A federal grand jury has indicted a Colorado man charged with threatening to kill President Barack Obama and blow up a suburban mall. Prosecutors say that Timothy Ryan Gutierrez, 20, of the southwestern Colorado town of Cortez, e-mailed the FBI’s Washington office eight days before Obama’s inauguration saying: “I’m going to assassinate the new president of the United States of America. P.S., you have 48 hours to stop it from happening.” Read what he said in his other threat here.

History is Made in Colorado Legislature
Colorado, with its wee population of Blacks and notorious reputation as a haven for Klansmen in the early 20th century, now has African Americans presiding over both houses of the legislature in the same session. When the 2009 legislative session convened Wednesday, Terrance Carroll was sworn in as House speaker, and Peter C. Groff became Senate president. This is the first time in the history of the state that two Blacks have simultaneously reigned over both chambers. Go here to read more.

Black Opposition to Gay Marriage Exaggerated
A new analysis shows that all the hype about overwhelming African-American support for a California ballot measure to block same-sex marriages was greatly exaggerated. In November, voters passed an initiative, known as “Proposition 8,” banning gay marriages. “Party identification, age, religiosity and political view had much bigger effects than race, gender or having gay and lesbian family and friends,” said Patrick Egan of New York University. Read what else the numbers say.

A sixth-grader gets suspended for his anti- Obama T-Shirt

. He wore an Obama T-shirt to school and was given the ultimatum to either change his shirt, turn it inside out or be kicked out of school. Daxx Dalton, an 11-year-old, sixth-grader in Colorado, took the suspension, saying his first amendment rights were being trampled.  On a day when students were asked to show their patriotism by wearing, red, white and blue, Dalton wore a homemade shirt that read “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.” Get more on the story at BET.com/News. Should the boy have been suspended?Police arrest a man who wonders too close to Obama’s home. Police are holding a young Black man, who penetrated the security perimeter around Sen. Barack Obama’s Chicago home Tuesday morning with a gun on the floor of his car, The Chicago Sun-Times reports. The incident occurred around 4:45 a.m. when the man appeared about a block from the south side home of the Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley told the newspaper.  He noted, however, that the man did not direct any threats toward Obama, did not “utter any threatening language,” and no weapon was involved, Wiley said. But police told the Sun-Times that officers found a gun and bullet-proof vest in the man’s car. A Secret Service security detail stopped him, according to the report, and he began a “rambling conversation” about getting a job and spoke about how he was a victim of crime and that he was happy that an African-American was running for president. The 30-something man is a convicted felon, the paper reports. What fueled concern, police say, is that after being told to leave the area, the man drove away but returned. That’s when Secret Service officers searched his car and recovered a handgun, the Sun-Times reports.

Three men were arrested for allegedly trying to kill the presidential nominee

Law enforcement officials said Tuesday that three racist, convicted “meth heads” – who cruised around Colorado with a pickup truck laden with guns, ammo and bullet-proof vests – never really posed a serious threat to Sen. Barack Obama, even though one of the men allegedly talked about killing the Democratic presidential nominee. Read more about why police say Obama was in no danger at BET.com/News.

New hate-crime definition is tested in Colorado.

A Colorado prosecutor said late last week that a 32-year-old suspect would be tried for first-degree murder as well as charged with a hate crime in the death of a 20-year-old transgender woman. Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said that Allen Ray Andrade beat Angie Zapata to death with a fire extinguisher after discovering that she had male genitalia. The circumstances, Buck said in shifting the charges from second-degree murder, “support the first-degree murder charge.” The case will be the first prosecuted as a hate crime. Three years ago, then-Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed a bill expanding hate crimes to include those against transgender persons. Adding an additional felony charge against Andrade means he would likely face a more severe penalty if convicted. Is this a good application of the hate-crime law?

AT&T sent the wrong message to this Black woman. A Dallas jury has awarded a whopping $411,339 to a woman who said that the AT&T dogged her because she was Black. LaKecious Edwards, 32, told the jury that she had filed grievances with the company as well as in a Texas court after three White colleagues – including one who had been written up on disciplinary charges – were promoted to top management positions for which she had applied, even though she had a superior sales record and greater seniority. AT&T, which denies that any discrimination occurred, touted its record on equal opportunity in the workplace. “We are confident that we have done nothing wrong, and we are exploring our options regarding a possible appeal,” said a company statement released through the public-relations firm Fleischman-Hillard. “AT&T has an excellent track record when it comes to the company’s fair treatment of minority employees. For AT&T, diversity and inclusion will always be top priorities.” The communications giant was formerly named by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the nation’s 40 “best diversified” firms. However, she is but one of three Black workers at AT&T to file discrimination suits. In February, 49-year-old Vincent Hall settled for an undisclosed amount and retired after more than a quarter-century on the job; another case, filed by Sonia Hackley, is still awaiting trial. The statue of limitations ran out on six other minority workers who wanted to file discrimination claims, according to Dallas attorney Stephen Drinnon, who represents Edwards. What do you think of the decision?