links for 2011-05-31

"Mr Douglas, 31, wrote in a national newspaper that he was called 'n*****' by a fellow guest at the award show but did not name him. However, Mr Brown, who has his own haircare range and reality television show entitled Great British Hairdresser, has admitted that he was the person in question."

"Among the employers who have felt the impact of the administration’s tactics are two owners of Mexican restaurants in the Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler chain, which are popular for their laid-back Margaritaville mood and their broiled mahi tacos. On April 20, immigration agents descended on 14 Chuy’s restaurants in coordinated raids in Arizona and California, detaining kitchen workers and carrying away boxes of payroll books and other evidence.

"But at the arraignment days later in federal court here, no immigrant workers stood before the judge. The only criminal defendants were the owners, Mark Evenson and his son Christopher, and an accountant who worked with them, Diane Ingrid Strehlow. If the Evensons are convicted on all charges against them of tax fraud and harboring [undocumented] workers, they each could face more than 80 years in jail."

"But Napa is taking a different approach, providing affordable basic necessities for migrant workers — food, shelter and support — regardless of whether they are here legally or not.

"The effort was born of compassion and practicality. Without migrant labor, most of it from Mexico, the wine producers in Napa would be hard pressed to fill a carafe, much less the valley’s nine million annual cases."

"Indian journalist Mark Trahant, who was president of NAJA when the organization originally joined UNITY, said he was disheartened by the discord. 'Of course I am sorry to see this division, and I am certain there will be other enterprises and events that include NABJ,' he said. 'What really troubles me is that the coalition partners need to have a conversation about the dramatic changes in the media and how we can shape what’s next. That discussion requires more voices in UNITY, not fewer ones on their own.'”

"That African-Americans strenuously disagree among ourselves about goals and strategies is an ancient historical truth that is masked by our nominal partisan similarities. But the intense media attention over West’s critique of President Obama can be understood only by the repeated refusal by mainstream media and broader American political culture to adequately grasp the heterogeneity of black thought."