White Women

In 2002, the last year for which there are national statistics, 300,000 women between the ages of 18 to 44 were seeking to adopt a child and had taken specific measures to do so. It's not surprising that about half of the women preferred a single non-disabled child under the age of two. What is significant are the racial preferences of these black and white women toward the race of any future adopted child. Eighty-four percent of white women seeking to adopt would "prefer or accept" an African-American child as compared with 75 percent of African-American women who would "prefer or accept" a white child, a difference of only 9 percentage points.

Three of the 12 officers being promoted today in the Howard County Police Department are women or minorities -- a rate that the chief says is on target to help increase diversity in his department.Police Chief James N. Robey said the promotions, which include the addition of a second major below the rank of chief, are part of a department reorganization he started two years ago.One African-American man and two white women are among 12 officers who will be promoted in a ceremony at the George Howard Building in Ellicott City at 5 p.m.Cpl.

Black women who get breast cancer are more than twice as likely to die from it as white women, but a new study confirms that poorer access to medical care isn't the only reason -- the cancers in black women are also more aggressive.The study -- the most definitive effort so far to unravel the mystery of why blacks are less likely to get the disease but more likely to die from it -- confirmed that inadequate screening is the chief reason for their poor survival. Black women had more advanced disease at diagnosis and, therefore, a worse prognosis than whites, and study authors urged better access to and education about mammography.

WASHINGTON - An active ingredient in a new heart failure drug tailored for African-Americans can increase the risk of developing a form of lupus, a debilitating disease that strikes black women in disproportionately high numbers. BiDil was officially launched yesterday by Massachusetts-based NitroMed, Inc. as the first drug intended for use by patients in a particular ethnic group. The Food and Drug Administration approved it June 23. But one of its two key ingredients, a generic compound known as hydralazine hydrochloride, has long been known to cause lupus in some patients, according to FDA documents and interviews with doctors.

HOUSTON -- Like other black women who have battled breast cancer, Karen Jackson found the odds stacked against her when she learned the fearsome diagnosis three years ago.While black women are slightly less likely to develop breast cancer, their mortality rate is 5 percent higher than for white women, in part because many black women do not seek treatment until the cancer is more advanced.Then, when Jackson went to a support group, she found herself isolated and ignored. The group, which was mostly white, did not think about ordering wigs suitable for black women, she said.

WASHINGTON -- Contrary to the intent of affirmative-action laws, the share of federal highway money going to black contractors has been shrinking for nearly a decade.More work reserved for disadvantaged businesses is going instead to white-owned companies that are controlled -- at least in name -- by women.The Federal Highway Administration's numbers are striking.Since 1985, the annual share of federal highway money for African-American contractors has been cut almost in half, to $286 million, while the share for companies owned by white women more than doubled, to $879 million.

The Baltimore City Police Department and the local media deserve an "A" for muscling the disappearance of 17-year-old Phylicia Simone Barnes onto the national stage. But the national media deserve a failing grade. Ms. Barnes, a straight "A" black student from North Carolina, vanished Dec. 28 while visiting relatives in Baltimore. After unprecedented local media saturation and 24/7 police searches failed to discover the missing girl, Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Baltimore City Police Department, pleaded for the national media to give Ms. Barnes' disappearance the same broad coverage as that given other missing young women.

NEW YORK -- Pre-menopausal black women with breast cancer are twice as likely to have a more aggressive tumor than non-black women of any age or post-menopausal black women, scientists report. Doctors hope the finding will encourage more adult black women to undergo routine mammography. "This is powerful information," said Dr. Lisa A. Carey, medical director of the University of North Carolina's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and lead author of the study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Women who are teachers, religion workers or librarians have a significantly greater chance of dying from breast cancer than homemakers or other women in nonprofessional occupations, according to a federal study to be released today.The study, which has already prompted special campaigns from two major teachers' groups, is the first to link breast cancer deaths with occupation on a large scale.Carol Hogfoss Rubin, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said her findings do not indicate that the occupations themselves are causing breast cancer, but rather that other outside factors associated with them -- such as delayed childbearing -- may be to blame.

The Crab Shanty, a restaurant along U.S. 40 in Ellicott City, serves some of the best seafood in Howard County.It's a shame I won't be able to go there again and enjoy a meal.My last visit was for lunch last Sunday. What began as a classic disagreement about the quality of service quickly disintegrated into the kind of subtle, racist incident that I find abominable, especially in the community I call home.I arrived at the restaurant 20 minutes before its 2 p.m. opening and approached the hostess, who suggested I sit in the waiting area.