (i.e., right now, you don't need to wait until October) so that it is properly prepared come the application review period.  Applications should be submitted electronically to the FCC.  Sign up at Prometheus Radio Project to learn how to start your own station (click here for a pdf version of the application). You can access an application check list here, and click here for a free webinar on how to start a station.

Here, you can read the FCC's Public Notice.

Here's the report from Democracy Now.

Marijuana Arrests in Black and White

The ACLU recently came out with its report on differential usage and arrest rates for marijuana based on race.  The report found that both Blacks and Whites use pot at roughly the same rates, which is similar to other research on drug use.  But, while usage rates are similar, Blacks are three to four times more likely to be arrested for pot than are Whites.  Some of their other key findings include:

• 52% of all drug arrests in 2010 were for marijuana (mostly small amounts of pot, not drug king pins).
• Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana.
• Blacks are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than are Whites.
• The over 8 million pot arrests between 2001 and 2010 equals roughly one arrest every 37 seconds.
• Enforcing marijuana laws cost about $3.6 billion dollars a year, but has done virtually nothing to stop use, availability or quality.

You can read the entire report here.

Now, if you were to combine this report (as well as the other scholarly research on law enforcement and arrests) with research on the court system (ability to afford bail and quality legal counsel) and sentencing policies (mandatory minimums, school zone drug laws, truth in sentencing laws, get tough policies, etc.) you start to see an entire criminal justice system that discriminates against people of color and the poor; poor Blacks in particular.  And, if you study the history of race and racism in the US, you will come to see present day drug laws and enforcement practices as a contemporary version of a long history of racial control that goes back to European expansionism, where the social categories of race that we continue to use today were first created.

Race, Biology and Medicine

Here's an interesting article in The Atlantic that puts the critiques of Jason Richwine's doctoral dissertation into a larger theoretical perspective. You can go to the original article here, but I copied and pasted it below.

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Race Is Not Biology

By Merlin Chowkwanyun

aspidoscelis / flickr

During the past two weeks, much outrage has arisen over former Heritage Foundation staffer Jason Richwine's Harvard doctoral dissertation, which speculated that IQ differences between "Hispanic" and "non-Hispanic' populations were genetically rooted. The claims mirrored those of Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's scurrilous The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, which made similar claims about the intelligence of blacks. (Murray receives thanks in Richwine's dissertation acknowledgments and filed a piece recently in defense of Richwine at the National Review Online.)

Crack Babies: A Retrospective Report

For those of you who lived in the late 1980s and 1990s you might remember the "crack epidemic." This was a huge political and media event in which crack cocaine was portrayed as a drug that led to super predators, addicted mothers who will do anything for more, and crack babies that are destined for a life living on social welfare.  This was also the time when the U.S. government and many states adopted tougher and tougher sentencing policies for drug offenses.  There was even discussion of forced sterilization for mothers who gave birth to babies addicted to crack.  However, while use of any hard drug during pregnancy is potentially troublesome, the media and political narrative seemed to over blow the case. Here's a retrospective video report from The New York Times on this popular narrative and it's relationship to reality.

Xavier Prep School to Reopen as St. Katherine Drexel Preparatory High School

I'm a little late on this, but it's certainly news worth posting.  Xavier Prep, which was scheduled to close at the end of the school year, will remain open under a new name, St. Katherine Drexel Preparatory High School. Courtesy of The Uptown Messenger.

Happy Hour with The Lens

This Thursday (May 9th) at 7pm, the folks at The Lens are hosing their first happy hour. This is an opportunity for them to meet readers and for readers to meet them, and an opportunity to learn what readers appreciate about their work and what they can do to better serve the city.  It will be held at Molly's at the Market (1107 Decatur St.). The folks with the Digital News Alliance (DNA) will also be there.  Hope to see you there.

Consent Decree Hearing Regarding Orleans Parish Prison

Tom Gogola from The Lens is live blogging this morning' meeting on the consent decree with OPP. His summary before the life blog is useful for a little primer on exactly what's going in the city with the prison.  Click here for the story and live blog.