News21 is a part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Initiative on the Future of Journalism. Background on the News21 element is available on the Carnegie site. >>>>Bios in brief: Meet the 2009 fellows<<<< Here is an excerpt from the Carnegie report, Journalism’s Crisis in [...]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Quick Hit: Could You Pass a Citizenship Test?
November 30, 2008 – 3:25 pm
The U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services unveiled a revised civic portion of its citizenship test in October.The test is unchanged in format– it consists of 10 questions drawn from a pool of 100, and you have to answer six correctly– but it purports to focus more on the principles of our government rather [...]
E.U. Seeks Pact with Africa to Limit Immigration
November 29, 2008 – 6:15 pm
African immigrants captured off the coast of the Canary Islands last month were detained in Spain. (AP Photo) Like illegal Latin American immigrants in the United States, illegal African immigrants have caused contraversy in Europe. Recently, the European Union’s member states agreed on a pact that would curb illegal immigration, limit unskilled immigrants and refugees, [...]
Virginia Officials Figure Out How to Live With Immigration
November 25, 2008 – 8:29 pm
Virginia, a once-conservative southern state that is becoming more and more suburban and diverse, has been the scene of several immigration skirmishes in recent years, as local authorities tried to stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the rapidly-growing state. Now, the Virginia Commission on Immigration has recommended a softer approach. More English classes, in-state [...]
U.S. Citizens’ Foreign Widows Denied Residency
November 25, 2008 – 7:18 pm
Both sides of the immigration debate have called for a reform of our legal immigration process, which can be Byzantine and choked with red tape, and which often seems unfair. Here’s an illustrative example. CBS News’ 60 Minutes took a look at the plight of immigrant widows, whose marriages to U.S. citizens were not vetted [...]
Slate Details Gov. Napolitano’s Links to ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’
November 24, 2008 – 7:22 pm
The other day the News 21 blog looked at the future of the Department of Homeland Security, and I noted that President-elect Obama’s likely nominee to head it, Ariz. Gov. Janet Napolitano, is known in her home state as tough but moderate. Writing in Slate today, former Arizona Republic reporter Tom Zoellner suggests the tough [...]
The Future of the Border, Part 1: The State of ICE
November 22, 2008 – 6:50 pm
Former ICE head Julie Myers. (Wikipedia photo) Since its creation in 2003 as part of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has earned a reputation for controversy. It is perhaps best-known by the news-consuming public for the series of high-profile raids on employers, the most infamous of which was the Postville, Iowa [...]
Teens Charged with Hate Crimes in Immigrant’s Murder
November 20, 2008 – 7:10 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x58A6o2NEBs Seven Long Island teenagers have been charged with hate crimes for the murder of an Ecuadorian immigrant earlier this month. The high school students were indicted today for an attack that ended with one of them stabbing Marcelo Lucero. In a case that tops last summer’s murder of Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, [...]
Guyanese Immigrants Help to Rebuild Schenectady
November 16, 2008 – 11:38 am
Schenectady, N.Y. (Photo by Elephi Pelephi, via Flickr) An article on reversing urban blight in the Cleveland Plain Dealer uncovered an interesting story in the once-dying city of Schenectady, N.Y. In a bid to save itself from a shrinking population and economic base after General Electric Co. moved out, Schenectady, near Albany, recruited immigrants from [...]
