Does race matter in politics? Today, Black lawmakers will gather for their annual legislative weekend and face some of the gravest situations the body has experienced since forming in 1976.  The 42 members who represent more than 40 percent of the African Americans in the United States will use this week to examine the impact the slowed economy, home foreclosures and job loss have on the communities they represent. Get more at Pamela on Politics.

BET will hold on-air voter registration day. As the deadlines for voter registration in each state draw near, BET Networks is making an unprecedented, nationwide effort to encourage its audience to “STAND UP, SIGN UP, BE HEARD.” On Saturday, Sept. 27, BET Networks will host an on-air voter registration day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (ET/PT) aimed at getting people registered to vote. The special will re-air from 5-8 p.m. (ET/PT) Saturday. During this historic, three-hour “Stand Up, Sigh Up, Be Heard: The BET Voter Registration Day” special, the BET studio in New York City will serve as the headquarters for the event, featuring host Queen Latifah (The Secret Life of Bees), appearances by Jim Jones and Mary Mary, and an in-studio audience of 100 unregistered voters. In addition, BET will present live remote coverage from voter registration rallies taking place in cities in four key battleground states: Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit; Norfolk, Va.; and Philadelphia. Get more at BET.com/News.

Bring That Week Back! Are Queen Latifah and her “boo” trying to adopt? Plus pregnancy scandal hits the race for the White House and Oprah gets dissed. Get caught up on the week’s hottest stories with pics here!

Bolt, Powell, Gay to compete in 100. World record-holding Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt faces off with sprinters Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay tonight at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels, Belgium. Powell recently matched the second-fastest 100 sprint time ever, while Gay is a world champion in the event. The race, which will be Bolt’s last of the season, airs at 11 p.m. on the ESPN Classic network and again Sunday on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. “I’m definitely going out there to compete at my best,” Bolt says. The three runners are regarded as the fastest men of all time, with the 10 fastest times in the 100 on their collective resume. “This has never happened before,” meet organizer Wilfried Meert says of the race. Gay, however, says it’s possible that he’ll skip the race, depending on the state of his lingering hamstring injury.

Browns’ Braylon Edwards offers help to homeless youths. Cleveland Browns star wide receiver Braylon Edwards plans to score big, both on and off the field, for 4,000 homeless students in the community. Beginning at Sunday’s first Browns’ game of the season, the player says he’ll give $1,000 per each touchdown reception he scores to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District Project’s ACT (Action for Children and Youth in Transition) program. “All children deserve to receive a quality education,” says Edwards. “It’s vitally important that we, as adults and community leaders, recognize the need to support those who are hindered by circumstances of basic survival when they leave class each day.” A Pro Bowl receiver, Edwards caught 80 passes last season alone.

Actress denies pregnancy rumors. NBA All-star Tony Parker may be Eva Longoria Parker’s husband, but he’s not her babydaddy. The actress denies that her recent change in appearance has anything to do with a little Tony or Toni. “I’m not pregnant. I’m just fat,” she says. “I gained five pounds over the summer, so instead of a size zero, I’m a size one.” Hopefully, Longoria Parker will come clean whenever it’s time to start calling her favorite point guard “papa.”

Is the GOP concerned that its own candidate can’t stand up to the standard?

Pamela On Politics: Republicans appeared to have disserted the platform of family values for the 2008 presidential race, and no doubt it’s because their nominee’s checkered record might not stand up to the scrutiny of his challenger. Read more at Pamela On Politics.

Lawmaker: Bill Clinton’s faltering image in Black society is his own fault.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-highest-ranking member of Congress and a member of the Black Caucus, said that former President Bill Clinton ought to look in the mirror if he wants to see who’s responsible for his falling out with Black America. Speaking to ABC News last week, Clinton said that the South Carolina Democrat was once a friend of his, but that he “was not Hillary’s supporter. Never. Not ever. Not for a day.” Find out what else he said and how Clyburn responded at BET.com/News.

Atlanta frontrunner drops out of mayor’s race

The president of the Atlanta City Council, who most locals believe was a shoo-in to become the next mayor, shocked her fellow Georgians Monday, abruptly withdrawing from the race. She cited the need to take care of her ailing parents, who are both 75 years old. Lisa Borders, who had $232,000 in her war chest in late June and is a darling of the Atlanta business community, was the most popular candidate looking to fill the seat of Mayor Shirley Franklin, who must step down because after serving two consecutive terms. She announced recently that she would need to devote more time to take care of her parents, William Holmes Borders Jr., who is a diabetic with full kidney failure, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “In the final analysis, you’ve got to be completely focused on becoming mayor,” Borders said Monday. “I clearly have some personal things I need to take care of. I can run for mayor at another opportunity, but I only have one set of parents.”

Blacks are vanishing from cities.

Black folks are fleeing city life. In such disparate American cities as Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Houston and Atlanta, African Americans are evaporating as Whites are pouring back into the urban core, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. San Francisco’s vanishing Black problem has gotten to the point where Mayor Gavin Newsome even established a special team to work on ways to convince African Americans from leaving. In that city, Black deaths are dramatically outpacing Black births. In D.C., between 2000 and 2006, the White population grew by 24,000 Whites, while the Black population declined by 21,000. What was a 72-percent Black city in the 1970s is now 60-percent African American. The report attributes the population shift to rising real estate costs and Black flight to the suburbs.

