Uptown Notes

I recently heard of a BBC story that suggested a group of Ugandans were immune to contracting HIV. I have not heard much else about it, but if this is accurate it could mean a world of possibilities in development of a vaccine or something of the sort. If you hear anything else, hit me up.

Macy’s may get hit with a class action suit from Black shoppers for profiling in their NYC stores. A NY Times articles reports that a suit is being filed on behalf of a falsely detained alleged shoplifter. Macy’s security, according to the filed case, attempted to force her to sign a confession and handcuffed her to a bench for over an hour. I don’t know how far a class action suit will go, but I am sure that we know that racial profiling in department stores is the only thing more common than over-priced clothes.

Berkeley’s ban on students from Asian countries were SARS was reported was highlighted by Iris Chang in an NY Times Op-Ed piece on the 21st.The piece is pretty amazing as it briefly chronicles some of the issues of prejudice towards the APA community in the US. Give it a read.

Thousands protested outside of Jeb Bush’s on Thursday regarding Florida’s standardized test, the FCAT. The FCAT must now be pased in the tenth grade to recieve a high school diploma. I believe is similar to NY’s regent’s certified diploma. Many seniors will not graduate this year because they did not pass this newly established benchmark. Leaders of the protest are calling for Bush to grandfather current seniors through and examine the FCAT and its policies. Should standardized tests be eliminated, modified, or maintained?