Julian Bond to step down as NAACP chairman. Julian Bond, 68, has said he is stepping down as chairman of the NAACP once his term ends in February. After 10 years of volunteer service as the NAACP national board chairman, Bond indicated he would not seek re-election. “This is the time for renewal. We have dynamic new leadership. The country has a new president in Barack Obama; the organization has a new CEO in Benjamin Jealous; and we’ll soon have a new chairman of the NAACP Board,” Bond said in a statement. Read the rest here.

Federal judge shuts down Virginia NAACP’s request

. A federal judge in Virginia has refused to extend voting hours to accommodate the record voter turnout today. The judge also refused to re-allocate voting machines to areas where high voter turnout it expected. In response to a lawsuit filed by the NAACP last week, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that the state will not be forced to schedule longer voting hours and reallocate some voting machines to Black precincts. The lawsuit charged that the state of Virginia was not prepared for today’s election, where record turnout is expected. Read the rest here.

NAACP lawsuit to be heard today. The Virginia NAACP lawsuit that charges the state officials with not being ready to handle the onslaught of voters expected to hit the polls to cast their ballots on Tuesday will be heard in federal court today. State officials say they are prepared to handle voters, who have increased by 11 percent over the number registered for the last presidential election. They say they have added equipment and poll workers. The lawsuit seeks to increase election equipment in areas where heavy turnout is expected.

Pre-election dirty tricks break out nationwide.  Everything from confusing flyers and e-mails to disturbing phone calls are among the dirty tricks being tried to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. Much of it has a racial tone. Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia, where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions, reports The Associated Press. In Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections - one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats. Tuesday is the official national Election Day for all voters. Read about the other dirty tricks going on across the nation here.

NAACP puts voting readiness lawsuit on hold. The NAACP says it would seek an immediate hearing on the lawsuit it filed to challenge wither the state of Virginia, an important battleground state in the upcoming election, has done enough to prepare for the potential onslaught of new voters expected to show up on Nov. 4, reports Virginia’s NBC29. The Virginia chapter of the venerable civil rights group filed the lawsuit earlier this week, asking that the state to increase the number of voting machines in places where heavy turnout is expected and lengthen the amount of time voters get to vote by another two hours. The nation’s first Black governor, L. Douglas Wilder, who is now the mayor or Richmond, Va., had also asked the state to extend voting ours by three hours. However, Gov. Kaine has said that the stat has adequately prepared for the increased number of voters expected to hit the polls for the presidential election on Tuesday. “We’ve taken big precincts, which maybe had too many people, and divided them into smaller precincts so the lines would be shorter,” Kaine said. The NAACP did not say why the organization changed its mind and decided not to ask for a hearing on its lawsuit Thursday or why it decided not to withdraw their complaint all together. While the NAACP did not make a statement, the organization reported is not planning to pursue the lawsuit any further until they find out how things go on Election Day. Get more election headlines here.

U.S. soldiers deaths in Iraq War at all-time low. Finally, some good news about the Iraq War. U.S. deaths are at an all-time low over a month-long period, according to Pentagon figures. In fact, October could well be the first month in which no U.S. service members were killed in combat in Baghdad.  All told, as of Thursday, the Pentagon had reported 13 U.S. troops killed in combat and non-combat incidents this month in Iraq. If the number holds, thought, the number of deaths would tie July for the lowest monthly U.S. death toll of the 5½-year-old war. The war has claimed 4,189 U.S. service men and women since it started.

NAACP sues Va. over voting preparedness

. The Virginia NAACP sued Gov. Tim Kaine and state election officials on Monday, claiming that the state is “inadequately prepared”  to handle the record numbers of voters expected to turn out in next week’s presidential election. The complaint was filed Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Richmond and says state officials have not set up enough polling sites to keep up with the turnout. “The allocation of polling place resources is plainly irrational, non-uniform and likely discriminatory,” the suit states. Read the rest here.

Feds say they will no longer use prosecutors as vote monitors.

Following concerns from voting rights advocates that criminal prosecutors don’t make good election monitors because they intimidate minority voters, Justice Department officials said Tuesday that it would do things a little differently this Election Day. In 2004, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, People for the American Way and other groups complained that the Republican Party deployed prosecutors as a way to deter Blacks -  who are more likely to be Democrats and have a history of rough relations with law enforcement officials at polling places - from voting. An unprecedented number of African Americans are expected on to turn out on Nov. 4 - given the fact that they have a chance, for the first time in U.S. history, to vote for an African-American nominee - Sen. Barack Obama. In light of questions we have been asked regarding who will serve as election monitors, I want to inform the public that no criminal prosecutors will be utilized as election monitors on Election Day this year,” acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker said in a statement. “This decision was made as a precaution and is not the result of any instance of intimidation or complaint regarding any specific incident.” Becker and Attorney General Michael Mukasey met with dozens of representatives of voter watchdog groups recently and promised to do everything in their power to ensure a less contentious Election Day than four years ago when minorities, particularly those in Ohio and other battleground states, complained of widespread intimidation.

