Latinos, Blacks squeezed hard in tight job market.

As the nation’s job market grows tighter, Latinos and Black workers are suffering disproportionately, according to employment specialists and figures from the Department of Labor. While employment shrank by 51,000 jobs in July and nationwide joblessness rose to a four-year high of 5.7 percent, Latino unemployment was 7.4 percent last month, according to the Labor Department. Black joblessness was 9.7 percent in July. It was 9.2 percent in June. The overall teen jobless rate was 20.3 percent in July. It was 27.3 percent for Latino teens and 32 percent for Black teens. Analysts attribute much of the Latino job loss to ongoing contraction in the construction industry. A Labor Department report said the construction industry “has shed 557,000 jobs since its September 2006 employment peak, with nearly three-quarters of the decline occurring since October 2007.” A Pew report and other studies have found that for Black workers and their families, the picture is especially bleak. An Aug. 1 report by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress said that one in four Blacks lived in poverty in 2006. Black lost 55,000 jobs since December and wage growth continued its stall. “During the 2000s’ economic recovery, African American workers’ inflation-adjusted wages grew at an annual rate of only 0.2 percent, after having grown four times as much (0.8 percent) per year during the 1990s recovery,” the congressional committee reported. Between 2000 and 2006, median Black family income fell by 2.9 percent to $39,367, according to federal statistics.

Widow of slain Atlanta judge gets $5 million settlement. The widow of the Atlanta judge who was allegedly shot to death by a defendant during a daring escape from a courtroom three years ago will be paid more than $5.2 million by Fulton County. Under a settlement made public Thursday, Claudia Barnes, the wife of slain judge Rowland Barnes, the county will $5 million to settle lawsuits against itself and Sheriff Myron Freeman. The county will also pay a one-time annuity of $246,000 in a separate benefits case filed by Barnes, a former Fulton County employee. “I miss my husband every day, and this won’t take that away,” Barnes said Thursday. “I’ve had so many irons in the fire. This just closes another chapter of things I have to do.” Rowland Barnes was shot in March 2005 as he presided over a hearing involving convicted rapist Brian Nichols. The defendant allegedly wrested a sidearm from a deputy and shot to death the judge, a court reporter, a sheriff’s sergeant and, later, a federal agent. Nichols’ capital trial for the three deaths has been delayed several times. “Now I can focus all my attention on the criminal trial,” Barnes said.

Even the Klan ads didn’t help the Black challenger win. A nasty Democratic primary came to a close in Tennessee Thursday as the White incumbent congressman had a runaway win against his African-American challenger in a majority-Black district. Rep. Steve Cohen took an astounding 79 percent of the vote, compared with 19 percent for Nikki Turner, a Black lawyer, who throughout the campaign tried to convince voters that they should stick with their own race. In a particularly controversial campaign moment, Tinker ran an ad linking Cohen, a Jew, to the Ku Klux Klan. Sen. Barack Obama even entered the mix on that one, condemning the ad, which juxtaposed Cohen’s picture with that of a hooded Klansman. Cohen has long civil rights record. Just last month, he introduced a resolution to get Congress to issue an apology to African Americans for this nation’s imposition of slavery and Jim Crow.

Nigerian job recruitment drives kills at least 12
In Nigeria, at least 12 people died at separate recruitment drives in recent days. The drives were for positions within the Nigerian Immigration Service. At one drive in Enugu, thousands of applicants were trying to rush in to a government building to take an aptitude test before a recruiter closed the gate. The desperate stampede led to four people being killed. More than 130,000 people applied for just 1,260 jobs. Another four people were crushed in a separate stampede for jobs in Ilorin. And in Asaba (in the Niger Delta region) four job-seekers were killed while doing a fitness test that required them to run miles during the hottest portion of the day, reports the BBC. Others died during fitness tests across the nation but an exact number is not known. Government jobs in the nation are sought after for the good pay and benefits in a nation where there are few good jobs for the thousands who graduate college every year. “After struggling through school, you have unemployment staring you in the face, and when you finally think succor has come to provide you with employment, the recruitment leads to your grave,” said the sister of one of the applicants killed at a recruitment in Kaduna. “That is the pathetic story of the poor in our country.” Over the last eight years, the amount of government jobs has been cut due to economic reforms. And even though the government is the country’s largest employer, most of the population depends on the informal economy to earn money, reports the BBC.

Haitian police and protesters clash at a rally
Haitian police and protesters clashed at a rally to mark the 55th birthday of ousted leader President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, reports The Associated Press. Police had set up barricades around the National Palace, but hundreds of angry protesters poured passed them anyway and were confronted by riot police with tear gas. The protest began as a small, peaceful rally about 200 people gathered around Aristide’s former home. But the number of people expanded to thousands who marched to the capital chanting, “We need Titid,” which is Aristide’s nickname. According to one of the organizers, the march was also a protest against the skyrocketing food prices. At least seven died during food protests in April. Aristide now lives in South Africa, after escaping Haiti in 2004 during a violent rebellion, for which he blames the United States. Earlier this year, 5,000 people demonstrated to mark the fourth anniversary of him being ousted, proving he still has a strong following.