Florida driver faces race charges. The Florida driver who allegedly ran down a woman on a bicycle, just because she’s Black, is now facing two felony hate-crime charges. Earlier this month, police arrested Thomas Cosby after he allegedly crashed into 25-year-old Nekedia Cato, who was hospitalized with a broken leg and internal injuries. She had been riding her bike on the sidewalk along a state road when Cosby allegedly rode onto the sidewalk to hit her. Witnesses said Cosby ranted a slew of racial gibberish about wanting to kill Black folks. He has been charged with aggravated battery and battery.

While perspectives differ widely, a new poll suggests racial relations are improving
When it comes to racial relations in America, hope is alive. Blacks and Whites may have completely different views about the seriousness of racism, but an astonishing 58 percent of both groups believe that America’s race relations “eventually will be worked out,” according to a new Gallup poll. “I don’t believe we’ve totally overcome everything that’s necessary for equality, but I do believe things are getting better,” says Ricardo Russell, a 30-year-old African-American retail sales manager from Oak Park, Mich., who participated in the poll. Susann Matarese, a White 52-year-old medical receptionist from Port Charlotte, Fla., admits that she’s a bit troubled by all the interracial dating these days but believes that race relations are “better than they used to be, that’s for sure.” Still, according to the poll, which is the latest in a series of surveys on race by Gallup, 38 percent of both groups believe that race will “always be a problem” in America. Further amplifying the notion that Blacks and Whites tend to see the world completely different when it comes to race, two in three White folks say they are satisfied with the way Blacks are treated in America, while two in three Blacks say they are not satisfied. In addition, the poll found, most Blacks say that racial discrimination is a major factor among the problems African Americans confront, such as dying earlier than Whites and being jailed at a much higher rate. However, most Whites see racism a minor factor or not a factor at all in those situations. But the Black perspective on such issues as employment and housing has improved in recent years, even though it far less rosy than the White perspective. Today, for example, 52 percent of African Americans say Blacks have as good a chance as Whites to get any housing they can afford – that’s 8 percentage points higher than last year. Forty-three percent of African Americans say Blacks have as good a chance to get any kind of job they’re qualified for, a 5-point spike from last year and 10-point increase from 2005. The poll queried 702 Whites, 608 Blacks and 502 Hispanics on issues of race between July 5 and July 6. Is racism going away in America? Do you see race relations improving, getting worse or pretty much staying the same?

Kanye does something good for the human race

Rapper Kanye West will perform live at the finish line of Nike + Human Race run for charity on Aug. 32. The 10-time Grammy Award-winning artist has teamed up with Nike + Human Race for the event, being dubbed as the world’s largest one-day running event, and he will perform at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after thousands of L.A. runners cross the finish line. Get more details and watch the Kanye’s PSA at Vital Signs.

Study: Low-carb diet best for weight, cholesterol.
The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all. A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques. Here’s the surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two. Some critics had predicted the opposite. “It is a vindication,” said Abby Bloch of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, a philanthropy group that honors the Atkins’ diet’s creator and was the study’s main funder. However, all three approaches — the low-carb diet, a low-fat diet and a so-called Mediterranean diet — achieved weight loss and improved cholesterol. Most of the participants were men; all men and women in the study got roughly equal amounts of exercise, the study’s authors said. Average weight loss for those in the low-carb group was 10.3 pounds after two years. Those in the Mediterranean diet lost 10 pounds, and those on the low-fat regimen dropped 6.5. To figure out what diet is right for you, go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

Sprinter sets a new mark in the 100-meter race. Tyson Gay is the new U.S. 100-meter sprint record holder after flying through an Olympics trial race this past weekend in Oregon. Gay’s 9.68 in the 100 meters was the fastest ever, but it was wind-aided. “It tells me I’m in pretty good shape,” Gay says. “We’ve got two more rounds left.” Gay’s 9.77 time was just .05 seconds slower than Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s recent world record. Gay finished second to Bolt in the New York race. The trials in Oregon will qualify athletes to represent America in the Beijing Olympics. Get the latest details at Playa Hater.http://blogs.bet.com/news/playahater/?p=694

It isn’t the first time that Charlie Black ha made “inappropriate” comments

A top adviser for Sen. John McCain had the Republican presidential nominee squirming Monday after saying that a terrorist attack on the United States would give his candidate a big boost for the November election. Charlie Black, who has a knack for putting his foot in his mouth, is quoted in the upcoming July edition of Forbes magazine saying that if terrorists strike on U.S. soil it “certainly would be a big advantage to McCain. Black acknowledged that the comments were inappropriate. “I deeply regret the comments. They were inappropriate. I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration,” Black said. But it isn’t the first time he’s had to apologize for ill-advised remarks. Following the assassination of former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto last December, he said that the “unfortunate event” had “helped us.” Both McCain and Sen. Barack Obama were quick to denounce the comments. “I cannot imagine why he would say it,” McCain said from a campaign stop in Fresno, Calif. “It’s not true. I’ve worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear. …I cannot imagine it, and so, if he said that — and I don’t know the context — I strenuously disagree.” Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama, also was quick to fire back. “The fact that John McCain’s top adviser says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a ‘big advantage’ for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change. Barack Obama will turn the page on these failed policies and this cynical and divisive brand of politics so that we can unite this nation around a common purpose to finish the fight against al-Qaeda,” Burton said in a statement. Traditionally, national polls show, Republicans are considered to be tougher against terrorists, more able to keep Americans safe in the event of an attack on American soil.