Blacks are suffering like no other in housing messing.
Feds take over mortgage giants. With nearly one in 10 U.S. homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages, the Bush administration Sunday took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an attempt to avoid a complete housing meltdown. Together, the two government-sponsored firms hold or back half of America’s mortgage debt. By putting Fannie and Freddie into a conservatorship - removing CEOs Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron, respectively - it is the “best means of protecting our markets and the taxpayers from the systemic risk posed by the current financial condition” of the two enterprises, says Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “…[T]hey will no longer be managed with a strategy to maximize common shareholder returns, a strategy which historically encouraged risk-taking,” Paulson said in a statement. Under the government plan, the Treasury and Federal Housing Finance Agency would purchase a new class of preferred stock in the two entities that “will ensure that each company maintains a positive net worth,” Paulson said.  This is “more efficient than a one-time equity injection, because it will be used only as needed and on terms that Treasury has set,” he said. “With this agreement, Treasury receives senior preferred equity shares and warrants that protect taxpayers. Additionally, under the terms of the agreement, common and preferred shareholders bear losses ahead of the new government senior preferred shares.” While Americans across the racial spectrum are suffering in the current mortgage crisis, nobody has been more affected than Blacks and Hispanics, who, according to the NAACP, have been unscrupulously targeted with high-interest loans. The civil rights group has filed a class-action lawsuit against a dozen and a half of the largest mortgage companies, saying that they took advantage of Black borrowers.

NAACP names voting outreach director. The nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, which has made voter registration a key component of its outreach during its century-long history, is taking its voter-empowerment efforts to a new level. “In addition to protecting the right to vote, we will reach out to displaced and recently purged voters who need our assistance in getting their voting rights restored,” said NAACP Interim President & CEO Dennis Courtland Hayes. The NAACP has appointed Kirk Clay to head its Civic Engagement Department, which is designed to remove roadblocks and disincentives to voting. This includes ensuring voter empowerment, protecting voters’ constitutional rights, monitoring redistricting and census statistics and promoting ballot initiatives to address social justice issues. “I am proud to represent the NAACP during this historic moment in time,” said Clay. “One of my priorities will be to ensure that every eligible American who wants to vote can, and that every vote is counted.” Clay worked as the Director of Outreach for major gifts at Common Cause where he also developed a diverse national coalition of strategic partners to promote election reform, ethics in government and government accountability. He worked at the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation as deputy director and is the former co-chair of that organization’s Black Youth Vote program.

He says that the media and police are transfixed on finding White females.
Nine months have passed since a 16-year-old Black girl was reportedly kidnapped from her southern California high school, but there has been no massive public outcry from law-enforcement agencies or the media like that afforded missing White females, an NAACP official said Thursday. Find out more about her disappearance and what you can do at BET.com/News. Anyone with information about Chimoa should contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.

A Georgia boy dies after being shot by a little girl. A Georgia teen died Saturday after being accidentally shot in the head by a 12-year-old girl late Friday. Police said that 17-year-old Trevayne R. Cozart was pronounced dead at the Gwinnet Medical Center in suburban Atlanta. He had been playing with a friend when the friend’s little sister fired a weapon. Although the girl’s mother was home at the time, she was not in the room where the shooting to place, police said. No charges have been filed against the parents or the child.

NAACP will protest police actions in Conn. town.

The Stamford, Conn., branch of the NAACP, saying that police are “mentally abusing” Black youths, will hold a protest against local law enforcement on Aug. 31. The mass action will mark the first demonstration under NAACP President Jack Bryant, who took over the helm of the chapter five years ago. “I feel this plan of action is necessary as the need to begin policing our police department,” Bryant told Mayor Dannel Malloy and Public Safety Director William Callion in an e-mail a week ago. The mayor responded that he was willing to meet with Bryant, who told The Advocate newspaper that the “the time for meetings is over. This issue has been exhausted with meetings between the police department and the community. I think it’s time for action now.” Bryant says that the complaints from the African-American community have been pouring in. He says that he even witnessed one “disturbing” incident earlier this month but declined to offer details, The Advocate reported. “I approached the officers and they said it’s an investigation and they couldn’t give me any details,” he said. The incident didn’t involve a beat-down, but it was troubling, he added. “It wasn’t physical police brutality but I think mentally it was police brutality … I don’t want this to seem like we’re singling out the whole police department. I’m sure there are a lot of good police officers on the force. There’s just a few who make it seem bad for those whole police force.”

The Maryland teen was found dead in his cell in Prince George’s County, Md.

A month and a half has passed since a 19-year-old Black suspect was found murdered in his cell at a southern Maryland jail, and NAACP officials are angry over the pace of the investigation. On June 29, Ronnie L. White, was found strangled in his cell, less than two days after he was charged with killing a veteran Prince George’s County, Md., police officer by hitting him with his car. Go to BET.com/News to find out what the NAACP says should be done in the case.