Historic Agreement to Stop Anti-Gay ‘Murder Music’. The power of the progressive dollar.
Three of the world’s top reggae/dancehall singers have renounced homophobia and condemned violence against lesbians and gay men. Beenie Man, Sizzla and Capleton had previously released anti-gay hate songs, including incitements to murder lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. They have now signed up to the Reggae Compassionate Act in a deal brokered with top reggae promoters and Stop Murder Music activists.--UK Gay News

Immigration Raid Nets 81 at Pa. Plant. No words.
All the workers arrested Tuesday at Iridium Industries Inc.'s Artube division have been placed in removal proceedings for eventual deportation, said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She declined to say what led to the raid.--AP

DA offers immunity to nurses in post-Katrina deaths. A scandal like few others.
Nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry and Dr. Anna Pou were arrested last summer after state Attorney General Charles Foti claimed they killed four people with a "lethal cocktail" at Memorial Medical Center after the August 2005 storm. All have maintained innocence, and no charges have been filed. A grand jury probe began March 7. Budo and Landry will testify under legal guidelines that preclude their testimony from being used against them, in return for waiving their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. --AP

Anger at Coach Fuels Racial Divide in Rural Colorado. Remember the Titans...
The photograph, of four popular high school students standing side by side, each clutching a gun in one hand and giving a stiff-armed Nazi salute with the other, terrified many people in La Jara and the surrounding poor farming communities of the San Luis Valley. Its discovery further intensified a bitter racial divide between supporters of a longtime coach, who is black, and a largely white group of students and their parents.--NYTimes

New Orleans is safer, but risks still loom. Though the city is better off than before Katrina, a federal report says, it may be in danger of serious flooding. And nobody's taking the blame.
Homeowners and businesses have been struggling with soaring insurance rates, which in some cases have doubled or tripled since Katrina. The higher rates, along with rising construction costs, are hindering efforts to rebuild residential neighborhoods. Former residents are trickling back but at a slowing rate. The city's population is 262,000, compared with 454,000 before Katrina. Senior corps officials said it was not their place to tell the public whether the flood risks were acceptable but rather to give the city the best analytical tools to plan its future--LATimes

FEMA concedes Katrina broke N.O. water pipe. Justice isn't rocket science folks.
After nearly two years of squabbling over whether rampant underground water leaks in New Orleans were caused by Hurricane Katrina or the result of poor maintenance by the Sewerage & Water Board, FEMA has agreed to concede storm damage and to pay for a systematic analysis and comprehensive repair of the ravaged infrastructure.--Times Picayune