Mariah Carey drops her representative

A multi-platinum-selling singer is the latest star to fire long-time Hollywood manager Benny Medina. Mariah Carey has let go of the high-profile handler, whose name is widely known in the realms of TV and music. Talk show host and “America’s Top Model” star Tyra Banks also dropped Medina, who helped produce her TV productions. Singer Usher let the veteran manager go, as well, in the midst of his on-and-off representation by his mom.

Pro sports agent is suspended for a year

The NBA Player’s Association’s disciplinary committee has suspended a sports agent for one year. Calvin Andrews faces the punishment in connection with unspecified improprieties for recruiting former USC baller O.J. Mayo. Mayo has been the subject of media attention connected with alleged violations he may have committed while playing hoops at the Cali college.

One in three schools are in “pollution danger zones.” One in three U.S. public schools are in the “air pollution danger zone,” according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC). More than 30 percent of American public schools are within 400 meters, or a quarter mile, of major highways that consistently serve as main truck and traffic routes, the researchers found. And studies have shown that proximity to major highways—and thus environmental pollutants, such as aerosolizing diesel exhaust particles—can leave school-age children more susceptible to respiratory diseases such as asthma later in life. “This is a major public health concern that should be given serious consideration in future urban development, transportation planning and environmental policies,” says Sergey Grinshpun, PhD, principal investigator of the study and professor of environmental health at UC. To protect the health of young children with developing lungs, he says new schools should be built further from major highways. “Health risk can be mitigated through proper urban planning, but that doesn’t erase the immediate risk to school-age children attending schools that are too close to highways right now,” he adds. “Existing schools should be retrofitted with air filtration systems that will reduce students’ exposure to traffic pollutants.”

As we mourn the death of Rep. Tubbs, we learn more about brain aneurysm. Vital Signs: As we morn the death of Rep. Tubbs, we learn more about brain aneurysm. Vital Signs tells why they are more common among women.

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.

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.

Looks like Barbie decided to pledge AKA. As BET.com reported earlier this year, Mattel created a limited-edition Barbie doll in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the nation’s oldest Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. Now, she’s ready to make her debut. The doll, dressed in her salmon pink and apple green evening gown (the sorority’s official colors) and adorned with gold jewelry, will sell for $50 and will be introduced to the 35,000 members going to the sorority’s convention in Washington, D.C. starting this weekend, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. It will also be available through BarbieCollector.com, the Barbie Collector catalog and other outlets and partnerships with the sorority. The group will receive a portion of the proceeds. Since being founded on the campus of Howard University in 1908, 200,000 women have been inducted including poet Maya Angelou, author Toni Morrison and TV host Star Jones.

Judge rejects Black union members’ discrimination suit
A federal judge threw out a discrimination suit against a Kansas City construction union, ruling that the five Black union members didn’t prove their case. Robert G. Franklin, Steve Bailey, Edward W. Lewis, Glenn E. Steele and Leon Booker, active and retired members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 2 had argued that they had been discriminated against by the union’s jobs-referral list in January 2006, The Kansas City Star reports. “My only regrets in this matter are that the reputation of Local 2 has been challenged and that the resources of the hard-working men and women of all racial groups that make up the union have been used to defend allegations that were unfounded,” Ken Alexander, Local 2 business manager, said in a statement. “In my opinion, this case should never have been filed.”

Louisiana lawmaker is in another battle
Rep. William Jefferson, who has spent a good chunk of the past couple years fighting allegations that he has used his position as a national politician to swing fat-cat money deals for his wife and kids, is facing a barrage of challengers for his Louisiana congressional seat. Included in the suddenly crowded field of Democrats is Helena Moreno, a former TV news reporter; Troy Carter, a former New Orleans City Council member; Byron Lee, a member of the Jefferson Parish Council; and state Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, who see a chance to unseat the reeling lawmaker. “Obviously, the congressman has issues that he has to deal with,” Carter said, according to The Times Picayune newspaper. Jefferson, who is seeking his 10th term in the U.S. House of Representatives, has seen his power on the Hill evaporate in the wake of federal criminal investigations into alleged bribery and influence-peddling. He is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from representatives of a Nigerian telecommunications firm and promises of jobs for his wife and children in exchange for his support of favorable legislation.