NEWS
By Melissa Harris | July 27, 2007
Rep. Danny K. Davis leads a House subcommittee that has long arms -- control over federal employee issues, the Postal Service and the District of Columbia. The subcommittee's legislative agenda has not been set, but Davis announced one benchmark this week: Increase the number of women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service, the most elite segment of the federal bureaucracy. "When I leave as chairman of this committee, I don't intend for the numbers to be the same as they currently are," Davis said in an interview.
NEWS
By TaNoah Morgan | December 3, 1997
County Fire Administrator Steven Halford boasted of his record of moving women and minorities into management positions when he promoted 35 firefighters yesterday.But a look into the number of minorities and women in the county EMS/Fire/Rescue shows that the department still has a way to go.Yesterday's promotion ceremony raised one woman to the rank of captain -- the fourth in department history -- and one African-American and one woman to the rank of lieutenant. Two other women and two minorities were promoted within the firefighting ranks.
NEWS
By Lyle Denniston | September 5, 1997
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused yesterday to interfere, for the time being, with California's sweeping ban on government affirmative action programs that give special benefits to minorities and women.In a one-sentence order, and without dissent, the court said it would not block implementation of the controversial California initiative, called Proposition 209, during the time the justices ponder a constitutional challenge to it by civil rights groups.The court appeared not to have been convinced that minorities and women would soon suffer dire effects in state jobs, college admissions or public contracts if Proposition 209 continues to be enforced in coming months.
BUSINESS
By James Bock | December 19, 1996
WASHINGTON -- Texaco Inc. announced yesterday a sweeping plan to open doors for minorities and women, winning praise from civil rights leaders.The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson called off a consumer boycott of Texaco, and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume shelved a threatened stock divestiture campaign.Texaco pledged to boost minority employment, reward managers for achieving workplace diversity, triple the number of blacks who own retail outlets and increase purchasing from businesses owned by minorities and women.
NEWS
By Thomas W. Waldron | July 20, 1995
President Clinton said yesterday that he wants to overhaul the government's oldest and largest set-aside program for minority contractors.There's plenty to fix.For many years, auditors and analysts have highlighted a litany of problems with the so-called 8(a) program administered by the Small Business Administration. The program annually funnels billions of dollars of work to companies owned by minorities and women.The analysts have found that most SBA program work is awarded without competitive bidding, a small number of firms win the lion's share of contracts, and many minority-owned firms don't survive leaving the program because they are unprepared for marketplace competition.
NEWS
By Lyle Denniston | January 18, 1995
WASHINGTON -- The future of federal affirmative action programs seemed to teeter on a constitutional brink yesterday as the Supreme Court, hearing a significant new test case, displayed fresh signs of a split.Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who may hold the decisive swing vote, skeptically quizzed the Clinton administration's top Supreme Court advocate as he tried to defend a federal highway contracts program that gives minority-owned subcontractors an advantage.U.S. Solicitor General Drew S. Days III also ran into insistent questioning by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who has strongly criticized federal race-preference programs in the past but who nonetheless has not been considered a sure vote against them.
NEWS
By Richard O'Mara | March 2, 1995
WASHINGTON -- The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, speaking for an array of civil rights and women's groups, unleashed a counterattack yesterday against those determined to end affirmative action in the United States.He made it clear who his target was."The new Republican congressional majority is using affirmative action to divide our nation for political gain," he said.Mr. Jackson, leader of the National Rainbow Coalition and a possible presidential candidate next year, urged President Clinton to show "bold and fearless leadership" on behalf of the movement set in motion some 40 years ago by "white judges" to lift the burden of social and economic inequities from the backs of minorities, and later women.
NEWS
February 22, 1995
Decent WageAs an African-American whose life work is devoted to protecting the rights of minority workers, I am outraged that George F. Will, of all people, would have the temerity to suggest (column, Feb. 5) that the Davis-Bacon Act is racist.This is part of a campaign by Mr. Will's right-wing friends in Congress to repeal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections by spreading disinformation about the law's impact on minorities and women.Such charges are disingenuous at best and malevolent at worst, coming as they do from many of the same people who are trying to gut positive affirmative action programs without quotas.
NEWS
By CLARENCE PAGE | March 10, 1995
Washington -- Where, oh, where is President Clinton going to go with affirmative action?A new policy recommendation from the Federal Communications Commission offers some important clues.The FCC and the president are in a similar quandary. Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., and other leading Republican presidential candidates say they oppose affirmative-action policies. Californians are passing petitions to put an anti-affirmative-action referendum on that state's ballot next year, much to the delight of Republicans who hope it will bring lots of anti-Clinton voters to the polls.
BUSINESS
By BOSTON GLOBE | November 24, 1995
A federal commission studying the slow progress of women and minorities in the workplace says breaking the so-called glass ceiling is an economic priority that the nation can no longer afford to ignore.The 4-year-old Glass Commission, which went out of business at midnight Tuesday as it completed its work, also urged the federal government to strengthen anti-discrimination laws and increase efforts to eliminate internal barriers to the advancement of minorities and women.The commission also advised American firms to actively support affirmative action and diversity programs.