What Do Halle Berry and Ann Coulter Have In Common?

Actress Halle Berry is in hot water for an anti-Semitic comment made during her appearance on the "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Berry, who was on the show to promote her movie "Things We Lost In the Fire," was showing Leno and audience pictures of her with augmented noses. She introduced the first picture saying: "Here's where I look like my Jewish cousin!" It was a picture of her with a huge, distorted nose, reports The New York Post. NBC later edited out Berry's comments and aired a laugh track during her comment. Berry has since apologized for her comments and says she never intended to offend anyone.

(See also: Ann Coulter: 'We Want Jews to Be Perfected' and Which Words (And the Celebrities Who Use Them) Are Most Offensive?)

Spanish Speakers Left in Dark as California Burns

As fires rip through California, a growing number of Spanish-language speakers are having difficulty obtaining current information. Desperation grew and Spanish-language information reached people slowly, reports New American Media. Some Spanish speakers were unaware of the mandatory evacuation. On Monday, Spanish-language channels began interrupting regularly scheduled programs to provide up-to-date information. 

Race-Bias Lawsuit Costs Morgan Stanley $16M

New York-based brokerage firm Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay $16 million to 1,200 black and Latino brokers in northern California to settle a racial-discrimination lawsuit.  The suit, filed by black current and former financial advisers, broker trainees and managers, alleges Morgan Stanley discriminated against black and Latino brokers and broker trainees in business, compensation and other employment opportunities based on race/ethnicity, reports The Associated Press. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is scheduled to rule on the terms of the proposed settlement in late November. The suit covers Latino and black employees of the firm's global wealth-management group who have worked at Morgan Stanley at any time since Oct. 12, 2002.

(See also: Morgan Stanley Settles Class-Action Racial-Discrimination Lawsuit andMorgan Stanley Settles Gender-Bias Lawsuit for $46M)

Nooses as Hate Crimes? Civil-Rights Leaders Call for D.C. March

Black civil-rights leaders announced plans to march to the U.S. Justice Department Tuesday in response to a growing belief that hanging nooses should be added to hate-crime legislation, reports MSNBC. Martin Luther King III and others also called for an economic blackout for Nov. 2 to show solidarity. The march is scheduled for Nov. 16.

(See also: DiversityInc Noose Watch Update: Our Exclusive Map Tracks Racist Incidents Nationwide and Hanging Nooses: Hate or Hoax Upsurge?)

UM Alumni Group to Offer Race-Based Scholarships

The Alumni Association of the University of Michigan (UM) will offer race- and gender-based scholarships in an attempt to improve enrollment of people of color, beginning next year. UM's alumni group's effort to help maintain a diverse campus is not new, but affirmative-action foe Ward Connerly's successful campaign to ban affirmative action in state public education, contracting and employment means public universities have to use other methods of diversifying their campuses. While race-based admissions are not permitted at public institutions, private institutions can do what they want with their money. The University of Texas at Austin's alumni group began offering similar scholarships after a federal appeals court ruled Texas' affirmative-action policies unconstitutional in 1996, reports Inside Higher Ed. The program is still in its infancy and the alumni board hopes to have the details hashed out in the upcoming weeks. The $650,000 "seed money" will come from the group's endowment and donations, a spokesperson said.

(See also: The End of Affirmative Action? Who Can Stop Ward Connerly?)

Is Black/White IQ Gap Genetic?

Nobel Prize winner and DNA founder James Watson caused a stir last week for his comments that implied blacks were intellectually inferior to whites. While Watson has since apologized, others are jumping on the bandwagon in support of his claim, and they are using a century of I.Q. tests to support their claims. In an interview with NPR correspondent Farai Chideya, Phil Rushton, psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, cited a 15 to 30 point difference in intelligence between blacks and whites.

(See also: Nobel Prize Winner Apologizes for Calling Blacks Intellectually Inferior)

Is Dallas Trying to Ban Free Speech?

Dallas has signed its name to the list of cities in the battle to curb "sagging," the wearing of pants significantly below the waistline, often exposing underwear. In Dallas, a mix of politicians, hip-hop artists and white businessmen are announcing a citywide campaign with a simple message: Pull Your Pants Up, reports NPR. Two weeks ago, Deputy Mayor Dwaine Caraway announced his new proposed ordinance. Unfortunately for Caraway, lawyers then informed them that the proposal might be unconstitutional. So far, Shreveport, La., Atlanta, Ga., and Stratford, Conn., have all been unsuccessful in passing similar legislation. Will Dallas be any different?

Religious Discrimination on the Rise

Workplace religious-based discrimination cases are skyrocketing. In 2006, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 2,541 charges of religious discrimination. Of those, 2,387 charges were resolved, and the EEOC recovered $5.7 million in monetary benefits, reports Business Wire. The number of claims has risen nearly 50 percent over the past few years.

(For more information on how religion affects the workplace and what top industry leaders are doing to strike an accord between faith and productivity, check out the upcoming Nov./Dec. 2007 issue of DiversityInc magazine.)

GE Bias Settlement Reduced to $7M

Senior U.S. District Judge Warren Eginton recently released his 32-page decision to trim $5 million off the original $12 million award to Hemant Mody, a former General Electric employee who sued the electricity company for racial discrimination, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and other state and federal violations, reports NewsDay. The U.S. District Court jury awarded Mody more than $1 million in back pay and compensatory damages and later tacked on an additional $10 million for punitive damages. Mody never saw any of the 2006 award; he died in April of this year following a heart attack and his wife died shortly after. Any money would go to the couple's two teenage children.

(See also: Top GE Lawyer Sues for Gender Discrimination, Seeks $500M)

Mortgage Crisis Worsens for Countrywide

The mortgage meltdown is getting worse for Countrywide, the nation's largest home-mortgage lender, as adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which classify as prime loans, are going bad. The increase in overdue payments partly reflects a decline in home prices in much of the United States, which has made it more difficult for borrowers to refinance or sell their homes, reports The Wall Street Journal. According to the article, 3.55 percent of option ARMs originated by Countrywide in 2006 and packaged into securities sold to investors are at least 60 days past due. That compares with an average option ARM delinquency rate of 2.56 percent for the industry as a whole and is the highest of six companies analyzed by UBS. Countrywide said it is "confident" its loan officers follow corporate policies in explaining the provisions of all types of loans.

(See also: Blacks, Latinos Remain Top Targets for Subprime Lenders and Dealing With the Subprime Mess)

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